It has been almost 50 years now since he began making friends and influencing people on behalf of Cleveland sports organizations. Ask anyone in position to know and they’ll tell you nobody’s done it better. The Garfield Heights High grad forsook promising careers as a bartender and with The Illuminating Company to take jobs as a publicist for the Cleveland Division of Recreation’s amateur sports programs and semi-pro Cleveland Bulldogs football team. He moved into the pro world in 1962 as the public relations and promotions director for the Cleveland Barons. He moved to the Indians in 1967, to the Stadium Corporation in 1975, and to the Browns in 1981 remaining with them until they moved to Baltimore in 1996. He elected to remain in Cleveland and went to work for the NFL and the Cleveland Browns Trust, where he became an integral cog in the efforts to bring a Browns team back to his beloved city. That done he rejoined the Browns and eventually settled into the role of Director of Alumni Relations, a job vital to reinforcing the bond between ex-players and the new regime. During much of his career he has been involved in an untold number of fund raising functions which have netted sums in seven-figure amounts for charities. His induction into the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame brings to four the Hall of Fame plaques on his wall, not to mention the Garfield Heights High School Distinguished Alumni Award. The Northern Ohio Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame’s Humanitarian Award is named for him as is the Cleveland Chapter of the Professional Football Writers’ Association “Good Guy” Award and in 2002 the Dino Lucarelli Media Center was unveiled in the new Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Seven years his brother Fred’s junior, he already had a 10-year professional career etched on his record when he was traded by the Montreal Canadians to the Cleveland Barons joining his player-coach brother for the 1964-65 season. A fiery right winger, he had begun his pro career with Winnipeg of the Western League where he set a record for most rookie goals. Drafted by the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks in 1958, he played briefly with Chicago then moved to Calgary. He played for the Buffalo Bisons of the AHL in 1958-60, carrying on a fierce rivalry with brother Fred, then played two years with the Detroit Red Wings in 1960-62, accumulating 21 goals and eight assists in his first season there and performing solidly as a checker when the Red Wings reached the Stanley Cup final. In his six seasons with the Barons he reached double digit totals in goals scored five times, highlighted by a career best 41-goal outburst in 1967-68 to earn the team’s MVP award. After retiring in 1969, he left his son Michael in Greater Cleveland where he remained deeply involved in coaching high school and minor league teams and frequently hosts his famous dad.
The Glover Brothers
Fred and Howie Glover become only the fourth pair of siblings to be inducted into the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame when they are honored tonight and only the second to be inducted together, joining swimmers Gretchen and Christine Kluter who were honored in the first induction ceremonies in 1976. Paul Fina was inducted in 1978 for his feats in gymnastics and brother Louis followed in 1984. For sheer numbers, however, the Milkovich family still stands alone. Wrestlers Tom (1976) and Pat (1986) are enshrined with their father Mike, the legendary Maple Heights High coach who was honored for meritorious service in 1978.
One of the American Hockey League’s greatest stars he would become one of Cleveland’s most popular players after joining the Cleveland Barons in 1953. Prior to that he had played for the AHL’s Indianapolis Capitals in 1948-49, put in a pair of brief stints for the Detroit Red Wings in the NHL, returned to Indianapolis where he led the league in scoring with 48 goals in 1950-51 and was named to the league’s first all-star team. Called back to Detroit, he played 54 games for the Red Wings in 1951-52, helping them to the Stanley Cup. In the 15-year stint with the Barons which was to follow, the last five of which he also served as the team’s head coach, he would lead them to Calder Cup championships in 1954, 1957 and 1964, before retiring in 1968. At that time he was the league’s career leader in games played, goals (520) assists (814) and points scored (1,334). A six-time all-star, and two-time AHL scoring leader, his Number 9 was retired in 1969. He died at his home in Hayward, CA in August, 2001 at the age of 73.
The Glover Brothers
Fred and Howie Glover become only the fourth pair of siblings to be inducted into the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame when they are honored tonight and only the second to be inducted together, joining swimmers Gretchen and Christine Kluter who were honored in the first induction ceremonies in 1976. Paul Fina was inducted in 1978 for his feats in gymnastics and brother Louis followed in 1984. For sheer numbers, however, the Milkovich family still stands alone. Wrestlers Tom (1976) and Pat (1986) are enshrined with their father Mike, the legendary Maple Heights High coach who was honored for meritorious service in 1978.
They didn’t come much better in Ohio’s high school football trenches in the Fall of 1972. In fact, no one in the state was better that season in the eyes of the Buckeye State’s sportswriters, who voted the Cleveland Cathedral Latin High prep star Ohio’s High School Lineman of the Year to go along with his national All-American honors. Those honors brought the nation’s premier college coaches scurrying to Cleveland, with Southern California eventually carrying off the prize to Los Angeles. By the third game of his freshman season with the Trojans, Jeter was a starter, an almost unprecedented achievement at USC. In 1975 he was selected to some All-American teams and in 1976 he repeated this time as a consensus first team defensive tackle. In the subsequent NFL draft in 1977, the New Giants tabbed him with the fifth pick of the first round. He went on to play six seasons with the Giants, before returning to California to play six more years with the Los Angeles Rams recording 11 sacks in 1985 and a career high 11½ sacks in 1988, before finishing his career with the New England Patriots in 1989. He subsequently returned to Greater Cleveland where he has made his home in North Royalton and has frequently been heard as a football analyst on Cleveland radio.
