In a ceremony held on Saturday night at Clear Fork High School, the Clear Fork Valley Athletic Hall of Fame inducted four individuals and a team into the hall.
It was the concluding event of the Hall of Fame Classic Weekend, which included a football game against Ontario on Friday night.
Chuck Golden, a 1979 graduate, was an All-Ohio defensive back for the Colts. He led his team in tackles his senior season when they went 9-1 and intercepted 14 passes in his junior and senior seasons combined.
Golden says he considered not going out for football, but his dad got in the way. “I told my dad I was going to go out of the golf team. There were a couple of good golfers on the golf team and they wanted me to play with them. When I told that to my dad I almost didn’t have a place to live. He said son you can play golf the rest of your life, but you can only play football for a short period of time. Guess what I play the game of golf today, but I sure don’t play football,” he said.
Golden also played basketball and was a member of a team his junior year that advanced to the regional tournament, the first Clear Fork team to do so. He was also MVP of the baseball team his junior year.
Matt Schlosser, class of 1999, played football, basketball and baseball at Clear Fork. He ran for 1,000 yards on the gridiron. In baseball, he still holds the school record for home runs in a season and a career. Baseball coach Rusty Staab says he was instant offense, but it was his work behind the plate that stands out in his mind. “The biggest thing he brought was his ability to catch. He shut down the running game for four years in this area,” said Staab.
Jason Chrastina, the father of Clear Fork’s current quarterback Kadin, was also inducted. Like his son, he was a pretty good quarterback at Clear Fork becoming the first signal caller to throw for 1,000 yards in a season in 1994. He also played basketball and baseball and was four year letterman in each sport. He joked that it took him a while to warm up to sports. “Believe it not when I was young I wasn’t really into sports. I think I was about two years old before I started taking real serious,” he said.
Luke Izer was a four sport star at Bellville High School, graduating in 1956. He says he started playing all sports just in the backyards and farm fields of southern Richland County. The other kids he played with have already be inducted into the hall of fame in Bill Schaefer, Gary Beal and his brother Ron Izer. “With me being inducted the circle is complete. All of us that started in those barnyards have gained recognition in the Clear Fork Valley Hall of Fame,” he told the crowd.
Izer led the nation in hitting with a .495 average his senior year at Baldwin Wallace College.
Clear Fork’s first high school football team, the 1963 team, was inducted as well. They finished the year as Johnny Appleseed Conference champions and with a record of 9-0-1. Team member Paul Williams says the biggest win of the season was a 24-0 victory of arch rival Fredericktown. He says it turned on a fourth and three play on their own 30 on the first drive of the game when they decided not to punt as coach Bill Frazier had instructed. “We ran the ball fourth and three on the first possession of the game. We got a terrible spot, but we made it by one foot,” said Williams.
