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He's spent 50 years as scorekeeper for the Frankfort basketball Hot Dogs


Muda69

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https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2019/11/26/hes-spent-50-years-scorekeeper-frankfort-basketball-hot-dogs/2580711001/

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He's seen the raw hot dogs being hurled from the bleachers, whizzing past the scorer's table, bouncing onto the court. The throwers, fans from the opposing team, usually can't stop laughing at their genius idea.

Jim Moyer sits stoically, staring straight ahead. There have been hot dogs thrown before.

He doesn't have to turn his head to know what the flashes of red and yellow are, the flashes he can see out of the corner of his eye. They are fans dressed up as ketchup and mustard bottles and they think their costumes are brilliant, a way to poke fun at Frankfort.

Moyer sits stoically. There have been condiment bottles before.

For 49 seasons, Moyer has been keeping score at basketball games for Frankfort, where a ferocious-looking dachshund is the mascot and Hot Dogs is the nickname. When he takes his seat at the table Wednesday for Frankfort's opening game, he will enter his 50th year of tracking points and fouls and substitutions.

Moyer, of course, would never bend the rules. There may not be a high school basketball scorekeeper around who has more experience or takes his job more seriously.  

There may not be a high school scorekeeper in the history of Indiana basketball who has done it longer.

"He's got great respect from everyone," said Frankfort athletic director Ed Niehaus. "No. 1, he is a gentleman."

Niehaus always jokes with Moyer that he can't retire until Niehaus retires.

"I'm crossing my fingers he doesn't," Niehaus said. "Because, it will be a big loss." 

Moyer grew up going to school at the home of the Eels, the Clay City High Eels, graduating in 1961. That was a strange mascot name but there were other Eels around. He's not sure there are other Hot Dogs.

"Most of them are just plain old names," he said.

Moyer was in his third year of college at Indiana State University, getting his teaching degree, when Everett N. Case Arena opened in November 1963, right after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Case Arena was a magnificent high school gymnasium, home to Frankfort, with two levels of bleachers, seating more than 5,000 people and boasting its spot as 23rd largest high school gym in the world.

Moyer soon got a job at Frankfort, teaching eighth grade math. He started going to games to watch his students who also played basketball. One day, somebody said to him, "Hey, you go to all of the games. Why don't you keep the scorebook for us?"  

Sounded reasonable to Moyer.

"First of all, I am a math teacher," he said. "That's just kind of natural for a math teacher."

After doing junior high games for six years, Moyer moved on to the high school — for the next 44 years. He does the home and away games for boys varsity and junior varsity basketball and, on many occasions, has filled in for girls games or any level that might need him.

If someone had told him when he started tracking a scorebook in 1969 that 50 years later he would still be doing it, with an estimated 3,000 games under his belt, "I probably wouldn't have believed it," Moyer said. "But it turned into something I really loved to do."

....

A Frankfort institution.  Here's to many more years as the Hot Dog's scorekeeper.

And a minor nitpick:  "Case Arena was a magnificent high school gymnasium"?  I contend that it still is a magnificent high school gym, one of the best in a state full of magnificent gyms.

 

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3 hours ago, Muda69 said:

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2019/11/26/hes-spent-50-years-scorekeeper-frankfort-basketball-hot-dogs/2580711001/

A Frankfort institution.  Here's to many more years as the Hot Dog's scorekeeper.

And a minor nitpick:  "Case Arena was a magnificent high school gymnasium"?  I contend that it still is a magnificent high school gym, one of the best in a state full of magnificent gyms.

 

Thank you for sharing my friend.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

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