PHS TROJAN PRINTSThe 1955 trojan student PRINTSAlumniAugust 2005 • Send news articles and/or photos to Frank Hunter, 3379 Hidden Haven Ct., Tampa, FL 33607 • Email fhunter@sptimes.com • Issue 30

But where isthe majesty?

Oh Yeah?... (ed. note)As an artist I must comment: It is a shame that

the new high school building cannot match themajestic look of the old Portsmouth high school.Perhaps it is best that way. The new buildingappears to be just a utilitarian and hopefully func-tional structure to house students and faculty. Ifeel that the columns in front are a feeble attemptto emulate the old building. Where will studentclasses line up to have their picture taken? Ohwell, that’s just my opinion.

The Current State ofPortsmouth Schoolsfrom an update by Ken Marotte, Scioto Voice

Numerous schools are currently in the buildingprocess in Portsmouth. An elementary school inSciotoville will open during December 2005 orJanuary 2006. The elementary, junior, and seniorhigh school in Portsmouth will open for theschool year commencing in the fall of 2006.

Junior (grades 7-8) and senior (grades 9-12)high students will spend their days in the samebuilding, but each will occupy separate wings.“They will share some common spaces, like thecafetorium,” (what? no separate cafeteria or audi-torium) said superintendent Jan Broughton, “butother than that, they will have their own areas.”

With a school building built in 1912, manyPortsmouth students have learned to go withoutthose features that many others take for granted.Unlike the old edifices, the new buildings will haveaccommodations for air conditioning and state-of-the-art technology. Broughton voiced herexcitement: “We are really excited to have a build-ing that accommodates our needs and the currenttimes.”

Current Portsmouth schools allow room for2,079 to engage in the learning process; the newschools will dramatically increase this number.When finished and functional, Portsmouth CitySchools will accommodate a total of 2,843 stu-dents-1,147 at the junior/senior high school,1,341 at the elementary school, and 355 at theSciotoville school. “Potential for growth was very important to us,” commented Broughton.

Future students will not be able to evade thelegacy of Portsmouth City Schools, as the newschools will contain morsels of nostalgia and localhistory. Columns and urns from Grant MiddleSchool, for example, have been removed, and willbe installed into one of the new schools.

The building of the new school has helped theeconomy by providing work to a number of locals.“The majority of our workers are originally fromthe area, and many are even graduates ofPortsmouth,” the superintendent excitedly said,“The pride is definitely visible.”

Demolition of the old schools will occur shortlyafter they are vacated. The State of Ohio will fund80% of the demolition effort.

August 2014 • Send news articles and/or photos to Frank Hunter, 143 E. Davis Blvd. #2, Tampa FL 33606 • Email samgabe@earthlink.net • Issue 84 PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY THE CLASS OF 1955 WITH NEWS & VIEWS OF OTHER PORTSMOUTH OHIO CLASSES OF THE LATE 40’s, 50’s & EARLY 1960’s

Highland School Rebellion Here are photos from the day the guys went to school in dresses or skirts to protest some of the girls wearing jeans.  Lois Beck Wallace also told me of the nine boys in these pictures there's only two of us still living and the girls aren't much luckier.  I'm guessing this was during our 8th grade?  Time wise I think it happened in 1950?  1951?

Bill Hart (phs’57)

Patsy I got a letter from Mrs. Patricia (Pat) Baker, of Hitchcock, Texas recently. Pat told me she has been reading The Scioto Voice since 2006, when she had been in Portsmouth visiting relatives and friends from the forties and fifties. Pat, or Patsy, as she was called when she was a pretty school girl at Wilson and Highland grade schools, told me in a phone conversation that she had not graduated from Portsmouth High School, but had moved to North Carolina while still a teenager. Pat is 77, and has been married to the same man, Elmer Baker, for 54-years, and is the mother of four children, two of whom are deceased. She sold real estate for Century 21 before retiring. Her husband is retired from the Merchant Marines, and he is from the Pamlico Sound area of North Carolina. Hitchcock, Texas is on the Gulf of Mexico Coast about 14-miles from the city of Galveston. Pat wrote the letter to me offering condolences after she’d read in my column of the deaths of Dr. Benny Binns, Jerry Davisson and Paul Spears. All three she mentioned as knowing from her days in Portsmouth. Pat was a resident of Portsmouth’s East End, which she referred to as Earlytown. Her father, James E. Smith, moved his family to Portsmouth in 1945 when he bought the old Traveler’s Inn, a small neighborhood bar located on Gallia Street, a short distance West of Flood’s Drugs. They lived upstairs of the bar. She named the Eastland Theater, Patsy’s Inn, Pure Milk and especially her time at Highland School which she remembers fondly.

