[ back ]
Steinbrenner once called Groveport his home
(by Rick Palsgrove, Southeast Editor - July 20, 2010)
A few years ago, a big, shiny Lincoln Town Car pulled up in the alley behind Jim Hollingshead's Front Street home in Groveport and out stepped a man with one of the most recognizable faces in sports.
"You probably don't know who I am," said the man, smiling as he walked through the yard towards Hollingshead.
"You're George Steinbrenner," calmly replied Hollingshead.
Steinbrenner, who passed away July 13 at the age of 80, is best known as the owner, or "The Boss," of the New York Yankees since 1973. But did you know that for a short time in the early 1950s Steinbrenner lived in Groveport?
Steinbrenner paid a couple of short, nostalgic visits to the Hollingshead home in the mid-1990s where, from 1952-54, he rented a room in the large, brick home from the Preston family. At the time, Steinbrenner was a young Air Force lieutenant stationed at Lockbourne (now Rickenbacker) Air Force Base.
"He (Steinbrenner) was like an ordinary common Joe," said Hollingshead. "He stopped by a couple of times to see the old house. He showed us the room he rented and told us the house rules for tenants were 'no food and no girls in the rooms.'"
Long time Groveport resident Ed Rarey remembers Steinbrenner being a regular customer at the old Cruiser Inn, a cozy restaurant that once operated at the corner of Walnut and Main streets in Groveport.
"He'd have his breakfast and evening meals there," said Rarey. "He was a nice guy."
Rarey said Steinbrenner had a "strong knowledge of athletics" and for a short time served as a volunteer scout for the Groveport Madison High School varsity football team, as well as other area teams.
"He'd compile a detailed scouting report in a notebook almost two inches thick," recalled Rarey.
As part of his duties at Lockbourne Air Force Base, Steinbrenner served as athletic coordinator for the base as well as coach of the basketball and fast pitch softball teams known as the Lockbourne Skyhawks, according to Groveport resident Jay Montgomery, whose father, Jon, knew and worked with Steinbrenner at other coaching jobs
Rarey said Steinbrenner was instrumental in scheduling a highly sought after basketball game in 1953 between the Skyhawks and Rio Grande College, which featured the now legendary high scoring sharpshooter Bevo Francis, in the new Groveport Madison High School gymnasium on Main Street (now the junior high).
The gym, which opened in 1952, was the largest high school gym in Franklin County at the time and Rarey, who attended the game with his wife Anne, said "the place was packed to the rafters with fans," for the game on Feb. 17, 1953. Rio Grande won the game, 95-80, but the Skyhawks limited Francis, who had scored more than 100 points in some games, to "only" 47 points.
"He (Steinbrenner) developed a pretty big athletic program at Lockbourne," said Montgomery. "The Skyhawks traveled all around," and, foretelling his days as owner of the Yankees, Steinbrenner "found the best athletes he could for the Skyhawks."
Echoing Hollingshead and Rarey, Montgomery added Steinbrenner, "...was just like one of the guys."
[ back ]
