Jim Bornhorst RIP - 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

Jim Bornhorst - RIP

To honor recently deceased Ft. Loramie farmer and civic leader, James J. Bornhorst the following write-up from his 2015 Loramie Schools Wall of Honor induction is provided. I had the pleasure of working for Jim during high school as documented in these previous blogposts. He taught me so much and I’m so grateful for having had the opportunity to know him, his wife Carol and their family.

Ft. Loramie Schools Wall of Honor Induction Ceremony - September 27, 2015 - Honoree Jim Bornhorst

James J. Bornhorst was born and raised on a farm west of Fort Loramie. After the passing of his father in 1951, Jim became the third generation owner of that family farm (pictured below).

In 1950, while still in high school, Jim started the Fort Loramie Livestock 4-H Club, Jim himself being the club’s advisor. He saw the need to help the youth in the community who were interested in the raising of livestock. That 4-H club is still in existence today (photo below). Jim also served as a member of the Shelby County Fair Board from 1954-1958.

2022 Ft. Loramie Livestock 4H Members

After serving two years in the U.S. Army, Jim married Carol Jean Buehler on September 29, 1956. While still farming, he worked at Minster Machine for eight years. Jim and Carol have six children, 24 grand- children, and 20 great-grandchildren. They will celebrate their 59th anniversary this year.

In 1968, the “Old Fashion Fourth of July” celebration was revived in Fort Loramie. Those who revived the celebration wanted to have one large community event to raise money for the various organizations and to provide the community with a good time. Jim volunteered to haul in the lumber that would be used for the various stands and continued to procure the lumber for this event for a number of years thereafter. Jim served on the St. Michael Catholic Church’s Parish Council during the tenure of Father Francis and Father Bensman. He was instrumental with the project of attaching a garage to the parish house.

In 1969, Jim was elected as clerk for McLean Township and served until 1975. He also served on the advisory board of Wapakoneta Production Credit Association from 1973-1985. His duties were to make recommendations to the staff to better serve the credit needs of local farmers.

Jim served two terms on the Fort Loramie School Board from 1976-1983. He served as president of the board in 1979 and in 1982. In 1977 there was one very crowded school building for grades K-12. The gymnasium was too small to host home basketball games, so area gyms were rented. During Jim’s first term on the school board, a much-needed new high school building was built on the corner of St. Rt. 705 and Greenback Road. This new facility was a center of pride for the entire community, providing for the educational and extra-curricular needs of the school district.

To accomplish the building of the school, funds were stretched to the maximum. Jim and fellow board members convinced the community that, through volunteerism, the seemingly-impossible process could be accomplished. Volunteers donated many hours of labor for such tasks as ground-preparation, inserting water and electric lines, and painting the interior. Passage of the tax levy for the necessary funds to build the school did not include the gym. Jim and eight community members co-signed a loan to provide the funds to build the gym. This was the formation of the GYM Committee, which continues to be in existence to this day.

Jim also helped to organize a project to create a cinder track behind the old school. He asked area farmers and business owners to provide trucks to haul the cinders from the Piqua Power Plant. This cinder track like pictured below provided the school district a practice track at no cost.

Jim was willing to participate in any work that was necessary to get an important job done. He wasn’t reluctant to talk to people and encourage them to get involved. As Lynn Dildine, principal of the elementary school in 1977, states, “Jim provided more than his share of the leadership necessary to convince the community that the money was well-spent, because the students were the main beneficiaries.”

Jim Bornhorst has always been a “behind the scenes” kind of guy. He has a lot of good ideas and follows through on getting things accomplished. Jim has instilled his children with those same values of service and volunteerism to their communities.

 
Rest in peace, my friend; deepest sympathies to Jim’s family.

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G.O.A.T. - 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

G.O.A.T.