She specifically mentioned Paul Spears (“I liked him a lot”) and Elizabeth Wikoff, the principal of the school. “I remember the old Highland School building with its large rooms and hardwood floors, and later heard the lovely school was torn down due to termite damage.” Among Pat’s many fond memories, were “Park Shoppe milk shakes” and Sugar Bowl hot dogs and chili. Pat couldn’t remember the name of the Sugar Bowl; she referred to it as the “Mom and Pop” restaurant located next to the old Highland School. “I miss those good old Portsmouth restaurants”, she said. I appreciate the warm friendly tenor of the letter, and am glad to connect with my readers. Pat doesn’t remember me from the early times, and I explained that I remembered her, but that was natural for kids to remember those older, and in the case of Jerry Davisson and Benny Binns…they were both older than Pat. Pat said she is going to return to the area sometime soon, because she inherited “a piece of the Marcellus Shale natural gas and oil deposit on a hilltop in Kentucky. Problem is that shale is known to produce lots of natural gas, and hardly any oil”, she wrote. From recent news accounts, natural gas is pretty good to have on one’s property, and with new shale-fracking techniques is easier to extract. One of her sons is an engineer working in the oil and gas business. So, good luck Pat!

State Basketball Champs Some 53 years ago at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, March 23, 1961, the Portsmouth Trojans battled the Urbana Hillclimbers for the Ohio Class AA Basketball State Championship. The game was played in The Ohio State University’s St. John Arena in Columbus (“The House that Jerry Lucas Built”) before a crowd of almost 14,000 fans.  The Trojans came into their final game of an outstanding season with a 22-3 record. Urbana’s season record was perfect: 25-0. This was Coach George Heller’s tenth season as the Trojan’s head coach. Heller was a 1939 graduate of PHS. He played basketball for the legendary coach Richard “Red” Hopkins, Sr., whose team won the State Basketball Championship in 1931. After service in World War Two and graduation from Western Kentucky State College in Bowling Green, he returned to Portsmouth as a teacher and coach in the fall of 1947. He began as the reserve basketball coach under Bill Rohr.   In 1951, when Rohr moved to Miami University to become their head basketball coach; Heller took over the reigns as the PHS head basketball coach.  Harry Weinbrecht was Heller’s

capable assistant during the 1960-1961 season.  It was a furious game. It was evident from the start of play that the Trojans wanted to win the battle. Playing cautiously and ever alert, the Portsmouth team worked as a unit in picking, setting up screens, and clearing the backboards with authority. It was obvious that the Red and Blue’s man-to-man defense was the key part in the game. The Trojans held command throughout the first half. However, Urbana was able to keep close to Portsmouth mainly on the strength of foul shots. The Hillclimbers started to rally in the opening minutes of the final quarter. However, the Trojans came back like true champions in the final 65 seconds to take the game 50 to 44. Hundreds of Portsmouth fans were delirious with joy when the final buzzer sounded to end the game and give the Trojans their first cage title in 30 years. The eleven basketball squad members, all seniors but one, were magnanimous in their victory. To the players, Mike Haley, C. A. “Clem” Hartley, Rudy Shively, Dick Spencer, Dozier Carter, Jim Malone, Jim Nagle, Stan Burgess, Jim Fuller, Steve Robinson, and the lone junior, Bill Parker, News Bits From The Past

