| Steve Fisher |
| Stephen Haden Fisher |
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Stephen H. Fisher Box #207 Lushoto, Tanzania
A Couple of Comets Sporting Memories
Dear Y’all, In about 1989 I was sitting with Gene and Paula and I
remarked that in 1959-60 I was very conscious that I
knew everyone in our senior class and
liked everyone, and that nearly 30 years later I retained that
feeling, even though I had been out of touch with almost everyone for the
whole period. Gene said he thought I should write a piece about this
feeling. Then, several years ago I was talking with an old Peace Corps
friend by Yahoo’s Instantaneous Message, and I told him about a basketball
game the Comets had played. He observed that it must have been my proudest
memory from high school. That set me thinking on the subject and I
determined that I had two memories of sporting events at Classen that I was
extremely proud of then and now. I wanted to share the memories with my
elderly classmates, especially those whose memories are less fuzzy than
mine, but it’s taken me 4-5 years to get around to it (and I sure ain’t been
busy on other meaningful activities: I’m just a lazy old man). I wanted to
publish my accounts for our 50th anniversary; I think possibly that I’m a
little late for that. Anyway . . .
The Comet Baseball Team
Finishes Second in the State
The Comets baseball team seemed to me a fairly
undistinguished bunch of ballplayers, but in midseason something magical
happened, and we suddenly started winning – every game. (N.B. – I say “we”
because anything that happened at Classen was “we” as far as I was
concerned: but I wasn’t wearing the Comet flannels.) We went through the
knockout district and regional playoffs and then found ourselves in the
state tournament. The best player on the team was Curt Booher, who wasn’t a
northwest Oklahoma City lifer but from somewhere far, far away. Guthrie,
maybe, or Harrah. But the stars of the team were our pitchers, Mark Jernigan
and Irv Horowitz. They both played third, and they switched from game to
game, taking turns to pitch. The Class of 1960 was represented by two men adorned in
the Tools of Ignorance, Elvia Taylor and Terry Head, our catchers, and by
the Keystone Combo, Doug at short and Kenny at second. If there were others,
I am very sorry to admit I don’t remember them. I also don’t remember who
played left and right; maybe Elvia and Terry did some duty out there. The
first-baseman was Alex Thomas, The Big Man, who batted left and could hit
the ball out of the ballyard. Incidentally, Alex was not called The Big Man
because he was a big man, which he was, but because he was World Greatest
Comets booster and was in the locker room before and after every big game in
any sport -- and little ones, too -- telling each player, “You can do it,
Big Man” or “We’re counting on you, Big Man.” We got all the way to the final game, against the same
Tulsa school, Webster, I think, which had defeated us the year before in the
semifinals. We lost, I think three to one. Now, 53 years later, I can still
summon up the exact feeling I had that day as I sat in the concrete stands
at Northwest Classen, the school named after us: a feeling of enormous pride
and joy for the accomplishments of all those boys wearing the blue and gold.
This was the proudest sporting moment I have experienced in my life; that
same year we had some wonderful basketball victories, but my feelings were
more of great joy than of the pride I felt in our ballplayers in the State
Baseball Championship game. It’s almost grotesque for a 70-year-old man to be a
proud partisan of the grade school
he left 58 years ago, but I do take pride in the fact that Mark, Irv, Kenny,
Terry, and Elvia were all Hawthorne boys. Also that a Hawthorne boy made an
unequalled contribution to their success: I was on the team until midseason,
when I quit. From that moment we won every game we played until the state
final. Coincidence? I think not. Their trophy had Pride of Place for 40 years in the
trophy case facing the front doors of Classen High School, engraved with the
names of all the boys on the team. I used to go the Classen Museum whenever
I was in Oklahoma City, and in 1997, or maybe 2004, I was severely
disappointed to find that their trophy wasn’t in the trophy case, nor did I
see it in the museum rooms. It should still be in an honored spot. I would
write a fevered editorial on the subject if I had a
Classen Life to publish it in.
We Score 20 Points in the State
Track and Field Championships The champion in each event scored 10 points for his
school in the team competition. In 1960, Classen won 20 points, and I don’t
remember our ever winning a single point in any other year during my four
years as a Comet. John Park won all 20 points for us. He was the champion in the Mile Run and the 880-Yard
Run. Winning either of those events
was remarkable’ winning both was amazing, super, and I think the greatest
achievement of any kind for our school in the 10 years, 1955-65, when I was
paying close attention. It’s also an unimaginably strong testament to the
dedication and guts of John, who basically did this all on his own. If he
had a helpful track coach on the Classen staff, I wasn’t aware of it then
and am not aware of it now.
·
So those are the two proudest sporting memories from my
time at Classen. My most joyful single moment was probably one that occurred
in Dec., 1958, when for some
reason Northwest Classen agreed to play Real Classen in basketball, and we
beat them on their own court. Our star was Mark, of course, who hit 20
points in that game (you can read more about it in
The Classen Life at the Classen
H.S. Museum). I ran off the court with the ball and hid it, but the
Northwest Classen coach, Mr. Van Pool, complained to my father and I was
forced to give it back. I wish that basketball were in our trophy case. Was an incomparably
satisfying victory, beating that school full of boys and girls whom so many
of us Classenites had grown up with.
·
A digression: in 1958 we had some superior three-sport
athletes, notably Jack Hayden and Tim Allen. Because of his superiority in
basketball and his position on a state baseball runnerup, it is my judgment
that Mark Jernigan was the Best Athlete at Classen High School, 1955-60. On
graduation he went to Oklahoma State University as a basketball player but
quit playing soon and then disappeared off the face of the earth. What
happened to him? Please let me know, if anyone knows. The internet does not
seem to know of him.
·
This is being circulated through the kind offices of
Mr. Leon DeSpain, Classen ’60.
That we have all maintained some sort of awareness of each other into the
second half century since our graduation is due almost entirely to Leon. We
also owe him our thanks and congratulations on the superior Class of 1960
website; it is a indeed Labor of Art, but more than that it is a true Labor
of Love. Geriatrically y’all’s, Steve
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