There’s always a lot of debate about who’s the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T.) in various sports. So this blog sets the record straight once and for all! My comments reflect personal observations and memories about seeing each in action. The list only includes those athletes I’ve observed in person, not on TV or through the media. So here goes, starting with baseball:

Pete Rose is my baseball hero, as he led the Reds to multiple World Series championships during the Big Red Machine era in the 1970’s. As a lifelong Reds fan. he was such a great part of so many memories at Crosley Field and later Riverfront Stadium. Charlie Hustle was clearly an appropriate nickname for him. One of my favorite Pete Rose memories as documented in this previous blogpost occurred in his second season, and coincidently Johnny Bench’s rookie season and involved the two connecting up to make a special day for me and my brother who was attending his first Reds game.

For basketball, Michael Jordan was not necessarily a favorite of mine since he was a nemesis of the Detroit Pistons back in the late 1980’s when both the Bull and Pistons seemed to always meet in the semi-finals of the NBA playoffs. They had to get through each other to get to the Finals each year during that era. Detroit had the so called Jordan Rules for defensing Michael. It involved the best defensive guard facing up Jordan before the mid court line to try to force him to pass. If he happened to get around Dumars, it was Nick Mahorn’s job to confront him, definitely not let him get to the basket and try to get him to pass it up. Mahorn was to foul him if necessary to keep him from driving to the basket. If Mahorn couldn’t stop him, Bill Laimbeer was to literally hog tie Jordan. It worked for two seasons, as Jordan would tire by the 4th quarter from all the abuse and wasn’t nearly as effective. The Pistons won an NBA championship both years. However, eventually the Bulls figured out an offensive scheme to neutralize the Jordon Rules and the Bulls then beat the Pistons several years in a row. Jordan is the greatest basketball player I’ve ever seen.

Tom Brady is my football G.O.A.T., and ditto for many other fans. Ironically, when he played for the Michigan Wolverines in college, he was not a favorite. There was an underclassman quarterback named Drew Henson whom I felt should have been starting. But by the end of Brady’s senior season in 2000, after winning close games against Ohio State at the Big House and Alabama in the Orange Bowl, I was on his side and have been ever since. But at no time during his college career did I foresee the success he was to realize in the pros. Seven Super Bowl rings - Wow! G.O.A.T. for sure.

My hockey G.O.A.T. is none other that Mr Hockey himself, the Detroit Red Wings Gordie Howe. After having seen him play many times at old Olympia Stadium and later Joe Louis Arena and enjoying him lead the Red Wings to a number of Stanley Cup championships, I was a true fan. However, my most memorable Gordie Howe moment was meeting Gordie and his wife Colleen at a restaurant near Traverse City, Michigan on New Years Eve. That made for an especially happy New Years celebration.
https://www.complex.com/sports/2018/09/the-greatest-of-all-time

Jack Nicklaus, with 18 Major championships, is by far my all time golfing G.O.A,T. His 1986 Masters win was the highlight of them all, shown above on Championship Sunday as he drains a long birdie putt on hole 17. Unfortunately I didn’t witness that big win, but did actually play in the group behind him in a pro-am as part of the Ford Senior Players Championship at TPC Dearborn in 1990. Nicklaus not only designed the course but also won the event that year. My 11 year old son followed me around the TPC course for the Pro Am and had the opportunity to shake Jack’s hand and get his autograph on the Golden Bear hat pictured above, a memory that will stay with him for a lifetime. He too is an avid Jack Nicklaus fan. The only issue I have with Jack Nicklaus is the toughness of the courses he’s designed. I’ve played many of them and a common characteristic is typically water in front of most greens, which makes it extremely challenging to reach the green without laying up in front of the water especially for us senior players; fully recognizing that designing a course for seniors is not the best way to notable golf architecture (although G.O.A.T. golf course designer Donald Ross was able to do it and still provide for challenging play).

Track and Field G.O.A.T. is OSU’s Jesse Owens, who won 4 gold metals in the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin under the control of Hitler’s Nazi Germany at the time. Having never seen Jesse compete, I did attend a OSU football game in the fall of 1976 where he was recognized by his alma mater on the 40 anniversary of his Olympic feats. In addition, the Track and Field stadium on the OSU campus is appropriately named after Jesse.

There are two other Olympians I know, one of whom, David Simon won a medal for rowing. He went to high school with my son. The other is an Olympic swimmer Brandon Shuster, the grandson of a friend. Both are my Olympic G.O.A.T.s since I never officially met Jesse Owens, a true G.O.A.T.

