Published Aug.

14, 2011 in the Sandusky Register

Valhalla
By MIKE TRUAX
truax@sanduskyregister.com PERKINS TWP.

ThorSports

One year ago, the structure on the southeast corner of Neilson Avenue and Campbell Street was merely a dilapidated storage building. The blight for decades Sandusky Dressed Beef, a slaughterhouse stored vehicle bearings, old clothes, cars, boats and a stray golf cart. Part of the ceiling had collapsed during a violent windstorm earlier that year, wrecking two 20-foot wooden boats. Duke Thorson, the owner of ThorSport Racing, wanted to transform it into a race shop. We actually came over here and did a walkthrough, general manager David Pepper said. Ill be the first one to tell you, you had to have your rose-colored glasses on when we walked through. A lot of the walls that needed to be up were falling down, and a lot of the walls that were still up needed to come down. In 2004, When Pepper became the general manager of ThorSport, a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series operation, there were seven employees and three or four truck chassis. The team was based in a building on ThorWorks industrial property off of Campbell Street in Perkins Township. The race team lost some space through the years to the chemical business When they moved out, the race teams headquarters was around 30,000 square feet. Before purchasing the Neilsen Street property, ThorSport had sought expansion elsewhere, including properties on US 250 and next to GriffingSandusky Airport. Then they turned to the big building with a partially collapsed roof adjacent to the ThorWorks campus. My rose-colored glasses work really well, but sometimes not as well as

You have 120 drivers, 80 teams and probably 77 of those teams are in the Carolinas. To have a team right here is a really big deal.
Matt LaNeve, ThorSport vice president of motorsport partnerships

they need to, Pepper said. But when (Thorson) said that this was going to be the new home of ThorSport Racing and it was going to be a state-of-the-art racing facility, (I believed) that very minute. The new property checks in at just under 100,000 square feet, including an uninterrupted main shop floor of 9,000 square feet. The new facility will include a private gym, locker room and restaurant when it is completed. The ThorSport team now employs 53 people to operate three full-time teams. The three or four chassis are now 29. Its a never-ending quest to be the very best in the NASCAR racing community, not just the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. ThorSports drivers are competing at the highest levels of the Truck Series. Heading into Saturdays race at Michigan Speedway, Johnny Sauter is just one point behind the driver points leader, while teammate Matt Crafton is in sixth. Through 14 races this season, both teams have visited victory lane. Either Sauter or Crafton has led the driver points standings following 11 of the 14 races this season. ThorSport is still growing, too. They recently added a third full-time team, the No. 98, piloted by Dakoda Armstrong. You have 120 drivers, 80 teams and probably 77 of those teams are in the Carolinas, ThorSport vice president of motorsport partnerships Matt LaNeve said. To have a team right here is a really big deal.
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Two race trucks sit in the main bay of the new ThorSport Racing building in Perkins Township as employees prepare other trucks for upcoming races.
Register file photos

ThorSport shop grand opening

n WHAT: Open house and fan appreciation day n WHEN: 12 p.m. Aug. 17, 2011 n WHERE: 312 Neilson Ave., Sandusky

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Two of the ThorSport Racing rigs sit in their garage in the back of the race shop.

Only one driver from a shop outside Ohio aside from the ThorSport tandem has started all 14 races in the Truck Series this season. Ryan Sieg, representing Tucker, Ga.-based S&W Services, is also the only non-Carolinan to break into the top 10 this season with a seventh-place finish at Texas Speedway. In that sense, ThorSports No. 88 and No. 13 teams stand out among teams from outside the NASCAR heartland They regularly lead races, run fastest laps and challenge for victories without raising many eyebrows anymore. With ThorSports start Aug. 6 at Pocono Raceway, they surpassed Roush Fenway Racing for most races in the Truck Series since its inception with 354. But as recently as February, the cable racing channel SPEED did a segment on the little team from the North, splicing shots of the drivers talking outside in the snow with ice carving. The biggest names do seem clustered in North Carolina in satellite cities orbiting Charlotte, N.C.: Richard Childress Racing, Welcome, N.C.; Roush Fenway Racing,

Concord, N.C.; Penske Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc., Mooresville, N.C.; Joe Gibbs Racing, West Huntersville, N.C.; Hendrick Motorsports, Charlotte, N.C. Why isnt every NFL team based in Kansas City, and then they just go to another city to play that weekend? Why doesnt every Major League Baseball team? Whats the difference? Thorson

Randy Prince wipes down a section of one of the race trucks being assembled inside the companys new building.

