Friday, July 19, 2024

GOLFING FOR A CAUSE

Mayor Scott Furgeson addresses golfers participating in the Christmas in July fundraising golf tournament yesterday at Blue Bear Golf Club. Funds raised in the annual tournament are used to decorate Public Square for the holiday season and for the annual holiday parade. | photo by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS

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Origins of Organized Local Youth Baseball Recalled

Don Johnson, right foreground, played an active role building the local youth baseball park and supporting youth despite severe injuries suffered in a vehicle accident. | photo provided, republished from The Addison Times, Nov. 2020

Editor’s note: Earlier this week, I was asked about the following article. I searched the archives, but realized it was only in print, in 2020. I deemed it worthwhile to bring to the digital age.

by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS

The cleanly raked infields of today’s Shelby County Babe Ruth diamonds are a far cry from the blood, sweat, and beers it took to build them. Founding Jaycees who constructed the River Road facility 55 years ago recall quantifying projects by the amount of beer that volunteers might consume.

“We would say, ‘That’s a six-case job,’” Joe Landwerlen recalled with a laugh. He was one of the countless citizens who toiled to find a permanent home for local youth baseball. It took nearly a decade, and more than once, they were left stranded.

The first Knothole League season was held on land owned by Kennedy Car Liner in the early 1960s. After just a couple of years, the company reclaimed the space for expansion. Someone then suggested a five-acre field enclosed by a cyclone fence near the old Admiral Corp. 

“We didn’t feel we had any chance of obtaining this land since it was so well protected, but we didn’t have anything to lose, so we asked and we got,” an unsigned letter by founding Jaycees said. The documentation is part of Knothole League memorabilia saved by Landwerlen and later donated to the Boys and Girls Club.

Volunteers took just five weeks to build an entrance over the ditch, obtain three large drainage tiles from Evans Concrete Co., which Public Service laid, and grade and bulldoze the land with equipment on loan from Jansma Co. The city rolled the ground, and opening day was delayed by merely a week, a cause for community celebration.

All seven clubs - KCL Corp., Pittsburgh Plate Glass, Fraternal Order of Police, Delle’s Landscaping, Shelby National Bank, Optimist Club, and Frisch’s Big Boy - paraded through downtown Shelbyville before participating in exhibition games at the new Knothole Park. 

The Optimist Club team was particularly successful that season, traveling to Cincinnati to play in a regional tournament. Team members were Terry King, Don Kilburn, Bob Harmon, Bruce Williams, Kim Boger, Tom Higgins, Mark Kremer, Mike Holzhausen, Bill Karnowsky, Gary Meltzer, Mark Bogeman, Steve LaBarbera, Tony Sipes, Rick Hobbs, Steve Drake, Danny Lee, Ron Winton, Steve Crafton, and Gary Coers.

But after only a few seasons, the league was on the move again, this time to the old school fields off South Meridian Street while a permanent home was sought. Gary Bowen played in those intermittent years. 

“It was mass hysteria,” Bowen said. “There were no bleachers; people just brought chairs, but they had a blast.”

Meanwhile, Art Thurston at Farmers National Bank offered the Jaycees and the Knothole board a loan to purchase property on River Road. The site was a diamond in the rough, but a host of civic-minded fathers and leaders were again up for the challenge.

“There were a bunch of really good guys in the Jaycees at that time,” Jim Skinner, himself a member, said.

Joe Landwerlen agreed. “We worked one whole summer just clearing the place,” he said. “We didn’t have weed killers. To kill grass to make an infield, it was a struggle.”

Carl Mohr brought equipment to clear the brush. The infield was scraped with city equipment, and the Jaycees, using borrowed trucks, tractors, and equipment, worked the field into playing condition.  

“The second summer we actually built the diamonds,” Landwerlen said.

Over 100 tons of sand and dirt were donated by Blue River Gravel Co. for the field. A backstop, chain link outfield fence, and a concession stand appeared. A newspaper photo showed Don Taylor, Karl Yarling, John Wetnight, Ron Lummis, and Mike Yarling building dugouts. 

