Edgewood vs. Talawanda
Middletown vs. Lakota West
Area H.S. football: Week 8
Lucas still looking for his ticket
By Jerry Nardiello
Several weeks ago Jerry Lucas, Middletown High's superstar of the 1950s, called friend J.B. Deaton in Middletown and started by saying he was calling from the Mansfield State Prison.
J.B. chuckled, "What are you in for?"
Lucas admitted he was there voluntarily. Another of his many stops to lecture and to share with audiences his religious teachings.
What Lucas really wanted to know was where his ticket was for the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame, which is holding its initial inductions May 20 at the Columbus Convention Center. Bobby Knight, highly successful coach at Indiana and now on the brink of retirement at Texas Tech, is listed as the guest speaker.
The first team on which Lucas played is also being inducted with the first group. There are others from Ohio's fine basketball programs on the high school and collegiate levels who are due for induction.
Most of the players locally have received their tickets to the festivities. Those living out of state appear to have trouble receiving theirs, including Lucas. He says he will attend, but meanwhile he's looking for his ticket.
I have the suspicion that even if Lucas would show up at the door without a ticket, he would be allowed to enter.
Tickets to the first Hall of Fame affair sold for $75 cash, but are now unavailable unless you go to the Internet and are willing to pay a healthy fee. That's how popular the Hall has become.
Lucas and Knight played together on Ohio State's national championship team in 1960 when Lucas was a sophomore.
J.B. and Don Withrow, Middletown High's No.1 fan, were both at a meeting of old Middie jocks at Wildwood recently. Withrow had just completed a project at Indiana University. He redid the lockers for the Hoosiers baseball team.
He did the same thing for Miami University when Tracy Smith was head coach at Oxford. Smith was named head coach of the Hoosiers last off season and one of the first things he did was ask Withrow whether he would do the same at the IU facilities.
Withrow prepared the lockers in Middletown, and then set them up in Hoosierland before the season got underway.
Smith, incidentally, has local ties. He is the son-in-law of Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Darbyshire, retired coach and athletic director at Miami University-Middletown. Smith's fine job as Miami coach earned him the promotion to the Big 10 school.
