The Way It Was – Eugene

Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years.
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Pictured is Eugene, who Bill Boyd writes about in this week’s column.

In 1938 when I entered the first grade, there was a boy in my class named Eugene. I have written about him previously. He could run fast, and he could throw a softball all the way from the big elm tree east of the high school building to the honeysuckle bush behind the public library. No other boy in our class could even come close to that.
Eugene was also the tallest kid in our class, even taller than Dick Foley. That wasn’t surprising, because Eugene was repeating the first grade. You see, he had a bit of a problem with reading and numbers. I think a lot of kids thought Eugene was not very smart. They thought he just couldn’t learn new things.
I even thought that myself at first. But after I got to know him better, I don’t think that was true at all. I think he just was never motivated to do well academically. He got a lot of praise at home for his athletic abilities, from his brothers and his parents.
That recognition meant a lot to him, and it made him try even harder in sports. But no one ever got him enthused about doing his best in the classroom.
So it’s no wonder that Eugene was much more serious about sports than academics.
I believe Marysville High School today has an award that honors students who have excelled in athletics. If Eugene were in high school today, I have no doubt he would receive that award.
At the same time, however, I wonder if he would be able to read at grade level, or to multiply by fractions. And I think it’s entirely possible he might not have a clue who John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were … not because he couldn’t learn those things, but because he never had an incentive to learn them.
So how could we help all the Eugenes (and Euginas) in the school system today? Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some sort of special “scholar- athlete” award for boys and girls to shoot for throughout their school years? You know, something that would link athletics and academics together requiring high performance in both. I think it could become the most coveted of all school awards.
Maybe that would be just what those boys and girls need to do their very best, both in the classroom and on the ball field. There might even be some way to include a scholarship of some sort with the award. Wouldn’t that be great?
I think an award like that might be just the thing that would help Marysville kids like Eugene have a brighter future. For in today’s competitive world, the success they will have in life will depend on what they have learned in the classroom, no matter how fast they can run, or how far they can throw a softball.
Those wishing to contact Bill Boyd can e-mail him at bill@davidwboyd.com