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On this date in area sports history …
Twelve years ago on this date, Feb. 15, 1997, Wayne Embry was inducted into the Tecumseh High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Complete story on the jump.
Published Feb. 16, 1997
SMILES GREET EMBRY’S RETURN.
By Chris Freeman, News-Sun Sports Editor
NEW CARLISLE — As four people became the newest members of the Tecumseh Athletic Hall of Fame Saturday, there were plenty of smiles to go around.
Wayne Embry, a star basketball player who went on to a pro career in the NBA before moving into the front office, slowly worked his way around the room, meeting new people, seeing some faces for the first time in four decades.
There were plenty of handshakes to go around, with Embry’s large hands usually engulfing those of the person he was talking to. And there were stories to recall. Many, many stories.
Larry Owen, a standout baseball player who went on to his own pro career, was walking along another side of the room, greeting friends and acquaintances with a warm smile. And more stories.
But as both men reflected on their success on and off the playing field, they recalled the lessons learned in high school as the most important part of their upbringing.
“The coaching I got here, and not just in baseball but in football and basketball, too, that instilled the competitveness and work ethic I would need to play beyond here,” Owen said.
“Those years are very memorable, not only for what we were able to do on the court, but I attribute a lot of the success I had to the disciplines I learned here,” Embry added. “It made me focused and drove me forward.”
While both men, inducted Saturday along with long-time boosters Carl and Betty Roller, stood together in the cafeteria Saturday, it was a more familiar scene for Owen than Embry.
Owen was in the same place last year, one of the speakers who helped induct his old baseball coach, Bob Davis.
“This is a great honor, but last year, being able to help induct Bob Davis, (was) as much fun as this is,” Owen said.
For Embry, the trip into the high school was the first time in decades that he was back in his alma mater — though the territory was still familiar to him.
“(The Cleveland Cavaliers) used to train at (Wright State’s) Nutter Center, so I’d take some people by here and show them where I went to school and where I grew up,” said Embry, now the general manager of the Cavs. “It’s good. There’s some people here I haven’t seen for 40 years or so. We’ve had reunions, but they’ve always fallen on days I couldn’t come down, like my kids’ graduation.”
Embry, who graduated in 1954, was a good basketball player at Tecumseh who grew into a great basketball player at Miami and a five-time all-star in the NBA.
He said plenty has changed about the game since his days at Tecumseh.
“If I was going to offer any advice to young players today, and I do because that’s my job, I’d say that young players today need to spend more time on the fundamentals, which we did,” Embry said. “We were taught skills and fundamentals very early on.”
For his time at Tecumseh, Embry’s favorite recollections are about people.
“My classmates, my teammates, teachers, coaches … this is a memorable experience,” he said.
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