Since I’ve never seen Serena Williams play in person, I can’t include her in my G.O.A.T. list, but I did watch Jimmy Connors in a tennis exhibition once while in Florida. He’s by far the best tennis player I’ve ever seen in person and was always a character on and off the court. His matches with arch rival John McEnroe were legendary. Both were feisty and readily verbally challenged each other, the umpires and the fans during their matches - pure theatrical entertainment at the time. I enjoyed this interesting 2018 YouTube interview of John McEnroe about his rivalry with Conners that at the 3:00 minute mark McEnroe compares Connors to my baseball G.O. A.T. Pete Rose, implying the two look and act alike. They do! In fact they both appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated a month apart back in 1974.

My motor racing G.O.A.T. would be NASCAR driver Tony Stewart, primarily due to his winning the Cup three times in 2002, 2005 & 2011, plus an IndyCar championship in 1997. I recall him racing in both the Indy 500 and Coke 400 at Daytona on the same day, dubbed the Memorial Day Double, flying from Indy to Florida between races in both 1999 and later in 2001 when he finished in the Top 10 at both venues. Tony is currently a NASCAR team owner and also bought Eldora Speedway in 2004 from legendary Earl Baltes, both shown in the above photo. I watched Tony race at Michigan International Speedway several times, having won in 2000.

Having never played soccer as a kid, my interest in the sport was very limited; however, I did manage to attend a World Cup event at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1994 when the USA and Switzerland played to a 1-1 tie - boring. The only soccer player on either team I had ever heard of was Lexi Lalas from nearby Birmingham, Michigan. So he’s my soccer G.O.A.T.! This game was the first ever soccer event in an indoor stadium.

Another Michigan native, boxing champion, Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns, was really fun to watch, having fought in 5 different weight classes over the course of his career. Since I never personally witnessed many boxing matches except for Hearns, he’s my boxing G.O.A.T., best known for his 14 round bout with Sugar Ray Leonard in 1981. Both were undefeated at the time if I recall and Hearns lost to Sugar Ray in 14 rounds. The two had a rematch in 1989, with Hearns flooring Leonard twice in latter rounds, but the judges ruled the match a controversial draw; another reason boxing is not a favorite sport of mine.

Last but not least is lacrosse, a sport my son played in high school and college. His team won a state championship in 1997, led by Jay Penske, son of racing legend Roger Penske, who was in my son’s class. Jay was an amazing lacrosse player who went on to play for Penn in college. Jay #7 in the front row of the above state championship photo is my lacrosse G.O.A.T., with my son #1 next to him.

Hope you enjoyed the memories of my G.O.A.T.’s. Who are yours?

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Scudzy's Fire - 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

Scudzy’s Fire

Saddened to learn about the fire that destroyed Scudzy’s on Friday. What a ton of memories went up in smoke with that historic place burning down. My wife’s sister Sherry posted that 46 years ago she met her now husband Fred at Scudzy’s. After doing the math, we concluded that both were underage at the time, just like hundreds of others back in those days who imbibed at the infamous Newport bar. Here is the story from the Sidney Daily News and below two past blogs about the place back when I was in high school, then called Louie’s.

 

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Roo-shee Girls - Dave’s Midwestern Ohio Memories

A 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

Roo-shee Girls

During the spring of my junior year in high school, we got knocked out of the tournament early because our team was not very good. For a reason I don’t recall, all the seniors on the team quit early in the season, so that left me and four sophomores elevated from JV as starters. To keep the scores close, our primary tactic was a stall coupled with a full court press, which worked ok during the season in the cracker-box gyms we played back then. But in Sidney High’s huge gym where the tournament was played, that strategy was dealt a fatal blow, so we lost big time.

On the following Sunday afternoon, I was riding around with some of my high school buddies, when we heard through the grapevine (predecessor to the internet) that there was a party at a farm house near Russia, so off we went, having no idea where the party was being held. So we drove up and down the various roads around Russia, finally finding a farm with a bunch of cars in the driveway north of town that we hoped was the party place. For some reason, I remember the farm also had a bunch of antique stuff around the yard somewhat like the photo below. The mailbox indicated the name of the family that lived there, and we knew there was a Russia cheerleader with that same last name. So we drove in and indeed found the party was going full blast! Apparently, the cheerleader’s parents were gone for the weekend, probably looking for more antiques!

