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John Maxwell

Kathleen Wintering (Nagy)

Rest in Peace, Tommy. You are missed! Kathy Wintering

Frank Ganley

Tom not only was one of nicest people in the world but in a manly way he was also that good looking. It washard to see him in that condition but as the Lord said he will be whole again

Deborah Alexander (Rogers)

Tommy, may you find peace in the arms of the angels.

Michael DeTemple

Very sorry to hear the news about Tom.  ANd my condolences to those of you who were friends of his.  I am sorry for your loss.

David Mitchell

Had to throw this in - just for fun and a wonderful memory. 1962 

Janie Albright (Blank)

Dave, I could kill you for getting that song stuck in my head this morning! Tommy must have been the OLP Duke of Earl.  Ours at St. Mike’s was John Favret! Two old friends that are very much loved and missed. 

David Mitchell

Sorry girl.

And I was just "Kathy's Clown" (from when I had a crush on Kathy Shannahn in 5th and 6th grade). A few of the girls in our class would sing that to me - or AT me - while I blushed and made angry faces back at them.

But Tom was the real Duke of Earl.

Isn't it funny how certain songs punch our buttons?

p.s. are the guys in the crowd all wearing those sport coats without lapels or collars? Wow!

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Obituary for Tommy Litzinger:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dispatch/obituary.aspx?n=thomas-litzinger&pid=188397414&fhid=3946

David Mitchell

Thanks for the link Mary Margaret. I just had to paste this image from the Egan Ryan site you refrrenced. And the "A" stood for Aquinas (of course). Love this photo!

Darn,  I can't get the image to stay on here. I may try again later - it's a classic! 

David Mitchell

The topic of Tom and of Basketball brings back another sweet memory. 

How fondly I recall those Winter Saturday mornings in the Watterson gym during grade school basketball. We played about 4 games every Saruday morning in our round-robin league. I played a few minutes in 7th grade and got whipped badly by my good friend Tommy Weilbacher. It was a short debut and a qucik trip back to the bench. 

But 8th grade was when the world became our oyster. Our starting lineup included myself and Tom Litzinger at guard, with Joe Royce and our own super-athlete, Kevin Ryan, at forwards. I'll leave you to guess who our center was until the bottom of the page. Our first subs were Mike Haggerty and Tommy Swain - then some of those damn overachiever 7th graders.

We played to near capacity crowds of - ahem, maybe 60 to 120 people (at most).

I am trying to list all the other schools starters as best I can.

And please jump in and help me with those I forget.

Starting at the top of the world as we knew it then - north of us (Worthington)  - working down High Street and then across the Oly. River to the wilds of Arlington and beyond.  

St. Michaels: Al Standish, John Favret,,,,,,,,,,,,????? maybe Kenny Symenski? Mark Schweichart? Jonny Angel? Dennis Winchester?  Dan Dublin?. I'm guessing after the first two. HELP me out here Al.

I.C.;  Brad Neilson, Jim Hamilton, Brian Doyle, Bucky Croyle (spelling?), Stan Kroeneburg(?), Kevin Cull (?)  - lost again?????  (Jim, can you give me a hand?)

Sacred Heart: Mike Kaylor (one tough little player!), Ron Kovaks, Sonny Carol,,,,,,,?????????

Holy Name: Can't even recall if they had a team?

St. Christopher: Gene Rodgers, Mark Buttress, Bobby Curtain, Joe McCarthy, (only because he told me so,,,,,, and I'm lost again. NOTE: We never played them except in a weeknight practice game over at old Our Lady of Victory gym - a messy old gym with walls only about 18 inches from the sidelines. Kinda' dangerous.

St. Agatha, (those rich Arlington kids with their very own baseball diamond and gym!) My two good future buddies, Steve Hodges, and Tom McKeon, then Mike Hill, (damn, he was too quick for me), Tom Dodsworth, and Tim LaVelle????? Bill Fisher maybe??   ---- Oh that's right -  Jesse Watson! This was a team to reckon with and be very afraid of all that talent!   Goose, anybody else?