Were as big and professional as any team youre going to come across in the Carolinas.
David pepper, ThorSport general manager
asked in an April interview. They all travel to somewhere else to play their games, except for their home games. Well, in this sport you dont have any home games. Only one sponsor has ever really commented on it, Thorson said, while others might not even recognize that theres a difference. But ThorSports success, gaining steam in particular over the last two seasons, erases doubts about legitimacy. We are unique. I always find it humorous when watching the races on TV or reading the different media pieces throughout the country and they refer to us as the small little team from northern Ohio, Pepper said. If you come here and drive down the front of this building, and you walk in the front doors, were not a little team. Were as big and professional as any team youre going to come across in the Carolinas. Weve built this organization to win races and win championships. Our goal is to fill those cabinets out front in the lobby with more trophies than we have room for. n

huronS :
great legacy
uuu Hurons 1962 senior class had seen its share of success. When they were in eighth grade, the middle school team went 6-0 without allowing a point, and in the first three years of high school they were 22-5-1. Heading into the 1961 football season, the Tigers were stacked with veterans: Nine of 11 starters on each side of the ball
Published Nov. 20, 2011 in the Sandusky Register
By MIKE TRUAX
truax@sanduskyregister.com HURON

Every few decades a team combines offensive skill, defensive toughness and coaching savvy into one spectacular season. The 1961 Tigers had the offense, led by halfbacks Jim Boos and Walt Taylor, with 364 points scored. Hurons three leading rushers averaged better than 7.4 yards per carry behind a sturdy offensive line. That same Tigers team had the defense, holding opponents to fewer than 1,000 total yards of offense during the 10-game season, yielding just 14 points. Opponents averaged 1.7 yards per carry, with just 2.5 pass completions to interceptions thrown. Huron also had a young, talented coaching staff of Paul Greene, Jess Hagy, Chris Ford and Ray Richards. Greene, 30 years old heading into the 1961 season, had a record at Huron of 37-7-1. Hagy, from Virginia, and Ford, from Bowling Green, were straight out of college, bringing different personalities with Division I athletics experience. Richards, a former head coach at Willard, was the staffs elder statesman. Our team just happened to be just one little moment in time when everything came together, center and nose tackle Ron Faller said. Being on other teams, it just wasnt quite like that. The 61 Tigers shut out their first eight opponents en route to a 10-0 season and finished No. 13 in the final Associated Press football poll. When you stepped on that field, you

knew that it wasnt just you you had a big machine in front of you, Taylor said. You knew things were going to work out. And they did.

When you stepped on that field, you knew that it wasnt just you you had a big machine in front of you. You knew things were going to work out. And they did.
Walt Taylor, huron running back

were seniors, with the remainder juniors. The basis of Hurons offense was a full-house attack, with a quarterback, two halfbacks and a fullback in the backfield at all times. The trickiest plays in the Tigers arsenal were counters. Huron relied on a disciplined offensive line to neutralize its opponents defensive front. It was on the ground, that physical kind of game, said Taylor, a two-way starter as a junior on the 61 team. Either Im going to go right over the top of you, or youre going to go over the top of me, and theres not a whole lot of finesse or anything like that. The 1961 Tigers opened the season with three increasingly brutal wins, taking down Norwalk (20-0), Willard (22-0) and Ridgeville (48-0). Paul Greenes Clubs have always exceled on defense, an article in the Register after the Norwalk game noted, and it seems that the Lakeland Conference representatives will again be stingy in yielding points based on their performance before a home crowd at Memorial Field. Listed at just 6-feet-0 and 170 pounds, senior left halfback Boos didnt have elite size or speed, but was a tenacious and intelligent runner behind blocks. Boos paced the Tigers offense, scoring in each of the first three games as Huron warmed its way into the season. We thought, Hey, weve got something going here. Lets see if we can finish it, he said. We remembered that
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From the Oct. 7, 1961 Sandusky Register