But many of the laborers were paid employees of Donald Johnson’s construction company, Quality Builders. Johnson, active in the Shelbyville Jaycees, was instrumental in Knothole’s local beginnings and himself a role model. His contributions went beyond financing labor. Despite a crippling car accident while en route to build a church in Chicago, which resulted in a six-month hospitalization, he continued working and supporting youth baseball.

Curt Johnson, of Indianapolis, remembers his father climbing up and down ladders at construction sites, injuries notwithstanding.

Don Johnson could often be found at Knothole Park, on crutches or using a cane. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in February 1970. The new field that he had worked so hard to build opened just months later.

The first game on what is now diamond No. 2 was held June 6, 1970. Two additional diamonds were added later. John Hartnett played in that first game, his PPG team versus the Optimist Club coached by local attorney Bob Shaeffer. PPG also featured Rick Tippin, who went on to play single-A minor league baseball for the New York Mets organization.

“We won,” Hartnett said, remembering that inaugural game. “But GE was the best team that year.” 

Funding in the early years was partly derived from large advertisement signs. A makeshift assembly line was set up in Johnson’s workshop on East Washington Street. The Jaycees painted plywood, and the Jayshes, composed of members’ wives, cut out vinyl letters to build the advertisements. That family approach lasted for decades.

“The wives were almost as involved as the guys were,” Bowen, a former long-time board member, said.

Entire families enjoyed summer evenings at the park. A favorite tradition was rewarding those who returned errant baseballs to the concession stand with a small Coke.  

“There was more energy outside (the diamond) chasing down foul balls than what was going on in the field,” Bowen said.

Recycling the baseballs was well worth it to league officials.

“(The kids) didn’t realize we were giving them a three-cent Coke to get a dollar-and-a-half baseball back,” Landwerlen said.

In 1981, the Knothole program gave way to Shelby County Babe Ruth. The three fields were eventually named in honor of Ray Pilk, Mark Williams, and Robert Bowen. The complex holds Don Johnson’s namesake. A dedication ceremony in 1975 honored the Johnson family - his wife, Lois; son, Curt; and daughter, Karen (Jackson). A plaque bearing his name was then installed at the park. Johnson’s gravestone at Forest Hill Cemetery includes the inscription, “Active friend to all boys.”

The mid-1980s brought about several key tournaments, including the 1984 and 1985 Bambino World Series events, to Shelbyville. Gary Bowen’s father, Robert Bowen, was president of the organization at the time.

“We were one of the premier ballparks in the Ohio Valley,” Gary Bowen said. “People loved coming here because it was all about the kids.”

Both Bowen and Hartnett noted that many of the board of directors served without children currently in the league.

“There’s a lot of unheralded people who put their time in and moved on,” Hartnett, who served on the board for 14 years, said. “It’s always been a working board, not just a policy-making board.”

That tradition continues today. Over fifty years of progress after the River Road facility’s opening, the 400 kids playing in a recent year’s Babe Ruth program enjoyed the legacy of those who selflessly volunteered their time and finances. That number included two of Don Johnson’s great-grandsons, Dreydon Downing and Lennox Downing. They are the grandsons of Karen (Johnson) Jackson. 

Although amenities have been added and field sizes changed, some of the park’s original features remain.

“I will tell you, there are a lot of beer cans in the restroom walls down there,” Landwerlen said.

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NOTEBOOK:

• A dump truck crashed Wednesday morning on Progress Parkway, ending up on its passenger side in the median with the contents of the truck, dirt, spilling out and blocking northbound traffic. The driver said he had “nodded off” briefly prior to the crash. The truck was towed.

• Shelbyville has been selected by the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) as the host site for two fall sport sectionals: cross country and boys tennis. The Shelbyville High School tennis courts will host Boys Sectional 24, Oct. 2 - 4, for Morristown, Shelbyville, Southwestern, Triton Central and Waldron, the defending sectional champions. Blue River Cross Country Course in Blue River Memorial Park will host Sectional 19 on Oct. 19, featuring 16 teams: Center Grove, Decatur Central, Edinburgh, Franklin Community, Greenwood Christian Academy, Greenwood Community, Indian Creek, Mooresville, Perry Meridian, Roncalli, Shelbyville, Southport, Southwestern, Triton Central, Waldron, and Whiteland Community.