Deceased 2016
The passion for wrestling that burned in his small frame as he collected victories in each of his last 30 dual meets for Cleveland’s John Marshall High never ebbed. It became instead the torch which guided the rest of his life and played a substantial role in the development of Ohio High School wrestling as one of the nation’s premier programs. He was one of a trio of men who took leading roles in co-founding the Ohio State Wrestling Tournament which debuted in 1938 and for which he served as the official scorer for 60 years. He subsequently would become a co-founder of the Brecksville Holiday Wrestling Tournament which began in 1961 and is credited with setting the standard for holiday tournaments across the nation. Three years out of high school in 1936 he was officiating high school matches, later adding college matches as well, winning general acclaim as one of the state’s best officials long before closing out that phase of his career in 1994. Throughout it all—for 50 years beginning in 1946-47—he would serve as Secretary of the Greater Cleveland Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association, a beacon of consistency through a myriad of changes in the organization. Inducted into the Ohio Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1972, he was named Ohio’s Man of the Year by Wrestling USA Magazine in 1993. He died at the age 85 in January, 1999.
Arguably the best high school basketball player ever to come out of Greater Cleveland’s small school ranks, he enjoyed a fabled career at Cuyahoga Heights High, culminating with his selection as an All-American in 1973 after leading the state in scoring with a 32.9 ppg average and being named Ohio’s Class A High School Basketball Player of the Year. Those feats earned him a scholarship to the University of Minnesota where he stepped right in to a starters’ role. The heady backcourt general started 101 of the 103 contests he played in for the Golden Gophers and as a senior helped lead the team to a then school best 24-3 record. His playing career ended with that season, but not his association with basketball. A transformation from player to coach was made as easily as the step up from Cuyahoga Heights to Minnesota basketball. It began with four seasons guiding the fortunes of Grand Valley (MN) Lutheran College to a 92-13 record including a perfect 56-0 home court mark, continued through the major college ranks as an assistant for seven successful season and seven more impressive years as a CBA head coach, then culminated in a move to the Minnesota Timberwolves as the NBA team’s general manager in May 1995. It was a job that lasted only until he asked to take over as the team’s head coach seven months later, a position he still fills with the distinction that has marked his entire career.
Deceased 2015
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.
She began to get serious about figure skating rather early in life—when she was an eight-year-old elementary school student in her home town of Westlake. Beginning as a singles skater, she shifted her attention to pairs skating as a teen-ager and at the age of 22 she shifted partners and into a high gear on the world stage. Teaming with Todd Sand, who towered a full 11 inches above her, they quickly adjusted to each other and in their first year together in 1993 they captured a silver medal in the U.S. National Championships and placed a surprising fifth at the World Championships. The following year they won the U.S. National Championship, qualified for the ’94 Winter Olympics were they finished fifth, found a moment to become engaged while there, and then went on to finish sixth in the World Championships. By the time she and her husband ended there amateur careers to join the Stars on Ice Tour for the 1998-99 season, the pair had amassed three U.S. National Championships (in 1994, 1995 and 1996) plus a second in 1997 and had established themselves as favorites for the ’98 title, only to have to withdraw when Jenni suffered a serious ankle injury. Later, able to train for only a week for the 1998 Winter Olympics, they gamely competed and finished a credible eighth, With Jenni fully recovered a month thereafter, they were able t close out their amateur careers by capturing the silver in the ’98 World Championships. Still skating professionally, the couple lives and trains in Southern California and Summerlin, Nevada.
A remarkably successful and generous businessman, this transplanted native of Brooklyn, NY brought to his adopted city of Cleveland, a stunning array of values—humanity, generosity, patriotism, leadership and genuine devotion—which assured his name in a permanent place of honor in the city’s annuals. But, while his unparalleled support of the healthcare and educational communities built a listing legacy, he will, in all likelihood, be remembered best by the city’s legion of football fans as the man who resurrected their beloved Cleveland Browns by purchasing the dormant franchise in September, 1988 for a then-record sum and working with unswerving determination to rebuild both an organizational infrastructure and a team worthy of the Browns’ proud tradition. The process was not without obstacles, but the team seemed headed toward a resumption of its once-familiar role as a perennial playoff team when Mr. Lerner passed away in October, 2002. Dedicating the season to his memory, the Browns provided their popular leader with the most appropriate farewell gift they could muster by powering their way into the playoffs for the first time since their return to the league. Mr. Lerner is survived by his wife, Norma, two sons and seven grandchildren. His oldest son, Randy, succeeded him as president, keeping the quiet Lerner touch in plane with the city’s favorite football team and assuring its continuing presence in the city of its birth.
Deceased 2002