MANSFIELD — Long before he was Managing Editor at the Richland Source, Larry Phillips was a high school football fan and history enthusiast.
The award-winning journalist and longtime Mansfield resident combined his passions in a project more than six years in the making.
Phillips’ first book, Ohio’s Autumn Legends, Greats from the State’s Football Fields, Volume I, is available in hardback, paperback and Kindle eBook ($9.99) edition at Amazon.com. It can be purchased locally at the Richland Source office (21 Temple Court in downtown Mansfield) and at Main Street Books, also in downtown Mansfield.
Keith Publications is so confident in the work, modeled after John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book Profiles in Courage, it already has agreed to publish Volume II next fall. Each chapter is a mini-biography of one of the state’s greatest players or coaches, including Mansfield’s own Pete Henry. The work includes interviews with Roger Staubach, Paul Warfield and Archie Griffin among others.
“Looking at Ohio football from a historical perspective, this region thrusts itself to the center of attention,” Phillips said. “It goes deeper than the Pro Football Hall of Fame, or even the founding of the NFL. Passion for football is something ingrained into the culture here.”
Lending his hand to the project is professional artist Oscar Hinojosa, a Bowling Green graduate whose clients include the Jacksonville Jaguars, the PGA Tour and the U.S. Olympic Hockey team. Hinojosa offers two paintings of each legend, resurrecting the subjects from their high school days.
“I tried to capture the sheer determination, vision and guts it takes to become one of football’s elite, along with the complete thrill and gratification that comes from being one of the best in the sport,” Hinojosa said.
Together, Phillips and Hinojosa chronicle the careers and bring to life the images of Mansfield’s Pete Henry, Staubach (Cincinnati Purcell), Griffin (Columbus Eastmoor), Warfield (Warren Harding), Vic Janowicz (Elyria), Chic Harley (Columbus East), Marion Motley (Canton McKinley), Chris Spielman (Massillon), Charles Follis (Wooster) and coach Paul Brown among others.
“It was such a thrill to interview Roger Staubach. He talked about never getting over losing a championship game as a senior to Cincinnati Roger Bacon. But when his high school buddies joined him in Canton after his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, they had retold the story so many times it turned out they actually won that game,” Phillips said with a chuckle.
“I really enjoyed talking to family members, too. Vic Janowicz’s brother Hank told me a recruiting story about Bing Crosby calling the house on the Buckeyes’ behalf, and what a big deal that was in the 1940s for a family that barely spoke English in the home to get a phone call from Bing Crosby.”
Ohio’s Autumn Legends makes a great gift idea for football fans of all ages.
“Frankly, Oscar’s original artwork of the Legends is worth the price of the book,” Phillips said. “Seeing these guys in color from their high school days, there simply isn’t color art available of many of them, before now.”
Local photographer Jason Molyet handled the cover illustration, while Mansfield’s Ray Dyson was the copy chief through Keith Publications.
Dyson, who covered the 1968 national championship Ohio State football team, was impressed by Ohio’s Autumn Legends.
“I had the pleasure of working professionally with award-winning sportswriter Larry Phillips for several years. He is not only a first-class writer, but his knowledge of Ohio football is deep and authentic,” Dyson said. “It was my great pleasure to serve as editor of this book, although Larry needed very little help in that regard.
“It is a wonderful read, bringing these legends of the game to stirring life. Football fan or not, you are going to enjoy this.”
