May 15, 1971 - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

May 15, 1971

A very memorable day of my life occurred 50 years ago this coming Saturday, when my wife and I started dating. I’ve written about that special time in previous blogs but in light of the upcoming anniversary, more memories come flooding to the surface and are documented here. May 15th also happens to be my wife’s father’s birthday and the day her grandfather died, so for us, it has become an important date to circle on the calendar each year.

After my senior year in college at General Motors Institute, I returned to Dayton in mid-May to start work as an engineer for General Motors. Through the grapevine, I heard that a friend from high school was throwing a party at his place on the evening of Saturday, May 15. At the party, I ran into a girl from Russia who I had dated casually the prior summer and discovered she was now engaged to be married to a Minster guy.

She had come to the party with Debby, her best friend from high school, whom I recalled meeting during a double date at Cassano’s Pizza the previous summer on the occasion of my date's brother returning from Viet Nam. Since it was the first time the two siblings had seen each other in years, they were catching up on family matters, which gave the opportunity for Debby and me to chat and get acquainted.

Meanwhile at the party a year later, I noticed Debby setting on a big couch next to another partygoer, so I took the opportunity to sit down on the thick arm of the couch next to Debby to say hi, somewhat like this photo, but imagine me in hippy clothes and Debby in a short miniskirt! That eventful get-together began a wonderful conversation that has continued ever since! I had ridden a motorcycle to the party, so as the festivities were winding down, we took a memorable ride on that bike all over town and beyond.

It was a yellow Suzuki off-road bike that I had borrowed for the summer from a fraternity brother who had broken his leg at Mardi Gras ironically after being hit by a motorcycle. He’s the guy with the cast pictured next to me in the photo shown above. The bike was stuffed into the huge truck of another frat brother’s 1964 Chevy and hauled from college in Michigan to Dayton earlier that week after our last finals. We removed the bike’s front wheel and the car’s spare from the trunk to make room, storing both in the back seat. All his clothes and things were in my car as I followed closely behind him down I75 to Dayton.

After the party, that midnight motorcycle ride was a blur interrupted at the end by the sunrise, to both of our surprise! Somewhere along the way, Debby recalls a barbed wire fence we almost ran into! She was dropped off at her place shared with several other local girls as documented in this previous blogpost. That was a summer of a lifetime, as we toured around in that motorcycle everywhere, including a trip to Russia and Ft. Loramie to meet our respective parents. My mother-in-law Hilda grew up on the neighboring farm next to my grandparents, so she knew my dad quite well. In fact, at our first meeting, Hilda told us about my dad taking his sisters and other neighborhood girls including Hilda to Lindhaus Dance Hall on weekends during WWII. Dad had a deferment to farm the home place because his father had died during the Great Depression.

Dad also recalled Hilda’s war time story, adding that the girls road in the back of the farm truck they nicknamed the Blitz. He had to meticulously clean the truck and add two benches for sitting before each weekend dance after hauling livestock and other such farm stuff in the back over the course of the week. For sure that connection between my future mother-in-law and my dad gained me quick acceptance to Debby's family, otherwise who knows what might have happened, as my garb and hair at the time were very hippy-like! Plus I had taken Debby’s youngest brother, Ken, who was about 7, for a zippy ride on the bike around the meticulously maintained yard. He loved it, but Hilda did not!

We were engaged 8 months later and married 10 months after our engagement, living happily ever after. I’m so lucky Debby didn’t go home to spent the evening with her father on his birthday!

Want to know how we are celebrating our 50 year milestone? A neighbor’s loaning me his bike and Debby and I are going to take a midnight spin for old times sake. Right!

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#2 USA High School Baseball Team - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

#2 USA High School Baseball Team

Last week’s blog touched on the Sports Illustrated jinx, which I hope doesn’t replicate itself into a Fish Report jinx as this week’s blog is about our local high school baseball team here in Michigan. We’ve lived in Orchard Lake for over 30 years, and our son graduated as salutatorian from the local Catholic high school St. Mary’s Prep in 1997. Over those years, the school has excelled academically and athletically, including 32 state championships in six different sports. In fact, our son played on a lacrosse state championship team in his senior year. Their current baseball team is the defending state champion, has a 40 game winning streak and is ranked #2 nationwide by Max Preps. It’s that team that I hope not to jinx by writing about them.

The team is coached by Matt Petry, son of former major league pitcher, Dan Petry, who starred for the World Series winning Detroit Tigers in 1984. Matt has a brother Jeff who plays professional hockey for the Montreal Canadians, so obviously a real athletic family.

The team has 13 players who have been offered Division 1 scholarships, with their best player, senior shortstop Alex Mooney, pictured in action above, projected to go in the first round of July’s MLB draft. His dad Joe played college ball for the University of Michigan.