St. Andrew:  Big Mike Boulware, Guy DeVictor, Alan Morse, ,,,,,,,,?????? -- lost again here? Mike B, jump in here??

This is a team (and specifiaclly Alan Morse) that caused me my worst disappointment of that whole medicore season. We had them beaten the whole game. My one game hitting my outside jumper (14 points - whoo hoo!). But Alan had that strange little sort of almost "jumper" from behind his head with no arc at all. Easy to block, I thought. But he just kept hitting it over me - and he was 3 or 4 inches shorter for Pete's sake! Our coach called a time out and said "Look, he always goes to his left. He can't even dribble to his right. You (me) front him on his left side and Litzinger you double team him and stop this kid." We did that and with a few seconds to go, Alan still got around me to his left and put up a shot from the corner that I actually got a full hand on, and it still went in to beat us at the last second. I was so distraught I cried on my walk home down over the Cooke Road hills. 

Any guesses about our Center's name?  For that one season in that one sport we all called him "Jake". Don't think we ever used that nickname for him again after that. Hint:  Janie, you might know how good (or bad) he was on his feet.  

David Mitchell

At the risk of driving you all crazy with my my hogging the Forum today, I must put up one more post. It was sent to me this morning by a classmate who is a constant "reader" but never a "post-er". We have had some great side conversations for over a year now, and I have gotten to enjoy a new friendship with a guy I barely knew back then. Although he wishes to remain un-named, I can no longer avoid giving him credit. This video is too good to claim as my own discovery.

NOTE: by "outing" him tonight, I run the risk not getting my gift of a bottle of his own excellent home made wine on his drive-by visit to Bluffton this coming Sunday night....... Sorry pal. To err is human. To forgive is divine.

Mea Culpa, Mea culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa.

This is "East Cathilic High School" - somehwere in Florida (I think), or Connecticut?

THANKS AL 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Janie Albright (Blank)

Dave- you have a photographic memory, I swear! 

John Jackson, my Junior prom date? Handsome son of a gun! And a good basketball player too! 

David Mitchell

Janie - 

a) correct on the player's name

b) incorrect on the memory - I simply have no memory at all any more.

And thanks Jim (how could I have forgotten Frank?).    Mike B. any help wth St. Andrew?

Thomas McKeon

Dave you have a great memory St. Agatha also had Steve Graham and Jerry Seeeney on the team Rocky Amicon also played great memories thanks for the memory jog.

David Mitchell

Wow!  Tom, you're out there. Thought I might get you to answer. I forgot about Steve Graham, and never knew Jerry. Do you (or anyone) know what ever happened to Tom D. and Steve G.? 

Mark Schweickart

Dave - I may be wrong (let's hear from other St. Michael's alums to straighten me out or back me up on this) but I don't recall ever playing against other grade school teams in Basketball in the Watterson gym or anywhere else. We used to compete in Football in 6th and 7th grades, but when we were in 8th grade, the decision was made to drop us out of inter-school competitions, and we were left with only some sort of half-hearted intermural activities. However, if we had played, the star of our basketball team that you failed to mention would have been Don Holland.

David Mitchell

Thanks Mark,

I could swear we faced you guys on one of those Saturday mornings - mainly because I distinctly recall gaurding Al, and being fascinated by a guy my age with such a heavy beard - LOL - I'm serious!

But maybe this happened in a 7th grade game, which I am certain of.

By late in the season, another thing was going on. We were starting to notice the other school's cheerleaders. As if we didn't already have a bevy of cute chicks on our own Cheering squad. We had Carol Weiner, Barbara Boggs, Kathy Hockman, Kath Shannahan and maybe Nina -- help me here ladies, my memory goes soft again. But Litzinger and I started talking about those cuties from St. Chrostpher. He locked on to Linda Van Pelt, and I got introduced to Mary Joe Fortin. Wow! I thought I had found my true love! That lasted about two weeks before I realized it had vanished. I was at a guy's party (birthday maybe ?) at Kevin Ryan's house with Litzinger, Haggarty, and Royce and they were all trying to explain that she had fallen in love with another guy named Bobby Capuano(?) from Our Lady of Victory and it took me another week of angry disbelief to grasp that it was true. So she turned out to be Bobby's girl instead of mine. Oh, love is painfu! 

