Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in Heart of Ohio magazine who has allowed Richland Source to republish in a collaborative agreement.
Are you among the legion of adult sports fans who, as youngsters, collected baseball cards as much for the bubble gum, that chewed as though it was made of the same material as the cards themselves, as for the memories they would someday represent?
Include me in that group, as well as among those who didn’t take very good care of those collectibles after buying them.
Ted Patterson was not like most of the rest of us. You wouldn’t find an original, 1954 Larry Doby card stuck in the spokes of his bicycle. More likely, it was covered in plastic wrap and placed in the dark warmth of his sock drawer.
Ted was born and raised in Mansfield and spent all 12 of his grade school, junior high and high school years at St. Peter’s. His first memories of sports collecting were of buying Bowman Bubble Gum cards at Paul’s Friendly on Lexington Avenue, or Shaw-Ott Drug on Cline Avnue.
As a Spartan freshman, Ted remembers having to write his autobiography which he titled, SO THEN, SO NOW, SO WHAT, and in the last chapter he wrote about what he hoped to become in the future. He said he would love to be a Major League baseball player but, since that dream was fairly far-fetched, Ted said he would settle for just “being around the games” he loved.
Well, that prediction came true as Ted has been around professional sports for 45 years. Ted became serious about collecting sports cards and autographs in his high school years. His first autograph of a ‘famous” athlete was Bob Feller, who came to Mansfield for a speaking engagement in the late 50’s. The first “on-the-scene” autograph was that of the late Larry Siegfried after a Shelby High School tournament basketball game in Marion.
After high school, Ted moved on to the University of Dayton where he majored in communications arts and worked at the university radio station as Sports Director. While at Dayton Ted put together a project called, “The Golden Voices of Sports,” which was a compilation of his written words and interviews he did with the greats of that time in sports casting; names like Vin Scully, Harry Caray, Mel Allen, Jimmy Dudley and Ernie Harwell.
After that it was on to Miami University in Oxford, where he served as a graduate assistant instructor and the play-by- play voice of the then “Redskins” of the Mid-American Conference. Those were the years when Bo Schembechler was coaching football there and Tates Locke was the basketball coach.
So, in 1968, Ted had a Masters Degree from Miami of Ohio but no job until he sent his thesis and audio tapes to Armed Forces Radio. They liked all that they read and heard and ordered young Mr. Patterson to report to the Pentagon, where he stayed for two years broadcasting sports to our troops all over the world.
During that time he met a young British girl by the name of Diana Gillete, who was working at the World Bank on a two-year visa. They married and, after his discharge from the Army, Ted began a job hunt in the real world. It wasn’t long before he was able to land a spot as the ghost writer and producer of Curt Gowdy’s (yes THE Curt) Gowdy daily radio show for NBC.
All the while, through college, the Army and work, Ted was continuing to build his sports memorabilia collection.
Two years later, in 1973, Ted was hired by WBAL Radio in Baltimore to host an Orioles’ talk show and has remained a resident of that Maryland city ever since. His professional sports casting career blossomed; he won three Maryland “Sportscaster of the Year” awards, as well as numerous other broadcasting accolades.
For 14 years Ted was the voice of Navy’s football and basketball teams, while continuing to do pre and post game shows for Baltimore’s pro baseball and football teams. His access to the athletes as a sportscaster certainly didn’t hurt his ability to get autographs for his growing treasure trove of sports cards, uniforms and other items; making them all the more valuable.
In the mid-70s Ted became a friend of Brooks Robinson, the Orioles’ third baseman and over the years was able, through the graciousness of the Hall of Famer, to build a valuable collection of his hats, uniforms and cards. In fact, if you visited Patterson’s home, as I have, you would find a variety of sports shrines to individual players. For instance, he has the uniform that former Indian catcher, Ray Fosse, was wearing in the 1970 All-Star game when Pete Rose collided with him at home plate.
There was an explosion of baseball card collecting in 1980 because that was the year when Topps lost its suit to be the exclusive source for Major League baseball cards. When that happened collectors were given the choice to buy Donrus, Fleer and Upper Deck, as well as Topps cards. While the choices expanded, the value of cards overall decreased due to the flooding of the market.
But Ted’s collecting eye was on much more than just trading cards. He was buying or trading for things like, ad pieces that showed stars of the day or Ty Cobb peddling products — especially tobacco. Those types of collectibles have continued to skyrocket in value and thus have assured Ted of never having to experience loss of sleep due to worrying whether the Social Security well will run dry. He can just sell off one of his numerous Mickey Mantle rookie cards to more than make up the difference.
For the serious collector of sports memorabilia parting with almost any item is a very emotional experience. Every baseball, uniform and autographed trading card is part of their family… unless it’s a duplicate and, even then, it’s tough to get rid of even the most recent acquisitions.
Ted is spending more time than ever with his collection these days. His wife, Diana, passed away after a long illness in February 2008, and his daughter and son are grown and gone. Ted retired as a day-to-day sportscaster but later covered some Raven games for ESPN Radio. He gets back to Ohio a few times a year to visit his mother and sister in Cleveland and usually makes it to Mansfield, too.
Since Ted also has a keen interest in the history of his hometown, when he’s back he’ll often stop by the City News or the Coney Island Diner on North Main Street with the hope, I’m sure, of running into some of his old St. Peter’s gang.
If you happen to recognize him, ask him if he’s brought any of his sports collection with him. The trunk of his car usually is full of scrapbooks, college yearbooks and game day programs and, if you ask him, he might even show them to you. But be polite because they’re old and part of his family.
