10 Years Ago North Webster’s Mermaid Festival has reached a landmark, 60 years of contests, fun, food, parades and scholarships, thanks to the Homer Shoop Foundation. With a 67-44 win over host Triton, Tippecanoe Valley’s Bill Patrick became the 10th coach in Indiana high school boys hoops history to win 600 games. David Lash, a 6-foot-4 junior, scored a game-high 29 points and 10 rebounds; Shane Denny, playing on two bad ankles, was efficient once again with 12; Shane Drudge added 10. Patrick coached at Whitko for 29 years; he is 122-29 in his seven years at Valley, which was a losing program when he arrived. 25 Years Ago Warsaw is sending four individuals to the state wrestling meet at Market Square Arena: Chris Patrick, Bob Taylor, Eric Johnson, Aaron Wilson. Spelling Bee competition begins Feb. 19, at First United Methodist Church, 179 South Indiana St., Warsaw. Fifth through eighth-grade spelling champs from 24 area schools hope to capture the county, regional and national 1989 Spelling Bee title. Kosciusko County has been represented only once, in 1959, in the final Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee. Judy Mugg, principal of Atwood Elementary School, is chairman of the county-wide bee this year; pronouncer is Jeanette Harvuot; judges are Bonnie Grimble, Noreen Marriott, David Whaley, Dan Grainey and Jan Hammaker; Times-Union and WRSW are local sponsors. 50 Years Ago Charles Briggs, of south of North Webster, is one of 10 independent operators who purchase Times-Union papers and deliver them in the rural areas of Kosciusko county. Motor route drivers drive a total of 900 miles per day and deliver to 1,350 customers. Margaret Ann Voirol, choral director at Warsaw Senior High School, is the only female honorary member of the Warsaw Kiwanis Club. Last week at the club’s 50th anniversary luncheon, she placed gold-tinted carnations on each table. Syracuse grade-schoolers Bruce Niles, Danny Brady and Steve Patterson found six school combination locks while peering into a hollow tree. They turned them over to the high school principal, who said the locks had been stolen from lockers. 75 Years Ago “Who is he?” Old and young adore him. He’s operated one of Warsaw’s most popular clubs for years. He was the first freshman at Wabash College, where he graduated, to receive four letters in athletics. He stands six feet tall, swims like a fish, teaching kids to paddle and their first uncertain strokes, and always has a big, broad smilel, cheerfully greeting us with a basso “And how are you today?” We’re talking about Baker Boys’ Club director Norman “Pete” Thorn. George A. Nye, chemistry professor, would sit at his desk, leaning his head on one arm, looking disgustedly at a student trying to explain a geometry problem, and utter an unconsoling “fiddlesticks.”
