There’s a move to rename the park on the near northside of Peoria after our friend, Royce Elliott. Morton Square Park was a favorite “playground” for Royce and his many friends. They played football and some softball on the square block between Monroe and Perry, bounded by Evans and Morton. It was close to where Royce lived and near some of his hang-outs. Across the park was Cerre’s, home of the famous “Green Rivers” and cherry Cokes. Not far on North Perry was Goodwin Drugs, sponsor of a fast-pitch softball team on which Royce played.

Earl Martin, another good friend, called WOAM’s “Breakfast with Royce and Roger,” and suggested the idea to rename Morton Square after Royce. “Why not?” he asked. “The city renamed a street after Richard Pryor in his old neighborhood,” Martin reasoned. Everyone on the show agreed including regular guest, historian, and Peorian, Norm Kelly. Adding his support that morning was former District 150 Superintendent, Harry Whitaker. Whitaker was raised not far from Morton Square on North Jefferson. Like Royce, Harry attended and played sports at Woodruff High School.

In his lobbying effort, Kelly has written a short story, “The Saga of Morton Square.” It’s an interesting history of the park that Norm has forwarded to Bonnie Noble, Executive Director of the Peoria Park District. There could be no better and or more fitting tribute to the man who brought so much joy to millions of people, locally and nationally, than to rename Morton Square Park as Royce Elliott Park. The ball is now in the “court” of Bonnie Noble and the Peoria Park District trustees. They’ll “score” with a vote to support the name change.

A WORLD SERIES RING

AND ACADEMY AWARD

The Woodruff High School Alumni Association recognized the importance and value of winning a World Series Ring and an Academy Award at its annual Spring Banquet, Saturday, May 4. They named 1949 graduate Zack Monroe and 1992 graduate Tami Lane as Distinguished Alumni for 2013. Zack was honored primarily for becoming the first Peorian to pitch in a World Series game and Tami was chosen after winning an Oscar in 2006 for her prosthetic make-up work in the film, “The Chronicles of Narnia,” and a nomination in the same category this year for “The Hobbit.”

Zack pitched for the New York Yankees in the 1958 World series against the Milwaukee Braves. The Yankees won that series with Zack appearing in 21 games during the season, winning four and losing two. His earned run average was a sparkling 3.26. He won’t brag about it, but I will. Among his list of baseball accomplishments was never having a losing season and he retired Ted Williams, who many consider the greatest hitter in the history of the game. In that game, he beat Boston, 4-2.

Tami is considered as an expert, an accomplished and skilled make-up artist in the movie industry, She has worked in over 21 movies from “Witchmaster” to “Underdog” to “Superman.” For the film, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,”

Tami supervised a team of 16 prosthetic artists, sometimes working 18 hour days. She has done makeup for some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Tami attended the banquet after flying from New York City where she’s working on the latest Superman film. Both Tami and Zack gave interesting and informative acceptance speeches to the delight of alumni attendees.

Another highlight of the evening took place when eleven $1,000 scholarships were awarded to former Woodruff High School students now attending other District 150 high schools. Despite receiving two news releases, the Peoria Journal failed to publicize the names of the scholarship recipients, so I’ll do the honors. Peoria High winners are Shawneka Burch, Destany Coons, Liara Harris, Kelly Hallstrom, Tiffany Lambert, Emily Morris, Jaqui Oseguera, and Carlita Tucker. Other winners are Catrina Warren of Manual and Corey Basfield and Jareth Long of Richwoods.

Sporting big, bright and beautiful smiles, the students gave warm and gracious acceptance remarks. It should be noted this was the final class of Woodruff students that will graduate from the Peoria district. However, the alumni association will continue to award scholarships each year while hoping the local school board will recognize the need to reopen Woodruff.

MEANWHILE……..

The annual banquet of the Woodruff alumni is held in the Commons of their former high school. It’s now called the Woodruff Career and Technical Center. About 240 students in a variety of training programs attend the school that once had a high school enrollment of nearly 1,000 just a few short years ago. Give the school district credit. The school and its grounds are well maintained…….for other high school students. They play baseball on its beautiful diamond and they run track on Boucher Field. Meanwhile, as the halls and classrooms remain virtually empty, the district is pouring millions and millions of dollars into Peoria High, the oldest school in the city, and thousands more buying land in one of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. There is no logic to these financial and immoral decisions. The latest rumor floating around is the administration and school board are considering moving the Peoria High swimming program to the Woodruff pool where Manual students are already participating. It’s hard to understand. If Woodruff’s facilities are so good that students from other high schools are bussed almost daily to the northside school, why was it closed? We were told it was closed to save a million dollars a year. Yet, we learn District 150 will have a $2.8 million deficit. Peoria Journal spinmaster Pam Adams and her headline writer falsely announced, “District 150 slashes budget deficit.” The claim is based on treasurer David Kinney’s prediction the budget deficit would be $4 million for the year. Hell, that’s like the Cubs predicting they would wind up in last place and they finish next to last. The district wound up with over a half-million dollar loss in transportation costs caused, Kinney said, by higher gas prices. Now who would not be able to anticipate or predict, to use his words, higher gas prices today and next year and the year after that? Could higher transportation costs be caused in part with the busing of students to and from Woodruff and to and from Peoria High and Manual and Richwoods from the Woodruff neighborhoods? I think so.

