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.

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.