  Portsmouth Times—Feb. 16, 1961 Two Portsmouth soldiers, Pvt. Phillip Gene and Pvt. Paul Glenn Hollis, 24-year-old sons of Mr. & Mrs. William A. Hollis, participated with other personnel from the 2nd Armored Cavalry in Exercise Winter Shield II at the Grafenwohr-Hohenfels training area in Germany. The soldiers are assigned to the cavalry’s Headquarters Troop in Bamberg. They entered the Army in June 1960, completed basic training at Fort Knox, Ky., and arrived overseas the following November. The men are both 1955 graduates of Portsmouth High School. Phillip G. Hollis was employed by Gilbert’s before entering the Army, and Paul G. Hollis was employed by the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co.

Canter To Be President Of Law GroupPortsmouth Times—April 27, 1961 David B. (Buzz) Canter, son of Mr. & Mrs. Marc Canter, 3327 Orchard Dr., has been named president of the Ohio State University Student Bar Association. A 1954 graduate of Portsmouth High School and a 1958 graduate of Northwestern University, Mr. Canter is a second-year student in the College of Law at OSU at Columbus. Mr. Canter has served as national vice president of the American Law Student Association, and during his first year at OSU Law School was elected vice president of his class.

My Sidenote: The old Highland School was replaced in 1955, and the reason I remember that so clearly is that my mother was driving me home from my five-day stay at old Mercy Hospital, where I had undergone an emergency appendectomy, performed by Dr. Paul Bennett. We drove past the new Highland Building; I was amazed at the change, and I remember the sign announcing the new building was constructed by the George A. Suter Company. I mention that because a lady named Mrs. George A (Bernadine) Suter, Jr. is my neighbor on Bihlman Drive, Forest Heights. Who can forget those movable steel-wire high stools with the round wooden seats that graced the small counter at the Sugar Bowl! The Park Shoppe counter-seats were those heavy, red vinyl, round, permanently-fixed-to-the-floor, seats. In later years the stool furthest to the right was the regular perch for Bob Reader, the antique furniture re-finisher, who sat in his grey work-shirt and pants, wearing his grey Homburg hat, rolling his King Edward cigar between his thumb and digit finger, while he nursed his afternoon glass of Norge beer. Norge beer, that’s what we affectionately called the 3.2% draft beer at the Park Shoppe, because George Banchy, the Park Shoppe owner, had converted an old Norge refrigerator into his draft beer system. Don’t you remember the question…”Give me another Norge, George!” The draft beer was likely Burgar beer, because they were the beer company that brought us Reds’ baseball and Waite Hoyt in those days.

Jim Kegley (phs’57)

The Original Hamburger Inn to Re-open Next DoorJuly 21, 2014, Portsmouth Daily Times By Frank Lewis (phs’63) For over half a century when folks in the city of Portsmouth wanted a real honest-to-goodness hamburger they knew where to find it - the Original Hamburger Inn Number 1. Then, several years ago, the lights went out. Scott Horr of the Vandervort’s family, said eating lunch at the Original Hamburger Inn Number 1 was a regular routine for him. “I’ve been here at the hardware store since 1991,” Horr said. “So I ate there three or four times a week, sometimes five times a week for years. I have spoken with some of the past owners, so I know a little bit of the history about it, but it’s part of Portsmouth. If you said ‘Hamburger Inn,’ everybody knew Hamburger Inn. It’s definitely part of this community and part of the town.” Horr said he and two friends, Greg Edwards and Mark Colley, go to lunch every day and recently were talking about how nice it would be if the Hamburger Inn was open again. “We just decided to take a chance and open it back up,”

their tremendous accomplishment would bring a lifetime of remembrances. As an honor on an honor, senior Mike Haley was named the most valuable player of the Double A Tournament. In addition, Coach George Heller was named as coach of the South All-Stars for the annual North-South game that was played in the summer in Cuyahoga Falls. The city of Portsmouth turned out en masse on Sunday, March 24th to welcome home the PHS Trojans, the team that “Went All The way.” Thousands lined the parade route from Lucasville through Portsmouth’s streets and nearly as many jammed (estimated at 8,000) Municipal Stadium to say “well done” to the team and its coaches. Each player and coaches George Heller and Harry Weinbrecht had the opportunity to thump the large “victory bell” which was painted with the players’ names. The bell suffered a large crack from over-enthusiastic ringing. Seventeen years later, in 1978, Coach Richard “Dick” Hopkins, Jr. emulated his father’s and George Heller’s records and led the Trojans again to the State Basketball Championship.

