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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > May > 31
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Looking for sports figures at Woodland Cemetery
I was walking at Woodland Cemetery when, not far from the front gate in Section 201, I saw the modest tombstone of Jack Lee Clark.
Beneath his name was a specially-encased photograph showing a fresh-faced guy wearing a dark jacket with a boutonniere in the lapel. A stock car was engraved at the top of the marker and from the dates of his life I realized he was just 26 when he died in 1964.
I wondered what his story was and searched back issues of the Journal Herald and Dayton Daily News. One headline read: “Jack Clark Killed in Stock Car Race.” The other story began: “ROSSBURG — Another dream of someday racing in the 500 at Indianapolis came to a violent, sudden end here yesterday…”
Clark, a former Roosevelt High student, was killed when the red and white 1956 Ford he was driving in a semi-late model race at Eldora rolled in Turn One. He left a wife and two young daughters.
I go to Woodland a lot to walk my dog, Leo, and take in the spectacle. It’s my favorite spot in Dayton — 200 acres of magnificent trees, hills, flowers, birds and a fascinating assortment of grave markers, several of which stand as totems to the colorful tales buried beneath.
I usually park near the grave of legendary Dayton Flyers basketball coach Tom Blackburn. Then this winter I happened upon the marker for Marquerite “Maggie” Doane, who turned out to be a women’s sports pioneer before her dramatic death at age 22.
That’s when — whether recalling my own interviews of former athletes before they died, scouring back issues of newspapers from Dayton to the New York Times or perusing David B. Kingman’s book “The Shrines of Woodland” — I began to look for a few more sports graves to give me some interesting stopping points in my Woodland circuits.
I found some — Harlem Globetrotter Al Tucker Sr. and his son, Al. Jr., a college All American and NBA vet; sprint car champ Johnny Shackleford; world cycling champ and auto racer Earl Kiser; Olympic silver medal winner and Dunbar coach Dave Albritton — and they are the subject of my column that’s in today’s newspaper and here on our web sports page.
But I am sure there are more sports people buried at Woodland, so I’ll keep looking.
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