Grover Davis' Letter to Dr. Martin Stahl - Part 3

(The following was written by Grover Davis, and is reprinted from “Reflections”, a collection of local stories available at the Grove City Welcome Center and Museum. Any opinions made in the article are from the author.)During all this time we were thinking about a track team, but could only find four boys to put on the trunks. Our coach, Miss Harbarger, said she wanted to get us ready for the State High Meet at Ohio State when we were Seniors.  The boys worked hard to get ready for the meet and so did our coach. She taught us many things about running, how to save your energy the way to use your arms and legs, how to set your pace, and if someone passed you running rather fast at first do not change your pace at that time because it will take something out of you that you will need at the finish of your run.  We ran in the mile, quarter relay race; each of us ran a quarter of a mile, and we really thought we could win.  The time came up for the start of the relay race, and we lined up with Frank Weygandt leading off, then Floyd Delashmutt second, then Grover Davis third, and Earl Breckenridge last to do the finish.  All of the  first three men gave the last or fourth man the lead but lost by a whisker.  We were all heartbroken but somebody had to win.  We all congratulated their team on winning and they in turn congratulated our team for doing so well on our first race, but this was to be our only start and the beginning of the track team at our school.When we went back to school for senior year, a new high school had been built and that gave the boys a place to start a basketball team. The first floor had a hallway running through the middle of the building with iron posts for support so we boys started to make a basketball court between these posts.  We stretched chicken wire from post to post and across the back end to form the court.  Many bumps and bruises and cut hands on the chicken wire were a common occurrence and the game had to be held up until the injured player was patched up and ready to play as most teams at that time only had five players.  The score of these games at that time never ran much over 20 points as there were very few places where games could be played.  As I said before, everything we did was done the hard way.  As I remember, we won four games on our floor and lost about the same number.  But when we played away from home on better floors, we did much better.  The players were; Arthur Pillman, Pearl Nichols, Allen Grant, Earl Breckenridge, and Grover Davis.  One two are llving, Pearl Nichols who lives in Athens, Ohio and myself.(The conclusion of this letter in the next blog entry.)