Saturday mornings in Reno meant housecleaning, not sure why. Alice Tuttle, a dealer at Harolds Club, and a good friend, and ex wife of Jimmy Tuttle, who also was a good friend, always cleaned her apartment on Saturday morning.

She had an ElectroLux vacuum cleaner that was stored in a rather large footstool. Funny the things you remember. For some reason we used to congregate at her place on Saturday mornings, at least it happened to me on a few occasions. Bettye Johnson and I had come down from Lake Tahoe for some reason, we saw Jeanette Fenner, a good friend of Bettye's who also worked at Harolds.

Jeanette and Alice lived in the same apartment building, Jeanette upstairs, and Alice lived in a corner basement apartment. The building was owned by a "slot mechanic." Bob Black, who had property in Reno and Vegas. He used a "rhythm" method on slots, and was very effective. His picture hung in every casino in Nevada, he was that good. That's how he got the apartment.

Bob  got caught in a "scheme" on one occasion, a Keno scheme, at Harolds Club. A number of people were in on it, a "late"  ticket was set up, $1.10 Eight Spot, payoff was $25,000.00, which was a lot of money in those days.Bob was the one with the ticket, the one to present the ticket and collect the 25 grand. Which he did, only one "writer" got cold feet and turned everyone in. They were waiting for Bob. He got ten years, not sure how it ended. (Newspaper clipping of the trial)

I always think of Alice on Saturday mornings ............

J. Mack Hummon as we knew him .........

This is Mack's Dayton Triangles jersey that is in the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

He was my math teacher at Oakwood and a family friend of my Dad, who did some "patching up" with the team in the late 20's. The last time I saw him, not sure the year, at an Ohio State football game. He was a good friend of Woody Hayes, and Mack a GREAT parking spot at the stadium. Saw him there at a game. He had 50 yard line seats. 

JOHN MACK HUMMON
By James “Rocky” Whalen
    Born in Leipsic, Ohio, north of Lima, John Mack Hummon played only basketball and baseball at the local high school, which was too small to field a football team. Entering Wittenberg University in the fall of 1919, Hummon learned football in a hurry, lettering four years at end under Coach Ernie Godfrey, and in 1922 earning All-Ohio honors. He was a member of Kappa Phi Kappa fraternity, and won a total of 16 monograms in four sports before graduating from Wittenberg in 1923 with an A.B. degree. Mack also earned an A.M. degree from Wittenberg.
    Hummon served as head football coach and mathematics instructor for two years at Dover High School before coming to Oakwood High School in Dayton in 1925. He had multiple responsibilities at first, becoming head coach of football, basketball and baseball in addition to teaching five math classes and monitoring a study hall. He found time on weekends to play three seasons (1926-1928) with the NFL’s Dayton Triangles. He later refereed area high school and college games and provided sportscasting.
    In addition to serving as head football coach, 1925-1927, Hummon was Oakwood’s line coach the next 15 years until pressed into duty as head coach in 1943 after Edward Cook retired. He served as assistant principal and dean of boys, and continued teaching mathematics and coaching tennis until his retirement in 1965. Many of his netters advanced to Columbus, Barry McKay and Buzz Pierce winning state singles titles. Hummon married Wittenberg’s campus beauty queen, Mabel Tanner. The Hummons have one daughter, Courtney, and two grandsons.
    Oakwood’s football stadium was renamed “Mack Hummon Stadium” in 1967 in his honor. Mack’s helmet and jersey are on display in Canton at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Other honors include his election to the Sam Andrews Educational Hall of Honor, Oakwood Kiwanis Man of the Year, Dayton Tennis Commission and the Ohio Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame, and in 1987 election to the Wittenberg Hall of Fame. Hummon died February 27, 1992 in Dayton.

The old UD Stadium

This is a view of the UD, University of Dayton, stadium. I couldn't count the number of times I have been watching sporting events in this venue.

In it now called Baujan Field, name after Harry Baujan, a coach there that I remember very well. I am not at all sure that my Dad was not, at some time, their family doctor.

I think he played at Notre Dame and some pro ball, briefly, and he also did some basketball coaching while at UD.  I have seen UD football played here, high school football, I think that Chaminade High School played all their home games here. One I remember, somehow, or someone at my school, Oakwood, which was small anyway and not a very good "athletic" school, leaked to the press that one of the Chaminade players was ineligible. I forget the circumstances. Anyway, Chaminade, which was always a great team anyway, was going to get even when they played Oakwood, and score a touchdown for each letter in his name. Unfortunately, his name was Schwartzenstrauber. Not sure of the spelling. Watched the game from one of the top rows in this stadium, 60 plus, to nothing. It was a route.

Have also seen Harrison Dillard and some of the "greats" of track and field perform here, Dave Albritton, who coached in Dayton at Dunbar, and Jesse Owens, they were both on the same Olympic team.

A lot of memories association with this stadium.

I received a call yesterday .........

Got a call from Dwayne Kling yesterday, I probably talked his ear off, hardly let him get a word in. There are just not many left that I can converse with from "the old days" who know and understand how unique we are to have lived in Reno during the years we did.

So much Reno and Nevada history has been torn down and forgotten, it's a shame. When our generation is gone, with the exception of what has been written, will fade away. Dwayne made a prophetic statement also, that a lot of "that" history is already buried and much of it was not wanted known, if that makes sense.

It was a different era then, owners, owned their clubs, and we, as dealers and administrators were dealing in a different commodity, real money. If an owner had a bad night, walked in and didn't like the way you were dealing, you were gone. You brushed your hands, thanked everyone, and walked next door and started working there. Most of the owners, if not all of  them, never saw the inside of a college, they saw the inside of "speakeasies," bars, illegal games, they all came up the hard way. The smartest survived. It  was an entirely different day.

There are so few I can talk with, about those days, that is why, a call from Dwayne Kling is special.

Early life in Dayton

Born, September 30, 1932, Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton, Ohio. Home at that time was 319 South Brown Street, a house that now does not exist, a freeway runs directly over where the beautiful old house used to stand. All my photos of the place are in New York or New Jersey, but I will try to retrieve some, it was a beautiful house. My Dad was a doctor, and we had our home and office together.

The house was in the middle of the block with an alley right next to us. In those days the alley was the center of commerce. I remember our milk being delivered by Bordens, horse drawn wagon, as was our bread from I think, Whites Bakery, not sure about that.

Who cares?

I talked with an old friend from Nevada today, during our conversation he said, "I wondered whatever happened to you."

Thus, this blog. I have 80 years of material to go over, so there should be a plethora of material to write about. This will primarily be about me with some references to those who I have crossed paths with in my life. Some not by name, necessarily, but my inciden.