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10/5/2007

Major Hewes successfully completed his rehab assignment and is now back home at his apartment.  He has moved to a ground floor unit in the same complex.  The new address is 4107 and the apartment # is 3.  Phone is the same

Feel free to send him a card, call him, or pop in for a short visit (with some advanced notice).  502-895-1089

 

Cheers!

 

Leon Hirsh  1968

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I try to read a story or two weekly in Jim Stephens' historical work about K.M.I.   Last night I came across one that I thought I would share with everyone.  The subject is John Hans Doering, a cadet who attended K.M.I. from 1930 to 1932.  Here it goes:

 

"When John Hans Doering, a huge, rather muscle-bound, older student from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was especially recruited for his unusual athletic ability by Captain Harry Austin Dame, he entered  K.M.I. on 18 September 1930.  The "Bull" preferred athletics over scholastics and dropped out of school before the year ended in 1932, ready to try out as a professional football player.

When he died at his home on Sunday, 18 November 1972, the professional football world lost one of the longest passers in the history of the sport.  At K.M.I., when this giant of a fullback charged through the line, it took two or more men to bring him down.  His ability as the team's chosen passer was comparable to any professional player.  Not only did he shine in football, he was the heavy man who tossed the shotput, discus, and javelin on K.M.I.'s all Southern Conference Champion track team.

In 1932, John walked into the Chicago Bears camp.  On meeting Coach George Halas for the first time, he asked, "Mr. Halas, do you want the best passer in football?"  Coach Halas replied, "I want the best of everything."  After a few trial passes by John, Halas promptly hired him.

When Halas was ready to unveil his new discovery in the Chicago-Boston game, John failed to show up.  He watched the game from the stands, and later told Halas, "I'm not sure that my mother wants me to play football."  In one of the games that followed, John threw the ball 90 yards for a completed pass.  In the mid-1930s, a Pete Smith sports newsreel showed Doering throwing the ball 40 yards behind his back for a pass completion.  His southpaw arm was truly phenomenal.

When John skipped one of Halas' skull practice lectures in 1937, his career with the Chicago Bears ended.  Coach Halas demanded, "Where were you?"  Doering gave his final but amusing answer:  "George, you say the same things over and over.  I went to see a movie....and also to Pittsburgh (Steelers)."  Doehring played on the Chicago Bears world championship team of 1932-33, with such famous names as Bronko Nagurski and Harold "Red" Grange.

 

Cheers!

 

Leon Hirsh '68

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REFLECTIONS: 
A Portrait - Biography of the Kentucky Military Institute  (1845 - 1971)
by James Darwin Stephens
Copyright © 1991