I grew up on Old 161

Here are some pictures I came across from 1967. This is the house I grew up in on Old 161. The McCoy center now sets where the house was located. In two of the pictures looking from the back of the house you can see the old baseball diamond and in the background you can see Swickard woods. This picture was taken just after the post office was built. This is before Morris Cardinal and the apartments were built.

By: Gene Davis

Baseball in New Albany

Baseball in New Albany has experienced some major success in recent years with high school state titles in 2004 and 2021 and a Little League state title in 2018. But did you know that the history of baseball in New Albany goes back more than 100 years? Learn more in the latest episode of our New Albany history series!

Vietnam War Hero

Albert Michael Butsko, a 1964 New Albany High School graduate, gave his life for our country in Vietnam on September 10, 1967. Mike, as he was known by his family and friends, is one of six New Albany service members in the last 100 years to pay the ultimate sacrifice. In honor of Memorial Day, we continue our New Albany History series by paying tribute to Mike Butsko, his family and all fallen service members and their families.

Alive with Traditions!

Nothing has ever given me more of a small-town vibe than Summer of 2018 in New Albany, Ohio.

I was inspired to write this #newalbanystories entry after reading the story, by Steve Joseph, about his memories of New Albany Little League in the 70’s.

Our family and some of our closest baseball friends were incredibly honored this summer to be a part of New Albany history when our 13 year old son’s little league baseball team took the state champ title and moved on to take 3rd place at regionals. Out of 3,587 little league teams from around the world, our New Albany Ohio Little League Team finished in the top 20!! After the state championship, we got to have a real genuine, small-town heroes welcome with fans lining the streets, firetrucks/police escort for our team, news anchors, and a greeting from our Mayor. It was EPIC! I have two more boys hoping to get their chances to defend that Little League State Title. THIS IS TRADITION. Our 2018 Little League All-Stars inspired a whole following of young boys and. Coaches (dads) to keep up the tradition of New Albany Ohio Little League and I can’t wait to see where that takes our community over the many years to come.

My husband and I both grew up in small town New Albany. We are very proud to be running our small family business in such a bustling, yet still very small community…Traditions Landscape Group…yep, that was a marketing plug! 😉 We are raising our four children in this community and cherish everything old and new! John played New Albany sports for many years and is now coaching youth sports. Our oldest started at age three with Timbits, eventually moving on to tee-ball, baseball, flag football, soccer, basketball…our fourth and final child just made her way through a tee-ball season of her own last year (Did you know that in New Albany Baseball, your fourth kids plays for free?). We think of Bevelhymer Park as our own backyard and feel very blessed to have such awesome parks and recreation facilities.

A lot has changed over the years…but New Albany, Ohio is still very alive with traditions! Early mornings at the ball fields, long lines at the concession stands, parents there to support their young athletes, the ringing of our National Anthem, and baseball under the lights! EAGLES PIZZA…Founders Day celebrations…lots of 5K races, including the annual Walking Classic and Thanks4Giving 4Miler…lighting of the Christmas Tree at Market Street…An incredible showing of support for our school athletics…countless recitals and shows at the McCoy Performing Arts Center…OUR AMAZING SCHOOL SYSTEM AND TEACHERS. On a personal note, I cannot tell you how amazing it feels to send my 8th grader to school each day, knowing that he gets to sit in a classroom with some of MY 8th grade teachers…LOVE! {Suzie Harris Cooper, Jim Morgan, John Galbreath}

Everywhere I go, I see old faces and new faces…and it has never felt more like HOME to us! Just outside of New Albany city limits…you are no more than a couple miles away from scenic country landscape and farming fields…seriously, is there a more perfect place? The beautiful trails that weave throughout our community are just another grand way to keep us all connected. Restaurants, green-space, dog parks, shops….all of which are among our many original and/or renovated buildings from “the old days” of New Albany. Our community carries a lot of history…it is evolving, binging in new traditions, and everything going on today will ultimately be a part of history…let celebrate THAT!! Here’s to New Albany {Old and New}…afterall, we are #8 on the list of America’s best 50 cities to live in!

Christi Richardson {and John, Josh, Jacob, Nolan, & Gracie}

Reunion 79′

A memento from the 30th reunion of the New Albany High School class of 1979.

Lots of Memories

Connie Carr / New Albany English Teacher

You mentioned the Little League diamond and all at once a lot of memory cells fired in my brain. Hopefully, if Connie Carr is reading this, she will forgive my grammar mistakes. Spell check should catch most of my spelling errors. We moved to New Albany in 1973. Oldest son Jimmy was ready for T-ball in 1974 I believe. Middle son Andy followed him by 4 or 5 years, youngest son Scott followed Andy by another 4 or 5 years and daughter Debbie played softball starting a year after Scott. A sum total of about 16 or 17 years in New Albany Youth League sports. Must qualify the Joseph’s for some kind of award! HA!
I coached many of those years and was treasurer of the league for many years. My wife Judy and Donna Brown ran the little concession stand for many years. She remembers the rectangular pizzas (purchased frozen from Callie Cardules at the Dairy Creme) selling like hot cakes.

The league saved money for many years to buy a new ice machine. Coaches that stand out in my memory were Rod Putterbaugh, Mike Carr, Bill McKinney, Harold Phillips, Jerry Cherry, Jack Farley, Jim Sponagle, Herbie (“Don’t look at the ball- RUN”)Kellett, John Tinon, Robin Nye, and many others. Joe Morlan, of course, leaning on the outfield fence scouting for future Big League pitchers.
Many very treasured memories of small town New Albany. We love it here!!

By: Steve Joseph

I would like to add to some of the Coaches that helped get the New Albany Little League up and running:

Team 4 / 1969

Tom Kessee, Fred Shoemaker, Dexter Stevens, Mike Kowalski, Dave Mckinney, Chet Abshire, Bill Cowan, Hoel Harris, Gane Hatch, J B Bowe, Mr. Flowers, Jack Brooks, Mr. Seckerson, Mr. Elschlager, Johnny Bowman, Otto Lindenbolt, Pat Folie and others.

Airborne

The “bump” on Warner road, where if you were going fast enough you could get your car airborne. A friend that we’ll just call ‘Mike’ took his dad’s car — an Olds 88, I think — and hit that spot doing somewhere above the speed limit: that car was so nose-heavy the front of it plowed in to the pavement.  I don’t know that his dad ever did find out what really happened.

Yank’s Bus

I also remember that “bump” from riding Dick Yank’s bus, as the longer he had been a bus driver, the faster he seemed to go on his route.  If you sat at the back of the bus, you were likely to come up off the seat completely!  Good thing he kept the eggs he sold to the kids’ families up front by him until your stop.

By: Bill C.

Author! Pizza! Books! Pizza!

The Eagles Pizza Book Series 2nd book signing /author event of the season welcomes David Cuccia on Sunday, December 15th from 5-8 pm.

David’s the author-illustrator of There’s A Crazy Dog Under the Palace! Come out for some great pizza, get your signed copy and meet the author!

cucciakidsbooks.com