By all accounts, John Ross was a fine school administrator. But if you’re looking for a sports prognosticator, look elsewhere.
In fact, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction.
Ross, now retired, was a principal in the Manchester system and at several Akron schools, including Portage Path Elementary.
Among his charges at Portage Path: a youngster named LeBron James.
One day, at recess, LeBron and a bunch of classmates were playing basketball. When the bell rang, they kept playing. Ross urged them to return to class. More than once.
Finally, exasperated, he yelled, “Look, you guys, ain’t one of you is going to make it to the NBA, so put the ball down and get back to school!”
As you may have noticed, one of them did indeed become a participant in the National Basketball Association.
A much more recent (and more enjoyable) brush with greatness took place a couple of weeks ago.
Ross also served at Margaret Park Elementary, which was razed in February. When the walls came down, he saved a brick as a souvenir.
After he learned that one of Margaret Park’s many students had been legendary football coach Ara Parseghian, Ross mailed him the brick, along with a short note and some photos.
A few days ago, Ross, who does consulting work for Akron Public Schools, was standing in a hallway at the administration building, talking with communications coordinator Mark Williamson, when his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and wondered aloud, “Who do I know in Indiana?”
The caller was Parseghian, thanking him for the souvenir. They talked for 15 minutes, and the fabled Notre Dame coach thanked him repeatedly. Ross was thrilled.
“It was an honor for me to talk to him,” he said in a Facebook post. “He is an example of the great people in sports who made a difference.”
ODD ARREST
A story in Sunday’s Plain Dealer showed what can happen when automatic hyphenation at the end of a line outfoxes the best of writing intentions.
Reader Gary Spencer of Hiram led me to the telltale sentence, which read: “Mexican marines rear-arrested him in the western state of Sinaloa in January.”
“I’ve been trying to come up with the appropriate wisecrack,” he wrote, “but I guess I’ll just … let it rest.”
“Wisecrack?’’ I don’t think you let it rest, Gary.
NEW STATE
Bob: A recent headline in our favorite newspaper read: “Puerto Rice misses payment.”
Could this be referring to a new product that will compete with Uncle Ben’s, or the new replacement name for the U.S. territory they must now use until they pay their bills?
James Diendl
Stow
James: Hey, at least we didn’t rear-arrest somebody.
TALE OF GENEROSITY
The praise just keeps rolling in for Chuck Pilliod, the former chairman and CEO of Goodyear, who died last month.
Bob: After reading [so much] about Chuck Pilliod, I thought I would send you a story about Chuck The Neighbor.
In the early 1980s, our family lived on Ely Road [in the Fairlawn Heights section of Akron], across the street from Chuck and Betty Pilliod. In May 1984, we had a significant fire in our house. Chuck and Betty, who had moved into a condo on Portage Path, called and suggested we move into their vacant home, which was still on the market.
We were reluctant, but the next morning they appeared with the keys to their house. We moved in and got the kids back to normal and my daughter Kathleen prepared for her valedictorian speech at the Elms graduation.
We lived in the Pilliods’ home for 15 weeks and they refused to allow us to pay the utilities. When we finally moved back into our repaired home, we endowed The Betty Pilliod Visiting Professorship at Akron Children’s Hospital as a way to acknowledge our generous neighbors.
The Pilliods were the essence of the word neighbor!
James Lehman
Akron
James: And you were the essence of the phrase “pay it forward.” Nice.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com. He also is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bob.dyer.31