In 1968, Sales — known for the floppy cloth fishing hat he always wore — took over a Lumberjacks’ program that had won just four of its last 28 games. His teams promptly had six straight winning seasons. In his 19 years as the head coach, the Lumberjacks went 112-74-5 and won two Southwestern Buckeye League titles, and he twice was named the SWBL Coach of the Year.
“The Magic’s in the Hat was big back in my day,” said Hartley, who was a quarterback, running back and defensive back.
And the magic act continued Tuesday evening during the Oakwood High virtual awards ceremony that included the announcement of the five student-athletes who were winners of the inaugural Howard Sales Memorial Scholarship.
Those receiving the $1,000 scholarships included: Mallory Moran, who played field hockey, softball and track and had a 3.54 GPA ; Abigail Kraft, a golfer with a 3.69 GPA; Cade Zorin, a football and lacrosse player with a 3.46 GPA ; Rebecca Blumer, who played field hockey and had a 3.7 GPA ; and Emily Lloyd, a soccer player with a 3.75 GPA.
This afternoon, they’ll be honored at a social gathering at the Oakwood High library.
The fact that just one was a football player and four are girls speaks to the scope of Sales’ influence when he was at Oakwood.
“The cast of people he touched went well beyond football,” Harlamert said. “He was a girls’ track coach, a health teacher and was the athletics director. There haven’t been many figures — if any — who had such a broad and deep reach with student athletes of any gender or sport.”
Trademark hat
Sales died Dec. 2, 2019. At his memorial service, Hartley and Jamie Greer, a Lumberjacks defensive tackle in the early 1980s and now a local attorney, talked about how impactful their coach had been in their lives.
They thought he should be remembered with some kind of permanent memorial, and they presented the idea to the players from Sales’ 19 teams. They raised more than $50,000 from the group.
They decided a fitting tribute would focus on Sales’ trademark hat, upon which his wife Patsy would embroider “JACKS” across the front of each rendition.
Mounted on a pedestal, it could serve as a good luck totem, much the way the fabled piece of quartzite called Howard’s Rock does for Clemson football players who touch it on their way to the football field.
Former Oakwood player Greg Lauterbach, now an Oregon District architect, designed the memorial that includes a bronze likeness of the hat. It stands outside the Lumberjacks’ dressing room, enabling players to touch it on their way to Mack Hummon Stadium.
The new fixture brought back some old fortune. The memorial was dedicated before the season opener last August, and the Lumberjacks promptly roared back from a 16-0 deficit and scored 20 fourth-quarter points for the 20-16 victory.
The next weekend they beat Valley View at home. They would edge visiting Waynesville, 21-20, and made the state playoffs for only the second time since 2008.
A few months before that dedication ceremony, Harlamert — who had a stellar football career at Denison and now lives in Wenham, Massachusetts, north of Boston, and is involved in real estate, especially in the Dayton area — contacted Hartley.
While he liked the memorial idea, he thought the tribute could be expanded to include a scholarship in Sales’ name.
They decided to table the idea until the memorial project was finished, and at the dedication ceremony, Harlamert made a brief presentation about his idea.
Since then, he and Hartley have led the scholarship efforts. Although no formal campaign has been launched, they have managed to collect about $30,000 and decided to begin the scholarship this year.
The project is run through the Dayton Foundation. Harlamert and Hartley hope to raise at least $100,000 and have the scholarship fund endowed.
“Howard Sales was all about honesty, integrity, character and kindness, and those became bullet points for this scholarship,” Hartley said. “We considered lots of things for the student athletes who applied — GPA, community service, financial need and work.”
They ended up with 11 applicants who submitted resumes and wrote essays.
“I was blown away by everything they all had done,” Harlamert said. “The all had a high GPA, and now they’re going to go to college and give sports some kind of shot.”
Learning from sports
After 27 years at Oakwood High, Sales — an Army veteran who had been stationed on the DMZ in Korea before he went to Wooster on the GI bill — spent a decade as an assistant coach with Mike Kelly at the University of Dayton.
Sales made such an impact that, since then, the UD football coaches present a Howard the Hat award each year to a former Flyers player who has made a mark as a high school, college or pro coach.
Harlamert got the same lessons playing for Sales at Oakwood. He talked of the coach instilling the principles of teamwork, accountability and respect for each other.
That’s why they want the recipients of the Sales’ scholarship to pursue a sport in college, whether it’s for four years or at least for their first season.
Some of the winners will play a varsity sport, others a club sport. Most weren’t getting any athletic scholarship money before this.
“We hope this propels them into participating in a sport,” Harlamert said. “What they learned through athletics and academics at Oakwood High will help them in college, too.”
Hartley agreed: “We believe it will help them grow and succeed.”
And that will be further proof that The Hat still brings the magic.
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