Blaine Bierley (phs’55)

Horr said. Horr said the three plan to reopen the Original Hamburger Inn Number 1 next door to its former location in the 1500 block of Gallia Street in Portsmouth in a couple of weeks. The first question on everybody’s mind will be if the hamburgers they grill up every day will be just like the original hamburgers from the Original Hamburger Inn Number 1. “It will have the original recipes, yes,” Horr said. “Hopefully the little grill will be out front for people to sit at and watch the hamburgers. Then the rest will be done back in the kitchen. But we do have the original recipe. So we will hopefully do the

Hamburger Inn justice from what it used to be and what we remember eating.” In addition to the old established recipe hamburgers, Horr said they will be adding some new items to the menu, including deep fried hot dogs, fish sandwiches, chicken, fresh-cut french fries cut fresh every day. “But it will still be the original Hamburger Inn food, like bean soup and chili and vegetable soup,” Horr said. “That’s what everybody remembers.” People were putting the finishing touches on the new building, formerly El Sombrero’s for a number of years, while at the same time, there were crews in the process of tearing the original building down to make room for the parking for the new location. Ed.... In our time, was not this new location “Jimmy’s Bar”?

Time Travel The other day, just for fun, I got in my Time Machine, set the controls for 1951, and took a trip back to my house on Charles Street in Portsmouth, Ohio. The Time Machine deposited me in my back yard under our big maple tree, so I entered the house by way of the back porch through the back door. Even though no one was home, the door wasn’t locked. As I stepped into the kitchen and looked around, a few things immediately caught my eye. The white Frigidaire was doing its job—albeit a little noisily. There was an empty metal ice cube tray with its lever in the sink waiting for someone to fill it and return it to the refrigerator’s freezing compartment. There were also some empty glass Ideal Mike Company quart milk bottles in the sink. They would be put out on the back porch for Jake, our milkman, when he made his delivery in the morning. There were a few of my mother’s Tupperware containers in the sink, too. I noticed that she had been using both her Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks, because they were on the kitchen table. There were several packages of strawberry Kool-Aid on the table awaiting someone to mix them. Leaving the kitchen, I walked through the dining room into our living room, or as we called it, the front room. I immediately noticed that someone—probably me—hadn’t put away the board games that were played regularly in the evenings. In the corner of the living room scattered somewhat aimlessly were Monopoly, Sorry, and Parcheesi. On the bookshelf were some of the books that my meager allowance

The First PHS Building It was shortly after our school bond levy passed in 2001, that I started to take a more serious look into our school history. The community was so excited that we were getting new schools. I too was just as excited. Many of us put a lot of time and energy to get the word out about the need for new schools. After the excitement started to calm down, my thoughts turned to the question, “What is going to happen to our current schools? Is anybody documenting the educational history of our community?” After getting permission from our superintendent, I started working to gather and store what archive materials I could find. I didn’t want them to get lost in the transition once our new facilities were built. While talking to some friends and reminiscing about our high school days, the thought occurred to me, “I always knew our PHS was built in 1912? Was there one before our PHS? If so, where was it located?” That is when I began to dig into the school archives. In the early days, high school classes were held in the Fourth Street and the Second Street Schools. There were classes also held in the Sixth Street School which was located behind our present day Post Office. The school board, seeing how the student

Charles W. Price, Jr. (phs ’54)Charles Walter Price, Jr., passed away Friday, May 23. He was born June 9, 1936 in Portsmouth, a son of the late Charles Walter and Edna Louise Swords Price. Charlie retired after 31 years of service with the Portsmouth Fire Department where he served as Assistant Fire Chief.

