6-year-old steals my heart, empties piggy banks

By Rick McCrabb | Wednesday, March 7, 2012, 01:14 PM

Logan Pickett is wired differently than the rest of us, and certainly different than other kids his age.

Logan is 6 going on 26.

When he watched a television report on the deadly tornadoes that swept through the area last week, Logan asked his grandmother how he could help. But instead of questioning Logan’s motives, his grandmother, Linda Pickett, got behind his efforts.

Logan, a kindergartner at Bridgeport Elementary School in Hamilton, emptied his four piggy banks — totaling $106.20 — and purchased toiletry items and candy for the victims during an hour shopping spree.

The Walmart in Hamilton, where Logan, his grandmother and father, Brandon, shopped, also donated a $100 gift card. He spent $213.74, and his grandmother said she’d match the donation. The family plans to send shoe boxes filled with the item to those impacted by the five tornadoes that swept through five states Friday, killing at least 36 people, and leaving hundreds more homeless.

When asked why he donated his change, Logan said “to help poor people.” And how did it make him feel? “Very happy,” he said.

No one seemed surprised by his gestures.

His father said Logan did a similar act after the tsunami hit Japan last year, and he gave his teacher several Christmas presents.

“That boy doesn’t have a bad bone in his body,” his father said. “He has a big heart; very giving.”

His grandmother added: “He isn’t your normal 6-year-old. For him, he thinks of others first. It’s never about him.”

How to help

Red Cross workers continue to offer shelter, food, emotional support and relief supplies to the thousands of people affected by last week’s tornadoes. The American Red Cross has opened several distribution centers, in place of shelters, to assist affected residents with clean up efforts.

The Red Cross has more than 100 volunteers staffing the operation including individuals from Dayton, Columbus, and Troy. There are eight emergency relief vehicles (ERV) out in the field, and so far the Red Cross has provided approximately 6,000 meals/snacks and more than 215 comfort kits.

You can make a donation today to support the Greater Cincinnati-Dayton Region of the American Red Cross at (513) 579-3024 or visit www.cincinnatiredcross.org or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. For medical assistance, call (513) 579-3084.

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Do you like Skyline or Gold Star?

By Rick McCrabb | Tuesday, March 6, 2012, 10:21 AM

In honor of Super Tuesday, let’s have a little fun with a local, different election.

I’ll give you candidates and you pick one:

Bengals or Reds?

Dusty Baker or Marvin Lewis?

Cassano’s or LaRosa’s?

Skyline of Gold Star?

Frisch’s or Applebee’s?

Lee’s Famous Recipe or Kentucky Fried Chicken?

Chevy or Ford?

Weatherwax Golf Course or Shaker Run?

Central Pastry or Milton’s Doughnuts?

Coke or Pepsi?

UC or Xavier?

Kentucky or Louisville?

American Idol or the Voice?

Twilight or Harry Potter?

Sean Connery, Roger Moore or Piece Brosnan?

UDF or Graeter’s?

Chocolate or vanilla?

Beatles or Elvis?

Mary Ann or Ginger?

Pete Rose or Johnny Bench?

Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart?

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‘Old Jocks Club’ produces great sports stories

By Rick McCrabb | Thursday, February 16, 2012, 03:23 PM

For anyone who loves sports, especially high school sports in these parts, Wildwood Golf Club was the place to be Thursday afternoon.

The guest speaker was Brian Bales, boys basketball at Franklin High School, which hopes to complete a perfect 20-0 regular season Friday night. Franklin’s AD and football coach, Rodney Roberts, also talked about Jake Ballard, a member of the Super Bowl New York Giants and a Springboro High School player under Roberts.

And time also was saved for stories on Bob Cole, the former Middie basketball great who passed away Tuesday night.

Let’s start with Bales.

If the Wildcats beat Monroe Friday night at home, they will complete the first 20-0 regular season in school history, and come on the heels of the football team going 9-1 and qualifying for the playoffs.

Bales credited the team’s defense for much of its success. In the first 19 games, no team has shot 40 percent from the field against Franklin. While the Wildcats were ranked near the top in every offensive category in the league last season, the team has dramatically improved its defense, Bales said.