• NATIONAL NEWS: Upgraded scenery may be coming this holiday season to Broadway and Miller Streets. Skelly, the 12-foot-tall Home Depot skeleton, has undergone a renovation, with new, customizable LED eyes. The base model skeleton sells for $299, but if you’ve got a Skelly you can buy the new eye kit for $29.98. Home Depot will also sell a limited edition servo Skelly animated by motors for $379. We’ll be tracking which version appears locally this fall. (The Verge/Numlock)

• The Addison Times publishes essential news and historical content to build our Shelby County community, and is free thanks to the generosity of supporters. Those who donate a minimum of $5 a month (or $45 one-time) receive the three remaining quarterly Addison Times magazines for 2024 as an appreciation gift.

• Want the daily edition read to you? Struggling with your email provider filtering out your local news? The Addison Times Substack app will solve those challenges!

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This Day in Shelby County History

News around Shelbyville and the surrounding area as reported on or about this date in history. Selections are curated from the Shelby County Public Library Genealogy Department.

2014: Construction was going “freaky fast” on an East State Road 44 building that would house a Jimmy John’s and a Verizon Wireless store.

2004: Habitat for Humanity volunteers began building a new home at 406 S. Main St. An old rusty water pipe about 10 feet long stuck up at a crazy angle from a pile of dirt was all that had been left of the previous home, which burned down 12 years’ prior, Judy Sprengelmeyer reported for The Shelbyville News.

1994: The Northwestern School board rehired local attorney Russ Sanders to serve as its legal representative. After the vote, a board member turned to him and teased, “Don’t do anything stupid.” Other board members pointed out that “stupid things” came with the job. “That’s okay,” Sanders responded. “I built in the cost of lawyer jokes in my fee.”

1984: State Police Officer Mike Kolls approached a stopped truck in Waldron, and a 19-year-old nearby, who was on parole from the Indiana Boys School, ran. Kolls found out where the young man lived and went to the house with Trooper Chris Read. The man grabbed his mother, picked up a knife and threatened to kill her and himself if arrested. Kolls helped talk the man into releasing his mother and, two hours later, from releasing the knife the young man had been holding to his chest. He was arrested for fleeing an officer.

1974: The Shelby County Chamber of Commerce moved to 33 E. Washington St. The Chamber had purchased the building.

1964: The St. Joseph’s Catholic Church bell was made obsolete by the church’s purchase of a carillon system, which used tapes and operated automatically. The speaker was mounted in one of the bell towers along with three others that boomed out the Angelus three times a day, the toll for funerals, and before Sunday masses. The bell had been made in 1870, before the church was built in 1903.

1954: Police Chief Lloyd Mellis said gambling in Shelbyville was over. “This is it, the end,” he said following two major raids in which 14 people were arrested at the J. Edward Griffith pool room, 54 E. Washington St., and the A. and K. pool room, 19 E. Jackson St. A large dice table was confiscated from the Griffith room. All 14 were represented in Bob Good’s court by attorney Warren Brown, and were all bailed out by Griffith, who brought $2,600 in cash from his home on the second floor above his pool hall.

1944: Sergeant Gordon Tillison, Shelbyville, had been in one of more than 900 C-47 planes on June 6 in France. “That D-Day sortie beats them all for excitement,” he told The Shelbyville Republican. “I’ll never forget it.” Tillison was a Moral Township graduate. “I was too busy to watch much of the action going on below, but from the glimpses I had through the pilot’s window, it seemed that all heck itself was popping. I’m not sure whether I was scared or not. I was too busy to notice,” he said.

1934: Approximately $800 worth of machinery and equipment was stolen from the Albert Manlief blacksmith shop in St. Paul.

1924: Mr. and Mrs. Shedrick Anders, recently married, were taken for a wheelbarrow ride around Public Square as part of a public celebration. Cigars were distributed and the crowd also decided to “charivari” Mayor and Mrs. Lee Hoop, who had been married a few months’ prior.

1914: Police made several arrests for gaming while raiding a club room above the livery barn on West Broadway. The men were charged with playing poker. In a separate incident, police arrested two men for knife-fighting over a bucket of beer at the Robinson restaurant on East Jackson St.

