I’m not sure how many readers of The Lima News appreciate how fortunate they’ve been to have Tom Usher covering local, regional and statewide sports for the past 30 years. Tom has always done his job with thoroughgoing professionalism and rare enthusiasm. His stories have been marked by a fine sense of the human drama of sports, an ear for the telling anecdote and (an essential for any first-rate sports scribe) a connoisseur’s appreciation of an enlightening statistic.
Tom has seen and written about just about everything in the wide world of sports. I’m sure that many readers, like me, have taken particular pleasure in his insightful baseball coverage, from the high schools to the Lima Locos to the Reds and Indians. Tom and his work are known and respected throughout the state, as evidenced by his 2014 induction into the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.
It was a pleasure and a privilege to work with Tom and it’s comforting to know that even though he’s technically retired, he will continue to write for The News on a part-time basis. He’s a habit I’m not yet ready to give up.
Happily there are still more chapters to be written in the legend of a man called Ush.
Mike Lackey, Lima
