Dear Editor:
To share the great work as a sports writer Don Jellison was would be redundant. There have been numerous letters already shared of his value to sports reporting and to Hamilton County.
I have known Don, Jelly for those who knew him well, since I was 11 years old. He wrote a letter to my parents (that I just recently uncovered) asking their permission to allow me to “move up” and play on an older baseball team that traveled throughout Indiana and some parts of Ohio.
Some of you may not know Don’s importance to baseball in Noblesville. He was instrumental in helping formalize and initiate Babe Ruth Baseball. I always wondered how Don found time to cover and write so many sports articles and then spend so much time with our baseball team playing three double-headers almost every week.
Don was the kind of coach that used positive reinforcement to get the best out of his players. I never heard him yell at anyone during a practice or game; well except for Jeff who we fondly referred to as “Peanut Butter.” Jeff was our team manager and batboy; how many people can say they played baseball for Peanut Butter and Jelly? Don’s encouragement was instrumental in me taking the game of baseball seriously. Some of my fondest memories are from my time playing baseball for Don.
Don was a tireless worker, as you may have already picked up from my previous comments. With that said, how many people know that during the winter Don organized an adult men’s basketball league that was played every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.? This may not seem important on the surface, however, for me it was an opportunity to get together with my friends and old teammates. It also allowed players to meet and become more acquainted with other Hamilton County players both younger and older.
I have a lot of fond memories of Don that I will carry with me forever, however, my most favorite memory of Don happened just a few short months ago. While visiting my in-laws in a local assisted living facility, we were in the cafeteria and there sat Don at another table. As I approached he looked at me and smiled. I didn’t think he recognized me, but when I introduced myself he said, “I know who you are.” I hadn’t seen Don in over 20 years, although we had talked on the phone a few times. We sat and talked for 45 minutes. I would ask him a few questions if he remembered this or that, and of course he did. What was so heart-warming was he didn’t want to talk about the past, he wanted talk about the present, his family, and insisted that I share how my family was doing. True to the Don Jellison legacy he has left us, in his time of greatest need he continued to care about others more than himself.
W. R. Lyttle
Noblesville