PASSINGSpopulation was growing, entered into a contract for the erection of the first high school building in 1871. This first PHS building (pictured) was located at the corner of Gallia & Findlay. Students occupied this building beginning January 1872, and for the next 30 years. The last class to graduate there was in 1902. In 1897, the school board purchased the residence of George Davis, located on the NW corner of Gallia and Waller. During the next five years, the residence was remodeled and an addition was added to provide instruction for 230 students. The school was known as the Davis High School. Students attended there from 1902 - 1910. It was not long before the student population outgrew this facility. Plans for a new PHS began in 1909 and construction began in 1910. The school board decided not to purchase new property for the new school. Instead they opted to raze the Davis facility and build the new building on the same property. During this transition, the students attended the Second Street School until the completion in 1912.

In 2006, another generation of students started making memories, as they began school in the new Portsmouth Junior/Senior High School. Just as they have their school memories, we have ours and we will never forget! By the way, if you are keeping count, the current PHS is the fourth high school building in the history of the school district. Dave Huffman (phs’73)

allowed me to purchase to sate my huge appetite for reading: Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man, Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny, Bruce Catton’s A Stillness at Appomattox, and Earnest Hemingway’s Across the River and into the Trees—to name just a few. On the way to my bedroom, I passed the bathroom and saw my tube of Brylcreem, a tube of Ipana toothpaste, and a bar of Lifebuoy soap cluttering up the sink. These were all needed to get me started in the morning.  All things considered, my bedroom was relatively neat. The bed was made and my Troop 22 (First Nazarene Church) Boy Scout uniform was hung in the closet. I needed to remind my mother to sew my newly acquired First Aid merit badge on my merit badge sash. I saw my baseball bat leaning against the wall in the corner with my fielder’s mitt hanging on it. I wondered if the Portsmouth Athletics were playing this evening down in the Labold Field Ballpark. Much to my chagrin, I observed a few tattered comic books strewed on my bed. I knew that I needed to kick this habit, but Tales from the Crypt opened new vistas of horror previously unimagined by kids in the early 1950s. Was it any wonder that some parents, teachers, and clergymen advocated throwing them all into blazing bonfires? I glimpsed the box that contained my Lionel train set in the closet shelf and was considering taking it down—however, this was the exact time that I woke up! Blaine Bierley (phs’55)

68 Buses Use New TerminalAug 25, 1955, Portsmouth Daily Times Sixty-eight buses are being checked in and out every day at the new Blue Ribbon Bus Station at Fourth and Gay Sts. J.W. Warnock, is the manager. His ticket agents are Miss Rose Marie Born, and Miss Carlene Yates,. The snack bar operated in the station is owned by Horne Inn and Alene Jackson is in charge. Mr. Warnock reported that buses operating in and out of the station include the following lines; Blue Ribbon, Trailway, Clark-Minford, Scioto Lines, McDermott and Wheelersburg.

State High School Athletic Commissioner Warns Both SchoolsPortsmouth Times—February 23, 1961 A report and recommendations stemming from a student fracas after the January 13th (1961) Portsmouth High School-Hamilton Garfield basketball game was released today. In letters to the Hamilton principal, H. W. McKelvey, Portsmouth Superintendent, and Edward H. Fournier, PHS Principal, State High School Athletic Commissioner W. J. McConnell, advised tightened precautions and an attempt to improve relations between the two schools. The protest by Edward Fournier, PHS principal, to actions at Hamilton following a Greater Ohio League basketball game, brought an admonition from Mr. McConnell that the state athletic commission might not sanction schedules between the two schools if relations aren’t bettered. Visiting Portsmouth fans were jostled and pushed following the game and a gang of hoodlums harassed buses carrying the Portsmouth team and students seeking to leave the Hamilton area. Mr. McConnell pointed out that rowdyism, fighting, and gang-like activities have no place in our society. “Such incidents give our whole society a black eye,” Mr. McConnell said. He also recommended adding extra police during games and that “special attention be given to bus trips by fans or students of the two schools.” The Commissioner said that the alternative to a better relationship between the two schools might be “the refusal of the state athletic commission to sanction schedules between the schools.”

