Our Fathers, Ourselves

My Dad was stationed in Korea at the time and, as the article details, he and his fellow airmen decided to ask the editor about the lack of patriotism and support they were hearing about from back home – especially in light of the events scheduled to honor the tenth anniversary of Pearl Harbor. The article carries a pic of Dad, his letter and the response from the Editor.

Dad never played sports much. He was one of fourteen kids and lived in the poor East End section of Cincinnati during the depression and WWII. So I do not have any pics of him in a sports uni. He had six older brothers serve in WWII (one was killed when his B-25 was shot down over Italy). He also had three brothers-in-law serve in that war.

Dad was killed by a drunk driver on Good Friday in 1973. He was a hard working man who always held at least two jobs. He left behind a disabled widow who had six of his nine children left at home to raise (I was number 8 and was ten at the time).

First pic is from when he was coaching my team as a kid – he’s in the top left corner with the blue jacket with the coaching level patches and I’m right beside him.

Pic of some of the coaching patches he still has.

(top photo) My great Granddad, Hallis Northcutt, sitting in his ROTC uniform from the University of Tennessee in the early 1940’s. Pacutt (as we called him) went to fight in World War Two in Germany, and helped to liberate the Dachau Concentration camp.

Here are a couple of pictures of my dad – Manuel Enos – a professional rodeo cowboy. He was a founding member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy’s Association, and their predecessor, the Cowboys “Turtle” Association. The cowboy uniform was pretty simple, and functional – hat, western shirt, jeans, boots, spurs, and chaps. Felt numbers were pinned to the back of their shirt.

The picture of him on the paint bucking horse captures one of the rare times that horse was ridden. The horse, War Paint, is a Pro Rodeo Hall-of-famer and that photo is still the basis for the logo of the Crooked River Round-up in Prineville Oregon.

He was an all-around athlete, who dreamed of pitching in the Major Leagues. A broken wrist while boxing led him to look elsewhere, and after growing up on his aunt and uncle’s ranch in northern California, he wound up in rodeos, competing in multiple events. Saddle bronc riding was his favorite, but he also competed in bareback bronc riding, bulldogging, and occasionally bull riding. He traveled a nation-wide circuit, including stops in Madison Square Garden, but mostly Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Calgary, Alberta.

In the rodeo “off season” he worked as a stuntman and extra in Hollywood westerns, earning an IMDB credit for “the Bronco Buster”.

(Brief explanation: my Father, Pape Lukk, was killed when I was two months old – October 3, 1963. His brother – my Uncle Jaak – later married my Mother in July of 1969, becoming my Dad – he passed away in December of 2010”¦)

Picture 1: Brothers Pape and Jaak outside their mother’s home in College Point, NY, circa 1956. My Father (Pape) has on a Brooklyn Dodgers jersey he “borrowed” during a tryout at Ebbetts field (1955) – in fact, it’s Babe Hermann’s #54 (with Babe’s name embroidered inside – he also “acquired” a sleeveless Duke Snyder jersey, and a pair of Roy Campanella’s pants at that tryout, too!!) My Dad (Jaak) has on his College Point softball jersey.

Picture 2. Brothers Pape and Jaak Lukk at Pape’s New York Military Academy graduation, June 1956. My Father was a graduating cadet (and later ROTC 2nd Lieutenant at the University of Delaware), and my Dad was an Airman First Class in the US Air Force.

Picture 3: My Father holding me, and posing with his brother, August, 1963.

Picture 4: My Father, Pape, preparing to apply the tag at home plate during a U of D baseball game, circa 1960.

Picture 5: My Father, Pape, eyeing up a Lehigh linebacker as a fullback on the University of Delaware’s Lambert Cup winning 1959 Blue Hen squad.

Vance played for the Texas A & M Aggies football team from 1966 to 1969. He was a corner back and wore number 37. The first two years he was on the junior varsity team. Back then they had two teams. I guess you could call it a practice squad. Start of junior year, he made the varsity team. They started 0-4. Then they rattled off seven straight wins and ended up winning the SWC. They played Alabama, coached by Bear Bryant, in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Unfortunately, my dad had broken his collar bone the previous game and did not get to play in the Cotton Bowl. His coach, Gene Stallings, went up against his former mentor, Bryant and ended up beating him that game, along with Alabama ‘ s starting quarterback Ken Stabler. Stallings would later win a national title with Alabama in the 90s.

I graduated from there 28 years later, and currently teach there. His college jersey hangs in that same gym today.

(Left) This picture is from homecoming 1979. I believe they were playing Fordham. My father is #32 in maroon.(check out that stache)

(Right) Here is my father (carrying the ball) featured on the program for the Colgate vs Rutgers game in 1979. For a small school like his, this was a humongous game.

When I would talk uniforms with him I was very surprised when he told me what his favorite uniform from his career was, the 1971 Norfolk Neptunes. The King’s favorite colors were black and silver and he loved the Oakland Raiders uniforms, Ironically the last time he ever suited up for an NFL game was against the Raiders in 1971 but he never got to play in that game. The Neptunes had white numbers and light gray pants and the stripes on the pants were different from the Raiders but to him it was almost an exact match. There were no stripes or numbers on the sleeves but the uniform did have a clean look to it. He only played one season for the Neptunes but he led them to the 1971 ACFL Championship. He got to keep his white Neptunes jersey because it was ripped across the number 9 and they couldn’t repair it and for some reason he kept those black heavy socks too.

Circa 1970, my father, Garvis Semore (left photo), in his uniform as the lone tuba player for the Hickman County (Tenn.) High School Marching Bulldog Band. He still has that beanie which reads “Bulldogs.” I, unfortunately, do not have the talent of colorization, but the uniform and hat are red, and it’s a white fiberglass sousaphone with a red “H” bell cover. I could write a book on how he and I are alike. We both went through high school and college playing tuba and we now have the same job as preachers (he in MS, me in AL).

***SPORTS TIE IN, this happened on the SAME DAY as Superbowl 16 when the Niners beat the Bengals for the first time.

The second photo is of him speaking in front of former Indy mayor William Hudnutt, you know the guy seen walking hand and hand with Robert Irsay when the Colts moved to Indy… My father was the very first 911 responder in the city’s history (1976) and he was reporting on the system’s efficiency.

My father passed away in 2013 and as you can tell, I’m very proud of his legacy. He wasn’t only my hero, he was a hero to many.

My dad played soccer for many, many years and is a lifelong fan. I dare you to get him started on the topic of how embarrassing the game is today. Here he is, Phil Suarez, on the bottom left (eyes closed).
Some uniforms! I’m not certain on the year (1980?), but I won’t ask him since I want this to be a surprise.

Most of my sports memories have my dad there alongside me, and they’re all the best ones. In fact, I’d say many of my favorite life memories thus far have a sports connection, and my dad’s always nearby.