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Weltman, Harry

Harry Weltman

Induction Year : 2013

Sport: Basketball

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

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Morin, Pat

Pat Morin

Induction Year : 2013

Sport: Squash

At Bexley High School in Columbus he was chosen “Athlete of the Year” his senior year and set the school’s scoring record in basketball, 42 points. He went on to Ohio State starting on Fred Taylor’s freshman basketball squad. Teammates Larry Siegfried and Richie Hoyt were team members who later played on the only Buckeye team to win the NCAA National Championship. Unfortunately an injury ended Patrick’s collegiate career at the end of his freshman season.

At age 35, Patrick was asked to play squash at the first public squash courts ever built in New York. Eureka! It was the greatest sport he had ever experienced. Within two years he had moved up to the A ranks in New York.

In 1978 business brought Patrick to Cleveland. The 13th Street Racquet Club was just opening. He entered his first Nationals the next year in Detroit and was thrashed in the first round. Things changed from then on.

He won 6 state titles, two in Ohio and four in Michigan, and 13 Cleveland championships. At 49 in the National Championships he beat the number 1 seed.

In 1995 he reached the National Singles 55 plus finals and lost a one point tiebreaker in the fifth and final game but he struck gold in 1996 sweeping to victory in Denver without the loss of a game to win the US 55 plus National Championship. He won his second National Championship, 60 and over, in 1999 beating the leading player in North America who had won 13 US Championships, 6 Canadian Championships, and several world titles.

The following year in Boston he picked up his third National Championship coming back from almost being down and out to win the crown.

Patrick has been in the advertising agency business as his “day job.” He started in New York and now owns his own agency, PJ Morin Inc., in Cleveland. He keeps his interest in squash alive today by assisting Urban Squash Cleveland with their marketing efforts.

Patrick, and his wife Debbie, live in Bratenahl. Debbie is Director of the Center for Educational Leadership at Cleveland State University.

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Miller, Dan

Dan Miller

Induction Year : 2013

Sport: Tennis

When it came to better late than never, Dan Miller was the perfect example for the game of tennis.

Returning to the sport he played as a teenager at Cleveland Heights High, Miller was 50 when he once again stepped on a tennis court. He did not leave it for the next 40 years as he established himself as one of the best senior tennis players in the country.

Playing in age-division tournaments around the world, the retired businessman accumulated 35 “gold balls” for winning both singles and doubles championships during United States Tennis Association national tournaments as he played on clay, grass, hard court and indoor surfaces. He also had 16 “silver balls” for his second-place finishes.

He competed during world championships in England, Germany, Austria, Spain, Australia and the United States. He played with and against U.S. Davis Cup member Gardner Mulloy.

Miller, who turned 97 on Sept 26, 2013, won his final tournament in 2006 at age 90 in a doubles competition. As he liked to chide the “older” golfing set, he never considered taking up that game in retirement. “Golfers ride in a cart, go out and hit a ball,” said Miller. “That’s not an athlete. We kid them a lot.”

After gradation from Colgate, he served in the Navy during World War II and saw action during the D-Day invasion at Normandy. During the service he met his wife, Mabel.

After teaching history at Cleveland Heights for several years, he owned and operated the Dan Miller Heating Co. from 1950 to 1980. Living in Mentor, the Millers raised three children.

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Kyle, Chuck

Chuck Kyle

Induction Year : 2013

Sport: Football

Chuck Kyle of St. Ignatius is universally acclaimed as the greatest high school football coach in Ohio history.
Since graduating from John Carroll University as an English major in 1973, he has held one job — English teacher and football and track coach at his high school alma mater.

After 10 years as an assistant he was elevated to head coach in 1983 and in 30 seasons his teams have compiled an astonishing record of 301 victories, 69 losses and one tie. His Wildcats have captured 11 state championships and have been awarded three mythical national championships in 1989, 1993 and 1995. They have qualified for the state football playoffs 24 of the last 25 years and along the way posted winning streaks of 39 games and 38 games.

The 62-year-old Kyle has collected innumerable personal awards. He was the Nike National Coach of the Year in 2001 and the Schutt National Coach of the Year in 2008. He has been Ohio coach of the year four times.

Chuck served as a head coach in the 1989 Cuyahoga County East-West all-star game and in the 1994 “Big 33 Game” matching all-star teams from Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 2009 he was head coach of the United States team that won the world junior championship.

He is revered as an English teacher. In addition to sophomore English, he teaches Chaucer and Shakespeare as a senior elective. By the way, he still coaches the track team.

Chuck and his wife, Patricia, who teaches art at St. Ignatius, raised three daughters and one son. They live in Westlake.

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Ginn, Sr, Ted

Ted Ginn, Sr.

Induction Year : 2013

Sport: Football

Ted Ginn, Sr. has been described as an evangelist and a Pied Piper because he re-wrote the game plan for high school football in Cleveland.

Ted spent his early years in Franklinton, Louisiana, where his grandparents instilled in him rigid Christian values. He moved to Cleveland for his high school years at Glenville, playing center and linebacker on the Tarblooders football team of the 1970s.

