From 1922 through 1927 she pitched for Fleming Furniture (national champions) and Blepp Coombs. A blazing southpaw pitcher, her skills enabled her to beat men’s teams, striking out 18 in one 9-inning game, when women’s opposition wasn’t available.
There is no way of knowing if Michael Rowland would have succeeded in his quest for the 4,000th victory of his career that day. All that is certain is his mount, the prophetically named World Trade, was leading the seventh race at Kentucky’s Turfway Park on February 4, 2004 when it fractured a leg and collapsed, throwing Rowland to the ground where he was struck by the two horses immediately behind him. Less than five days later, the 41-year-old rider, who had hoped to become just the 43rd rider nationally to accumulate 4,000 victories, instead became the 144th jockey to die of racing injuries in North America since 1940. It was a particularly sad day for horse racing fans in Cleveland where Rowland had been operating from Thistledown as his home base for most of his 24 years as a rider. He had won 29 meet titles, both all-time track records, and he twice won six races in a day, tying an Ohio thoroughbred racing record. Among his most notable victories in Cleveland were the first runnings of the $200,000 Best of Ohio Endurance Championship in 1987 and the Grade 3 Thistledown Budweiser Breeders’ Cup in 1997. A native of Saratoga Springs, NY, where he learned his trade from his father, who was a successful harness trainer. He was also married to a trainer, Tammy, whom he met at Keeneland Rack Track and who was working at Turfway Park at the time of his fatal accident.
Deceased 2004
There were no outbreaks of frenzied jubilation on High Street when the news unobtrusively leaked out that a tall l (6-9), rather skinny (210 lbs) basketball center nicknamed “Slats” had transferred to Ohio State from Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College. There should have been. In two seasons with the Buckeyes he would help lead them to two NCAA Final Four appearances, just the school’s second and third times ever in that elite company. He left as unobtrusively as he arrived the next season to sign a pro contract with the Indianapolis Kautskys of the National Basketball League which would launch a 12-year professional career that would eventually lead to his election to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of fame in 1998. After two seasons in the NBL he joined a group of stars including George Mikan, Jim Pollard and Red Holzman who jumped before the 1947-48 season to the rival Basketball Association of America which would morph to the NBA. Competing with the Rochester Royals from 1948 to 1955 and the Boston Celtics from 1955 to 1958 he would play on two NBA championship teams (Rochester in 1951 and on Boston’s first NBA title team in 1957) and was a four-time All-Star, scoring 7,633 points during his career. He has for many years made his home in Pepper Pike.
Deceased 2012
He was a general manager’s dream come true—a first round draft pick who proved to be worthy of the choice. A big, strong running back who plowed through Big Ten defenses with relative ease at Purdue, the Browns tabbed him with their opening pick in the 1976 draft and roundly enjoyed the presence of his company for nine solid season thereafter. The power he displayed in the college ranks continued to evidence itself in the pro game. Four times in five seasons beginning in 1978, he bulled his way to more than 1000 rushing yards, the string only interrupted in 1982, when injuries limited him to nine games. He was a Pro Bowler in 1979 and 1980, an all-AFC selection in 1979 and was picked as the Browns’ Offensive Player of the Year in 1980 and 1981 His 6,450 yards rushing were the third most ever compiled by a Brown, exceeded only by the numbers of Hall-of-Famers Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly. Supplemented by the totals he built in his final two seasons, spilt between Buffalo and Kansas City in 1985 and 1986, his career totals rank him 26th in total rushes, 32nd in rushing and tied for 39th in rushing touchdowns on the NFL’s all-time leaders list. Electing to remain in Cleveland after his playing days, he now lives in Strongsville and is the owner of two auto dealerships, Mike Pruitt Honda, located in Akron, and Mike Pruitt’s Superstore in Lima, OH.
He joined the Cleveland Browns as a second round draft choice in 1973 after a sensational career at the University of Oklahoma where he was a two-time consensus All-American back and runner up in the 1972 Heisman Trophy balloting. It was apparent early-on in his Browns career what the cheering had been about. In his second year with Cleveland he topped the NFC in kickoff returns with a 27.5-yard average, and in his third year he began a string of three consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons, missing a fourth by only 40 yards when he was sidelined for four games with an injury. After suffering a severe knee injury in 1979, he was moved into a receiver role coming out of the backfield and in 1981 his 65 pass receptions lad all AFC backs. He was named to the 1973, 1974, 1976, and 1977 Pro Bowl teams during his nine-year career with the browns, which ended when he was traded to the Oakland Raiders for an 11th round draft pick in 1982. His final career rushing totals for Cleveland stood at 5,496 yards, still fourth best of all Browns backs. There was one more good season leading kickoff returner in the AFC and third in the NFL, helping the Raiders to the NFL Championship in Super Bowl XVIII. That earned him a final Pro Bowl appearance, which he celebrated with a record 75-yard punt return. After his career came to a close he came back to the Cleveland area where he has become a successful businessman, currently making his home in Shaker Heights.
