Clark Hall Memories

by Ed Michael

Athletics was in Clark Hall until 1982, and although the facility was old and antiquated there was a kind of quaintness about it. Not only did I get to know the athletes that I had coached in the sport of wrestling, I got to know other athletes as well. Many of them are still good friends today. Oftentimes I look back on it with fond memories.

I remember Sam Pellom, a basketball player. One of my duties was to teach the wrestling class for the phys ed majors, and I had Sam in class. Sam was about six foot nine, a big young man from North Carolina, and I marveled at how quickly he picked up wrestling skills. He had never seen the sport before. Of course I always admired Sam as a basketball player. He later went on to play with the Atlanta Hawks, and I believe with the Milwaukee Bucks. He started out playing for the Washington Generals - that's the team that plays against the Harlem Globe Trotters when they're on the road.

I got to know a couple of the hockey players very well. One in particular - his name was Bob Goody. I remember my wife and children coming to Alumni Arena - at the time we had one car. So they'd come and pick me up, and many times they would come in, and I remember how kind Bob Goody was to my children. Those kinds of memories at the time seemed insignificant, but as we get older and gain more experience with life, we realize that those were special times.

I remember Joe Hesketh when he was an athlete here. He's in our Hall of Fame. Outstanding baseball player. He played with Montreal, Boston, Atlanta - in fact one year, he was ahead of Roger Clemens - with a record of something like 10-2. Then he broke his leg. Then he came back, and had to have a tendon transplant. I used to watch Joe pitch over there in the back of Clark Hall.

We had some good athletes, and we had some good teams. And there was a lot of camaraderie between athletes and teams. You wouldn't have to tell the wrestling team that they should go to a basketball game, or that the wrestlers should go to the baseball game. One time I had to admonish one of my best wrestlers - he was going to miss my practice so that he could put the score up at the baseball game!