1953 Tri-State Miners 

In writing about area baseball I have mentioned Mickey Mantle"s twin brothers and Mick's first cousin, Max Mantle. You can see them here. Roy and Ray I saw play in Galena and Max in Miami. The subject of Max came up in an unexpected way a few short years ago. I attended a bluegrass festival in Bon Aqua, Tenn., July 1, 2017, and Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver headlined the show. I noticed the Dobro player for Quicksilver. I have an affinity for that instrument and have written for major publications about its history. I took an opportunity to talk to the Dobroist when the band finished its set. The relatively young fellow was Eli Johnston, from -- of all places -- Columbus, Kansas. Our conversation quickly switched to baseball. It seems he played baseball (in a much later era than mine) under the tutelage of Max Mantle and spoke highly of him. He is familiar with some of my Columbus relatives (mostly pretty girls) and others in the town -- Bryce Martin

Eli Johnston: guitar, Dobro guitar, banjo, vocalist, songwriter

Back Row: Ray Mantle, Johnny Lafalier-Cardin/Picher, Oklahoma; Leroy Scoles--Miami, Okla.; Steve Green, -Picher, Okla.;- Don Boyd-Joplin, MO; Mash Spangler-Welch, Okla.: Jack McGoyne and Roy Mantle, Commerce, OKla.

 

Front Row: Gaylon Enos, Joplin, MO; Max Buzzard and J. E. Landon-Seneca, MO, Howard Scheurich, Joplin, MO; Max Mantle-Commerce, Travis Kunce and Bill Drake, Joplin, MO.. (Seven of the guys played pro ball. All the Mantles, Max Buzzard, Travis Kunce, Gaylon Enos and Bill Drake

...

From John Hall:

“In 1953 the team for whom three of the Mantles played was known as the Treece Tri-State Miners. They called Treece, Kan. their home so as to be eligible for the National Baseball Congress Tournament in Wichita. Max recalls going to that tournament where they took on some of the best amateur teams in the country and placed third. Although Ray and Roy played for the Tri-State Miners they didn’t qualify playing with the team in the Wichita tournament. They still hadn’t graduated from high school. In 1954 both of the Mantle twins and Max were signed by the Yankees and sent to McAlester, Okla. One night all three were playing the outfield at the same time. Max recalls the Rockets were wearing the hand-me-down New York Yankee uniforms from three years earlier. When he checked the name on his uniform it turned out to have been worn by Cliff Mapes. Oddly enough, Max’s cousin Mickey was the one who replaced Mapes with the Yankees. Even more amazing, Mickey Mantle is the one who influenced Mapes to move to Oklahoma. Mickey got the job done by telling him of the great hunting and fishing sites in the area.”

The KOM Flash Report

John Hall

Week of May 8—14, 2016

ZABONIK NAME ASSOCIATED WITH SPORTS 

My grandniece Kaytlan Zabonik excelled in varsity soccer and volleyball for her Verdigris Cardinals high school teams in Claremore, Okla. She graduated in 2015 and sister Karmyn followed in her Adidas', graduating in 2019. Karmyn landed at East Central University in Ada, Okla., where she is involved with the volleyball program.  It's a family thing. Mom Kacey supplies the Band-Aids and rubbing alcohol for the bruised muscles. Father Curtis Zabonik kicked three field goals for Durant (Okla.) High School in an October 12, 1990, football contest with Tecumseh. One was a school-record breaking 44-yard boot. He also had a 42- and 24-yarder in the contest. An older brother, Jeff, was a star running back for the Galena (Kan.) Bulldogs, and for several years now has been the baseball coach and a teacher in a Marietta, Okla., high school You'll notice here that Kaytlan travels in good company.

Karmyn Zabonik

MY AUNT MARGARET RICE'S GIFT TO THE WIDE WORLD OF MUSIC, HER SON LEWIS

AND THE LOW, LOW SOUNDS HE EXTRACTED FROM THE TUBA. THE SOUNDS OF WHICH ARE STILL ECHOING SOMEWHERE EVEN AMONG THE RUBBLE OF THE OLD, DISCARDED HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING. LEWIS MAY HAVE ABANDONED THE BRASS INSTRUMENT ONCE HE DISCOVERED TUBA PLAYERS DID NOT ATTRACT GROUPIES                                                     

1946-47 ALL-SCHOOL BAND

I Slipped on Slimp

And The Shoal Creek Playboys

Avery Slimp 1955

Galena's Chief of Police in 1955. I recall seeing a flyer posted on the wall of the fire hall by the wide open door on Main announcing a big Saturday night dance at a Spring River location featuring the musical strains of "Avery Slimp and the Shoal Creek Playboys." I wonder still, since I missed the dance and music, who comprised the band. 