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wed done it in eighth grade. Lets try to do this again. uuu Taylor, returning from an openinggame injury, scored his first three touchdowns of the season in a 48-0 rout of Midview in Week 4. As the season crept forward, the shutouts piled up.

undefeated in the Lakeland Conference that had allowed just 40 points total in the first seven games. Huron scored 50 on the Dukes in the Tigers eighth consecutive shutout. uuu Faller moved from Toledo to Huron with his family just before high school. He used sports football and wrestling to help him mix in with the new area. Faller initially tried to play football without his signature Coke-bottle glasses, but the team decided they were necessary when he accidentally snapped a punt to a blocker in practice. To protect his glasses, Faller wore one of the first full facemasks, little more than an ugly brown cage, that drew his opponents fingers trying to disrupt him. Though he didnt play with them in middle school, some of his senior teammates honored him with the nickname the Bull, to make him one of the Bs, like Boos, Bob Barnes, Joel Bickley, Sam Bomar and Joe Bilgen. Hurons Memorial Field behind McCormick School the players sometimes called it the Rock Pile quickly became Fallers home turf. It was kind of like Green Bay, in the cold. Youve got to come to my place. I live here, and I love it. It was our Rock Pile, Faller said. Youve got to come to our Rock Pile. I dont know if it was clay or whatever, but it was hard. In todays world, with some of those kids that like to wear the real thin pads, youd bounce off that ground and come up bloody, because youre getting scraped and bruised and everything else.
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From the Oct. 11, 1961 Sandusky Register

Lets be honest: You were starting to look at the papers and thinking, Could we do it? They were talking about little Huron having five shutouts, then six
Walt Taylor
A 36-0 win over Clearview: the Tigers held the Clippers to 34 total yards. A 58-0 rout of Sandusky St. Marys: Taylor ran for 242 yards on nine carries (26.9 average) with four touchdowns in Hurons homecoming. A 30-0 victory over Amherst: the Comets would get no closer than the 25yard line. Lets be honest: You were starting to look at the papers and thinking, Could we do it? Taylor said. They were talking about little Huron having five shutouts, then six The Tigers greatest test was supposed to be Wellington, another team then-

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The Tigers protected their Rock Pile and wrecked every opposing piece of earth they trod until Week 9 against New London. The Wildcats came out claws first in the cold, muddy game, keeping the Tigers offense out of the end zone in the first half for the first time that season. On about second-and-6 from the 15yard line, New Londons Bill Damron took a handoff over the right tackle into a gap in the Huron defense. Boos dove for an off-balance tackle and came up with Damrons left shoe. Damron stumbled forward in the mud and went down at Hurons 1-yard line. On the next play, the Wildcats punched it in on a dive, ending Hurons quest for a flawless season. New Londons touchdown stopped Hurons streak of 21 consecutive games without allowing opponents to score in the first half. Trailing 6-0, the Tigers went to the locker room with their heads down, though they were still confident the game was in hand. Look, guys its 6-0, Greene calmly told his players. He wasnt the type of coach to yell. We havent been behind in any ballgames this year, but all weve got to do is score one touchdown and we win this football game. With that in mind, we went out and did it. Huron outscored New London 30-0 in the second half, led by the defense. A Wildcats fumble gave the Tigers the ball on New Londons 11-yard line, which Huron turned into an easy score. To seal the game, Bickley and Boos each returned an interception in the fourth quarter, scoring the Tigers final 16 points of the game. Huron finished with a share of the Lakeland Conference title. The Tigers would not face Avon Lake, also undefeated in the conference. Huron finished its season with a 22-8 victory over Lorain St. Marys, with just one loss heading into the final game. The Irish scored with just 21 seconds remaining. In the locker room, all of the sudden it hits you that, OK, we won, but youre not going to be putting pads back on again, Faller said. Youre not going to be putting a helmet back on again. You question whether youre going to play for anyone ever again. uuu In 1961, the playoff system was still 11 years away. Even the most successful teams in the state hung up their cleats at the end of the regular season. The Associated Press poll leader claimed the title of state poll champion. In this case, Massillon Washington marched