BEL-WOOD RATES GO UP

Not surprising, daily rates for Bel-Wood Nursing Home residents are going up.

After all, the new nursing home, to be called Heddington Oaks cost over $45 million to construct. The current daily rate for private pay residents is $170.00, but when the new facility opens that rate could jump as high as $245.00. Remember, the rate is for those who are private pay, a small percentage of those living in the county nursing home. Most are on Medicaid or Medicare and the county receives a much lower amount from government payments. No figures were released noting the difference between daily cost and daily charges.

The “cost” is actual costs the county incurs to provide daily care and the rate is what is charged private pay patients. The difference is the profit margin for the county. It would be interesting to learn the daily cost and then compare that with what Medicare and Medicaid pays the county.

In other nursing home news, the anticipated June 1 opening will not be realized. Word is some design and implementation problems of the heating and air-conditioning system caused the change of date for the transfer of Bel-Wood residents. The new nursing home will not be able to open until the Illinois Public Health Department successfully completes its thorough survey and evaluation of the 214 bed facility that will include an Alzheimer Unit.

BU BASEBALL..OUCH!

As I was putting my column to bed, the Bradley University baseball team had an embarrassing Missouri Valley record of a single win against 17 losses, including 15 defeats in a row. Overall, the Braves were 16 and 28. Over overall, Bradley teams are having a terrible year under new Athletic Director Michael Cross.

There are plenty of wild conversations and negative comments about sports on the Hilltop with not a lot of optimism. That’s hurtful. As a student, I worked in the Robertson Fieldhouse and even did some substitute public address announcing for Bob Leu, the golden-voice Bradley basketball announcer. Who can forget those exciting Bradley years.

Getting back to Bradley baseball, here are some interesting tidbits as told by several people with strong connections to the Hilltop. Former Athletic Director Ken Kavanagh was told he was not going to select the new baseball coach when Dewey Kalmer retired. That decision was going to be made by President Joanne Glasser. And so it was. She appointed a friend from Eastern Kentucky, Elvis Dominquez. I’m told Kavanagh had already interviewed at least three excellent candidates.

Here’s the background. Northern Iowa was dropping baseball so its coach, Rich Heller, was available. Another excellent prospect was Mark Kingston, former Peoria Chief, who was interested in coming to Bradley. Kingston was assistant coach at Miami when it won the 2001 College World Series. A third candidate, I’m told, was Bradley pitching coach and former Major League pitcher, Mike Dunne.

Glasser announced that she had hired Elvis Dominquez, who had a career record of 237-294, though that wasn’t revealed. No reason to do so. But, since his appointment Bradley has lost over 100 games. Meanwhile, how about the other guys Kavanagh had considered?

Heller went to Indiana State where his team won the school’s first outright Missouri Valley Championship and an NCAA bid. Last year his team won a school record 41 games and he was named MVC Coach of the Year, an honor he won while at Northern Iowa. He had been named Coach of the Year four times while at Upper Iowa University.

Mark Kingston wound up at Illinois State University. He was named MVC Coach of the Year in 2010 and the following year the Redbirds won 36 games and the regular season championship. In his first three years, Kingston’s teams have accumulated a total of 33 wins. And this season, ISU swept the Braves.

Mike Dunne was replaced as pitching coach and now works with baseball players at Richwoods. The former St. Louis Cardinal was named the Sporting News rookie pitcher of the Year.

I’m told Elvis is a nice guy. Let’s hope he can resurrect Bradley baseball.

CONGRATULATIONS

BRUCE!

He did it again. Bruce Saurs has brought hockey alive in Peoria after the St. Louis Blues dealt what many thought was the end of the sport in Peoria. The Blues sold the hockey franchise to Vancouver and the NHL owners announced they would not send a team to our city It didn’t take long for Saurs to swing into action. Working with John Butler and Bart Rogers, the guys running the Bloomington Coliseum, Saurs has the Peoria Rivermen returning as a team in the Southern Professional Hockey League. Speaking by phone on WOAM’s “Breakfast with Royce and Roger” Tuesday, May 14, Saurs said the quality of play will be outstanding. “Many of the players have been on teams in the AHL and even in the NHL at one time or another.” Saurs said hockey will be played in the Civic Center beginning this fall. Nice going, Bruce!

SPECIAL TRIP

As I file this column, preparations are underway to fly to Santa Barbara, California, for memorial services for my good friend, Jonathan Winters. Though we communicated frequently by phone every two to three weeks for almost nine years, we never met person-to-person. He kept saying he was going to take a train to Chicago and I was hopeful Royce and I could fly out to see him. Sadly, both Jonathan and Royce are gone, but I do have wonderful and loving memories of both. I’m grateful to Jonathan’s daughter, Lucinda, for sending me an invitation to attend the memorial.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life span?” — Luke 12:25