Remembering 

Dawson T. Curtis                 (Rev. 11-14-12 7am)Dawson T. Curtis                 (Rev. 11-14-12 7am)

AHS HOF Class of 2012

Dawson T. Curtis was one of the early twentieth century three (3) sport Ohio high school student-athletes staring and capturing the headlines every time he entered the field of play.  He attended Alliance High School (AHS), in Alliance, Ohio from September 1926 to January 1929. He started and played at the varsity level in football, basketball and track & field (pole vault) for the Aviators all three (3) years. He was the left-end in football, the leading scorer and rebounder playing the center position in basketball. However, his greatest achievement at AHS may have been to hold the school pole vault record (11’ 8 and 13/16 inches) from 1928 to 1978, which was the longest held Track & Field record of any event in AHS history. He first held the pole vault record at AHS at 10′ -11 3/4″ in 1927. He then bettered that record to 11′ – 8 13/16″ in 1928.

While in high school, he went on to place third back-to-back in the pole vault event at the Ohio State University Relays in Columbus, OH his Sophomore and Junior years. Dawson graduated mid-term in 1929 and consequently did not compete his senior track season. 

Danny Maholm finally broke his pole vault record in 1978, at a home meet with Massillon High School at Hartshorn Stadium with a vault of 11’ 9” using a “fiber glass” pole. What makes Dawson’s record so remarkable, other than the fact he held it for five (5) decades, was he usually tied or re-set his own record almost each time he competed. 

What is also noteworthy here is that when he vaulted in the 20’s, only “bamboo” poles were available. They did not flex much and often broke while in action. In later years “fiberglass” poles became the proven standard. The flex provided by a fiberglass pole actually helped propel a vaulter high-up and over the bar. 

After graduating from AHS in January 1929, teammates Dawson T. Curtis and Robert G. King were enrolled in Mount Union College with the assistance of Bob’s father, Perry F. King, MD. Dawson was awarded a full student-athlete scholarship. They both started classes at Mount Union the fall semester in September 1929 to further their education and to play college sports and in particular, basketball for the Purple Raiders and the well-known and very successful Coach Robert “Bob” Wright.

They both graduated four (4) years later from MUC in June 1933 with BA and BS degrees respectively, two (2) back-to-back Ohio Conference Basketball Championships and many other varsity letters (12) between them including basketball, football, track & field and golf.

Dawson (“Curtie”) immediately began his career teaching high school and coaching women’s basketball at Fowler High School in Fowler, OH. Bob King went on to Harvard University, School of Medicine in Boston, MA.

Dawson married his AHS sweetheart, Annette F. Hartzell in 1935. He also did post-graduate studies during the late 30’s at Kent State University in the College of Education majoring in Industrial Arts & Technology in pursuit of a Masters Degree.

A few years later during the winter of 1943, Dawson volunteered to enter Officer Candidate School (OCS) of the United States Navy in Princeton, NJ. He was commissioned an Ensign in the USN in the spring of 1943 and was assigned as the Senior Gunnery Officer on board a Naval Merchant Marine Victory Ship, which was immediately departing AGS Gulfport, MS for the American Theater Asiatic Pacific on the SS Ralph T O’Neil at the beginning of World War II. He split his war time duty also on board the SS Charles N McGroarty Victory Ship in that same area and returned to Alliance, OH three (3) years later in the spring of 1946.

During the summer of 1946 he began a new career in the field of business while reassembling his life back at home in Alliance, OH. For the next twenty (20) years, Dawson held many high-level positions in sales, marketing, product research & development with major national and regional companies i.e. J T Weybrechts & Sons, Noble Woodworking Machinery Company, Armour & Company, Cleveland Even Cut Abrasives, among others.

In 1964, he stepped back into secondary education and began his second career of teaching high school in the field of Industrial Arts & Technology at Glenwood High School in Canton, OH. He was chairman of the department many of those years and specialized in mechanical/digital wood & metal design and hand-tool & high-speed machine woodworking. After directing many students over the years to National and State Student Recognition Awards, receiving various state and local “Teacher of the Year” awards himself, Dawson retired in June 1978 to play more golf and to enjoy his family and hometown friends.

Soon after retirement, Dawson began experiencing various health issues, and pasted away at Molly Stark Rehabilitation & Hospice Center in Canton, OH in the spring of 1983. His wife, Annette, sister, Helen Curtis Haines, sons, Bob & Tom and five (5) grandchildren, survived him at that time.

