Harry Weltman was many and most things.

The graduate of Glenville High (1950) and Baldwin-Wallace College (1954) earned playing honors in basketball, baseball and football. But that athletic prowess was just the prelude for a life in sports.

He will always be remembered in Cleveland for masterminding the turnaround of the Cavaliers after taking over as general manager of the downtrodden franchise in 1982. The Cavaliers reached the playoffs for the first time in seven years when Weltman’s moves paid off in 1985.
During that time he coined “Cavs” as the most-often used moniker for the team, citing it because he considered the nickname “punchy and strong.”

His reign in Cleveland ended after the 1985-86 season. He was general manager of the New Jersey Nets from 1987 to 1990.

Before returning to his hometown, Weltman guided the Spirits of St. Louis of the American Basketball Association from 1973 to 1976.
He was instrumental in sports television programming before that.

After a two-year tour in the Army, he honed his marketing skills in advertising positions in New York. He was on the ground floor in helping fledgling NFL Films establish itself from 1965 to 1970, lending expertise in creating the format for “This Week in Pro Football” and other NFL properties.

He went on to develop film projects for the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, network television and numerous advertising agencies.

After leaving professional basketball, he worked as an investment adviser and became president of Caliper Sports Inc., a psychological profiler for professional and college sports teams. Weltman and wife, Rosemary, live in Pepper Pike.

Deceased 2014

Vonda Ward grew up in a sporting family. Both her parents trained racehorses at Northfield Park. Vonda, however, enjoyed spectacular success in two totally unrelated athletic careers before she was 30.

The six-foot, six-inch native of Macedonia, Ohio, was a two-time high school All-American in basketball at Trinity High School in Garfield Heights. She led her team to the state championship in 1990. She continued her basketball career at the University of Tennessee, where she played on legendary coach Pat Summitt’s national runnerup in 1995. In the late 1990s she played pro basketball briefly in Germany and later with the Denver Xplosion of the American Basketball League.

Vonda then turned her attention to women’s professional boxing, which was at the advent of its popularity. Vonda enjoyed a meteroric rise as a heavyweight. She knocked out her first 15 opponents, setting up a showdown for the women’s IBA world heavyweight championship which she won with a hard-fought 10-round decision over Monica McGowan on Aug. 16, 2002, in Canton, Ohio.

Vonda was still unbeaten, having won 20 fights in a row, when she lost her title to the dangerous Ann Wolfe, who knocked her out in the first round in a nationally televised fight on May 8, 2004, in Biloxi, Miss. Vonda celebrated her return to the ring seven months later in Cleveland with a fourth round knockout in what turned out to be her last fight. Her record stands at 22-1, with 17 wins by knockout. There have been several attempts to match her with Leila Ali, daughter of the all-time great heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, but Ali has rejected every proposal.

Although she has not had a fight for almost eight years, Vonda remains in fighting shape. At the age of 39 she is in the gym every day in her job as a personal trainer.

Enjoyed successful 18-year amateur career, beginning in 1918. During this time she played for the following teams: Clark Muny (1918-21), Favorite Knits (1922-23), Rosenblums (1924), Newman Stern (1925-29), Allerton Hotel (1930-35) and Cleveland Aces (1936), all of which earned World Championship titles.