After graduating, he returned to Glenville as a volunteer assistant football coach and full-time uniformed security guard. He would patrol the hallways in his blue-gray officer’s uniform during the school day and change into his coaching togs after school.

After 10 years as an unpaid assistant coach, he actually went on the coaching payroll in 1986. He succeeded James Hubbard as head coach in 1997 and before long earned national attention for the Glenville football program.
In 1999 Glenville became the first Cleveland public school to qualify for the state football playoffs and the Tarblooders went on to the playoffs 11 times in 12 years from 1999 to 2010. Glenville was state runnerup in 2009.

Glenville also has won every Senate football championship since Ted took over in 1997 and has not lost a conference game in his century.

More than 50 of his athletes have been awarded full college scholarships, including his son, Ted Jr. at Ohio State and Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith, also at Ohio State. Several of his players went on play pro football in the NFL.
He also coached the Glenville track team to five straight state championships.

Ted has battled cancer for the last two years and did not coach last year, but he has returned to the sidelines this season.

In 2007 the Cleveland Municipal School District created Ginn Academy in the Collinwood area, an all-boys school with Ted as headmaster.

He always points out that his mission is not to win football games, it is to save lives and souls. He has been honored by numerous like-minded organizations, such as the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, the National Black Coaches Association and the National Fatherhood Initiative.

Ted and his wife, Jeanette, have two children, son Ted Jr. and daughter Tiffany.

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Boykins, Earl

Earl Boykins

Induction Year : 2013

Sport: Basketball

The National Basketball Association is indeed a league for big men. But the measure isn’t always for height. There is also a check for heart.

For 13 seasons, Earl Boykins displayed plenty of heart. At 5 feet, 5 inches, he is the second shortest player in NBA history. His lack of height never held him back. He mixed it with the big boys, even dunking on them.

Boykins, who played professionally at a feathery 133 pounds (yet he bench pressed 315 pounds), didn’t let the fact that he wasn’t drafted derail his dream of a big league career. He spent 13 years in the NBA, appearing in 587 games for nine teams, included the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Twice in 2007, while starring for the Milwaukee Bucks, Boykins tossed in a career high 36 points. Two years earlier, also with the Bucks, he scored 15 points in an overtime period, breaking the NBA record of 14 points that had stood for 21 years. Boykins’ mark fell the following season when Washington’s Gilbert Arenas netted 16 points in overtime.

Boykins never let his lack of height stop from excelling. Or elevating. Videos of Boykins’ NBA dunks have registered nearly a million hits on YouTube.

Boykins began his road to professional stardom at Cleveland Central High School in the city’s historic Slavic Village.

He then headed for Eastern Michigan University where he played for the Eagles from 1994 through 1998. Boykins earned All-Mid-American Conference first-team honors in both his junior and senior years. He continues to be EMU’s all-time leader in career assists with 624, more than 100 assists clear of the second ranked Eagle.

One of the highlights of Boykins’ college career came in an opening round game of the 1996 NCAA tournament when Eastern Michigan upset Duke 75-60 in a Southeast Regional game at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. Boykins scored 23 points.

Eastern Michigan honored Boykins in 2011 when it retired his No. 11 jersey and raised it to the rafters of the Convocation Center.

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Hargrove, Mike

Mike Hargrove

Induction Year : 2013

Sport: Baseball

Although denied the 1997 World Series championship in a heart-breaking loss in extra innings in the seventh game against the Florida Marlins, Mike Hargrove will remain one of the most beloved managers in Cleveland Indians history.

Hargrove is the fifth Tribe manager—all former Cleveland ballplayers—to be inducted in the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame. He joins Mel Harder, Roger Peckinpaugh, Steve O’Neill and Tris Speaker.

A native of Perryton, Texas (the city’s baseball stadium is named in his honor), Hargrove played 7 years for the Tribe before managing it for nine years. He began his playing career with Texas before coming to Cleveland via a trade with San Diego. As a manager, Hargove skippered both Baltimore and Seattle after leaving Cleveland.

Voted American League Rookie of the Year in 1974, Hargrove carried the most unique of nicknames: The Human Rain Delay. He earned it through his ritual between pitches of stepping out of the batter’s box to readjust his hitting gloves, hitch up his pants, rub his nose, knock dirt from his spikes and tamp on his helmet.

Hargrove played for 12 years. He had a career batting average of .290 and was an All-Star in 1975. He retired in 1985, and within two years was managing Class A Kinston of the Carolina League. Hargrove was voted the circuit’s Manager of the Year in his rookie season.

The Indians named Hargrove its manager in 1991. He had winning records in six of his nine years in Cleveland, won five consecutive American League Central championships and twice advanced to the World Series. Hargrove’s first American League Central title in 1995 ended a 40-year drought between championships, the Indians having won the American League pennant in 1954.

Hargrove is the second winningest manager in Cleveland Indians history. His 721 victories are just seven wins shy of record holder Lou Boudreau’s total.

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