He was born and raised in his parent’s home at 805 South Linden Avenue in Alliance, OH, which he enlarged and totally renovated after returning from the Navy in 1946. He was educated in Alliance through college, then worked and commuted most of his life from that same Linden Avenue home. Dawson was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, American Legion Post #166, B.P.O.Elks, Alliance Country Club, OEA/NEA, among others.

Others and we can honestly say, “Curtie was a ‘regular’ hometown guy”. He would be happy about his induction to the hall and proud to be part of the AHS HOF ’12 Class. 

                                                                (Rev. 12-20-12)

Remarks for DTC AHS HOF Induction:

1-26-12 BPOElks Lodge Alliance, OH

I’m Bob Curtis…… Dawson was my father. 

Hello to all most worthy past and current inductees, the AHS Athletic Department members and staff, the inductees families and friends. 

The Curtis family would particularly like to thank the AHS Athletic Department, and specifically Ms. Sue Donohoe, for making this all possible and the HOF Induction Committee for this wonderful sports achievement award and the honor of my father becoming a member of this highly respected class of individual athletes and now joining all those who came before them. 

I would like you to meet the other Curtis family members here with us this afternoon:

Thomas Dawson Curtis, my younger brother. 

Melissa Curtis-Cherry, my oldest daughter of 3 daughters. 

Max Davis Curtis-Cherry, Missy’s son and one of my 6 young grandchildren. 

Pam Curtis-Haines-Vogel-Rabuzzi, our cousin and granddaughter of Dawson’s sister, Helen Curtis-Haines. 

I thought you might be interested in a few thought-provoking “Take-A-Ways” concerning Dawson’s AHS sports career:

1) He was one of the 1st true 3 sport student-athletes, playing varsity Football, Basketball, Track & Field almost every season. 

2) His pole vault records, were set in 1927 & 28, during his Sophomore and Junior years, and remained on the high school wall of fame for 5 decades…that’s 50 years….. that’s 1/2 a century. He graduated mid-term in January 1929 and did not compete his senior spring track season. Who knows what the final record would have been!

3) His pole vault record of 11 feet 8 13/16 inches was set and held by a person that was 6ft 2 1/2 inches tall and weighted 175 lbs. He also was a string bean as seen in his HS photos. Not a small guy to get over a bar set so high!

4) I want to say something about the poles then and much later:  bamboo was the standard for years and then fiberglass became the standard in the ’50s. And then the comparisons of records began. This would be sort-of-like Tiger Woods using a woodenhead, steel shaft driver competing in one era against John Daley using a titanium jumbo head, graphite shaft driver in another era, in a long drive contest. 

5) Dad talked about competing on the same field of play at the Ohio Relays as Jesses Owens, an Ohio State Student-Athlete.  They were competing in the same Columbus Horseshoe Stadium those days in ’27 and ’28. This was a few years before the 1932 Berlin Olympic Games and the multiple Gold Metals won by Jesse Owens.

6) The 1st and 2nd place high school pole vault winners at the Ohio Relays those years were ironically both from Salem, Ohio. He knew them and competed against them many times and came back each year to win more points for the Aviators. 

7) When his record was finally broken 50 years later, by Danny Maholm, with a vault of 11 feet and 9 inches, in a meet against Massillon, at Hartshorn Stadium, Dad was very gracious and made himself available for a photo op with the new record holder in the spring of 1978.

7) One minor non-high school aside: Dawson went on to MUC in the fall of 1929 and graduated in June of 1933. His MUC BASKETBALL teams were winners of back-to-back Ohio Conference Championships his sophomore and junior years. He played as the starting Center/Forward both of those seasons and again his senior year when the team had a win streak of 9 straight home and away games with only one other started back.

8) He was born and raised in a small house at 805 South Linden Avenue in Alliance OH and never really left there. He walked to high school and college and later commuted to various sales and teaching jobs from this house that we grew-up in. After MUC, he spent a few years teaching and coaching women’s basketball in Fowler, Ohio and then 3 years as a shipboard Naval Gunnery Officer in the South Pacific theater during WW II. 

He was our father, grandfather, great grandfather, uncle and OUR HERO. And as others and we can proudly and honestly say, “Curtie was a real ‘regular’ home-town guy”. He would be happy about his induction to the hall and proud to be part of the AHS HOF ’12 Class.

Thank you all and MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL.