JIM LOGAN
Montgomery County's Iconic Sports Reporter
Reporter: Eddie "Bud" Barnett
 Jim was born February 23, 1921 in Clarinda IA on Logan St. He lost
his mother at the age of 2 and eventually his father James, remarried Grace Morgan,
daughter of Tom Morgan. He attended Clarinda Schools through the 4th grade. When the stock
market crashed and times started getting really tough, Jim's father lost his job and
subsequently moved his family to the Wales Community north and west of Red Oak. They lived
1 mile north and 3/4 mi east of Wales.
Since Clarinda's schools were ahead of Wales in certain areas, Jim was moved forward to the
5th grade, while his brother Jack also was advanced to a higher grade. (Jim also had a sister -
her name was JoAnn.) Some of Jim's classmates while at Wales were Berl Morris, Max Bauer,
Alfred Anderson, Clyde Sellers, Walter Shamblen, and Curtis Steiner. After just one year at
Wales, the Logan family moved to Red Oak and Jim would finish his secondary education at Red
Oak, and graduating in 1938.
A great deal of Jim's high school athletic years involved "work". Times were tough for a lot
of the local area folks and in many cases, high school kids had to work to help support the
family. In Jim's case, he spent at least two or three nights a week setting pins at the local
duck pin alley. For those that may wonder, the bowling alley was no more than 2 or 3 lanes and
was on the northeast corner of 5th and Reed, which is currently the home of "Pit Stop Bar and
Grill". There was bowling (probably) every night...like what else would there have been to do
in these tough times. At any rate, Jim would start after school and generally would not get
home before midnight. He did work out the schedule to accommodate basketball and baseball
during the particular season. The night was always very short because Jim would have to get up
before 5 a.m. in order to deliver newspapers. Starting from home at 604 E Elm, Jim would go to
the train station, which would have pitched off a bundle of newspapers as the train passed the
station (never stopping). His first stop would be at the bottom of the hill on 2nd Street at
the Evans House, which was a hotel for many train passengers that were coming and going on the
train. Eventually he would cover the entire city, either on his bicycle or with his sled -
depending on the season. He delivered over 140 Omaha World Herald newspapers and had the entire
town to cover. This was an everyday task of newspaper delivery and was in some way a link to
Jim's future in the newspaper business.
During his high school years, Jim played a lot of basketball and baseball. Jim's first
sports love was(still is) football, but having had a broken neck in the 3rd grade, he could
never pass the physical for football. Basketball was Jim's high school sport of choice and fit
in with his love of sports. In the case of baseball, this was a period of time when nearly
every town of any size not only had "town team" baseball for the mature athletes, but they also
had American Legion, which included "Junior Legion" Baseball for the high school and slightly
above group. (This could be considered the "select" teams of the day). This was a great time
for baseball and Jim would have a much grander experience in the sport later during his
military career. During his American Legion Junior baseball, teams were made up of the better
baseball athletes in the area and in the case of Red Oak, there may have only been a few boys
that made this team. The rest came from surrounding neighboring communities, such as Don Beeson
from Coburg, Mervin Laire from Stennett and Don Bryson from Grant. Another local Red Oak boy
that played a lot of Legion ball was "Rip" Fisher.
Jim had a friend living in Fort Smith AR, so following high school, Jim rationalized that
this would be a good opportunity to "explore the world" (figuratively speaking) and get some
higher education and find out things beyond the local community that had been Jim's entire
focus for the first 18 plus years. He enrolled in the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville
Arkansas and very soon DID find out a lot about some portion of the "rest of the world". The
period was in the late 30s and for those that may have lived during that time, particularly in
the Deep South, you might recognize some of the experiences that Jim confronted. In this period
of time and in that part of the country, there was still a prevailing "Civil War" attitude. Of
course many are aware of the discrimination of the time with "White Only" restaurants,
bathrooms, and more. He saw segregation first hand that few kids from Iowa would know or
understand unless they did see it for themselves...he saw it for himself. For those that do
know Jim, it may go without saying that this attitude did not match with Jim's values and
spirit. One year was all that was needed in Arkansas before Jim decided that maybe he could get
that journalism higher education in Iowa. He enrolled at the University of Iowa the next fall
to major in Journalism.