 Daughter Marcy and husband Tim 

The California couple relax at Pop's in Arcadia, Ok, along historic Route 66 

 From the Diary of One Devil Dog 

Boot camp at MCRD in San Diego required 12 weeks when I joined ranks. Infantry training at Camp Pendleton was another 4 weeks. It wasn't until my 16th week that I had liberty, and that turned out to be a 26-hour weekend stint. We weren't allowed to unbutton our top button (on our utilities' blouse) until the final, 12th week of boot camp. We had a 7th week drill eval(uation) and an 11th week drill eval. Some of those in my boot unit (77 members in Platoon 156) in 1964 had been drafted into the Marines. The Marines reinstituted the draft about that time for additional cannon fodder in Southeast Asia. Not long after, to assembly-line more bodies, boot camp was shortened from 12 weeks to 8 and ITR from 4 weeks to 2 weeks, unless your MOS was infantry and then it was the same as previous. I slipped from 220 on the range (250 max) on Wednesday to 205 on qualifying Friday to earn a manhole cover. I shot sharpshooter some years after, and expert other times. I had never fired a firearm before then. I also qualified with a .45 pistol, made in Ithaca, New York. There were some fabulous shooters back then. A rifle team was comprised of seven Marines and we had M-60s and BARs to go with our M-1s. to create a true "wall of fire." A bayonet we called a K-bar and a C-rations can opener was a John Wayne Key. Assigned then to 29 Palms, my billet was next to HQ. My MOS was assigned as  AdMan (Administration Man), and in true  military parlance, I was a "Remington Raider" (Get it? Remington typewriters). I sat with my typewriter in front of me and a short distance directly across the usually open door of the base commander's office, a two-star general. Later I was reassigned back to artillery and that's when I became the platoon guide for the newly created base artillery school. Comprised of 990 square miles of mountains and desert sand, there was ample room to host such training,  The projectile for the 155 self-propelled howitzer weighed 90 pounds. I've been on OPs 20 miles away from the gun and seen it hit its target squarely once the coordinates are called in and the order to “Fire” takes place. You could get hit with a projectile from that far away and never even know it was coming... if you were the unfortunate enemy.

...

GALENA-BORN FILM ACTOR STRUCK IT BIG IN HOLLYWOOD WITH EXCITING CAREER

Galena's Joel Allen on the Big Screen

Joel Allen was born on April 3, 1913 in Galena, Kansas. He died at age 72 on September 22, 1985, in Los Angeles, California.

He is best remembered for his portrayal of the staunch Deputy Bates in "Man from the Black Hills" (1952). Born Joel Edgar Allen, Jr., he was raised within a traditional farming family. After serving in the United States Army during World War II, upon returning to civilian life following the end of the war, he settled in California and under the G.I. Bill he attained his degree in theatrical arts from the UCLA and began his career as a leading man on the stage in stock companies. Upon being discovered by director Edward Ludwig during a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, he was so impressed by his dark good looks, manly physique, and baritone voice, that he took notice of his potential and arranged for him to begin a career in the film industry beginning with him appearing under his supervision per a supporting role in "The Fighting Seabees" (1944). From there, he would go on to flourish as a notable character actor appearing in over 45 features; often typecast as husbands, fathers, relatives, playboys, mechanics, technicians, sergeants, soldiers, military men, lieutenants, pilots, blue-collared guys, clergymen, photographers, policemen, detectives, reporters, and businessmen. He appeared in such feature films as "Ladies Courageous" (1944), "The Story of Dr. Wassell" (1944), "Objective, Burma!" (1945), "God Is My Co-Pilot" (1945), "Shortest Way Home" (1946), "Fighter Squadron" (1948), "White Heat" (1949), "Beyond the Forest" (1949), "Sunset Blvd." (1950), "Dial 1119" (1950), "Three Guys Named Mike" (1951), "Strangers on a Train" (1951), "The Maverick" (1952), "The Man from Bitter Ridge" (1955), "Cell 2455, Death Row" (1955), and "Red Line 7000" (1965). On television, he appeared in numerous guest spots on such syndicated sitcoms as "Adventures of Wild Bill Hickock," "Your Favorite Story," and "The Adventures of Kit Carson." During his career, he was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, was supportive of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, was a regular parishioner of the Baptist church, was a member of the Hollywood Republican Committee, presided on his local charters of the American Red Cross and the Boy Scouts, was a notable wood craftsman, had been the celebrity spokesman for John Deere and Autolight Spark Plugs, had been a theatrical instructor for the Pasadena Playhouse, was the official stand-in for actors John Wayne and John Ireland, and he was cited as being "Hollywood's Most Steadfast Supporting Actor" per gossip columnist Louella Parsons. Following his 1965 retirement, Allen, who never married nor had any children, spent the remainder of his life being involved in charitable and religious ventures until his death.