David Mitchell

Could any of you ladies fill us in on the names of those 8th grade cheerleaders?

Mary Clare Hummer (Bauer)

Mark,

We girls played other grade schools so I’m pretty sure you boys would have faced the mighty IC squad and the other grade school squads during those years.  To protect us as the wilting flowers we were, we girls were only allowed three dribbles and had to stop at the mid-court line. Guards and forwards played only on one side of the line. I was a guard and I remember being totally out of my league against the likes of Mary Lynn, Diana Swenker and Jeanne Sweeney among others from the St. Agatha team.  They could practically step on me!!!  I remember the boys team came to watch the day of that game. I believe game and after game stats showed the long, blonde pony tails won in every category!!! 

Dave,

I posted this months ago but you obviously want to revisit the IC cheerleaders—creme de la creme!!

Sylvia DiSabato                                    Mary Margaret Clark

Mary Ann McMahon                             Sharen Selleck

Beth Broadhurst                                   Chris O’Neil

Christine Woodward                             Ann Shevlin

I don’t know the cheerleaders from the other schools but somebody out there probably can help.

Clare

Alan Standish

Dave- don't remember much about sports in grade school!  Don't remember playing basketball except for games played at CYO downtown, probably mostly pickup games!  Any sports at St. Michael's would have to include Donnie Holland and Crick!

David Mitchell

Clare,

I do recall this photo from last year on your post. 

And your description of Girls basketball triggered another memory. Yes, your class of girls was one of the last to play under the old girls rules - the half court stuff - the three steps - etc. Pretty silly game played that way. I first saw it at my older sisters games at St. Mary's of the Springs. Wow, really strange to watch - almost painfully awkward!   And I am shocked to hear you weren't a star player! (I can just see you "blocking out" under the boards and going high up for a rebound - yes maybe in my wildest dreams) 

But tell me, where and when did you play your games? I don't recall ever going to any of those for our girls team.

About one or two classes after us, I think they changed the rules to be like it was meant to be played. And low and behold Watterson had some great players. I recall Elaine and Mary Ellen Seidel (about Watterson "69 and "70 from OLP) were terrific players who led Watterson to state champs a few years after we graduted. And I think Mary Ellen became the first female full basketball scholarship in the state of Ohio - to the U. of Dayton, where she was a star player. And she really was amazing!

Years later, after moving back to Columbus, and after the old (ugly) OLP Church had finally been converted to it's original intended use - a gymnasium, I was in there one night watching a parish adult women's basketball game. I was dumfounded at what I saw!  Not only Mary Ellen and Elaine Seidel, but Norma and Patty(?) Daritas(?) and several others we all might know from Watterson, playing a full court game like they were men. Fast, hard rebounding, great passing, dribbling, and shooting - OMG!  Norma Daritas (Eglehoff) and Mary Ellen Seidel were shooting turn-around jumpers like they were John Havlicek! 

Al, I could swear I guarded you in one of those games. You guys had green and gold uniforms.  

Jodelle Sims

Mark, you are correct.  Fr. Byrne took us out of the CCL.  8th grade sports consisted of intermurals for boys and girls.  I was the only girl in our class to get a letter because I played softball in 7th grade.

David Mitchell

Jodelle,

All I can say is Wow!

Father Byrne had as nasty a reputaion as our own Father Foley (and Father Crosser in I.C.). But I know we played St. Mikes in 7th grade. I cannot forget the embarrassment I experienced trying to guard Tommy Weilbacher for a couple of minutes. And I know I coverd Al a few trips down the floor also - with almost equal lack of success. 

So what was it that made Father Byrne do that?

(and what was it that made all 3 of those priests so nasty?  must have been somehting in the water.)