This move to his "state roots" proved to be a valuable time because with his love of sports,
he got the opportunity to cover sports for the "Daily Iowan". The Daily Iowan was a daily
student newspaper that every student received as part of their tuition fees. This would also be
a huge step towards Jim's ultimate goal of being in the newspaper business.
During his late high school days, Jim had joined Company M and during his college period, he
was enrolled in the ROTC program. In March of 1942 Jim married Ruth Miller and by August of
1942, he was in the Army. Company M had mobilized for federal service and since Jim had been in
the ROTC program, he was discharged from the National Guard and joined the Army. One little
problem was detected while he was taking the physical for officer training that kept Jim from
joining the North African tour as an officer ...his eyes! With this physical limitation, Jim
would be stationed at various places in the states, including Fort Crook in Omaha (later known
as Offutt Air Base), as well as bases in California, Washington and Missouri. In April 1945 he
was shipped to the Philippines to Base X, which was the Pacific Headquarters, as a Message
Center Sargent - 316th General Hospital. During this period in the war,  many correspondents were either getting killed or ending
their tours. Discovering Jim's journalism training and education led to his being
transferred into the public relations company as a correspondent covering everything from
houses of "ill repute" to opera. But his love of sports further directed him to his real
desire to reporting on sports.
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Most of what the public (then and now) know of WWII was "war", and yet one of the major
activities of the troops involved sports - how else would you expect to maintain a high spirit and
moral among young men? Nearly every company had their own sports team, depending on the season.
The main sport was baseball and nearly every company had a team and played games nearly every
day. In '45, after the Americans recaptured Manila, Jim's baseball team for which we was the
scorekeeper and reporter was the Manila Dodgers. The Dodgers were made up of many players that had
already come from the professional ranks in some lower levels, to players that would later BECOME
professionals... nothing but the best players, as the pictures and documents herein contained would
verify. One of the true highlights of Jim's military career was being able to cover the Pacific
Olympics, which was basically a tournament of the best teams from all over.
During December 1945, the Manila Dodgers competed for a place in the following month’s Pacific
Olympics. And on December 27, 1945, Higbe (Dodgers manager as well as pitcher) hurled an 8-0
shutout over Leyte Base K to clinch the Philippine Olympics title and a place in the Pacific bout
scheduled to start January 26, 1946. 
On January 2, 1946, Higbe pitched for the Manila Dodgers against a team of National League
all-stars that was beingled by the legendary Chuck Dressen and featuring
Frank McCormick, Bill Voiselle, Tom Seats, Clyde King, Whitey Kurowski and Red Barrett. In front of
a crowd of 25,000 at Rizal Stadium, he was beaten, 5-4, on two home runs by Reds first baseman
Frank McCormick. 
As noted, games were held on nearly a daily basis with huge crowds and in fact it was during one
of these game day events that the word came through to Jim to prepare to "ship out". Needless to
say, when the opportunity was presented to "go home", that became the priority...Jim was not sure
what the final score was for that game, because within a very short time, he was on the "Billy
Mitchell" troopship and headed for Frisco. In February of 1946 he was headed home. 
After getting stateside, his "relaxing" time didn't last long because he didn't muster out with
a lot of money, so "a job" was priority. Returning to his roots in Red Oak, he went to work for
The Red Oak Express on March 1, 1946. He would
be the editor of the newspaper, as well as to handle the duties as the sports editor. During this
late 40s period, Jim served as president of the Tall Corn Baseball League, which later became the
Southwest Iowa Baseball League.
Now here is part of Jim's story that can not wait until the end to be reported - he would retire
from this position 38 years later (retiring in 1984) without ever taking time off from his job.