Bio by: Lowell Thurgood

 

RAND MINING DISTRICT IN RED MOUNTAIN/ATOLIA, CALIFORNIA

Just as much a moonscape as Galena's chat piles and mound heaps. They left Galena for this? It does have a richly stark beauty.

Pittsburg Olden Day Rockers Still Getting Notice

Have you ever wondered what Pats supercoach Bill Belichick keeps in the pouch of his hoodie? I haven't. As it turns out however I did find it interesting.

Conny and The Bellhops at

Super Bowl XLII in Arizona

Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel, on Belichick’s hooded sweat shirt: “That is his little woobie. That’s his little security blanket. He has got that pouch, and he keeps all his stuff in it. You would like to see what is inside that pouch, I bet.” 

A video camera, an iPod featuring the music of Conny and The Bellhops, a Dunkin’ Donut, 37 cents, a Koosh stress ball, an advance copy of the book “19-0: The … ” and a hobgoblin.

The Denver Post, January 29, 2008, “Day for media — no news fit to print,” By Woody Paige.

OPEN WIDE AND SAY 'AHHH'

She gave me my first paying job. I was not quite 9 when, as a second-floor boarder at her 509 East Seventh home in Galena, she asked if I would gather the dead, dry leaves on her back lawn to feed her goat. She supplied a wicker basket for the chore. A long and tall cylinder, it would take some filling. That was because she had strongly emphasized "dry leaves," and it had just recently rained. I received a dime for my effort. More than fair. Sadly, she passed on not long after. I much admired her and her place in life. Even at my young age, I knew her being a dentist going that far back in time was unusual for a woman.

Myself, with my grandparents, had been forced to move from our humble ("modest" would be an upgrade) house in Cave Springs that would soon be leveled to make room for a chemical fertilizer plant.

Lolo D. (Blanton) Gillespie, born April 5, 1867, in Asheville, No. Caro. She was 84 when she passed away in Galena on Feb. 22, 1952. She married Charles Parker Gillespie in 1884. He began a dentistry practice in 1885.

Her one daughter, Dora, was born November 3, 1885. In 1908 Dora married George M. Barrell, in Columbus, Kan. Dora passed away in December 1972. Around 1908, her one son, George, was attending Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Mo. He passed on in 1965 at age 76.

GALENA MUDHENS SOUNDS BETTER BUT SPONSORS PAY THE BILLS, SO GO! YOU 1936 MERCHANTS BASEBALLERS

Galena Kan., April 25.- A baseball game will be played on the Ninth Street diamond Sunday afternoon between the Galena Independent baseball team and a Webb City team. Members of the Galena team include Harold Herrelson. Jay Simon, Neal Murray, {and ace pitcher Bob Tillman}.

Semipro ball teams form 8-club league

Eight semipro baseball teams of the District have perfected organization of a league to be known as the JaySee League. A split season was agreed upon at a meeting last night at Duenweg. Teams entered are the Webb City Tigers, Joplin Sunflowers, Galena Merchants, Carterville Merchants, Belmont Badgers, County Liners Prosperity All-Stars, and Duenweg Mudhens.

Joplin Globe - Sunday, April 26, 1936, Joplin, Missouri, Pg. 10 

...

 SOLID GALENA COUNTRY BAND VINYL LP

Review from Slipcue.com

The Solid Gold Band "Meet The Solid Gold Band" (NSD Records, 1981) (LP) 
(Produced by Jim Rowland, John Green & Ray Edwards) 
A hard-working mainstream country band from Galena, Kansas, a little postage-stamp town in the southeast end of the state, just across the border from Joplin, Missouri. Indeed, these fellas worked a nightclub in Joplin called the Gold Dust Lounge -- according to the liner notes, they weren't just the house band, they actually owned the place! The SGB was formed in 1974 by lead singers John Green and Jim Rowland (the guys who bought the bar) and played steadily throughout Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. They had a working relationship with Tom T. Hall and his band the Storytellers, who helped them in the studio for this album, while Tom T. himself contributed to the liner notes, and seems to have promoted them in Nashville. The disc is impressively packed with original material, most of it penned by Jim Rowland, and got a big writeup in Billboard when it came out. The band included Alan Abbott (drums), Mike Bartlett (guitar), John Green (bass) Tyler Ogle (keyboards) and Jim Rowland on rhythm guitar... I'm not sure what became of these guys -- from their vantage point in Joplin, they were well situated to break into the Branson scene, but that's just speculation on my part. (By the way, I can't resist going into the history of their bar, which seems to have changed hands many times over the years... According to a 2011 news story in The Joplin Globe the bar opened in the late 1940s as the Freeway Cafe, and over the years was known as Dan's Branding Iron, The Wells Fargo, The Stampede, The Gold Dust Lounge, The Paint Stallion, The Horse Shoe Saloon and was slated to reopen as The Crazy Town Rockin' Saloon at press time in 2011, soon to be renamed The Blue Rose. Phew! Personally I like the Blue Rose best of all, but Lord knows what's there now. Probably a Starbucks.) Solid Gold Band also put out a few singles, including a western swing ditty, "Cherokee Country," which apparently hit the national charts in '82, but is not included on this album.

