Like few others…former OHSAA executive Jerry Snodgrass is still engaged in appreciation for the values learned by kids through participation in competitive sports. He was inducted this weekend as a member of the Ohio Sports Hall of Fame. (Press Pros File Photos)
Entrepreneur Tim Turpin has made it his mission to remember not just games and outcomes…but many of the people responsible whose memories fade with the time and the next big thing.
Dayton, OH – Not your average ‘Who’s Hot’ subject, I was shocked when ten months ago my phone rang and an Indiana man named Tim Turpin was on the line.
After introducing himself, he said, “You’re being inducted into next year’s class of the Ohio Sports Hall of Fame come October. I hope you can take the time to come and be a part of things.”
Two things immediately crossed my mind!
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Who the hell is Tim Turpin? And what’s the Ohio Sports Hall of Fame? Turpin, an industrious entrepreneur from Evansville, explained.
“We’re starting halls of fame in a number of states to remember and recognize people whose deeds and contributions have helped give communities and institutions their legacy in sports and competition (paraphrasing).” he answered. “The classes in some cases are kinda’ big, but we want to get as many people recognized as possible before more of them pass away. Posthumously just isn’t the same.”
And that’s what he’s done in the scant period of ten years across the Midwest, including Ohio, where Saturday night at the Dayton Convention Center nearly 50 people were inducted with the class of 2026…including female box Eva Jones-Young, born as one of twelve children in South Bend, Indiana. She would go on to become a world champion in three weight divisions (in her 30s) with the notable distinction of having been born legally blind.
“I was pretty proud of becoming a three-time champion as a black woman,” she shared in her address to the audience Saturday night, while downplaying her physical disability.
Standout members of the Ohio Sports Hall of Fame include Marty Brennaman and our own Hal McCoy…but former Reds writer and Press Pros staffer Greg Hoard belongs.
“Heck, I would have been proud of being a three-time champion as a white woman, too. God is good!”
She got the night’s biggest laugh.
Other standout members of the Ohio SHOF include Marty Brennaman, softball standout Peyton Gottshall, Xavier basketball play-by-play man Joe Sunderman, Hal McCoy, Buddy Bell, Kent Mercker, Browns great Jim Brown, Sandy Koufax, Keith Byars, Pete Rose, and renowned Cincinnati orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Tim Kremchek.
And the list of out-of-sight-and-out-of-mind notables is literally unending..including 2026 inductees like Bellefontaine Chieftain running back Jesse Williams, inducted Saturday as one of the posthumous honorees. I remember him well as the terror of the old Miami Valley League – Jesse the ‘Jet’, and deserving!
While all sports and endeavors are included with the nomination process, the list of honorees centers around football, basketball, and baseball, “Because, that’s just the way it is,” Turpin explained. “Those sports get the biggest percentage of athletes.”
But notable, too, were the number of high school coaches, administrators, and yes..a couple of area media people so selected to be a part of the 2026 class. And it’s the subject of this week’s ‘Who’s Hot’ page – something different, and people, who in my opinion, that time will sadly forget. And none more than some area standouts long overlooked for their contribution to keeping the legacy of youth baseball alive in towns so small you have to find them on Google Map.
Why do I single out baseball? Because compared to football baseball titles are forgotten in about the time it takes to circle the date of the next OHSAA football finals on your calendar. High school baseball gets the crumbs of media recognition, by comparison. And amateur baseball makes no money except for the travel-ball organizers, and therefore is thought of in terms of a debit to the budget. Spend $100,000 on football helmets and it’s an investment. Send $500 on batting helmets and its a drain – too much to benefit too few.
Dave King won more than 600 baseball games at Sidney and Lehman, and would have done it for free.
I was thrilled to see former Sidney baseball coach Dave King as an inductee with the 2026 class. ‘Kinger’ toiled all those years when the stipend for coaching baseball could be measured in hundreds, if at all. He won more than 600 games in his career at Sidney and Lehman High Schools, and frankly would have done it for nothing. His commitment to teaching baseball to kids in Shelby County was that great. And yet…who remembers? And that’s hard to imagine when you do it so publicly, and for so long!
My long-time friend and colleague Mark Brunswick is a member of the 2026 class, the former Ohio Coaches Association hall of fame coach at Bellefontaine, Marysville, and Sidney Lehman. Mark won 500 games in 29 seasons of teaching and coaching at Bellefontaine, and this, following an outstanding high school career at Coldwater where as a catcher he was drafted by the New York Mets in third round of the 1984 draft.
Brunswick’s brother, Tom, was also inducted this year for a career dedicated to amateur baseball, having played at Coldwater and later in the Philadelphia Phillies and Oakland A’s farm system.
