Ex-Looper
Leaguer’s story a page turner
Late in the spring
of 1958, Ol’ Clark was the Columbia distribution manager for The Kansas City
Star. His office was across Seventh Street east of Hickman High School, and it
was there Larry Andrews, a Hickman senior, came with the lament his team had
been denied entry in the Looper League, Columbia’s unique organization of “good
ol’ boys” and pitches that had to go at least 10 feet over the hitter’s head.
The team needed
sponsorship. So it became The Kansas City Star team and proceeded to have a
perfect season — it didn’t win a single game!
Fast-forward 52½
years.
An e-mail to the
Tribune found its way to me in September. It was from Lincoln, Neb., and closed
with: “I’d appreciate a plug from Ol’ Clark. I think he’ll remember me.” It was
signed by Larry Andrews.
How could I forget
him after our perfect record?
Larry, who
graduated from HHS in 1958 and from the University of Missouri with a doctorate
in English in 1969, spent 40 years as a professor and administrator at the
University of Nebraska, teaching English, retiring in 2008.
Since then, he’s
become a busy novelist and has published his first novel, “Songs of Sadness,
Songs of Love.”
I must admit I
haven’t read the book, but I’m convinced it will be a good read — all about a
young boy growing up in the fictional town of Columbus. Here’s why:
Larry has
published four university-level textbooks, including one translated into
Korean. He has been a consultant to Imo State University in Nigeria and a
visiting professor at the University of London.
But, more
important, Larry is a success story with a rough beginning. The older of two
sons of Senator and Betty Andrews, he celebrated his 70th birthday on 10/10/10.
When he was 5, he became the first child in Boone County to contract polio. He
was left with an arm without muscles — there, but of little use.
Larry adjusted and
hardly missed a beat. He helped in his family’s furniture business, attended
Ridgeway School for six years and, as a seventh-grader at Jefferson Junior High
School, began a three-year run as a Tribune paperboy. Later, he would drive the
truck delivering bundles of Tribunes to the carriers. He even worked part time
on the sports desk.
At Hickman, he
spent two years as the football team manager, sharing duties with Larry
Campbell and Ed Stevens, picking up after George Hulett, Paley Mills, Tom
Stewart, Ron Cox, et al.
After Hickman and
his perfect season sharing the Looper League losses with the likes of Bob Pugh,
Arlen Creason, Dick Winner and Doug Fowler, Larry moved on to MU, graduated
with a degree in English in 1962, taught school for three years in Iowa high
schools, then returned to complete his master’s and doctorate under the
guidance of A. Sterl Artley in 1969.
A day after he
received his Ph.D., he was on the job in Lincoln.
Larry played
tennis for more than 20 years and finally gave up coed slow-pitch softball at
age 50. He was an avid fisherman — a catch-and-release guy — until five years
ago, when pneumonia plunged him into a two-week coma. He’s fine now, except for
nagging post-polio syndrome, has finished a second novel — now en route to the
printer — about the theft of intellectual property, and even has five chapters
done on a third novel.
So how does a born
MU Tiger handle the land of the “Big Red?”
“It is easy to
become a fan of a team that wins national championships.”
But, Larry adds,
“I have marvelous memories of growing up in Columbia, and when I return to
Boone County, I feel like I’m one step closer to heaven.”
Don’t forget, the
name of the book is “Songs of Sadness, Songs of Love.”
Who knows, you
might find someone in the fictional town of Columbus who looks familiar.
Bill Clark’s columns appear
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 474-4510.
This article was published on
page A2 of the Friday, October 15, 2010 edition of The Columbia Daily Tribune.
