Baker Continues To Grow
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Staff Report-
Looking back at the history of Baker Boys’ Club (now known as Baker Youth Club), one can see a rich tradition in Kosciusko County.
As stated in the first article, BBC was founded in 1926 and was housed in the Sharps Hardware Store downtown Warsaw.
In 1939, BBC moved from the Sharps Hardware building to Warsaw High School, this location is now where the Retired Tigers Apartments facility is located.
The club occupied the west end of the school, which housed the gymnasium upstairs and a game room downstairs.
The gym was about three quarters the size of a normal gym and had four backboards, one at each end.
The building also had a library with hardback books along the walls and a ping pong table in the middle.
Executive Director Pete Thorn’s policy was to open BBC in the fall when it got cold and would close once it got warm in the spring. The club was open nightly from 7 to 8:30.
Members of BBC enjoyed ping pong, carom, checkers, pool and eight ball during the winter months.
One activity enjoyed by many was sock-tag. This was a tag game used with socks found in the lost and found. They were stuffed inside one another and tossed by the boys to get each other out.
Coach Bob Lichtenwalter always said it was a miracle no kids ever got hurt playing sock-tag up and down the stairs at the high school.
In the spring, the club kids enjoyed participating in ping-pong, horse and 21 tournaments.
In the summer, Thorn would have softball tournaments; these were very competitive as the winners would receive candy bars.
After the softball games, the children would cool off by taking a swim at Center Lake. If you were not a swimmer, Thorn would teach the young men how to swim.
Many men today would tell how they learned to swim because of Thorn (they may also tell you that he taught them by taking them out to the floating raft in the middle of the lake and throwing them in).
Thorn, the director of BBC for 37 years, teacher/truant officer at Warsaw High School and the only athlete to earn 16 varsity letters at Wabash University, influenced many of the young men who grew up in Warsaw in a positive manner.
Baker Youth Club invites the public to visit them at the Lake Village Pizza Hut Monday for their bi-annual fundraising event from 5 to 8 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]Look for the 1950 and ’60s coming up.
This is the second of six articles that will chronicle the history of Baker Boy’s Club during their 86-year history.
Looking back at the history of Baker Boys’ Club (now known as Baker Youth Club), one can see a rich tradition in Kosciusko County.
As stated in the first article, BBC was founded in 1926 and was housed in the Sharps Hardware Store downtown Warsaw.
In 1939, BBC moved from the Sharps Hardware building to Warsaw High School, this location is now where the Retired Tigers Apartments facility is located.
The club occupied the west end of the school, which housed the gymnasium upstairs and a game room downstairs.
The gym was about three quarters the size of a normal gym and had four backboards, one at each end.
The building also had a library with hardback books along the walls and a ping pong table in the middle.
Executive Director Pete Thorn’s policy was to open BBC in the fall when it got cold and would close once it got warm in the spring. The club was open nightly from 7 to 8:30.
Members of BBC enjoyed ping pong, carom, checkers, pool and eight ball during the winter months.
One activity enjoyed by many was sock-tag. This was a tag game used with socks found in the lost and found. They were stuffed inside one another and tossed by the boys to get each other out.
Coach Bob Lichtenwalter always said it was a miracle no kids ever got hurt playing sock-tag up and down the stairs at the high school.
In the spring, the club kids enjoyed participating in ping-pong, horse and 21 tournaments.
In the summer, Thorn would have softball tournaments; these were very competitive as the winners would receive candy bars.
After the softball games, the children would cool off by taking a swim at Center Lake. If you were not a swimmer, Thorn would teach the young men how to swim.
Many men today would tell how they learned to swim because of Thorn (they may also tell you that he taught them by taking them out to the floating raft in the middle of the lake and throwing them in).
Thorn, the director of BBC for 37 years, teacher/truant officer at Warsaw High School and the only athlete to earn 16 varsity letters at Wabash University, influenced many of the young men who grew up in Warsaw in a positive manner.
Baker Youth Club invites the public to visit them at the Lake Village Pizza Hut Monday for their bi-annual fundraising event from 5 to 8 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]Look for the 1950 and ’60s coming up.
This is the second of six articles that will chronicle the history of Baker Boy’s Club during their 86-year history.
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