Former coach at Bellefontaine, Mark Brunswick won 500 games and is a member of the Ohio Baseball Coaches hall of fame.
Vandalia’s Trent Dues was also listed as a member of the ’26 class, another Ohio coaching hall of famer with 600 wins, and still coaching. Dues, like the Brunswicks, got his start in Coldwater, playing for hall-of-famer and five-time state champion coach Lou Brunswick.
Lou Brunswick was notable not only for his five state titles and 750 career wins, but for being the architect of ACME youth baseball benefiting the kids in small communities throughout northwest Ohio. His perspective on kids and parenting were notable for his time, and remarkable by current-day thinking. He once told me: “If you have 15 boys you’d better have them in one place where you can see what they’re doing. And if they’re all doing the same thing together it’s amazing what they can accomplish.”
And currently creeping up on Lou Brunswick’s coaching numbers is another area notable, Minster’s Mike Wiss, who perhaps is the most deserving of contemporary coaches enshrined with this weekend’s HOF class. Wiss is edging up on 600 career wins in baseball, has won four state baseball titles, and has another three titles as the girls basketball coach at Minster. He’s the walking, talking quinella of multi-tasking…at least ones that I know.
750-win coach Lou Brunswick once opined: “If you have 15 boys you’d better have them in one place where you can see what they’re doing. And if they’re all doing the same thing together it’s amazing what they can accomplish.”
But when Mike and I get together the conversation nearly always takes on about something other than baseball. He’s also a Civil War history buff, deeply moved by the events of that time, and that’s what we talk about – where George Pickett actually stood to watch his famous charge on the final day at Gettysburg – the Codori barn along the Emmitsburg Road – or where General William Barksdale’s body was recovered. Fascinating!
And a moment here to recognize long-time OHSAA administrator, and for too brief a time Executive Director, Jerry Snodgrass, also a member of the 2026 induction class who perhaps received the most enthusiastic greeting upon his introduction. His popularity is matched only by his commitment to all things people-related in Ohio. Guaranteed, there’s not one cafe, diner, or barber shop across the state that Jerry has not graced over the years, and taken the time to get to know the patrons therein.
From a media standpoint, I was delighted to see WCSM’s Ron Brunswick’s induction as part of the group. Ron is a former public school teacher, but for a long time has doubled as the radio-voice of area high school sports on WCSM, in Celina. A good guy, and so good at what he does, there have been others like Ron throughout the years that have come and gone without the community appreciation they deserve, or the professional accolades, either. None more than my old on-air partner at WPTW radio, in Piqua, Joe Neves.
And I cannot conclude without a plug for my long-time mentor and Press Pros staff member, Greg Hoard, who sadly left the game two years ago, passing at age 72. Former Reds writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer and sports director for Channel 19, in Cincinnati…Tim Turpin, if you’re reading, your list will never be complete without Hoardie, who former Reds infielder Tommy Helms once dubbed “Cool Breeze”.
Friend on and off the field…Minster’s Mike Wiss owns seven total state titles, the ‘quinella’ of multi-tasking among area coaches.
And how did I get there Saturday?
“You were nominated,” said Turpin by phone, back in March. He didn’t go into it. I didn’t ask.
Which is odd because recognition of any kind in the media industry is often a matter of being a joiner – one of the crowd – and I’m not so much.
Never joined the Mason Lodge, although my entire family did.
I was briefly a member of Rotary, in Troy, during time spent as a businessman downtown. But I was never good with service projects – serving hot coffee to travelers on the interstate on busy holiday weekends.
And I’ve never joined ranks with the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association. I don’t have anything against such organizations, I’ve just never taken the time.
In fact, I view my personality as being rather obscure, because when Mindy sent a copy of Saturday’s group photo to our son Matt, in San Diego, he texted back and said, “Which one is Dad?”
But my thanks to Tim Turpin for the opportunity on Saturday’s occasion, and the chance to see so many people more deserving than me enshrined officially in something of permanence.
Like the names on the monuments at Gettysburg, someday someone is going to read them and think to themselves…he or she (Eva Jones-Young) must have mattered.
With congratulations to so many, including Turpin, I hope you can share my personal appreciation for this week’s Who’s Hot list, knowing that there’s so many, many more. With apologies, I can only imagine living in their time…without their contributions!
Peace of mind is as easy as the relationship you have with your local bank, and the St. Henry bank is small enough to know you, and big enough to serve you. The St. Henry Bank joins Press Pros Magazine in recognizing this week’s “Who’s Hot” honorees…members of the 2026 Class of The Ohio Sports Hall of Fame.