Judith Ann Freeland Swearingen(phs ’56)Judith Ann Freeland Swearingen, 76, passed away on July 10. She is survived by her husband of 57 years, Michael Swearington (phs ’54) and a son, Dr. Jeff Swearington.

Pauline Allison Bierley(phs ’44)Pauline Allison Bierley passed away on June 23, 2014, at the age of 87. Pauline was the last surviving member of the very first PHS newsclass which originated during 1942-1943. She is survived by her husband, Paul E. Bierley (phs ’44) and two children.

L to R: Sam Kegley (’50), Dick Hansgen (’55), Tom Quinn (‘53), Dick Klitch (’51).

Jerry Gillen(phs ’55)Jerry Lee Gillen, 77, passed away July 20. He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert Leroy Gillen and Eva Roberta Gillen. Jerry is survived by his wife, Nancy Bowden Gillen; two children, Jami Gillen Clay and R Scott (Suzanne) Gillen; and two grandsons.

PHS Senior Follies Tonight PT—May 22, 1961  The 1961 Senior Follies, sponsored by the senior class, tonight, at 8:00 o’clock in the school auditorium will feature a wide variety of acts in the four group numbers, eight solos, and one duet; and popular music from rock and roll to the Charleston. All seniors have tickets and the PHS box office will be open for the show. Group numbers will include the Precisionettes, a group of junior and sophomore girls who with both sing and dance; the Dixieland Dukes, a band combo of Jerry Beck, Bob McDowell and Ron Glick. A Charleston chorus line is to comprise Jolinda Redding, Judy Cunningham, Sandy Evans, Suzanne Smith, Janet Bobst, Judy Wilson, Pat Baughman, and Linda Crosley. The Belaires, Dave Rodger, Luther Caudill (62), Bob Brock

and Dick Gates, are to present rock and roll and calypso music. Solo numbers include Jo Ann Hibbitts, first place winner in the talent show of the 1960 Scioto County Fair who will present a pantomime of “Sweet Nothing”; Richard Ferguson, “The Lonely Monster,” accompanied by Lois Dye; Emily Stevens (62), sword dance; Betty Hamilton (62), who will sing two numbers “Funny” and “Now That You’ve Gone” accompanied by Delores Hamilton (48). Sandy Horne, sailor dance; Bill Hobstetter (63), an elocution number; Sharon Battle, who will sing “Chances Are” accompanied by Miss Dye; and Sandy Evans, a ballet dance. Only duet will be by Dave (62) and Mike Allen who will do an instrumental.  Mike Neal, master of ceremonies, will present the awards.

Remembering Charles Clayton  Back when the Portsmouth Board of Education operated a segregated elementary school system there was a coach at Washington Grade School who coached all three sports... football, basketball, and baseball. The coaches at PHS had a great deal of success with the athletes coach Clayton mentored. However, he was never asked to join the coaching staff there. Coach Clayton was a pillar in the black community involved in civic endeavors. He urged many of us to go to college. In doing so, many of us Washington School product went on to be professional in our chosen fields. What a great legacy he left when he died in 1969. I for one am a better man today for having Charles Clayton pas through my life.

Curt Gentry (phs’55)

Reunion TimeOct. 10 and 11 at the Holiday Inn Class of 1957. Contact a classmate

Sandy SchislerSenior Miss Trojan1959

Betty BaughmanHomecoming Queen1958

Our Yearbooks Of Those Wonderful Fifties The 1955 book held by Letty Neff (’56), the 1954 book held by Donna Boehm (’56), the 1953 book held by Linda Lozier (’56), the 1952 book held by Shirley McColloch (’55) and the 1951 book held by Marty Lehman (’55)