Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 27, 1994 TAG: 9405270035
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It left Dan Wooldridge speechless.
The Salem Rotarians presented Wooldridge with their Outstanding Citizen Award. He was wiping away tears - and he hadn't even blown a seven-shot lead on the golf course.
Wooldridge knew this 2,254th Salem Rotary meeting was going to be different when he walked into the Salem Civic Center banquet room and saw a table occupied by his wife, Nancy, his daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren.
Wooldridge often is a visionary, but he didn't see this coming. Basketball and football officials aren't supposed to get emotional. Husbands, fathers and grandfathers can, however, and Wooldridge was in becoming the club's 28th outstanding citizen - only the second Salem Rotarian to be so honored by his own club.
Appropriately, considering Wooldridge's career in stripes, this honor was a great call. He has done as much, if not more, than anyone for the Roanoke Valley's sports presence. It was his idea to bring the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl to the valley. He revived the Roanoke Valley Sports Club last year.
He's the only commissioner in Old Dominion Athletic Conference history. He's the officiating supervisor for the Big East Football Conference. He was the basketball zebras boss for the Colonial Athletic Association from 1986-92. He called ACC basketball games for 21 years and Southern Conference games for 25. He worked Southern Conference football just as long.
The Roanoke resident reached the postseason 25 consecutive years. He officiated basketball at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. He's been a teacher, coach, award-winning insurance salesman and executive, school board member, Rotary president and Baptist church deacon. He helped organize the local chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. There were Roanokers who wanted him to run for city council recently.
He played three seasons of minor-league baseball - starting in 1957 after his first teaching year at William Fleming High School when the Salem Pirates needed a second baseman halfway through the Appalachian League season. Although he didn't have enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, Wooldridge hit .384.
"And I fielded about the same," he said with his laugh that can fill an arena as his whistle once did.
Actually, he had only four errors in 32 games. You can look it up. There's also a lot about Wooldridge you can't look up, and it's that part of his story that explains why his soon-to-be 60 years on this earth deserve more than one column. His story - and stories - could fill a book.
His drive, his ego, his hustle, his penchant for pushing others, his energy is rooted in his childhood struggles. Coaches who yelled at Wooldridge about how difficult he was making their life should have once been in his shoes.
He was born in Lynchburg, then abandoned and raised in a foster home with no running water. One thing he did have was a talent for sports, and he used it.
When Wooldridge wanted to play American Legion baseball, he needed to show a birth certificate. It was then he learned he didn't have one.
Wooldridge drove a school bus and worked at a hot dog stand to earn money during high school, and graduated from Rustburg in 1952. He was offered a $5,000 contract by the St. Louis Cardinals, but his guardian refused to sign for him, and Wooldridge was a minor.
He found a father figure in Dr. Joseph Hunter, a minister, religion professor at Lynchburg College and baseball fan. Hunter got Wooldridge into the college.
He played basketball, soccer and baseball for the Hornets. One of his teammates was Jerry Falwell. He also met his future wife. He happily found his biological mother. Most importantly, he found himself.
Certainly, the Rotary lunch wasn't the first time Wooldridge cried. It also wasn't the first time he was honored, and there's much more to Wooldridge than being a good sport.
He doesn't have to toot his own whistle. Wooldridge certainly has earned his stripes.
by CNB