The Wildcats are led by 6-foot-8 twins Jacob and Justin Rossi, who have signed to play at Northern Kentucky University, and freshman sensation Luke Kennard. Bales described the 6-5 point guard “as special as they come” and said he’s the “calming sea” on the floor.

Kennard averages 16 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals a game. He’s shooting 40 percent from the field. He’s being recruited by all the basketball powers and has been offered a scholarship from Xavier and Dayton.

It will be interesting to see how far the Wildcats, ranked No. 4 in the state, advance in the Division II sectional tournament. He said the Wildcats are in the “toughest sectional in the state” with No. 1 state ranked Dunbar, Dayton Chaminade, Kettering Alter and Dayton Meadowdale.

Roberts said when Ballard was a senior, he was offered 65 Division I football scholarships, but he wanted to play at either Ohio State or Michigan. One night after picking up dinner, Roberts was called by a Michigan assistant who said Lloyd Carr, then UM’s head coach, would call Boro at noon the following day and offer Ballard a scholarship.

Roberts then called Jim Tressel, and updated him on Ballard’s recruiting. When Roberts told Tressel that Michigan was prepared to offer Ballard a scholarship at noon, Tressel told Roberts: “Have him in your office at 11:30. I will call then.”

Roberts said Ballard may have had the best six seasons for any athlete. At OSU, he won four Big Ten championships, played in four BCS games (including two national championship games), won a Rose Bowl and a Super Bowl ring with the Giants. I think that’s one ring for every finger.

In the Super Bowl, Ballard suffered an ACL injury and is scheduled to have surgery Tuesday.

When you want to know more about a former Middie, especially one from the 1950s, it’s always best to talk to J.B. Deaton. So on Thursday, I asked Deaton about Cole and how their friendship began in sixth grade.

Deaton had a story. He always does.

He said the night before school began, his mother pulled him aside, and told him the biggest person at school would be his teacher. Deaton, at the time, was nervous because he had just moved to Middletown from Kentucky with his mother.

So on that first day of school at Jefferson in 1950, Deaton ran into Cole, who was 6-foot-3 at the time. They introduced themselves and Deaton said he figured Cole was his teacher. He was the biggest person in school.

But when the bell rang, Cole sat behind Deaton, who asked, “Aren’t you my teacher?”

“That,” Cole said, pointing to the front of the classroom, “is your teacher.”

Years later, when Cole was a junior, he knocked on Deaton’s door and said he wanted to shoot baskets and he needed someone to rebound and pass him the ball. That was Deaton’s job.

But on this night in 1956, it was raining outside. Cole told Deaton he knew where they could shoot baskets inside. He had propped open a door in the gym at Middletown High School. When they walked in, Cole turned on every light.

Soon, four Middletown police cruisers were parked outside and one officer yelled: “Come out of there with your arms in the air.”

They were taken to police headquarters where Paul Walker, the legendary Middie coach, came and took them home.

Les Wills, 87, who played with Cole in the senior Olympics, called him “one of the best shooters I ever saw in my life.”

Ron Stokely, who played basketball with Cole at MHS, said while returning from a road trip, the team bus stopped so the players could use the bathroom. When the players returned to the bus, Cole was sound asleep with one basketball under each arm.

Don “Woody” Withrow, a 1953 MHS graduate, said one night, a few of them were in the Black Light lounge. Cole met a girl and he needed a car to drive to Germantown Dam, a popular hangout for lovers.

But since Cole didn’t own a car, he borrowed a Cadillac from Merle “Turtle” Gravett. But on the way to the dam, the car stalled on railroad tracks. Cole and his girlfriend got out of the car before it was smashed by a railroad car. Cole and the girl hitched back to Middletown.

Cole was asked about the car. “It’s gone,” he said.

Jim Grissom remembers when a carnival came to town and he and Cole, with girls on their arms, tried their luck at shooting baskets. It was 10 shots for a dollar and if you made two shots, you won a stuffed bear.

Grissom said the man only had two bears and they were covered with dust.

“That should have told us something,” he said.

The homemade rim was much smaller than a regulation rim. Grissom took 10 shots and made none.

