The tiny little town where I grew up makes the NYTimes, sort of:

Dante Lavelli's obituary.

I had heard that he died, thought, "that name is very familiar" and then my mind flashed to "Dante Lavelli Field" being on the football field at Hudson High*. (He played for the Browns, but well before my time.)

Huh. If Hudson in the 1920s and 30s was like it was when I was growing up, I bet he got a certain amount of harassment for his status as the kid of recent immigrants (though his football prowess probably silenced some of the people).

I wonder if the town was as snobby back then as it was when I was a kid...

(*I didn't go there for high school, though. I was a prep school kid. Or, as it was derogatorily known to the local high school kids, the Q-Farm. And I am embarrassed to admit I didn't realize what they were referring to with that "Q" until I was in college. Or maybe I should be glad. Sigh. Kids are pretty brutal. "Q" or not, I will say more of the guys I knew at prep school were what I would class as "gentlemen" than the guys I knew in college.)