In the locker room, all of the sudden it hits you that, OK, we won, but youre not going to be putting pads back on again. Youre not going to be putting a helmet back on again. You question whether youre going to play for anyone ever again.
ron Faller, huron lineman
away again as poll champion, and also claimed its ninth national poll championship. Boos, however, remains unconvinced. If wed had playoffs, I guarantee wed have gone all the way. I know we would have, he said. Its too bad we didnt have playoffs back then. We played at Lorain that night, and it was a long road home. That was it. Football was over with. The numbers for Huron were impressive: 3,003 yards rushing as a team on 460 attempts (6.5 average); 384 yards passing on 18-of-25 passing from Jim Cunningham with seven touchdowns, six to Bickley. The statistics for the Tigers opponents were inversely striking: 970 total yards on 473 plays (2.05 per play average); just 66 first downs, with six by Tiger penalty; 47 of 128 passing with 19 interceptions and one touchdown on the final offensive play of the season. Boos and Taylor both finished with over 1,000 yards rushing. Boos led with 1,057 yards on 137 carries with 11 touchdowns and 18 two-point conversions, and Taylor gained 1,021 yards on 130 carries with 17 touchdowns and three two-point conversions. Jay Pressler, the fullback, ran for 595 yards on 80 carries. Taylor was one of just two experienced lettermen to play for the 1962 Tigers, who finished 3-7. After three years of dominant football, Taylor wasnt mentally prepared for the hardships of the game. Before his senior season, he didnt believe that he could step on the field without scoring a few touchdowns, but he found out quickly that it wasnt true. It was a real unpleasant experience until years later, when it really registered and I realized that the lesson I had learned there was greater than anything else
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I could have learned as a person, Taylor said. I started looking at that team I was a part of as a junior, and through eyes that I would never have looked at it before, it was a great experience. I was privileged to be a part of it. Being on that 1961 team, I thought that I was better than I really was. I was a little inflated, he said. But being on the team the next year, I found out there was a lot more to that than I ever thought there was. Then I began to realize that its always the case, especially when youre part of a team. uuu After graduating from high school, the Tigers dispersed into fields of medicine, banking, education, engineering and business. John Williamson operated a urology practice in Austin, Texas. Ted Willey ran a business consulting firm in Denver. Some moved to Michigan, Illinois, North Carolina and Maryland. Taylor went on to Ohio State, where he received his teaching certificate. He taught social sciences at New London, where he also coached at the freshman

level and as a varsity assistant. Faller attended Ohio State and worked for Ford Motor Company. Boos graduated from Cleveland State and became an engineer at Ford. He, like Taylor and Faller among many others from that team, still lives in the area. I think theres some values in football that you dont get in ordinary life, Greene said. You get knocked down, you get back up, and you start work again and working harder. It teaches a lot of discipline, a lot of self-discipline. You have to make sacrifices to do it. Those are some of the true values of high school football. Greene left Huron in 1964 to move closer to his ailing father in Dayton. He coached several years at Dayton Carroll before moving north to coach at Lima Central Catholic for two decades. Greenes family made a scrapbook of newspaper clippings from his time at Huron, with the exception of one year. That undefeated season 50 years ago was separate, in a manila folder that remained on top of his desk. It was something special, Greene said. It just wound up a bonding of a great bunch of kids and coaches that were dedicated to making things better. That one is special, so I have it close by. If I started feeling rough, Id read it. n

From the Nov. 12, 1961 Sandusky Register

From the Nov. 14, 1961 Sandusky Register

THE DECISION: ONE YEAR LATER

Published Nov. 20, 2011 in the Sandusky Register
By MIKE TRUAX
truax@sanduskyregister.com

July 8, 2010

Cavaliers fans set fire to LeBron James jerseys on July 8, 2010, after he announced he would join the miami Heat.

