Photo Provided BARNESVILLE NATIVE Tom Harp proudly displays a Shamrocks helmet in his memorabilia room in his North Carolina home. Harp graduated from Barnesville in 1945 and is believed to be the oldest living Shamrock football alumni

When it comes to football and life, Tom Harp has basically seen it all.

The 93-year-old Barnesville native is believed to be the oldest living Shamrock football alumni and one of just 13 alumni still living from the Class of 1945.

When the Shamrocks opened their 100th season of football Thursday evening against Buckeye Local, Harp was following the game online from his home in Whispering Pines, N.C.

Harp, though he left Barnesville shortly after graduating for college and then entered Miami of Ohio and eventually transferred to Muskingum where he played quarterback, has always held a special place in his heart for the Shamrocks.

“As I grew up, I don’t think I missed a game from the time I was big enough to go to games,” Harp said. “Even after I moved, my sister, who died just six months ago, went to all of the games until she physically couldn’t and she would call every Friday night and tell me how they did and then tell me about the next opponent.”

Harp, who said he slept with a football as a youngster growing up, always had a dream of playing the sport. But, ultimately, the dream was to play for Barnesville High School. Anything after that was just a bonus.

“I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to go out for the team,” Harp said. “I remember being 5-foot-8, 130 pounds as a freshman and was really just there, but being part of the team was great and then as I grew and got bigger, it became even more fun.”

Harp’s class of 1945 was known as “the war class” since it entered high school just months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and just months after receiving their diplomas, the Japanese surrendered and World War II had come to an end.

“Each year we faced the same situation because we changed teachers and coaches left and right,” Harp explained. “People would graduate and then immediately go off to war and unfortunately some never came back.”

Barnesville had four different coaches in Harp’s time in high school. Joe Austin, Frank Swoecke, Ray Low and Delbert Blattler guided the program.

“We had a good team my sophomore year, but my junior and senior year, the biggest thing was the fight for the hot dogs after the game in the locker room,” Harp said. ”

Austin and Swoecke left Barnesville to enter the military, while Low was a basketball coach first and foremost. Blattler, meanwhile, was a chemistry teacher who helped to fill a void.

“Blattler also ran the drug store and sold wall paper and you’d go into buy wallpaper and look at this (catelog) for wallpaper. He would bring that (catalog) to practice because he had drawn the plays on the backside.”

Harp, who played quarterback, joked that the Shamrocks didn’t have access to that wallpaper catalog, would draw up the plays in the sand on the field.

“We probably had 25 players on the team, but only 15 or so would show up for practice on a regular basis, but everyone showed up for the game because those were fun,” Harp said. “I would say we had three or four guys on the team who really wanted to play and win.”

The Shamrocks finished with an 11-19-2 record during Harp’s playing career. The best season they put forth was a 5-3-1 campaign in 1942.

Harp took many lessons with him from his Barnesville days into his football career, which included coaching stops at Carrollton and Massillon Washington as a prep coach. He then entered the collegiate coaching ranks and had a stop at Army as an assistant for four seasons and then spent four seasons each as the head coach at Cornell, Duke and Indiana State before retiring following the 1977 season. He entered athletic administration and served as an assistant athletics director at the Naval Academy.

“When I first got to Miami of Ohio (as a player), I was lost. It was to the point where I didn’t know if the ball was stuffed or pumped and I knew I had a long way to go,” Harp recalled. “But, basic things I took from Barnesville, and my career there, were I knew you had to have someone coaching who knew what they were talking about and not using a wallpaper book and you had to know fundamentals along with having players who were dedicated to the sport.”

Barnesville plans to celebrate its 100th anniversary all season, but Harp doesn’t think he will be able to make it back to take part in the festivities.

“I would like to get back, but I have a grandson who is the starting tight end at Army and I have another grandson who is on the (coaching) staff at McNeese State University, so their games really tie up my schedule for football,” Harp said.

Since he’s followed Barnesville football for basically a century, Harp rattled off several names when asked about the Mount Rushmore of Shamrock football.

“There were a number of really good players to come through Barnesville,” Harp said. “Guys like Alvie Jackson, Dick Thomas, Larry Marmie and even though I wasn’t following him as closely, Tim Moxley are just some of the guys I think about.”

BARNESVILLE FOOTBALL NOTES

• THE SHAMROCKS began their 100th season with a 442-488-29 record.

• BARNESVILLE has qualified for the OHSAA playoffs eight times and five different coaches have taken the Rocks to at least week 11.

• IT IS believed that Barnesville has had 23 head coaches in its history.