Forum Flashbacks: Dec. 30 – Jan. 5
FORUM FILE PHOTO
5 YEARS AGO: First baby! – SSM Health St. Francis Hospital welcomed their first baby of 2017, Lily Mae Siemer, on Monday, Jan. 2 at 8:22 a.m. Pictured are parents Justin and Audra Siemer and older sister Stella.
5 years ago
When Karma Coleman leaves the Nodaway-Holt R-VII School District in June, a northwest Missourian – and former classmate – will be ready to take the reins.
Dr. Jeff Blackford will be returning to Nodaway County to take over the position of superintendent at Nodaway-Holt on July 1.
Blackford has been serving as the superintendent of the Rich Hill R-IV School District in Rich Hill, Missouri, which is almost half way between Kansas City and Joplin, since 2012. …
From 2004-2008, Blackford taught physical education and health at North Nodaway High School while coaching football, basketball, baseball, and softball. He was then hired to be the principal at Rock Port, leaving in 2011 to become the superintendent at Chilhowee R-IV School District southeast of Warrensburg for one year before being hired in his current position.
While Blackford always had a desire to teach, he was certified as an administrator because he wanted to do more.
“I wanted to help out more,” Blackford said. “As you go through your education, you realize that there is more to impacting students than just teaching them – administrators also play a major role.
“The greatest impacting force the students have is still the teachers, but the best administrators give their teachers everything they need to succeed.”
15 years ago
The words of advice came from his comrades.
“Don’t stand in front of Bobby Knight.”
Terry Oglesby did it anyway, albeit unintentionally. And when Knight prompted the Maryville man to move, Oglesby moved. …
On Dec. 23 in Lubbock, Texas, the (Texas Tech) Red Raiders beat Bucknell University 72-60, handing Knight his 879th career win and tying him with another basketball legend, former University of North Carolina coach Dean Smith. …
On Dec. 23, Terry Oglesby was officiating that game. He was one of three referees involved in the fast-pace action that is Big 12 basketball.
On Dec. 23, Terry Oglesby stood in front of the legend, who has coached Team USA to gold medals and who is known to blow a gasket or two.
“What he was saying … most of it couldn’t be put in print,” Oglesby said last week. “That was the first time I’d worked for Bobby Knight, and the other officials told me that he likes to sit in his chair, and he wants to be able to coach, so I shouldn’t stand in front of him.
“Well, I was standing in front of him, and he basically told me to move so that he could see. And he moved me a little.”
People saw it on the nationally televised game. An Associated Press photographer caught the image, which has been published in other newspapers around the country.
25 years ago
Nodaway County Commissioners are moving forward with plans to put a county-wide 911 proposal on the April ballot. A firm was hired in December to do a feasibility study for a county system.
The issue had been planned for the November election, but notice was not given to the Nodaway County Clerk’s office by the deadline.
According to Presiding Commissioner Lester Keith, Geo-Comm Inc. has met with the commissioners to gather information on current equipment, phone companies, radio transmitters and paging systems available to implement a county-wide system. …
The measure will require a simple majority to pass and will be presented to voters as an additional cost on their phone bills, which is the way the city-wide 911 system is currently funded.
100 years ago
A Happy New Year!
Standing at the threshold of the New Year we may look into the future with confidence that there lies before us a more hopeful prospect than that with which we were confronted a year ago.
During the year just closing we have battled with the problems of readjustment, have taken our losses, and have started the work of rebuilding on the more substantial foundation of deflated values.
During this trying twelve months we have been sober and sane, have looked the ugly situation squarely in the face, and have taken what medicine the doctor has prescribed.
We haven’t liked the medicine very well, but we now are realizing the necessity for the dosing and are beginning to rejoice in the feeling of new life that follows the purging of a clogged constitution.
Because we have met the untoward conditions with stout hearts and have done our part in the huge task of reconstruction, we have earned the right to participate in the better conditions that are certainly before us.
The New Year gives promise of being a growing year, conditions improving from day to day. The forecast as presented by industrial and financial experts indicates there will be no spectacular advances in values, no skyrocketing prices — just good, healthy business.
The Tribune extends to all of its friends the season’s greetings and the hope that they may be a part in the business revival of the year and participants in all of the advantages that may accrue.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The 100-year flashback is courtesy of the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project from the State Historical Society of Missouri, viewable at shsmo.org/collections/newspapers/mdnp. The original article ran in the Dec. 31, 1921, edition of The Maryville Tribune, a predecessor of The Maryville Forum.
