Donald W. Yontz
Donald W. Yontz '60 '80 Basketball, Tennis
In an era of athletic specialization there aren't too many Don Yontzes around anymore.
Pity.
Don Yontz played two sports at Fenn College in the late 50's well enough to earn a grand total of eight varsity letters. He played a third well enough to have earned another two or three or four if only he could have devised a method to be in two places at one time. He tried, but it didn't quite pan out.
Pity, again.
With the right system he might have earned more varsity letters than any athlete in the combined histories of Fenn and Cleveland State. Instead, his eight letters rank him second to another CSU Athletic Hall of Fame enshrine, Bob Busbey.
Don Yontz played basketball during the fall and winter for Fenn, beginning with the 1955-56 season and ending with the 1958-59 season. In the springs of 1955-56-57 and '58 he played tennis. Whenever he could, he would also dash over to wherever the baseball team was playing and suit up for a game.
Yontz was a good baseball player, who delivered more than one timely hit for the Foxes. But he was a great tennis player. If not the best ever to represent the school, certainly one of the two or three best. That will always be a subjective judgment.
He certainly was the best of his era, playing first singles in each of his last three seasons, building up a career record of 54-11 in singles and running off a consecutive victory string which according to the best available records reached 15 over a two-year period before coming to a halt. In 1956, the Fox netters, with Yontz showing the way, strung together a 9-1 record which no racquet squad has since equaled at the University.
The Yontz tennis skills were too good to be sacrificed for baseball, alas.
There were no conflicts in basketball, where Yontz carved a unique niche for himself. Although he never averaged in double figures - in fact rarely scored in double figures - Don Yontz started ever game but one of his four-year college basketball career. (His perfect record was spoiled in the last game of his junior year when he sat the bench for the opening two minutes to make room for a senior playing his final contest for the Foxes.)
In an era when the one-handed jumper was replacing the two-handed set shot and scores were mounting rapidly, Yontz stuck steadfastly to the two-hander, which he could drop in from amazingly long range, shot his free throws underhanded, and earned his keep with magnificent defensive abilities.
The quick footwork which made him a tennis standout stood him in good stead on the basketball court. Almost invariably he was assigned to guard the opposition's offensive star, and almost as invariably that star's scoring average tumbled dramatically.
When Yontz graduated with a degree in marketing in 1960, he returned to the Sandusky, Ohio area where he had starred for Sandusky High in tennis (two trips to the state meet) and in basketball before enrolling at Fenn.
He married a pretty young lady named Mary Ellen Brogley whom he had known from high school days and had dated while he attended Fenn and she attended nearby St. John's College, and embarked on a career which included a brief stint in the service, and a variety of jobs which eventually led him to the Industrial Nut Corp. of Sandusky in 1966.
Starting as a general accountant there, he worked his way through the ranks to his current positions as company treasurer and a member of the board of directors.
He also plunged into community service activities, and has served as president of Sandusky's Goodwill Industries' board, president of the board of the YMCA, and treasurer and a member of the executive board of the Sandusky Chamber of Commerce.
Along the way he has been named the JayCee Young Man of the Year and been presented the Sandusky Chamber of Commerce Community Service Award for service to the youth of the area.
He has retained his interest in tennis, accumulating an impressive list of trophies, has become an ardent participant in power volleyball and until recent years pursued his second spring love one step further by coaching and managing in the Milan Junior Baseball League for eight years.
Milan is where Don and Mary Ellen Yontz now make their home with sons David, 14, and John, 13. The other most famous resident of that town probably would have figured out a way to play tennis and baseball at the same time. Fella by the name of Tom Edison.
