Legendary coach and war hero Tom Hickman turns 90
Elective misery - I looked around the gym at Sussex Central late Jan. 11 and saw all partisans. Everyone had a dog in the fight. There were no detached observers, and that includes sportswriters, except for Mike Finney of the News Journal - that homey straight up don't care who wins. I saw Jeff Mitchell rocking his Jerome Bettis action wear, subtly leaning as Central's Matt Goins got two points to tie the heavyweight match. I saw other front-row foot stompers who actually wrestled for Cape but now are all about Sussex Central. I, on the other hand, am totally objective, just concerned that no one gets hurt and that all the boys behave themselves. Actually, I must be lying, but I do try to appreciate what is obviously annoying about all teams. “Wrestling Georgetown” I call it, and until you beat them you ain't got them. It's as simple as that.
Coach Tom Hickman - I have given many strange talks to my athletes over the years, like the one back in 1976 when, as Coach Fred, I called the Cape track team together and said, ”Look. There are 100 million men in America who are not Coach Tom Hickman. So quit picking on me!” This Sunday, Jan. 14, 2012, Coach Tom Hickman, alive and well in an assisted living facility in Snow Hill, Md., will probably not celebrate his 90th birthday but simply endure it. If he can pull off a prank to celebrate the occasion, he will. I know I still don't trust him. Sometimes called “Reverend Hickman” by his peers in respect for the way he ministered to Cape's students, Hickman was the master of bringing the divergent groups of the Cape district together. His track teams with Coach Norman Moore by his side won state titles in 1971, '72, '73 and '75. Hickman was unorthodox, cared about kids and never worried about placating administrators or school board members. He was a bit of a bad boy. Hickman was a double All-American at West Chester in track and soccer. When World War II began, he enlisted in the Army, ended up a forward scout in the European theater and survived all the major battles in the European theater because he is wiry and wily. He won two Bronze Stars and a Silver Star.
On Jan. 12, I presented a request to the school board that Tom Hickman be added to the Ring of Honor inside Legends Stadium immediately. The last two paragraphs read, “The love of his athletes from Cape, now all men over 50 years of age, is unrelenting and unwavering and has endured a lifetime. Absolutely no one has done more to bring the divergent groups of the Cape school district together than Coach Tom Hickman. The school board is asked to approve Tom Hickman's inclusion into the Ring of Honor of Legends Stadium. The approval needs to be fast-tracked, to come now on his 90th birthday on Martin Luther King weekend. It is a perfect coalescing of everything the man means to so many of his athletes and to all of us Americans.” And by the way, I'm still not Tom Hickman.
Fade into retirement - Ken Dunning is all about the joke. One of his favorites is, “I'm so fat Dale makes me take the cell phone to bed in case I have to dial 911.” Ken Dunning is officially retired from Delmarva Power this Friday the 13th after 30-some-odd - mostly likely all odd - years on the job. Kenny, like a kielbasa on a broken rotisserie, may suffer from overexposure after all the "Extreme Makeover" hype, but trust me, he is one of the most unrelentingly nice people God ever dropped on us and a great fan of Cape sports.
Snippets - The Cape girls' basketball team traveled to Caravel Jan. 11 and lost to the Buccaneers 51-42. Aaliyah Davis with 20 points and Kadijah Doughty with 11 paced Cape in scoring. The Vikings fell to 5-3 on the season and will host undefeated 7-0 Dover Friday, Jan. 13.
Cape boys, winners of seven straight, play at Dover Jan. 13, then play William Tennent of Warminster, Pa., in the Concord Classic Monday, Jan. 16, at 3:30 p.m. Gene Harris, the grandfather of Cape's stat man Kenny Reidel, is a former head coach at William Tennent and was dubbed “The Witch Doctor” by sportswriter Dick Daugherty for the magic he made turning out winning teams.
Johnesha Warren, running point guard for Mercyhurst North East College, led the Saints to a pair of wins last week. She recorded a triple-double against Lorain County CC. She scored 26 points, had 11 rebounds, 17 assists and eight steals in the victory. Against Butler CCC she had 11 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals. Go on now, git!