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OBITUARIES

Robert Francis Hicks, 71, of Shelbyville, passed away Wednesday, July 17, 2024, at his residence. Born May 6, 1953, in Shelbyville, he was the son of Marvin Hicks and Maxine (Fox) Hicks. He married Vicki (Monroe) Hicks on November 10, 1973, and she survives. Other survivors include two children, Michele Lyda of Shelbyville and Robert Brandon Hicks (Beth Carter) of Shelbyville; three brothers, Donald Hicks of Shelbyville, Mark Hicks of Greenfield, and Dennis Hicks (Cassie) of Westfield; and 10 grandchildren, Chris, Jacob, Madison, Hannah, Taylee, Connor, Ashton, Evan, Hunter, and Adalynn. He was preceded in death by his parents, and an infant sister, Carol Hicks.

Mr. Hicks was a lifetime resident of this area and graduated from Shelbyville High School in 1972. He had worked as a generator technician at Cummins Engines for over 30 years, where he met several race car drivers and musicians, by working on their vehicles. He had previously worked at Demco in Greenwood for several years. He was a member of Sons of the Amercian Legion.

Robert enjoyed fishing, bowling, watching racing on tv, and especially cherished the time he spent with his family and grandchildren.

Funeral services will be 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, at Glenn E. George & Son Funeral Home, 437 Amos Road, with Pastor Merry Popplewell officiating. Burial will be in Forest Hill Cemetery. Friends may call on Monday evening, July 22, 2024, from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m., at the funeral home. Memorial contributions can be made to the ALS Foundation, in care of the funeral home. Online condolences may be shared at glennegeorgeandson.com.

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Mrs. Rose Marie Albertson, 85, of Carmel, formerly of Morristown and Pekin, passed away peacefully on July 18, 2024 in Carmel. Mrs. Albertson was born on March 12, 1939 to Forrest I. and Pauline (Ashabraner) Gray in Washington County, Indiana. She was raised in Pekin and graduated from Pekin High School in 1957. She married Lowell E. Albertson on July 12, 1957 in her parents’ home. She continued to live in the Pekin area until 1977, when the family moved to Morristown, Indiana. Her husband preceded her in death on December 12, 2023.

With love for family as her foundation, she supported her husband’s decision in 1963 to pursue his college education at Indiana University. Never a stranger to hard work, she did whatever it took to help provide for her family throughout her life. She was an accomplished seamstress and a creative craftsperson, often making beautiful keepsakes, party favors and other items from leftover materials. Her family never worried about whether new clothing fit – she could fix anything with a needle and thread. Among the many jobs she took on throughout her lifetime, most notable were many years in the office of Dr. E. K. DeJean in Salem, and as a bookkeeper for Johnson’s Sales and Service in Morristown. While committed to finding whatever work she could to help support her family, her favorite and most devoted roles were those of wife, mother, and “Granny.”

Mrs. Albertson is survived by her son Scott (Susan) of Carmel, her daughter Amy (Randy) York of Defiance, Ohio, eight grandchildren, Adam Hargis (Hector) of  New York City, Joshua York of Indianapolis, Brandon Pope (Brooke) of Kokomo, Stephanie York of Palm Desert, California, Jessica (Robin) Kraus of Westfield, Devin (Sarah) Pope of Kokomo, Kaitlin (Nathan) Ellis of Plainfield, Trevor York (Jessi) of Liberty Center, Ohio, and eleven great-grandchildren, Conner, Callie, Gracie, Haley, Ava, Mila, Albey, Kinley, Ivy, Lillian and Kendall.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 24 at Freeman Family Funeral Home – Frazier Chapel, 124 East North St., Morristown. Interment will follow at Asbury Cemetery in Morristown. Mrs. Albertson’s family will receive visitors at the funeral home from 4-8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 23, and from 10 a.m. until just prior to the service. Mrs. Albertson’s family wishes to express their sincere appreciation to the administration and staff of Majestic Care of Carmel. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to either the Greater Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association or the Morristown High School Alumni Association Scholarship Fund. Online condolences may be shared with Rose’s family at www.freemanfamilyfuneralhomes.com.