Other than visiting my cousins in Russia, as documented in this previous blogpost, that memorable Sunday was my first exposure to the girls of Roo-shee! Wow, they were all knockouts and super friendly. Seems they were kind of intrigued by us out-of-towners almost as much as we were with them. No doubt the local guys were peeved, but who cared. We were in seventh heaven, partying to the max. It was a very fun and memorable afternoon, as from that moment on, Roo-shee girls were always on my radar screen.

Our favorite meeting place at the time is pictured above; Louie’s in Newport, now Scudzy’s, located on State Route 66 right along the old Miami-Erie canal. Louie Bruns was the proprietor, and because his bar was located about half way between Loramie and Russia, it became the place to connect up with Roo-shee girls.

The juke box was always rocking with the latest hit songs and the red booths were gigantic, so we’d all squeeze in together to share some food, drink and the latest scuttlebutt around our two neighboring towns. 

Well, that connection to Roo-shee still exists to this day, as about 6 years after my initial encounter described above, I was fortunate to meet a very special Roo-shee girl who is now my wife of 46 years. Love those Roo-shee girls!

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Jackson Center Standout - 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

Jackson Center Standout

During halftime of Friday’s live stream of the Russia-Jackson Center boys basketball game, Fish Report announcers Craig and Ken referenced several scoring records for the Jackson Center Tigers over the years. Included in their rundown was the fact that the 1967 team still held the scoring record of 122 points in one game. The SCAL was much more run and gun in those days compared to today, and as Craig pointed out in his commentary, the cracker box gyms were a lot smaller back then.

One of the standouts on that JC team was longtime Russia resident and businessman Dale Nichols, who also happens to be Craig’s father-in-law! I had the pleasure of playing against Dale back in my Ft. Loramie playing days. He was a tough rival who could score and really run the court. Dale was the best foul shooter in the county, having hit 31 in a row at one point during the season, which is also a school record the still stands. Like a lot of my basketball competitors from around the county, I quickly became friends with him off the court.

After games on Friday night, many players, cheerleaders and fans from nearby Loramie, Russia and Houston would congregate at Louie’s in Newport where Scudzy's in today. I had written about those times in this previous blogpost. Well, Dale would trek all the way from Jackson Center after his game and join us at Louie’s for a cherry coke or some such beverage. Because of the long drive, he'd arrive late and would invariably work the room, connecting up with all the players to chat about the results of the games around the county.

Dale would inevitably end up at a booth where a special Russia cheerleader named Kathy was seated with her friends. According to legend, a year earlier, cheerleader Kathy had spotted Dale at an early season Jackson Center-Russia game and declared on the spot that he’s the guy she was going to marry. And if you know Kathy like I and so many other people do, that’s exactly what she did a few years later and they’ve been happily married ever since. And now she’s Craig’s one-of-a-kind mother-in-law and also mother and grandmother to the crew pictured above! Kathy and I both worked at Frigidaire in Dayton one summer during college, and I recall her trying to set me up with a younger cousin of hers, but I headed off to college before the blind date could be arranged. As it turned out, her cousin is now my wife! We eventually met on a double date with opposite partners, and the rest is history, but we often wonder what would have happened had we met at that earlier time.

Dale continued to play basketball even after high school with some new Russia teammates

Speaking of high school basketball back then, it was great to read in Fish Report about the tribute Wapak High did for the old Buckland high school, which was consolidated into Wapak in 1965. I recall playing Buckland before the consolidation. They also had a team in the uber-competitive Tri-County basketball league I played in after high school. The old high school was refurbished and converted into an elementary as pictured here. Buckland was consolidated about the same time Fairlawn high school was formed out of several smaller schools in southeastern Shelby County. After those consolidations, there always was a fear that local schools elsewhere around the county would be combined. That fear thankfully motivated a lot of successful millage votes over the years to keep the individual schools funded as recorded in this previous blogpost. Long live the SCAL!

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