...

 

Crowning Our Bishop  

Bishop J.E. Moore

GHS '57

Pentecostal Bishop of Churches of the Apostolic Faith

1939 ~ Present

Bishop J.E. Moore was born in Galena, Kansas, May 24, 1939. He attended the Galena grade and high schools, graduating May 23, 1957. While in school he played the trumpet in the school band, sang solos at many school and city functions. He was in track and field, lettering all four years in high and low hurdles, and long jump. He also lettered in football and boxed in the Golden Gloves. 

After high school, Bishop Moore moved to Joliet, Illinois, enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, February 1958. While in the Marines he played in the Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps, and served with the Military Police. He graduated from their Field Music School and he was honorably discharged February 26, 1961.

In April 1961 he became a member of the Apostolic Faith, attending Church at 800 Princeton St. Lockport, Illinois. February 17, 1962 he was united in Holy Matrimony to Tecola Williams and to this union five children were born. 

Bishop Moore has served the Christ Temple Church of 212 Richards Street since its inception in November 1965. He has served on the Board of Big Brothers and is presently serving on the Central YMCA Board. He has served the Pentecostal Churches of the Apostolic Faith as Convention manager, managing the Annual and Biannual meetings of the P.C.A.F. He is a professor and treasurer at Midwest Apostolic Bible College of the College in Chicago, Illinois. Bishop Moore is dedicated to serving people. Bishop Moore presently serves the P.C.A.F. as Assistant Presiding Prelate.  

...

 

 TENNIS ANYONE?

FAMILYGRAM

JOPLIN TORNADO UPENDS LIFE

In the late afternoon on May 22, 2011, Marilyn (Martin) Tennis not only found her surroundings in shambles but her life as well in the aftermath of the historic Joplin Tornado (NOTE: Joplin has had many of them but this one was big enough to be called THE Joplin Tornado). "I was renting in the upstairs of a house on 22nd and Kentucky," she said. "That area was soon referred to as 'Ground Zero' by the media. I came out OK, but some possessions blew away." Marilyn found refuge at the home of John and Linda Carver in the Carver Hill region of neighboring Galena, Kan. After seeing her life was not returning to normal any time soon, jobwise and economically, she realized her limited displacement possibilites and accepted son Thad's offer to join him and wife Carrol Ann at their home in Greenbrier, Ark., until the situation improved to return. Her older sister Barbara in Joplin was doing fine, according to Marilyn, and another sister, Donna, lives in Baxter Springs and was unaffected by the devasting twister. Escaping the annual arrival of the whirling monsters is a near impossibility. There are, however, other dangers presented by Mother Nature as well. On February 27, 2011, a 4.7 earthquake hit just outside of Greenbrier. The quake was felt in several adjacent states, and as far away as Iowa.

+++

Marilyn married Phillip George Tennis. George died August 25, 2003, at age 57.  

VERILY, I SAY UNTO YOU...

Brenton Thad Tennis and wife Carrol Ann are members of the Springhill Baptist Church in Greenbrier, Ark., where they also serve on various church committees.

+++

TENNIS TWOSOME VISITS GRAND OLE OPRY IN 2002

Marilyn (Martin) Tennis informed me that her and hubby George would be coming to Music City to attend a Grand Ole Opry show, back in 2002. I met them at their motel near the Nashville International Airport (George drove his big Caddy) and I brought Marilyn my binoculars as she had requested so she could zone in on Vince Gill that evening. Marlyn surprised me by giving me an old baseball Mickey Mantle had signed for me in 1955 at his home in Commerce, Okla., one that her dad, Noah, had kept for me. George told me about how he and schoolmate J.E. Lewman had once attended a professional baseball players' tryout together. I drove them around the next day and showed them the old Twitty City in Hendersonville, Tootsies, Bluebird Cafe, Hillsboro Village, The Ryman, and my old bar hangout, the Idle Hour on Music Row. Fun, but short time for the three of us.

...