The son of an amateur sports car racer turned the lessons he learned on the inner workings of a car while growing up in Medina, OH into a smashingly successful career as one of the nation’s leading race car drivers. Drove his way into super start status by winning three CART championships in 1985, 1987 and 1992, the 1986 Indianapolis 500 and two Driver-of-the Year awards, before retiring from competitive driving after 17 years in 1998. At that time he ranked first in CART standings in career starts, 2nd in career earnings, 3rd in laps led, 4th in career wins (24) and 5th in pole positions (18). In all he had earned 88 podium finishes, 119 top-five finishes and 177 top-ten finishes in 265 starts. A regular participant in the Cleveland Grand Prix at Burke Lakefront Airport, he won the 1983 race, finished second three time and third twice. While still racing, he founded Team Rahal, which he owns with arcing enthusiast partner and TV host David Letterman, and was the winningest team in CART racing in 2001 with six wins and seven poles. From December, 2000 to August 2001, he also spent nine months as CEO and Team Principle at Jaguar Formula One Racing. Now living in New Albany, OH, he has been very active in charitable activities, literally raising millions of dollars for children’s charities.
Honors went hand-in-large-hand with the consistently solid basketball play of one Michael “Campy” Russell during a spectacular college and professional career. The Pontiac (MI) Central High product played just two varsity seasons with the University of Michigan, averaging 18.4 points as a sophomore, then 23.7 points and 11.1 rebounds as a junior in 1973-74. His second-year totals were enough to enable him to lead the Big Ten in scoring, finish second in rebounding, earn unanimous acclaim as the Big Ten Player of the Year and All-American status, and sufficiently impress the Cleveland Cavaliers to take him with the 8th overall pick in the 1974 NBA draft. He more than lived up to his college reputation during a nine-year pro career which ended in 1984. Seven of those seasons were with the Cavs, reaching a zenith in 1978-79 with a career high scoring average of 21.9 ppg, a single game career high of 41 against Phoenix and a place on the NBA All-Star team. He averaged 15.0 ppg for the Cavs’ revered “Miracle of Richfield” team of 1975-76, which made the playoffs for the first time and advanced to the second round. He finished his playing days, which included two seasons (1980-82) with the New York Knicks, with a cumulative NBA scoring average of 15.8 ppg and a playoff scoring average of 16.6 ppg. From 1975-76 through the 1981-82 season, he averaged double figures in scoring every year. In 1999 he was voted to the Cavs’ all-time team and into the University of Michigan Hall of Honor in 2002. He lived in Michigan from shortly after retirement as an active player until 2002 when he accepted an offer to return to the Cavs as an Outer Market Event Specialist. A proud father of five, Campy currently makes his home in Shaker Heights.
Joe Nossek spent 43 years in professional baseball, 37 of them in a major league uniform. No native Clevelander had ever matched those numbers when he hung up his Chicago White Sox uniform for the final time in the spring of 2004 to retire with his wife, Jean, to their home in Amherst. His lengthy list of baseball honors began accumulating early. He earned first team All-Ohio laurels as a senior at Euclid High in 1958, after which he was signed from Ohio University as an amateur free agent by the Minnesota Twins in 1961 after winning first team All-American and All-Mid-American Conference recognition. He joined the Twins as an outfielder in 1964, beginning a six-year career which included stops at Kansas City/Oakland and St. Louis, including the realization of the dream of every player when he appeared in six games of the 1965 World Series with the Twins. When his playing days ended, he spent two years as a minor league coach and manager, then joined the Milwaukee Brewers as their third base coach in 1972, launching the long final phase of his career in which he established himself as one of the most astute coaches in the game and perhaps baseball’s finest sign stealer. His tour on the coaching sidelines included five years back home as the Indians’ third base coach and culminated with a 20-year stint from 1983 through 2003 in Chicago, the last 13 as the White Sox bench coach.
A big man with a big heart and an unswerving dedication to the youthful athletes of Greater Cleveland, John Peyton’s passion was to “keep the kids on the playgrounds and off the streets.” Countless rec rooms and mantles in Northeastern Ohio homes are decorated with plaques, medals and trophies bearing testimony to his determination to develop awards programs for as many young athletes as possible in as many sports as possible. He offered time, support and guidance to a multitude of sports organizations: executive secretary for two high school leagues, the MAC and the NCL; board member of the CYO; CAVS Rebounders Club and the Parma Amateur Athletic Foundation; and supervisor of area baseball and softball tourneys for the OHSAA. Most visible was his work with two of the city’s highest profile sports groups: as Executive Secretary of the Cleveland Baseball Federation, he was indispensable in keeping it a bulwark for the city’s amateur baseball programs. And when, in his second term as president of the Cleveland Touchdown Club, an organization supporting all levels of football competition, the Browns flew off to Baltimore, he resolutely kept the Club afloat until the team was reborn. Before his heart stopped suddenly in October, 2000 at age 44, he would have pooh-poohed the added importance of those last two roles. For John Peyton, it was all about the games.
Treasurer of the Cleveland Baseball Federation for over 50 years, he was responsible for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to equip youngsters to play sandlot baseball in Cleveland and to cover their medical expenses. His promotion of the annual Sandlot Day exhibition baseball game played annually by the Cleveland Indians beginning in 1948 was the cornerstone on which his successful fund-raising efforts rested.