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Staff photo by Pat Auckerman
WPFB radio’s Jack Gordon, the longtime radio voice of Middletown High School football and basketball, visits the Wade E. Miller Gym in Middletown, Tuesday, Dec. 1.
‘Voice of Middies’ retires (again)
78-year-old Hamilton grad says right now, sports rank behind his family and his health.
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Updated 2:22 PM Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Jack Gordon promises he’s not pulling a Brett Favre.
Six years after Gordon, Hamilton High School grad and longtime “Voice of the Middies” on WPFB, announced his retirement from broadcasting, he’s retiring again.
This time for good and without tears.
It’s a decision he contemplated with his wife, Kiki Demetrion-Gordon, and close friends for weeks.
But he finalized that decision following the Middletown High School football team’s second-round playoff loss to Cincinnati Anderson.
When Gordon, 78, sat in the car and prepared for the ride from Nippert Stadium on the University of Cincinnati campus to Middletown, his body felt “deflated, like I was out of gas,” he said.
And it’s too late for a fill-up.
“It was a tough decision, but I’ve always been a man who believed, ‘If you can’t do it right, don’t do it,’ ” he said Tuesday, Dec. 1, while sitting in a coach’s office at Wade E. Miller gym. “I don’t have the enthusiasm like I used to.”
Gordon said he met with Doug Braden, president of WPFB recently, and announced his retirement. Gordon said he was scheduled to announce about 20 regular-season boys and girls basketball games — plus numerous tournament games — and right now, basketball ranks behind his family and his health.
His daughter, Kathy Lindsey, is the girls basketball coach at Hilliard Bradley High School near Columbus, and his granddaughter, Katie, is a sophomore on the team. He’d rather watch them instead of broadcast the Middies.
“That was a big factor,” he said.
Announcing games filled Gordon’s schedule every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday through February. Now, if he wants, he can travel to Florida with his wife and not have to check a Middie schedule first.
As he said, “It’s time to relax a little bit.”
Gordon, it seems, has spent his life in Middletown.
But, in fact, he graduated from Hamilton High School in 1949, attended the University of Cincinnati, spent several years in the military service, then came to Middletown High School in 1962.
And he never really left.
“You never know what the good Lord has in store for you,” he said.
He guided Middletown’s football teams from 1964 to 1981.
He also broadcast Miami University basketball and football games with the late Omar Williams on WPFB for three years, then began calling Middie games in 1981.
Combined, that’s 30 years behind the microphone. And he understands his critics believe that’s 30 years too many.
“Just like when I was a coach on the sidelines, I know everybody isn’t going to agree with me or like me,” he said. “But I can’t change now. I’m too old to change.”
Too old to change your mind about retirement?
“Not even for $10 million,” he said. “I’ve had enough.”
That makes him no Brett Favre.
Contact this
columnist
at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.
What others are saying about Jack Gordon’s retirement:
Doug Braden, president of WPFB: “He was a valuable asset to the company. He brought a certain enthusiasm to the games. We hate to lose him.”
Fred Finney, statistician during MHS boys basketball games: “I don’t think anybody else in the city of Middletown has given as much to Middletown sports as he has. No one. He’s always Middletown.”
Dan Humphreys, who worked with Gordon at WPFB: “He was a very successful football coach and he brought that knowledge to the play-by-play.”
Gary Lebo, MHS athletic director: “It’s too early for him to retire. He does a great job on the radio. He has been a Middie for a long, long time. He has been a very dedicated person to Middletown athletes.”
John Mail, longtime friend and all-state wide receiver on Gordon’s 1965 MHS football team: “He has been my teacher, coach, and my friend for as long as I can remember. He’s rough around the edges. He’s just an old coach. We look out for each other.”
Jerry Nardiello, Journal sports editor for 50 years: “He followed an icon in Warren Johnson. He had no experience with this stuff, but he had very good descriptions. He was an entertaining kind of guy.”
Jake Trotter, Journal sports editor from 2005 to 2007: “The ‘Old Coach’ is a legend. His accomplishments as a player, coach and broadcaster speak for themselves. He won’t like me saying this, but what makes him a legend is how sweet of a guy he is away from football.”
rICK MCCRABB
columnist
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I was a sophmore on Coach Gordon's last team, and got the pleasure of working alongside him for 10 years (1989-99) at WPFB.
Truly a class act and a man that really bled purple. The ole coach is a piece of Middie history.
Gordan get out the pencil sir, it is time for a book ! Too many good stories to let slip away !
11:11 PM, 12/3/2009
9:48 PM, 12/2/2009
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