Cole’s first two shots went in. He won a bear and the man shut down his booth.

Here is Cole’s obit as it appeared in Thursday’s Journal

By Rick McCrabb

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — Bob “Hicks” Cole, arguably the greatest shooter in Middletown High School basketball history, passed away Tuesday night at Hospice of Dayton after battling lung and brain cancer. He was 74.

Cole played on the undefeated and state champion 1956 Middie basketball team as a junior, but because he turned 19 before his senior season, he was ruled ineligible. He was recruited by North Carolina State and earned enough credits there to receive his high school diploma.

But he returned to Middletown after one season, then transferred to West Kentucky University where he finished his college career.

All five starters on that 1956 team earned Division I scholarships, the others being Jerry Lucas (Ohio State), Ron Dykes (University of Cincinnati), Oliver “Skeeter” Wallace (Kent State) and Jay Byrd (Ohio University).

Lucas, who starred at MHS, Ohio State and was named one of the 50 greatest players in the NBA, said he played with “all kinds of great shooters at all levels,” but none was better than Cole.

“He was phenomenal,” Lucas said. “He truly loved the game. He was exceptional.”

Don “Woody” Withrow, 76, a 1953 MHS graduate, said Cole commonly made at least 95 out of 100 free throws every day at the Middletown YMCA. He also was known to make halftime hook-shots and Withrow said a 3-pointer was like a layup to Cole. If Cole played NBA Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson in a game of s-k-u-n-k, Withrow said he’d bet on Cole.

Cole is a member of the Middletown High School, Butler County Sports and Ohio Senior Olympics halls of fame. As a senior athlete, his teams won 12 medals at the state Senior Olympics.

Jerry Nardiello, 89, who served as sports writer and editor of The Journal for 60 years, remembers one of Cole’s shots in particular. Nardiello called it the “greatest shot” he ever witnessed. Cole, then a sophomore, made a basket with two seconds left near midcourt against Dayton Stivers during the 1955 district tournament that Nardiello said “dropped straight down through the net.” The Middies won, 52-51, then lost in the regional.

Cole’s lifetime friend J.B. Deaton said he will remember the person more than the player. He said they were inseparable and had become friends in the sixth grade. “I couldn’t ask for a better buddy than like he was,” Deaton said. “Nothing never did come between us. Not money or girlfriends. He was the right guy for me.”

Visitation will be from 6-8 Friday at Breitenbach-McCoy-Leffler Funeral Home, South Sutphin and Woodlawn Avenue. Funeral services will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday and burial will follow at Woodside Cemetery.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.

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Elmon Prier was obvious choice to honor for character work

By Rick McCrabb | Thursday, February 9, 2012, 08:43 AM

When the Rev. Kevin L. Aldridge and the staff at Kingdom Vision Outreach went over the list of potential honorees at the inaugural Black History Month event, one name stood out.

For more than 40 years, the Rev. Elmon Prier, a retired school teacher, has served as a mentor to hundreds of young people in Middletown. For his efforts, Prier will be recognized at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 25 during “The Black History Month Affair to Remember: A Tribute to Elmon Prier” at the Middletown Senior Citizens Center.

Tickets are $15 and are available by calling (513) 320-6068.

Proceeds from the event will support the organization’s upcoming Character Boot Camp and other enrichment and mentoring programs for local youth, said Aldridge, founder and executive director of the group.

He called Prier the “perfect person” to be the first honoree because of his work in education, his dedication to Middletown youth and his 34-year association with The Journal where he was a frequent contributor.

“He’s reaping what he has sewn over the years of putting others first,” said Aldridge, 32.

Prier laughed and said he didn’t know the meaning of mentoring — or even if there was a word — when he started teaching in the Middletown City Schools District in 1969.

Today, he said, mentoring is defined by spending “quality time” with kids, motivating them and directing them through the “maze of obstacles that can cripple them before high school.”

He retired in May 2011, though he still subs in the district.

I was surprised to see that Eric Gillespie is about to resurface in the Division I football coaching ranks.