Indeed, Jim does confess that there were three times of hangovers that did not break the
string. Who among us can claim 38 years without a lost day of work?! Incredible! Or for that
matter, who can claim only 3 hangovers in 38 years! :)
But Jim's story does not end here. The fact is that The Express did not really have a formal
"sports page" when Jim joined the paper. Up until this time, for the most part, sports news was
literally splattered all over the newspaper, although it may have been more concentrated than it
had been in prior years. During that period of time, if you played in any organized sport in
Montgomery County Iowa (as well as surrounding areas), you would have encountered Jim. Even though
his primary focus was on Red Oak, that did not eliminate other county teams, at some point from
being reported upon by Jim. The smaller area schools in Montgomery County, Mills County, and even
Page, Adams and Cass Counties, would be subjects of Jim's reporting - particularly during
tournament time in basketball, either at the County Tournament time or during sectionals and
districts which were very often held in Red Oak for a very logical
reason.
One story that Jim recalls in vivid detail was during the 1952 football season. For the
preceding 10 years, it had been either Shenandoah or Atlantic that had won the conference and Shen
was the defending champion. Both Shen and Atlantic, along with Red Oak were expected to compete for
the Conference championship in the 1952 season. Both Shen and Red Oak were undefeated in the
conference when they were to meet for the championship on the last game of the season. Both were
ranked very near the top in the state and 2nd and 3rd in Southwest Iowa. Prior to the BIG GAME, Jim
had it worked out with his Corning newspaper editor friend, Paul Gauiether, to print a story that
"reportedly" had come from Shenandoah. (shown here at the left)
That article would be posted in the locker room for all Red Oak Tiger
Footballers to be able to read. Only the Lord knows what incentive this "jab" provided, but the
result was that over 5000 fans from all over the area saw Red Oak romp by a score of 33-6 with the
only Shen score coming from a fumble recovery for a touchdown. Jim remembers Homer Weis being the
coach and his assistant was a young man named Russ Benda, for whom the current football stadium is
named. Names of some of the players on that state ranked team were Chuck Krumme, Don Kampe, Dick
Schantz, John Abbott, Ross Pilkington, Tommy Ballard, Larry Cooper, Freddie Maher, Jack Matthews,
Henry Hart...Jim recalls that Cooper was selected on the all-state football team that season.
Shortly after Jim's retirement in 1984, the notable Des Moines Register correspondent,
Chuck Offenburger,  made comment on Jim's inciting his Tiger football team and he
even called Jim a Rascal (an affection, competitive label if you know
that Chuck is from Shenandoah.)
Jim is also "accused" by his now good neighbor, Donna (Wetzel) Corliss (Wales, class '55) of
(nearly) always picking Elliott girls over the Wales Lassies for the County
Tournament.(I think Jim preferred to call all girls teams "Lassies"
rather than the "something-ettes" as most were called) Now, whether or not this
was a ploy can not be confirmed, but according to Donna, it did always give the Wales girls a
big incentive and none more so than during the County Tournament of 1953 when the Wales girls
were only 10-7 at tournament time while the Elliott girls had only lost a couple of games all
season and both of those were to powerhouse Oakland. The Wales girls used Jim's prediction to
win their 8th tournament in the preceding 10 years (the Everett Fuller era).
Reporter editorial note: Wales folks always did have a feeling that Jim had it
in for them because they "recruited" Dick Cornelison away from Red Oak and Dick would become a
basketball standout at Wales and would eventually earn All-Southwest Iowa for Wales in 1951...just
kidding Jim!.. we really do love you.
In addition, I do not feel worthy of reporting on such a local reporting icon
as Jim,  but it was my great pleasure to do so,
even if he is a big Cub fan!
I do strongly suggest that you read more of the war story on the Manila
Dodgers. If the following link is no longer available, please contact
us
This is a fascinating story into itself.
...for more on the story of Manila Dodgers,
click
here
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