Storm rips through Huron County

The date was May 2, 1983. A storm that included at least one tornado ripped through southern Huron County. The community impacted the most was Greenwich. The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down in that community at 2:45 p.m. The storm came from the southwest, striking Willard, Plymouth and then Greenwich. The high winds were accompanied by baseball-size hail that took its toll on cars and buildings in downtown Willard where two-inches of hail piled up on the streets. The out-lying part of the storm to the north raised havoc with buildings in Peru, Bronson and Townsend Townships. In Wakeman, hail was ankle-deep and was still melting late in the evening. Miraculously, no injuries were reported, not even in the Willard Tuttle home in Greenwich where the roof was torn off the house at 68 Seminary St. and at a over-turned travel-trailer across the street. Greenwich Police Chief Randy Kilgore had first-hand knowledge of the storm. He was watching the storm from his cruiser when the wind picked up the car and turned it 180 degrees. Three people in a mobile home near the intersection of Plymouth East and Mills Roads somehow avoided injury even though their dwelling was destroyed by the high winds. Ebert's Greenhouse on Woodbine Avenue in Willard lost most of its windows from the hail. Police Chief Dave Sattig said the damage to that area was immense because of the size of the hail stones. Especially hard hits was the infrastructure in Willard where traffic lights were still not working the following day. The George Codeluppi family at 1600 Ridge Road were also fortunate to escape injury when high winds lifted the roof off their home just as they were headed for the basement. A neighbor, Verl Musser, watched the roof sail 400-foot in the air into a farm field. "It took us three years to build it," Codellupi stated. "In three minutes it was destroyed." Others that witnessed heavy damage included Becky and Joseph Warner on Greenwich-Townline Road where a trailer was lifted and smashed; Keith Cherry on Old State south of U.S. 250 who suffered a cut hand as his trailer took to the air; Chris Baker on New State Road near Hasbrock who was playing cards with friends when a tree was deposited into the second story of the home. Tony Gorant from Ohio Edison said the heaviest damage to his lines were on Zenobia Road between Greenwhich-Milan Townline and U.S. 250. Firelands Electric customers, for the better part, were spared the loss of power. The same was true for Ohio Power patrons. In all, the Weather Bureau issued 19 warnings, the most since the Xenia storm in 1974. Mud volleyball It was the festival that made mud volleyball famous. Norwalk's Strawberry Festival had everything back in 1983. That included a queen's contest that drew 19 contestants. Most of the happenings over the three days occurred downtown. The one that drew the most spectators, however, was the mud volleyball tournament. Apparently, when players dove head-long into the mud to make a save it drew wild applause from the crowd. Unbeatable back then was a team sponsored by Monroeville's Terry's Tavern and manged by Ron Schafer. Unquestionably, male teams were playing for second when a team made up primarily of the 1984 Monroeville basketball state champions showed up. Schafer talked about that team recently in conversation at Monroeville's American Legion Friday fish fry. Sadly, one of the mainstays of that basketball team, Mike Landoll, had passed just days before. Other mudders on that team included Don Farmer, Bob Krull, Chris Ott, Dave Ream and Mike Holman. As usual, that weekend the Tavern team went through the double-elimination tournament undefeated, disposing of a team simply-known as the Super 8 in the finals. Tournament officials also had a women's division. Known as the Souptime's, this team included long-time Lady Trucker coach Grace Hutchinson. She picked Robin Welch, Jackie Austin, Tracey Hoffacker, Brends Scherz and Selmas Baharoglu as her teammates. Like Schafer's team, they marched through their bracket with relative ease. Truckers on the march A number of Norwalk Trucker athletes were headed toward bigger and better things including perhaps the best punter this community has ever seen, John Christopher. Christopher, a three-sport star at Norwalk, went on to play college football at Morehead State in Kentucky. Upon graduation, he signed a contract as a free agent with Cincinnati Bengals. It called for him to report to the Bengals training camp at Wilmington College and then go head-to-head with veteran kicker Pat McInally for a spot on the roster. Punter coach Bruce Coslic is overseeing the workout. Leibold at Iowa Western Meanwhile, 1981 Norwalk graduate Rick Leibold is playing baseball this season at Iowa Western Junior College. That club is taking a 38-3 record into the Junior World Series in Grand Junction, Colo. Leibold transferred from the University of South Alabama. His hope is that a shoulder injury will heal soon enough for him to help in post season