If you don’t remember Gillespie, he was the guy who coached Hamilton High School to an 0-10 record in 2002, and weeks before the 2003 season, he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, failure to control his vehicle and leaving the scene of a single-car accident.

He pleaded guilty to those charges, was sentence to 30 days in jail, but a judge suspended all but three days.

He is set to be named the head football coach at Springfield High School during tonight’s school board meeting, according to Superintendent Paul Estrop. Estrop said Gillespie “made a mistake, and he paid the price.”

Gillespie was 4-6 last season at Richmond, Ind., and he was a former assistant coach at Middletown High School.

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Daughter remembers late father’s lessons

By Rick McCrabb | Monday, January 30, 2012, 08:23 AM

When I called Tammy Rose Winkler of Camden Sunday to interview her about her father who passed away, the woman who answered the phone said Winkler wasn’t home. She asked who was calling and what I wanted.

I explained that I was a reported at The Journal, and three days a week, we write a feature obituary for the newspaper. I told the woman I selected George Jackson because he worked at AK Steel for 41 years and had 10 children.

I figured he had an interesting story to tell.

The woman said she’d give Winkler my message when she returned home.

I few minutes later, my phone rang and it was the same woman. She said her father taught her to be suspicious when a stranger calls, and to never give that person any personal information. So she investigated me. In other words, she Googled me.

She found out that I truly was a reporter. We had a wonderful conversation as she remembered her father. She said her father taught her the importance of family, and the value of reading the Bible and following its words.

Here is the news obit as it appeared in today’s paper:

By Rick McCrabb

Staff Writer

For George Jackson, a man with six biological and four step-children, family always came first.

It was a lesson he passed down to his children.

“He loved his kids more than anything,” said Tammy Rose Winkler, one of his daughters who lives in Camden. “Family was so important to him. He always, always made sure they came first.

“He was a wonderful man who will be dearly missed by so many people.”

Mr. Jackson, 78, of Hamilton, died on Friday, Jan. 27, at Hospice of Hamilton. Winkler said her ex-husband once told her Mr. Jackson was “the man every man wishes he could be.”

Mr. Jackson worked at the blast furnace in New Miami, then at AK Steel in Middletown.

He retired in 1994 after 41 years.

Winkler said her father “worked hard because he had a family to take care of.”

When asked what lesson her father taught her, Winkler paused, then said: “There are a lot of them.”

Her father, she said, while he didn’t always go to church, was “a very religious man. He believed in the Bible.”

He attended Blanchester Primitive Baptist Church.

Winkler said he frequently referred to the Bible when dealing with “certain situations.”

She also said her father was “as honest as the day was long.”

Among his survivors are his wife, Mary Birch Jackson of Hamilton, 10 children, two sisters, 26 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

A funeral service will be held at noon Tuesday at the Brown-Dawson-Flick Funeral Home, 1350 Millville Ave., with Elder Rick Dorton of Rose Hill Primitive Baptist Church officiating. Burial will follow in Butler County Memorial Park.

Visitation will be held one hour prior to the funeral service.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.

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It’s too late for $2.99 gas

By Rick McCrabb | Friday, January 27, 2012, 09:17 AM

Earlier today, I reported that gas prices around the area ranged from $2.99 to $3.45 per gallon this morning.

While stations in Springboro raised their prices to $3.45 per gallon late last night, stations in Franklin, at the same stations as Springboro, were selling gas for $2.99 a gallon.

That has changed. As of noon, most of the stations in Springboro, Franklin and Middletown were selling gas at $3.45.

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Fund raiser for Franklin hoops today; freshman getting attention

By Rick McCrabb | Thursday, January 26, 2012, 01:05 PM

A fund raiser for the Franklin High School boys basketball team is being held all day at the Applebee’s, 881 W. Central Ave., Springboro.

The event, called “Dine to Donate,” is a program where 10 percent of every bill is donated to the Wildcats’ hoops program. The event runs until close and is only valid at the Springboro location.

Tickets are becoming hard to get as the Wildcats, 13-0, continue winning. Pre-sale tickets for Friday’s game against Valley View will go on sale at 7:30 a.m. Friday, said Brian Bales, boys basketball coach. He is expecting another huge crowd.