St. Marys was founded on the above principles way back in 1885 and includes a high school, college and seminary on the 100 acre campus along the shores of Orchard Lake.

Many of the graduates return to the campus regularly for sporting events and alumni functions, including the annual St. Marys Polish Country Fair each Memorial weekend, supposedly the largest high school fair in the country.

And almost every weekend, an alum gets married in the shrine chapel, afterwards visiting the grotto for a wedding prayer.

Speaking of graduates, Cardinal Adam Maida attended St. Mary’s during high school and as a seminarian. And before being elected pope, St. John Paul II visited the school twice in 1969 and 1978. The shrine chapel on the campus is named in the Pope's honor. During his first visit, the future Pope was quoted as saying, “If Orchard Lake St. Marys did not exist, we’d have to create it”.

With all that prayer power, any Fish Report jinx doesn’t have a chance!

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Postscript: St. Mary’s lost this past weekend 2-1, a game I attended. A two run error in the first inning, a 3 hit complete game by an MSU lefty commit and a 20 mph hurting wind did them in. Alex Mooney, the kid that was projected to be a major league draftee hit the final out with the bases loaded. Bummer! But my wife claims it’s not a Fish Report jinx in play here, but I’m the jinx’er. She said, "Just look at the sports teams you root for, literally all routinely finish in last place; the Tigers, Lions, Red Wings and Pistons. Plus the Michigan Wolverines haven’t beaten Ohio State in almost a decade! So who’s to blame here? Maybe start rooting for the teams you hate!"

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Sports Illustrated Jinx - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Sports Illustrated Jinx

The inaugural issue of Sports Illustrated was published on August 16, 1954. As an SI subscriber since about age 10, 4 years after the magazine start, coupled now into retirement with my daily read of the Fish Report, Press Pros, ESPN, as well as the sports pages in various newspapers, my craving for sports news is somewhat satisfied. Doesn’t beat attending in person, but with Covid, that’s not possible anyway. Back to Sports Illustrated, the urban legend of the SI Jinx has always intrigued me, so today’s blog will focus on that theme.

The above cover of that first issue showed Milwaukee Braves slugger Eddie Mathews homering to lead the Braves to a nine-game winning streak. The very next game, the team lost and Mathews broke his hand causing him to miss 7 games. Thus began the SI Curse from that very first issue.

Many examples have unfortunately hit home for me over the years, such as the 1978 Pete Rose cover during his 44 game hitting streak. He went hitless the next day! That jinx continues as Rose still unfortunately is banned from the Hall of Fame.

Race car driver Dale Earnhardt appeared on the cover with his son Dale Jr. in 2000. He died two months later on the final lap of the Daytona 500.

Michigan Wolverines quarterback Denard Robinson was featured on the cover. The Wolverines lost their first game of the 2012 season, 41–14, to the #1 ranked and eventual national champion Alabama Crimson Tide.

Detroit Tigers hitter Miguel Cabrera was featured on this 2012 cover. The Tigers were subsequently swept in the World Series by the San Francisco Giants. During the series, Cabrera went 3 for 13, including making the final out of the Series.

And most recently, The March 2021 issue featured the Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball team hoping to finally win the National Championship. The Bulldogs did go 31-0 and reached the finals of the NCAA Tournament only to lose to the Baylor Bears 86-70.

And definitely the worst cover jinx of all time: President-elect John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy are shown sailing off Cape Cod in 1961. The president would be assassinated less than three years later.

But some curses I appreciated:

After the Los Angeles Lakers swept the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Western Conference Finals to go undefeated to that point in the playoffs, the 1989 SI cover featured Lakers forward James Worthy with the word "SWEEP!" in large letters and, in smaller letters, the caption: "James Worthy and the Lakers beat the Suns to go 11–0 in the playoffs." The Lakers would go on to lose in the 1989 NBA Finals, being swept 4–0 by the Detroit Pistons.

The Kansas City Chiefs appeared on a 2003 cover after starting the season 9–0, but would lose the following game in Cincinnati to the Bengals. Kansas City finished the regular season 4–3, losing home field advantage to the New England Patriots, followed by losing the divisional playoff against Indianapolis.

Fortunately for the magazine, there are many exceptions to the curse; for example, Phil Mickelson won two other green jackets (one of which I witnessed as described in this blog after his initial win depicted on this 2004 cover. Definitely no jinx for Phil.

And Michael Jordon was on 50 covers, none of which hindered his accomplishments. Except maybe his golf cover in 1989!

Muhammed Ali appeared on 40 covers, experience immense success in his professional and personal life, culminating in him be named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Century.

And for sure there was no jinx involving any of models featured in the annual Swim Suit issues!

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