HUBACH AND EIGHT OTHERS ENTER HALL OF FAME...
CLEVELAND, OH (April 24, 2008) - Having never played organized sports in high school, Ed Hubach began his athletic career in backyards and on sandlots in nearby Maple Heights, Ohio.
But after a successful career on the football field and on the baseball diamond for the Western Reserve University Red Cats in the late 60s and early 70s, he now finds himself being inducted into the Case Reserve Athletic Club Hall of Fame this weekend on the campus of Case Western Reserve University.
Hubach came to Western Reserve in 1966, and despite not attending summer practices and being underweight, he decided that September to go out for football. The rest became history.
Coming here, I weighed about 125 pounds and had never played football in high school, Hubach said. I knew I wanted to play and coach [Flory] Mauriocourt gave me that opportunity.
During Hubach's era, the Red Cats played many big games against Case and other Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) rivals, but one of his most memorable games came during his freshman season when Western Reserve took on Eastern Michigan University.
[Eastern Michigan] came out and all of their guys were about 6-5 or 6-6, and they were all dressed in Green Bay Packers uniforms, Hubach explained. It was a real eye opener.
Hubach was a three-year letterman for the Red Cats and earned the Sam Williamson Trophy his senior year and All-PAC honors. He also managed to find a niche in centerfield on the baseball diamond for the Red Cats.
Hubach led the baseball team to a PAC co-championship in 1967 and the outright title a year later. He earned All-PAC honors three times during his career, and although his team didn't have the facilities that the University has now, he still recalls this time as one of the best times in his life.
We didn't have a home field to play on, so we played a lot of our games at Gordon Park down by the Lake [Erie], Hubach said. It was a big field with no fences and a lot of room to run.
During his time, instead of trekking to Florida during spring break for a week of competition, Hubach and the Red Cats traveled to schools like Bethany College (W.V.) and Washington and Jefferson College (PA) during the early days of spring where the chill of winter remained prevalent.
I had never left Maple Heights my entire life (until then), Hubach said The bus trips were always a lot of fun and we had a lot of good teams during that time.
After graduating from Western Reserve in 1970, Hubach left the Cleveland area and moved to Philadelphia to attend medical school at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
It was strange, Hubach said of the move. I was engaged at the time and no plans of getting married until I finished medical school, but that changed after about six months when our phone bills got too high. We got married during Christmas of our first year there and it was nice having someone else around during that time. We've been married ever since.
Hubach and his wife, Debbie, now reside in Centerville, and since then, Ed has been in private practice for over 30 years in Dayton, where he is the president and CEO of the Providence Medical Group.
This weekend's Hall of Fame Banquet marks his first trip back to the University since graduation, and the Red Cat is excited for his induction and to see all the changes that the University has made.
I'm still kind of in shock that all of this is happening, Hubach said. I never thought this was something that was on the horizon and its all been very exciting.
The Hall of Fame banquet is tomorrow evening with a cocktail hour beginning at 6:00 p.m. Dinner will be served at 7:00 p.m. with the inductions to follow.
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