Lucky To Grow Up In Rippey by Roger L. Crumley (RHS 1960)

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Lucky To Grow Up In Rippey by Roger L. Crumley (RHS 1960)

  I was born two months before Pearl Harbor day.  Accordingly, most of my childhood was post WWII.  I remember such things as going with my class up on the roof of the schoolhouse, with binoculars, and being trained to look for (enemy, I presume) aircraft.  Living at the west end of Main Street, my commute to school was shorter than most. (But why, then, was I so frequently late?!).

              One of my vivid memories was looking out to the south late one night, across the ballpark, and seeing flames and smoke high in the sky, as the Stevens and Son Sale Barn burned to the ground.   My dad was an auditor or bookkeeper for the huge sales events at that facility, and he had just returned around midnight from a sale there, when we saw the flames.

              I also remember working summers during high school at the Rippey Grain Elevator.  That was a great job!   That too had burned down, but one of the summers (~1958) I worked for the Elevator (days), I was able to get hired nights also in the construction of the new concrete replacement grain elevator.  Those were long 24-hour days!!

              But much about Rippey for me, my brothers Phil and Dave, and my parents, Dwight and Helen Crumley, was about sports.   Who could forget the old gymnasium with the balcony (which led to the school lunchroom during the day)?  As a small boy I watched both of my older brothers playing basketball in that “crackerbox” gym, and they both became role models for me.  Then came the great team with Dan Peters, Kent Burrell, Rod Metzler, Earl Comer, and several other excellent players.  That year (1955, I believe) the State of Iowa had thrown all big schools together with little schools (no longer any class “B”), and of course, our great undefeated team had to play powerhouse Ames in the Sub-State at Ames, where they lost. L  Fortunately, Rippey built a big new gym before I started HS in 1956.

              But Rippey was decidedly a Baseball Town.   My dad played on the Rippey semi-pro “town team” and was catcher for my pitcher-uncle Raymond Crumley. The stories abounded.  I still have a scorebook for that team from the 1920 season. My brothers were both good baseball players (I learned what a no-hitter was at age 7 when brother Phil threw one against Perry!) And who could forget Rippey’s great ones Les Zanotti and Dan Peters?

  I don’t think my Dad ever missed a Rippey game, whether it be “midgets”, little league, High School, or “town team” (which was the Rippey Demons name by the time I got to that age).   There were so many memorable mornings and afternoons at the ballpark. In the summer about 7 to15 of us would gather at the park and have “pickup” games.  Many days, we’d go home for lunch, and then come back and play all afternoon.   Players from that time frame included Larry Munson, Lynn Wilson, Jerry and Dick Young, Lloyd DeMoss, Larry Gilroy, Carl Killam, Butch Smith, Jim Fouch, and his older brother Billy Joe Fouch.  Boy, do I remember Billy Joe Fouch and his fastball AND his curve (which is the main reason I learned to bat left-handed.). His curve invariably started right at your head, if you were a right-handed batter!

Larry Gilroy, Don Drake, and I were all Class of ‘60.  We were SO lucky that around 1956, the school hired a young new coach, Patrick Daugherty.  Pat came from Cumberland, Iowa, and was a standout baseball and basketball player. He then attended Simpson College on a baseball scholarship.  Rippey and all of us benefited tremendously from his skill, enthusiasm, and intricate knowledge of both baseball and basketball.   Pat loved baseball, and Rippey, and the ballpark.  He had a little yellow Volkswagen bug, and would “drag” the infield with it before every game.  I believe he also did the lime-marking of the foul lines as well–everything to make the park look at its best.  (And since it was such a great, flat, ballfield, which had had lights installed in 1948 long before most other parks in the state, it hosted several State Tournament final games.)

I’ll never forget the caper (this now during basketball season) when Larry, Don, probably Jerry Groves, John Bardole, and myself, and who knows who else…..decided that Coach Daugherty’s little VW bug should be turned sidewise (making it impossible for him to get out of the parking lot.).   So, we simply went out, lifted it up, and turned it 90 degrees, accomplishing our goal).   Pat Daugherty, as many know, went on to became baseball director and coach at Indian Hills Junior College in Centerville IA, (Google “Pat Daugherty Field”) where his wisdom, passion for baseball, and incredible people skills enabled him to coach, grow, and graduate several players who were successful in pro ball, including no less than 14 major leaguers.  Pat himself later became Chief Scout for the Montreal Expos, and later the Colorado Rockies.   Pat’s coaching enabled Don and me to play baseball at Simpson, while Larry Gilroy attended and pitched for Buena Vista College.

Indeed Rippey, Iowa was just a terrific place to have grown up!!!