competition. Leibold had an outstanding four-year career at Norwalk. He was a starting pitcher for the Truckers in the Class AA state tournament. Corrigan signs at Clemson Norwalk's Tim Corrigan will sign a letter of intent to wrestle at Clemson University this coming fall. He picked Clemson over Ohio State and Nebraska. Corrigan posted a 128-15 career record while wrestling for his father, Denny, at Norwalk. He made the state tournament three times, finishing second once and fourth his senior year. Prior to leaving for Clemson, he will wrestle this summer in the national AAU Tournament. NL hospital to close After six decades of service to New London area residents, the local hospital will close it doors for good on Wednesday of this week. There are no future plans for its reopening. The decision was made after months of declining use as well as the loss of doctors along with the failure of the hospital to regain re certification for the Medicare-Medicaid payments. Lawrence Plants. Sr., the chairman of the hospital board of trustees, explained that all efforts to find additional doctors or to locate a party interested in taking over the facility have been exhausted. The hospital building and grounds are owned by Leonard Faymore, a former physician at the facility. Fisher-Titus President Richard Westhofen admitted to having been approached at buying the facility. Levin in another controversy Cleveland attorney Jack Levin continues to find the Norwalk courts his second home. The always-controversial figure, who has been known to take a nap in the courtroom while waiting for a verdict, this time got into it with city parking meter officer Ralph Jackson. It seems that Levin pulled his 1983 Cadillac into a no-parking zone this particular morning as he did not want to be late for a court hearing. He left it there for four hours. Jackson, in seeing the length of time it was parked in the zone, radioed his boss, Chief Donald Daugherty, asking him what to do. Daugherty's answer, "Write another ticket and we'll have it towed." And that's just what happened. Levin said the towing was unjust, citing the officer knew it was his car so he called for the tow truck. Daugherty retorted that he didn't know who's car it was. He even said he would have it towed if it was the mayor's car. He said four hours in a loading zone was above and beyond, even in an emergency which this was not. Levin paid the $25 tow charge as well as the fines for three parking tickets that were plastered on the windshield one for each time Jackson made his rounds. Nothing stops Nelson For 40 years, Nelson Lonz graced area baseball fields. Over the years, he has taken a few hits both on the mask an on the shins. His biggest fight would come lat years but like all the rest, he shrugged off the hit. And this one was truly a line-drive. The 67-year-old Monroeville resident developed blood clots in September and had to have his right leg amputated below the knee. Not a big deal, though. The leg healed and Lonz purchased a prosthetic leg. He learned to walked, at first somewhat gingerly, but in the end, one could hardly notice a slight hitch in his step when he took the field. So Lonz continues to call ball and strikes, something he has done since 1940. A graduate of Monroeville High School in 1933, Lonz is also well-known at American Legion posts. Hinckley/Bleile to state Norwalk High's doubles team, senior Carl Hinckley and sophomore Chris Bleile, have played their way through the sectional and district tournament and will be the first players from Norwalk to make the state tennis tournament. The duo faced a double team from Tiffin Calvert in the district finals in Sylvania, losing a three-set match. The runner-up of the tournament also advances to the state. The local duo won another close match against Lima Central Catholic in the sems to earn their ticket out. Hickley and Bleile would drop their first match in Columbus, however, losing to a double team from Bishop Watterson. Golf leagues start Elks pro Gary Wilkins apparently wintered well as he finished in a tie for second in the opening tournament on the Northern Ohio PGA schedule. He tied for second after carding rounds of 73 and 74. Ken Corliss from Tiffin won the event with 69-74 numbers. Terry Meagrow, Dick Nardecchia, Ray Myers and Dick Haas had fine rounds in the Norwalk Furniture League. In the Columbia Gas League, the father-son team of Harry and Terry Ludewig won in the gross category while Gene Brill showed the best net score. Mike Cozmyk won both long drive and long putt in the Wednesday Night League. In the VFW League at Sycamore Hills, Russ Holmes Jr and Larry Coe fashioned the low gross scores at 43. Holmes tied for low putts with Ed Fried. The shot of the round was hit by Paul Pelham. It was witnessed as a "line drive" slam dunk with an 8-iron on the 6th hole. To those who read this column and would like me to touch on other subjects, shoot me an e-mail. I'll do what I can to accommodate you. The address is dhohler@neo.rr.com Don Hohler is a longtime Reflector sportswriter.