Doug Long, longtime Franklin baseball coach, will be honored during a halftime ceremony. He was recently inducted into the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

According to Doug Harris, who covers the University of Dayton for the Cox Media Group, Franklin High School freshman forward Luke Kennard and Dayton Dunbar freshman point guard A.J. Harris, both of whom have scholarship offers from UD, were seated behind the Flyer bench for the Xavier game, as were a couple of senior signees from Columbus Northland, forwards Devon Scott and Jalen Robinson.

Kennard has been to three Flyer games and said: “I love it. It’s a great atmosphere every time. It’s fun to watch.”

Kennard opened eyes on the AAU circuit last summer and is a standout on the Franklin varsity. He’s drawing attention from major programs. He has visited Ohio State and Michigan and has visits planed to West Virginia and Michigan State.

Those close to the family said Luke would love to play at the University of Kentucky.

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Suspect to police: I sell, cook crack

By Rick McCrabb | Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 11:46 AM

A Middletown man accused of stealing $40 from a woman told Middletown police he didn’t need the money. When questioned, he showed police that he had nearly $1,000 in cash and he told them he earned the money selling and cooking crack cocaine.

On Saturday, Middletown police officers, while on patrol in the 800 block of 8th Avenue, observed a female yelling and cursing toward a man and a woman.

She told police the two individuals stole $40 from her. They were supposed to use the money to buy her groceries, she told police.

The two said they didn’t take any money from the woman and she was upset because they refused to give her a cigarette.

That’s when the 27-year-old Middletown man pulled nearly $1,000 out of his pocket and made the drug claim.

Police told the individuals a report would be made, and they cleared the scene.

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Reward tripled for information about missing cats

By Rick McCrabb | Tuesday, January 24, 2012, 12:00 PM

A cat advocate organization has tripled its reward, from $500 to $1,500, for information that leads to an arrest of those responsible for allegedly killing cats in a Monroe trailer park.

Barb Wehmann, president of SCOOP, Inc., said the organization has continued to work on the suspected animal cruelty case and disappearance of 40 cats in the Creekwood Trailer Park.

She said residents of the trailer park on South Main Street in Monroe were notified of the increased reward via letters about two weeks ago. Last week, Wehmann said she received a call from a resident who told her that the resident picked up dead cats in the late summer before her kids got home from school.

She is certain the cats were poisoned, Wehmann said. She suspects that those cats who would not eat poison were shot. Wehmann said she received another call telling her that the men who trapped the cats were seen dumping dead cats into the levee.

Alley Cat Allies, the national cat protection agency from Bethesda, Md., is still actively involved and will be speaking with Monroe Police Department Chief Greg Homer this week. The group is asking police to continue the investigation and that more residents and witnesses be interviewed. The witnesses are still very scared to speak due to being bullied by management and the trappers, Wehmann said.

Anyone with information about the disappearance of the cats is asked to call (513) 771-2967.

Did you notice that the price of gas has dropped dramatically as some stations? This morning, gas was as low as $3.05 a gallon in Franklin and as high as $3.19 in Middletown.

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Mom’s Restaurant ‘overwhelmed’ on first day

By Rick McCrabb | Friday, January 20, 2012, 10:38 AM

Hilda Ratliff, owner of Mom’s Restaurant in Franklin, expected her first day in the new location to be busy.

She didn’t expect to be this busy.

Ratliff said she was “overwhelmed” on Thursday when Mom’s Restaurant, a Warren County staple, moved from Red Lion to Ohio 123 inside the new BP gas station. Ratliff said the first-day sales were equal to what she did in four days in the other location.

She sold out of biscuits and gravy, soup beans and cornbread and vegetable soup. She said customers were understanding.

“They were tickled to death that I was open,” Ratliff said this morning.

Midway through the day, she said Doug Pelfrey, the former Bengals kicker and owner of the gas station/convenience store, brought two benches for waiting customers.

“He was just sitting there with a big smile on his face,” Ratliff said. “I said, ‘Look what you have done to me.’”

Ratliff had a hair appointment at 9 a.m. today, but because of the crowd, she had to cancel.

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