 Cherokee County Kansas, 1961

County names are abbreviated. In travels far from Kansas across this U.S., I always look for "CK" when I see a Kansas plate. I've honked people over to ask "What town?"

 

Galena, Kansas All-School Band

1940s

The lower and upper school grades combined pupils to form a big-band sound. My cousin, Lewis Rice (at left with tuba) must have ushered my Aunt Margaret's nerves to tatters at home. 

Ca. 1947

1st Row: Jenkins, Bynum, Bankson, Cox, Rosenberry, Hulvey, Endicott, Archer, Hayward, Martin, Swain. 

2nd Row: Rice, Rosenberry, McGraw, Vanderpool, Poole, Link, Plyler, Abbott, Cantrell, Carter, Shryock.  

3rd Row: Harrelson, Williams, Ferguson, Hollingsworth, Price, Bullard, Waugh, Willis, Thomas, Moore. 

4th Row: Vogel, Himes, Wheelan, Messer, Wantland, Thompson, McMillan, Williams, Neeley, Tackitt, Booe, Thompson, 

There's belief! Right here in Galena City!

PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT BEGINS...

...

 

Roy Tremble,  From On High

Roy Tremble, bottom left

As a regular congregationist at the Assembly of God church in Galena. I remember Roy Tremble, holding his father's bright red Bible while pop, Bob, passed around the collection plate up and down the pews. Roy was a 1964 GHS grad. For most of the 1970s he sang tenor with the legendary Cathedral Quartet, one of the premier Southern Gospel groups of all time. Locally, Roy joined in with the chorus at church and sang at various school programs. Roy was originally hired as a baritone for the fabled group. He is a member of the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame with the Cathedral Quartet. His tenure with them was during their peak years. The group gained its first Grammy in 1977 with Roy.

I hear he has been in ill health recently. You might remember him and want to seek him out. Prayers, too, are a big deal.

You can donate at Roy Tremble Medical Fund at gofundme.

Several already have.

Roy sings in GHS '64 grad program

...

 

---

Elvis And Parents

Elvis was we and we him

By Bryce Martin

Born in the Kansas Ozarks (look it up). When knee high to a grasshopper I became exposed to the sayings, taboos, and stories most often associated with Midwest and Southern culture and language. As a young burrhead I witnessed horse-team pulling matches held in pastures with local farmers in faded Big Smith overalls and beet red faces, days long Indian pow-wows, Negro baseball teams, convict rodeos, sorghum cooking, cattail harvesting, most often while licking on a horehound candy stick. I took that background to Bakersfield, California, fitting  right in with the large population of displaced Dust Bowlers with similar backgrounds.

Oh, and my favorite meal is still a bowl or plate of white beans seasoned with ample chunks of hamhocks and sprinkled with sweet onions and cornbread. Yes, dear Lord, that is a meal!

My grandmother Edna May sipped her coffee from a saucer, my grandfather Poppy spit the juice from his Tinsley plugs into a rusted red Folger's Mountain Grown tin while we (back when I was knee high to a grasshopper) listened to the Grand Ole Opry from their big blonde radio on the parlor table that got its juice from a car battery since they had no electricity. I listened enough times to know that Rod Brasfield was from a place in Tennessee called Hohenwald and that biscuits would never be right without the aid of Martha White. That, though, was only partly right. They wouldn't really be right unless they came from Grandma's skilled hands and her special clabbered milk that had sat on a window sill until how many days she deemed it ready. Young, I hadn't given much thought as to how people from where I hailed measured up against the rest of the country. Somehow, though, I had the feeling people in places like California and New York, especially in those places, were more sophisticated than people I knew and grew up with as a poor boy of Tennessee heritage and growing up rural on the Missouri/Kansas state line. I couldn't judge how we fit into the picture, until Elvis came along. You ain't nothin' but a houn' dawg... The hell you beller. Elvis sang and spoke our language. Us white, God-fearing country folks. And people all over liked his ways. We not only liked Elvis, we were Elvis and he was us. For Elvis to be so popular being the same as us meant we had to be right with our ways and ideas, otherwise how could so many people from so many places far and near be so accepting of Elvis? We must have been the envy of the nation in those early Elvis days, weeks and months, especially to those folks in California and New York who were not like us but after taking in a good dose of Elvis and knowing how white, God-fearing and country he was, wished they could be just like us. I was certain those who were not of our sort were cultivating every opportunity to become so. Who wouldn't want to be Elvis, or as much like Elvis as they could reasonably expect to become. Thanks to Elvis, I felt better about myself and about how the world was and how it should be. I felt better just knowing all I'd been taught to believe up to this point had been correct and now I could start concentrating on what I wanted to do in this world and this life. Thanks to Elvis. ...