a quarter of televisions turned on in Cleveland at 9 p.m. were tuned to ESPN, watching two men sitting in directors chairs, chatting uncomfortably. This fall and this is very tough this fall, Im going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat. For weeks LeBron James had strung along suitors, allowing some of the biggest teams make sales pitches in front of his team of advisors. He was looking for a bigger stage and brighter lights than Cleveland to mount his campaign. Miami. What could be more different than Cleveland? The Dear John letter LeBron James signed under the lights at 9:27 p.m. was tasteless, humiliating and posted on the bathroom wall. Not only was the hometown guy fleeing his local team, built around him, constructed to keep him, he was also making a public mess of the breakup. Not that Cleveland responded well to the news. Drinks poured, jerseys burned and social networks lit up with burning anger. It was a shortcut, basketball fans said A team cant be built in a day. Police prepared for vandalism, particularly of the 10-story Nike billboard that the city allowed through a special exemption for art. Even the billionaire owner of the Cavaliers, Dan Gilbert, sent out a scathing email in Comic Sans via his public relations team, ripping into

James for his betrayal, even making a comparison to Americas turncoat, Benedict Arnold. Oh, and Gilbert also guaranteed that the Cavaliers would win an NBA Championship before LeBron James.

LeBron James makes his announcement on July 8, 2010, that he will leave the Cleveland Cavaliers.
AP file photos

Dec. 2

FFF

On paper, the matchup looked respectable. The 7-10 Cavaliers, who opened the season with a victory over Boston, would host the Heat, who stumbled to an 11-8 start. Miami drew sneers from the around the league, leading coach Erik Spoelstra to make the declaration that it was us against the world. The 118-90 tilt in favor of Miami in front of a sold-out Cleveland crowd was anything but respectable. The body blow sapped the citys energy, dissolving the bitter resolve. The game set courses for both teams, with Miami on its way up and Cleveland down it was the second of 10 straight losses for the Cavs, and the third of 12 consecutive wins for the Heat.

Feb. 9

FFF

The Cavaliers extended an NBA record. With a 103-94 loss to the Detroit Pistons, Cleveland extended their losing streak to 26 games of futility. The Cavaliers (8-45) were winless for nearly eight straight weeks, with only a 109-102 overtime win against the Knicks on Dec. 18 stopping what would have been a
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Heat fans enter American Airlines Arena in miami for a welcome celebration for LeBron James and Chris Bosh, who signed with the Heat to join teammate Dwayne Wade.

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record-shattering 37-game slide. Miami was 38-14, or 27-6 since their Dec. 2 game against the Cavaliers.

Kyrie Irving, a young point guard from Duke, was selected No. 1 overall and Tristan Thompson No. 4. A few days later, the Cavs would trade away J.J. Hickson, one of the final pieces cemented in the LeBron era.

June 12

FFF

Dirk Nowitzki, a man who had been told he would never win an NBA title after blowing the 2006 finals, was finally holding the Larry OBrien trophy after the Mavericks finished up a 4-2 series victory over the Heat. More importantly to Cleveland, the Mavs stopped James and the Heat from proving Gilberts title declaration wrong in less than a year. The rest of the league, especially Cleveland, pointed at James poor performance in the series with glee. Governor John Kasich made the Mavericks honorary Ohioans for a day with a resolution.

July 8, 2011

FFF

June 23
2

FFF

Despite some significant trades throughout the season, Cleveland started their rebuilding in earnest during the NBA Draft. Cleveland, armed with the Nos. 1 and 4 picks, winning the lottery with a pick that had only a 2.8-percent chance of coming out on top.

One year later, the anger is still not completely gone. The Decision is destined to be remembered alongside Art Modell. The city of Cleveland is well equipped to remember slights forever, but the collective rage had less to do with James decision than with our own feelings of sports inadequacy. It wasnt the Cavaliers organization that hurt the most It was northern Ohio itself. The Decision even angered people around the state who never cared about professional basketball. The Decision was a rejection of the what the city was, a referendum on what one man thought it could not be. The most painful part is that it doesnt know how to prove him wrong. n

The Decision was a rejection of the what the city was, a referendum on what one man thought it could not be.

edisons Tyler majoy, front, wrestles with St. mary Central Catholics Adam guerra during the Sandusky Bay Conference Duals Jan. 20 in Huron.
Register file photos

