by Dave Blocksom ’68,
Withrow – the first 50 years
Football – Angus King and the Early Coaches
Bob Linnenberg ’63 continues his excellent research into Withrow’s rich history. His latest article “Withrow-the first 50 years – Football-Angus King and the Early Coaches” reveals early teachers and coaches who led Withrow teams in different sports to success. You can read this article by clicking HERE.
Sports News
For those of you who are unable to follow our football team, Coach Kali Jones’ Tigers went 9-1 last fall; and their only season loss was to Taft 13-7. Unfortunately, the first and second team quarterbacks were unavailable for that game. We advanced to the Ohio High School playoffs and won our first playoff game. This is the first time Withrow has won a playoff game since the Ohio High School playoffs were established in 1972. We lost in the second round to #1 seed Piqua, 17-13. Coach Jones has 11 seniors who are going on to play college football. Player Kushi Abraham is going to play football at the Naval Academy. We’re trying to find out if any other Withrow grads have gone on to the Naval Academy. If you know of anyone, please let us know.
On the subject of sports, Coach Nathan Myers has 14 of his former rugby players playing rugby in college. Coach Sasha Young’s Lady Tigers won the CMAC conference (old PHSL) with a 12-0 conference record and 18-5 record overall. I also want to give a shout out to our robotics team who are participating in the University of Cincinnati robotics competition.
Due to the cancellation of the January 21 boys basketball game because of Covid infections, we held our Withrow Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony without a game day crowd for the first time. We inducted both the 2021 and 2022 HOF classes that evening since the 2021 ceremony had to be cancelled due to Covid protocols. We still had an amazing turn out of over 150 guests to honor our 10 inductees.
Dr. John C. Bryant
I’m sad to inform you of the passing of Dr. John C. Bryant ’54. John was an influential voice on diversity, equity, inclusion, and education. In 1963 he was one of four African American teachers hired to integrate Withrow’s faculty; and when he became Withrow’s basketball coach, he was the first African American basketball coach hired in the Cincinnati Public Schools. John went on to become the first African American hired on the UC basketball coaching staff. After John received his doctorate in education from UC in 1971, Wilmington College hired him as a teacher of education and head basketball coach. He then became chair of their Education Department. In 1990 John left Wilmington to become the Executive Director of the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative. After that he served on several boards and commissions. A Celebration of Life will be held for John on June 25th at the Ault Park Pavilion.
Help Us Keep Up the Good Work
Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how important your donations are to help support all our volunteer efforts to maintain our beautiful campus and support our students and staff. If you are taking taxable IRA distributions, don’t forget about using tax-free qualified charitable distributions instead. It also looks like Congress might extend the up-to-$600 (married filing jointly) tax deduction for charitable contributions again this year (even if you itemize). We sincerely appreciate any donation you can make by clicking HERE.
financial help that you can give us.
