Ladies and gentlemen, in 1959, Bill Atsalis was hired for his first head football coaching job at Hillsboro High School at the age of 26. Not too terribly long before that season, Atsalis was playing football himself. In 1950, he was a freshman quarterback at Wilmington College.

Ladies and gentlemen, as we discussed last time, first-year Hillsboro High School head football coach Bill Atsalis didn’t have much of a Tribe when he opened summer camp in August of 1959 as just 17 players came out for the team.

Ladies and gentlemen, don’t look now, but football season is upon us. As the 2021 season kickoff approaches, let’s take another trip back to the “old days” and see what football was like in Hillsboro more than 60 years ago. We’re driving the ol’ Studebaker back to the year 1959.

Ladies and gentlemen, Harriet Amelia (Hack) Fenner was, and still is, the only woman elected as a commissioner of Highland County. Her tenure as county commissioner began via an appointment by the Highland County Democratic Party Central Committee in August 1971.

Ladies and gentlemen, Benton Raymond “BR” Duckworth lived 106 years and was well-known as a longtime educator at the Greenfield Exempted Village School District, then embarked on a new career as a practitioner of modern, scientific farming and woodlands management.

Ladies and gentlemen, in the 1960s, Ed Bousman had a dream. This dream became a reality when Ed went to his congregation at the Lynchburg Church of Christ one Sunday morning with a challenge for them to go home and ask God for something impossible. Ed took his dream to God that day, asking for the impossible – a nationwide radio broadcast.

In 1876, Hillsboro was still Hillsborough, and when the Fourth of July rolled around, the town held a “feast of patriotism” that started early and lasted all day as 20,000 people celebrated the nation’s birthday. There were flags, banners and other decorations all around. There was a procession, oration, music and fireworks. It was, indeed, “a grand gala-day.”

In my lifetime, there has been one reunion I’ve attended more than any other (by far) – the Gossett Reunion in Pricetown, a reunion that dates back more than a century. The reunion is held the third Saturday in June by the descendants of James Worth Gossett (1847-1922) and Sarah Ann Roberts Gossett (1843-1932), who are my great-great-grandparents.

Ulric Sloane passed away Jan. 23, 1912 at the age of 61 and is buried in the Grandview Cemetery in Chillicothe. As we observe Memorial Day in 2021, may we heed the perspicacious words Sloane spoke 140 years ago in the Hillsboro Cemetery.

Ladies and gentlemen, back in the 1960s last week, we went to the Moon – Moon Tractor Company – to look at lawnmowers. This time, let’s drive the Studebaker over to Burch Tractor and Implement Company on North West Street and see what kind of mowers and deals they have there. We’ll see if we can get a “Burch” cut, so to speak.

As I browse a newspaper from the spring of 1968, I stumble over an ad from Moon Tractor Company, which bills itself as a “Lawn Mower Headquarters.” And, yes, Moon Tractor is very much in business to this very day on West Main Street in Hillsboro.

Ladies and gentlemen, after catching a couple 1960s Dannie Hess & Associates auctions last time, let’s hop back in the Studebaker and find an auction or two from the other auction company we mentioned in the previous offering, Hunter-Wilson-Mayhugh Co.

Ladies and gentlemen, after catching a couple 1960s Dannie Hess & Associates auctions last time, let’s hop back in the Studebaker and find an auction or two from the other auction company we mentioned in the previous offering, Hunter-Wilson-Mayhugh Co.

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been tooling around Hillsboro in the ol’ Studebaker hitting local eateries, and I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of full. Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll get hungry again soon and hit more local 1960s restaurants, but I’d like to drive around and hit a few local auctions and see if we can score a few deals.

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been tooling around Hillsboro in the ol’ Studebaker hitting local eateries, and I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of full. Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll get hungry again soon and hit more local 1960s restaurants, but I’d like to drive around and hit a few local auctions and see if we can score a few deals.