Pat Batten, Fort Scott Greyhounds, Howard Mahanes, and Smokers

Howard Mahanes left Fort Scott, after molding the Greyhounds into a Juco power,  to coach the 1966 Central Missouri State Mules in Warrensburg. Nine players followed him.

• SMOKER: A sanctioned method to settle heated disputes, boxing matches, known as “smokers,” were a hotly anticipated affair.

By Bryce Martin

   In the 1961-62 football season I tried JC football at Fort Scott, Kan., for the Greyhounds. My position was offensive end (that was what we called receivers then), and defensive end, a position where I was adept at knocking out quarterbacks. I went out for football and college because I had no other plans.

   My coach at Fort Scott, Howard Mahanes, in his first year there, had been my high school coach in the small Kansas town of Galena, 55 miles due south of Fort Scott. His arrival brought a new winning trend to the small JUCO football program.

   The Fort Scott Greyhounds football program began in 1923. The team won the NJCAA Football championship in 1970 and was the national runner-up in 1971, 1972, and 2009. The J. C. Grid-Wire rankings, which selected the national champion in 1970, existed from 1960 to 1974. The NJCAA National Football Championship has been held since 1956. So, the team achieved national prominence after 1960, and the championship and ranking systems existed from the late 1950s or early 1960s.

   I went through the three-a-day week of football drills in blistering heat (I can lose five pounds just thinking about it), and the two-a-day weeks and the others that followed on Frary Field. Finally, with one more week of practice ahead and with game week after that, I bowed out for personal and family reasons. I had made the team and was in line for brand new gear.

   In high school I lettered in track (100-yard and 50-yard dashes, discus, long jump) basketball, baseball and football.  I played centerfield in baseball and could catch anything that was catchable. I think that helped me as an offensive end in football, as far as judging trajectories, ball speeds, arrival areas, and knowing immediately when and how to turn my hips in going back on a ball. 

   Jack Collins was an assistant coach under Mahanes at Fort Scott. Collins had held that same position in Galena.

   Our halfback, Pat Batten, soon ended up with the Detroit Lions. But before that, Batten, after leaving Fort Scott went to Texas and Hardin-Simmons on his way to a pro football career with the Lions, Montreal Alouettes, and Orlando Panthers. He was born December 5, 1941, in Indianola, Iowa. His hometown: Eldora, Iowa; high school, New Providence. At 6'2", 225 lbs., he checked all the boxes.

   Batten had a brush with greatness as some of his teammates on the 1964 Lions included Dick LeBeau, Yale Lary, Alex Karras, Earl Morrall, Night Train Lane, Hugh McElhenny, Pat Studstill, and Milt Plum. It was Coach George Wilson's last year. Foisting a line up filled with grit and glamour, LeBeau, Lary, Karras, Lane, and McElhenny, all landed in pro football's Hall of Fame. The 1964 Detroit Lions had a 7-5-2 record, finishing fourth in the NFL's Western Conference.

   A halfback at Hardin-Simmons, Batten was named team captain, a halfback for the Detroit Lions in 1964, a fullback/kicker in 1965 for the Montreal Alouettes, and a fullback for the Orlando Panthers, starting in 1966. 

   A host of knowledgeable football people support the claim that the 1968 Orlando Panthers, with Batten, was the greatest minor-league football team of All-Time.

   Batten was the Detroit Lions' third pick of the 1964 NFL draft, following USC quarterback Pete Beathard and Michigan State end Matt Snorton. Wichita State tackle Bill Parcells was taken seventh. Batten was the 30th overall pick in the draft. He appeared in three regular season games with the Lions, though he didn't record a single stat. The team released him on waivers the first week of September in 1964.

   In late November of 1961, Fort Scott, Interstate Conference football champions, placed nine players on the league all-star squad: ends Dave Molloy (Galena High School), Tim Szenderski; tackle Delbert Ayers; guard Bill Van Cleave; center Jim Meisner; backs Pat Batten, Jerry Seigel; quarterback Dennis Jones; fullback John Putnam.

   A teammate of Putnam's at Macomber High in Toledo was Tim Szenderski. They were both basketball and grid standouts. Surprisingly, though, Szenderski did not play football until 1958 when he was a senior at Macomber. The huge end played so well the Toledo Blade newspaper named him to the all-city team. Putnam, meanwhile, sprained a knee in Toledo and was on crutches much of the football season.

   Putnam, a Fred Flintstone-like character, and at 6-foot, 2-inches, 245-pounds he was a Sherman tank on cleats, fast and a load to handle. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 1965 NFL Draft. Records indicate he did not land a roster spot with the Pack. 

