The Dayton Daily News talked to Zofkie, 90, at the St. Leonard’s assisted-living center in Centerville on Jan. 27, four days after an interview with Hal McCoy, Bucky Albers and Doug Harris at the newspaper’s office in downtown Dayton. The four writers all held the title of Dayton Flyers beat writer at some point in their journalism careers. Together, they have combined to cover thousands of games over the decades. A story on the conversation with McCoy, Albers and Harris will run Sunday.
Zofkie’s sons, Tim and Mike, joined the interview in Centerville and also brought out his old typewriter.
“You can see how heavy it would be,” Jim pointed out during the conversation.
Zofkie grew up in Wapakoneta. He was neighbors with the city’s most famous son, Neil Armstrong, who lived a block away and was about 4 years older.
“He was at 601 West Benton Street,” Zofkie said. “I was at 706 West Benton Street. When he came back from the moon, he wrote me a nice letter, and I have that in a safety-deposit box.”
Zofkie graduated from the University of Dayton in 1956 with a degree in English. He started working at the Journal Herald as a sports copy boy in 1954 during his college days.
Zofkie didn’t become a full-time sports writer until two years later after a two-year stint in the Army. Newspapers.com shows that he earned his first byline for covering a high school football game between Kiser High School and Wilbur Wright in 1954. The most famous Journal Herald byline then belonged to sports editor Ritter Collett, who would enter the writer’s wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.
Zofkie started covering the Dayton basketball beat in the 1962-63 season. The Flyers finished 16-10 in Zofkie’s first season on the beat and 15-10 the following season. In November 1963, Zofkie typed his first words about a player who would go down as one of the great player in program history: Hank Finkel, a 6-foot-11 center from Union City, N.J.
“During yesterday’s practice-ending scrimmage, Finkel impressed primarily with his ball-handling from the pivot,” Zofkie wrote. “In past years. Flyer fans have been accustomed at times to seeing a UD post man time and again clutch onto the ball, apparently panicking as to where to throw it next. Finkel didn’t display this trait. He moved the ball extremely well and exhibited above-average talents both offensively and defensively.”
Finkel averaged 23.0 points per game that season as a sophomore in his first season on the court. Freshmen weren’t allowed to play with the varsity team in those days. He scored 1,968 points in three seasons. That was the school record at the time. He now ranks third behind Roosevelt Chapman (2,233) and Don May (1,980).
Zofkie covered one of the biggest stories — and the saddest — of his career in the 1963-64 season. Coach Tom Blackburn battled lung cancer throughout his 17th season and died on March 6, 1964, at 58. He died on the eve of Dayton’s final game against DePaul.
“Tonight’s finale at the UD Fieldhouse against DePaul will be played, athletic director Harry Baujan said, ‘because Tom would have wanted it that way,’” Zofkie wrote.
“Blackburn’s disciplined basketball teams were highly regarded throughout the country,” Zofkie wrote. “Even when the raw material wasn’t the best, Blackburn’s clubs always fared well.”
Zofkie reported on the news of Dayton hiring Don Donoher, an assistant on Blackburn’s staff, in the Journal Herald on March 16, 1964. UD officially announced the hiring the next day.
“Don (Mickey) Donoher had more reason than most happy Irishmen to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day yesterday,” Zofkie wrote. “Irish through and through, Donoher was named head basketball coach at his alma mater, the University of Dayton.”
Zofkie would cover Donoher’s teams from 1964 through the 1976-77 season.
“We got along,” Zofkie. “He understood that if things were bad I had to report that.”
Zofkie’s time on the beat coincided with the move from the UD Fieldhouse to UD Arena in 1969.
“I remember that (the Fieldhouse) was so much smaller than the new arena,” Zofkie said. “I was kind of glad to see the move to a new arena because the field house was getting packed.”
On Jan. 14, 1976, Zofkie wrote what his sons consider one of his most memorable pieces under the headline “Arena too quiet.” In the column, Zofkie wrote that UD Arena “has not been a difficult place for a visiting team to play. And the sophisticated behavior of the fans is a major reason for it.”
