Down River – March 27, 2014

A Nice Honor:

I’ve never been overly big into self-promotion and prefer just to do and enjoy my job but family members and friends have insisted that I share with you all a very nice honor I received last Sunday.

The Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Football Foundation held its annual scholar athlete banquet (please see page A1 of The Record for information on our local scholarship winners from Bucktail and Central Mountain High Schools) at Penn State and I was elated to be recipient of the Fran Fisher Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism.

It was especially appreciated because I got to sit with Fran, now 90 years old but still very much with the same grace and sense of humor which distinguished his long broadcasting career, most notably as the voice of Penn State football for many years.

The football folks allowed me two minutes to accept the honor; they also did me no favors when they brought me up to speak right after a talk from the Nittany Lions’ new football coach James Franklin (he was really, really good and I have little doubt he will do really, really well running the PSU program).

Given the opportunity to address the better than 600 people in attendance, I made a little spiel about several things, including a shout-out to coach Franklin on behalf of Central Mountain’s own Von Walker, completing his freshman year at Penn State this spring.

So here’s what I said to the assemblage:

“I thank the football foundation for this great award – particularly because it is named for Mr. Fran Fisher, someone all aspiring sports broadcasters look up to in central Pennsylvania – also a longtime friend and contemporary of my late father Harris Lipez who got me into sportscasting a long time ago.

I accept this award on behalf of the many broadcasters who toiled in relative anonymity in their communities…more often than not all for the love of the game, all to be part of describing, passing along something positive in their home towns.

Those who did that with me over the years included my late father and many others – most recently Joe Walker and Tom Elling.

I accept this for the Brown boys, Norm and Todd from WPHB in Philipsburg, the Bobby Days from Clearfield, the Bob Howers from Lewistown. Many of us did and do these sporting events, either broadcasting them or writing about them, not to get rich but because it’s not a chore, it’s fun… which is a message I’d like to pass along to the outstanding young men here today. There are many positive benefits to participating in sports, but make sure also it’s fun.

And to you same young men, take the lessons you learn from sports participation and carry them over into adulthood: the values of teamwork, responsibility, working together…as adults pay attention to what goes on around you besides the final score of the games you play or later watch; be responsible members of your community.

In all the years I broadcast sports I can think of many great examples, great athletes I observed, who have given back. Steve Geise was a great running back at Lock Haven High, had a great career at Penn State, worked his way through medical school and is now back in Lock Haven as a doctor (and, as a footnote, my doctor); or Robbie Gould, a Central Mountain High School grad who was a solid kicker at Penn State and an even better kicker for the Chicago Bears and has set up a foundation to assist numerous programs in the Midwest and in Clinton County.

The most recent example (and this is for benefit of head football coach James Franklin) is Von Walker, an outstanding athlete and young man, recently out of Central Mountain High School and just now in his first year of spring football as a run-on at Penn State (‘Coach, keep an eye on this kid – he is a talented, hard-nosed kid who will do great things for the Nittany Lion program’).

Thanks again to the Foundation; congratulations to the young athletes being recognized and thanks again to Fran Fisher for being a great role model for all aspiring broadcasters and journalists.”

And a Red Eye Shout Out:

Happy birthday to The Record’s many friends in Flemington, this very Thursday marking its 150 years as an incorporated borough.

As a proud native of Lock Haven, I would note Flemington’s 150 years were not lilly-white.

Material The Record received on Red Eye history said Flemington’s incorporated status (as of March 27, 1864) had a little hitch beginning in March of 1870 when it actually became part of Lock Haven as the city’s then Fifth Ward.

In July of 1878, by order of the court, Flemington “detached” from Lock Haven and became part of Allison Township. That lasted through 1894 when Flemington regained its borough status, again through the courts, and was again incorporated.

Our information did not say what triggered all this and whether these changes were peaceful or something similar to Russia taking Crimea from the Ukraine (we suspect probably something in-between, noting the often-time parochial tendencies of we Clinton County residents).

Regardless, happy birthday to Flemington. And Red Eye residents, if you ever tire of your current borough fathers and mothers, you can call Mayor Rick Vilello in Lock Haven or supervisor Pete Spangler in Allison Township; I am sure they’d be happy to talk to you.