   The Greyhounds were 3-0 leading into their tilt with the Tulsa Golden Gales. The Gales ran what was considered a "pro-type offense" with ends split wide and halfbacks in the slot. The freshman Gales were a less potent version of the varsity Tulsa Hurricanes. Several all-staters were on the Gales roster.

   Even at the small junior college level football was a sea change compared to high school. Batten was a transfer from Drake University, Szenderski from Ohio State, and Molloy from Kansas University, et al. A freshman looking to knock any one of those from the starting lineup would have a small chance at best. 

   It seems inevitable for some to point out any oddness, slight or otherwise, in a person’s facial features or physicality. Mahanes’ jutting jaw spawned the whispered-only nickname of “Hogjaw,” during his high school coaching days in Galena. No one would have dared saying it to his face, not so much from fear, though that would be a valid consideration, but from respect. If from respect, why such a nickname to begin with? As I said, “some people.”

   Like the gentleman and lady then presiding in the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Mahanes had charisma. Whatever it was he had it. He was our JFK, and his Judy was our Jacqueline.  While not Camelot, it was a hermetic world created and overseen by Mahanes wherever he went.

   As young men mostly coming from small towns, nearly all of us, it was natural that we held small town values, holding to dignity and perseverance as core principals. The assemblage of athletes was amazing, especially considering Mahanes, as a first-year coach at the college level, would seem to have had no real experience recruiting. The willing came from such diversely different states as Oklahoma and New Jersey. In fact, those two states had the highest concentration of recruits. Kansas was represented, of course, as was California, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas. Seeing two players from Claremont, Fla., one looked familiar, Bert Canova. He strongly resembled Judy Canova, a comedienne. I had seen a movie or two of hers and even a comic book. “Cousin,” he said. That was about as close to having a celebrity on campus as we were going to get, although we did have a fireplug running back who bragged about having played professionally in the Canadian Football League. If so, and the word got out, it could cause a major rule violation for Mahanes and the program. The stocky one didn’t stick long enough for that to become an issue.

                    John Frary Fieldhouse, established in 1939

   Fort Scott Junior College was the first public junior college in Kansas, beginning September 1919.

   Student enrollment for the JUCO during my stay was around 225. The high school more than doubled that. JUCO students were in the same building as the high school. Some research indicates the JUCO as having its highest enrollment during the period 1945-1949, when ex-GI's from WWII were studying on the GI Bill, a perk they had earned for fighting and defending our country in different military branches and in places all over the world.

                        Fort Scott Tribune, December 10, 1962

   Practices conducted by Mahanes were always tough. Ayers, normally a tackle, sometimes practiced as a linebacker. The last session of our three-a-day practices was reserved for the offensive positions of ends, centers and backs. Ayers, who either volunteered on his own or was asked by Mahanes, liked to get behind us and nail our backsides with some blind hits.

   During the last few practices, the Land Inn, a popular hangout, specializing in barbecue on a bun, began an after-practice "training table" for all players. Great home-style meals had been rare for most of us. The short and sweet lady manager even promised free barbecue if we beat Joplin, the defending league champion. One sponsor donated a steer to help keep us beefed up.

   A restaurant located on the periphery of town was the Red Barn. Former Galena schoolmate Neal Qualls held a part-time kitchen job there while attending the local Juco. Another 'mate and JC student, Harold Shallenburger, had a job pumping gas at a small service station. I thought of the Red Barn as a steak house and unaffordable. Their motto was "When the hungries hit, hit the Red Barn." Six of us bunked and lived together on the upstairs of a large house. Five were from Galena and one was from Baxter Springs, Larry Prauser. The Galenites in addition to Harold and Neal, were me, J.P. Martin, and Dennis Frazier. A regular sit-down meal for us, prepared by house cook Frazier, consisted of fried Spam and potatoes liberally ladled with ketchup.

   Juco student Tom Stelle, Arcadia, had previous boxing experience before taking on Juco footballer Leonard Nickerson, a big lineman from Amarillo, Tex., in the ring. The two students developed a dislike for each other while on campus. Both being big young men, were definite heavyweights. I asked Stelle about his upcoming fight with Nickerson and he displayed nothing but confidence. Stelle said he was a Golden Gloves light heavyweight champion in Miami, Okla., in 1961. He had put on weight since and moved up a division. Nickerson, a 6', 190-pound lineman, was described by coach Mahanes as "a vicious tackler." The bout, considered the headliner, took place on a Tuesday night, March 27, 1962, at Memorial Hall and Nickerson pummeled Stelle enough to win in a decision. Steele was floored once for the mandatory 8-count.