Dayton finished 8-9 in home games the previous season. On the same day, the Journal Herald published his column, Dayton beat Miami 62-61 at UD Arena thanks in part to a boisterous crowd. After the game, Miami coach Darrell Hedric told Zofkie, “Thanks a lot, Jim.”
At the time, hearing that story, Zofkie’s sons remembered thinking, “People actually read your stories.” Their dad’s sports writing life often gave them an opportunity to go along for the ride, literally one year when Tim got to ride with his dad in the pace car at the Indianapolis 500. Zofkie also covered auto racing during his career and Cincinnati Reds baseball.
In 1963, before covering a Reds game at Crosley Field, he sang the national anthem in front of 14,000 fans. Dayton Daily News columnist Mickey Davis retold the story in 1988 on the 25th anniversary.
“For weeks before stepping up to home plate, Jim drove his Chevy to and from work singing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ over and over,” Davis wrote. “He practiced it in the shower, while mowing the lawn, everywhere.”
Zofkie’s wife Janette and kids witnessed that moment in the spotlight, and it wasn’t the only memorable moment for their children. Tim remembers it was “exciting being the son of the UD beat writer.
“That never was that more apparent than in the Autumn of 1980,” Tim said, “when I was a lonely, homesick freshman student at the University of Notre Dame, when the Flyers came to South Bend to face a highly ranked Irish squad that included ‘the one that got away’ John Paxson. I got to the arena a little early that night given I had, unlike my unbiased beat writer father, grown up unabashedly rooting for UD.
“As I walked around the arena I was stopped by Mr. Gene Schill from the UD radio broadcasting team, who recognized me. He asked if I would like to be interviewed for the pregame show, and I agreed. But after the interview, and after Mr. Schill had signed off, he asked me to follow him. He took me down to the arena floor, past security and down the tunnel to the visiting UD locker room. It was there, literally 20 minutes before the game was to start that coach Donoher greeted me like a long lost friend. This was a coach notorious for his game day and practice intensity that might, at times, make Bobby Knight blush. It was minutes before facing his hated nemesis, Digger Phelps, in a game important to the Flyers postseason chances. But to me, in that moment, he could not have been more gracious and accommodating.”
Decades later, Tim’s son Andrew was playing for McNicholas in a game against Fenwick, where Donoher was working as an assistant coach long after his college coaching career ended.
“He was clearly the gorilla in the living room in that gym but humbled himself in that role for the pure love of family, faith and basketball,” Tim said, “And when the game ended, and during the teams’ handshake queue, coach Donoher pulled my son out of the line and talked to him for like five minutes in front of a crowd perplexed as to why this iconic figure would give this young opposing player the time. I know he did this out of respect for my father, but it will be a memory my son and I will have forever. Later that week, Coach Donoher called my dad and told him concerning my dad’s grandson, ‘Young Zofkie is a fine player. You should be very proud.‘ Given my father, who always took his integrity as a sports journalist seriously, occasionally had to write uncomplimentary things about coach Donoher over the years, for Coach to treat my father, me, and my son, with such respect, class and grace, he will always hold a special spot in our hearts.”
Zofkie’s sons have plenty of stories related to their dad’s career. One day, Marquette coach Al McGuire called the house, and Steve Zofkie answered the phone.
“Steve took the Al McGuire call, put the phone down to go tell Dad and then got distracted,” Mike said. “Mom found the phone. Ten minutes later, Al McGuire’s still on the phone waiting to be told that dad’s ready to talk.”
Zofkie left the sports department in 1977 to become the Action Line Editor at the Journal Herald. In that role, he was in charge of handling reader complaints and questions about the operation of the newspaper. Then from 1983-91, he worked as the Reader’s Rep for the Dayton Daily News.
Jim and Janette, who died in 2015 at 81, had five children (four boys and one girl), eight grandkids and seven great-grandkids. They spent their retirement years traveling and spending time with their family.
Zofkie still follows the Flyers but doesn’t often stay up late enough to watch them. His sons help him find the games on TV when the start time is more friendly.
“He’s still very into it and still watching the Flyers,” Tim said.
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