Published Dec. 26, 2011 in the Sandusky Register

edisons majoy waits his turn

By MIKE TRUAX
truax@sanduskyregister.com MILAN

Edisons Tyler Majoy had planned every step toward the title bout. Hed stay at 135, a dangerous weight class. Hed contend with the three-time state champion, Hunter Stieber. Hed fight for a chance to wrestle on the raised mats in Columbus, even cast as the heel. Majoy never escaped Stieber or, rather, Stieber never escaped him. Majoy lined up across from the No. 1-ranked 135-pounder in the nation in the sectional championship finals. And the district finals. And again in the state finals. When the state brackets came out and people started putting their predictions out there, people still had two or three

I dont think he got the respect he deserved.

Davy hermes, edison coach, on Tyler Majoy

other kids in that half of the bracket make the finals and not really mentioning Tyler, Edison coach Davy Hermes said. I dont think he got the respect he deserved. Majoy fought his way through sectional and district champs for the right to wrestle Stieber, but the audience was fixated on the other half of the bracket. Majoy was used to having just a toe in the spotlight. If it wasnt the Monroeville Four, it was his own teammate, Kyle Burns, that grabbed the attention. Majoy, an unorthodox risk-taker, quietly put together a 44-7 season heading into the state title match. Unlike many other wrestlers, even the elite, he came out with the same high intensity against every opponent, including Stieber. While many others ran or changed their style against the best competition, Majoy was consistent, and it often worked. While his moves and talent were there, it was his confidence that drove his success. Ninety to 95 percent of wrestling is a mental game, Hermes said. If you dont have the mental attitude like a Tyler Majoy, youre not going to be successful in a sport like wrestling.
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Ive always been That Other Guy because of Kyle, all eyes have been on him.
Tyler Majoy, on being unknown

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Youre always going to lose to kids you think are good and lose to kids you shouldnt lose to. Confidence is huge. Talent can only take you so far in a sport like wrestling, when you dont have anybody around you to help you. Majoy punched his own ticket to the state finals with a 6-5 victory over Nelsonville-Yorks Carl Moody, the second district champ he bounced in two bouts. That was probably the proudest moment of my high school career. Ive always been That Other Guy because of Kyle, all eyes have been on him, Majoy said. I hadnt made it to the state tournament the previous year The best Id done was sixth place at districts. It was kind of a moment of clarity, thinking, Hey, maybe I can do this. Maybe I can run with the big kids. For his biggest match, hed drawn an all-too-familiar foe in Stieber. In four previous meetings that season, Majoy was 0-4, with the closest a 15-7 major decision in the sectional finals. Yeah, it affected me because Hunter face it, hes Hunter, Majoy said. I practiced with him during that season and after that season. Id known him because he lives five minutes down the road from me. I knew walking into that match, odds of shocking the world were not that high. But still, I can be remembered as the guy who went up against Hunter for his fourth

state championship. The bout was quick. Stieber pinned Majoy in 1:00 even, and the crowd of more than 14,000 roared in approval. While Stieber was finished with high school wrestling, Majoy dusted himself off and prepared for another year. Majoy continued wrestling through the offseason in elite tournaments, including the Super 32 in Greensboro, N.C., along with teammates like Burns and his first from Huron, Nino Majoy. With the Chargers moving up from Division III to Division II, the field is crowded again with all-new postseason competitors. It made me think I was kind of the bees knees, and then I went to a couple of these national tournaments and got an eye-opener, he said. This year, instead of walking around as Tyler Majoy: returning state finalist, Im taking the D-II jump and Im just Tyler Majoy: trying to make his mark. Though Stieber is gone, Majoy must make a similar decision in mid-February when the tournament comes around again: He can try to drop from the 138pound class to 132, or he he can take his chances with the new No. 1-ranked wrestler in the nation, Walsh Jesuits Nate Skonieczny. I definitely dont think hes flying under the radar this year, Hermes said. As you come off a state runner-up performance, your name is out there now. Now youre switching from flying under the radar to having that target on your back. n
edisons Tyler majoy, front, is placed in a leg lock by monroevilles Hunter Stieber in February 2011 during the Division III sectional tournament in Huron.