  Virtually no one I knew of was rooting for Stelle, who seemed to enjoy rubbing others the wrong way. I had lost a large amount of weight and Stelle, seeing me in the hallway between classes, would often stop near me and say something like, "Man, you sure are a big son of a gun." Other times he was pleasant enough and demonstrated an engaging personality. However, I didn't mind at all seeing his bruised face and blackened eyes days after.

    It was a big boxing card of about a dozen bouts, filled with local favorites paired against out of towners and some area matchups. Other Greyhound football players were also on the bill. Ayers, an undefeated heavyweight, took on Kansas City's highly touted Roy Rodrigue.

January 2, 1965, The Fort Scott Tribune

TFST, January 20, 1966, Page 1

   I had a lot of natural ability and was always among the hardest working players on the field, not because I had to be to be good but because that was the way it was supposed to work. And why not?

   The following is from a piece written by Jason Alatidd for the Topeka Capital-Journal and published on November 14, 2021

From No. 1 to nothing

Fort Scott was ranked No. 1 before losing the 2009 NJCAA Football Championship Game in Pittsburg to quarterback Cam Newton's Blinn College.

The team won one game in the 2021 season before the program ended with a 63-2 loss on Nov. 7 to Independence, the former home of brash and disgraced head coach Jason Brown, who gained fame from Netflix's "Last Chance U."

It was the second of two tumultuous seasons with head coach Carson Hunter leading the program.

"We would especially like to thank the current football players and coaching staff who have represented FSCC with honor, pride, and dignity this season in very trying competitive circumstances," school officials said in a news release.

Hunter's school biography says he aims "to rebuild the program’s foundation and eventually further Fort Scott’s storied history." In time, the bio says, following the coach's expectations "will result in a program the entire Fort Scott community can be proud of and a team that can consistently play great football."

The fall 2020 season was moved to spring 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

After three straight losses to open the spring season, Fort Scott in April canceled all remaining games. Officials cited "low active roster numbers" due to "injury and attrition" that made it "too severe for the Greyhounds to safely compete."

The team was outscored 190 to 23 over those three games.

Tom Havron, Fort Scott's athletic director and a school vice president, told the Butler County Times-Gazette after the spring season ended that the program would not be shut down.

   But it was.

Postscripts -- Bill Van Cleave was from Lincoln, Nebr., where he had been an all-city tackle. He later was principal at Spring Grove Elementary — my alma mater — in Galena, Kansas, for 22 years. After Fort Scott he went to Northeastern State (Tahlequah, Okla.) — Mahanes’ college alma mater — where he attained NAIA All-America status and was voted into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. 

Mahanes, from down the road in Vinita, played end and was co-captain on the football team while with the Redmen, under head coach “Tuffy” Stratton.

...

Brutal, it Was

Sporting an amazing 16-game winning streak in 1959, with the last half dozen or so wins coming in convincing fashion, the Galena Bulldogs were set to travel to Vinita, Okla., for a tilt with Mahanes’ old high school team, also the Bulldogs. Vinita had twice the school enrollment as the visiting ‘Dogs. Vinita, however, though much improved, had endured an 0-4 start. Galena, meanwhile, was coming off a 41-7 pounding ladled to Girard. In previewing the contest with Vinita, the Joplin Globe newspaper published a glowing review lauding the Galena squad, the long winning streak and its tenacious battlers, complete with photos. Vinita drilled us, 36-0. Not only did they beat us they inflicted real body punishment in the mauling. Mahanes rallied the team back the next week, defeating main rival Baxter Springs 20-14.

The Big Day Arrives

The 1970 Greyhound squad completed an 11-0 season defeating Mesa College (Ariz.) by the score of 41-20 in the 14th Annual Shrine Bowl in Savannah, Ga. to capture the National Title.

The 1970 team was coached by second-year head coach Dick Foster, who was 19-2 in two years at FSCC.

...

Foster Takes Over for Departing Mahanes

When Mahanes departed the program with only four weeks before the start of the 1969 season, Dick Foster replaced Mahanes. Fort Scott won the national title in 1970. Foster went on to a legendary coaching career, mainly established at Coffeyville Community College. The 1984 preseason issue of Sports Illustrated magazine featured Foster.

Dick Foster

...

From Pat Batten obit 

• Born: Dec 5, 1941\Died: Jun 22, 2024

Pat served our country during the Vietnam war as a member of the Army Reserves and the Navy and was stationed overseas during the war in the midst of his sports career. Afterward, he settled in Orlando as a golf professional at the brand-new Walt Disney World resort, where his children fondly remember the perks that came with being part of the Disney family in the early days. Pat and his first wife, Barbara, raised their two daughters together in Winter Park, Florida, making hard work, education, and fun a priority, with summer vacations everywhere from New Smyrna Beach to Seattle to the North Carolina mountains.

Detroit Lions Media Guide 1964