Help the Lee High Music Department .....

Classmate Janet James-Holland, a piano, organ, and voice teacher, has a 6'1" Baldwin Grand Piano that Lee's music department believes would be a tremendous asset to their program. Although Janet has generously agree to sell the piano for less than its appraised value,  neither the music department nor Huntsville City Schools has the money ($15,000-$20,000) to purchase the piano.  If you are interested in donating money to the "LHS Piano Fund" for the current and future students at Lee, please contact Janet by phone

 (256-534-3944) or email (marsheuz@att.net).

Name That General #3

The latest 'Name That General' stumped everyone! I have no idea how I did it, but Gin Lum Chin (Jimmy) was found alive and well in New Jersey. If, like me, you didn't know Jimmy back then, you'll get a second chance next year to get to know a great 'Old General'. 

Check back in a few days to see if you can NAME THAT GENERAL #4.....


I stared at his face in the annual. Nothing. I had never seen him before. One guy out of 307 million Americans--how in the world was I going to find him? I tried a phone number for someone with the same name. The wife answered, listened to my story, and insisted that her husband had never been to Huntsville, AL. Then the daughter got on the phone. Oh yeah, he was the right guy. 

• In Huntsville, lived with his brother who worked with Brown Engineering and NASA.
•   Favorite Teacher: Mrs. Penelope Moore. "I loved her southern accent and she helped me a lot."
• Went to the prom with Janet James who played the piano for the choir..
• Some of his friends were Dickie Cobb, Phyllis Brock,  Leonard Horton and his good friend Steven Clinkenbeard.
• Moved to Huntsville from New York City
• Attended UAH, majored in EE (was there only 2 Qs)
• After UAH, moved back to New York City for family reasons
• Drafted... Served four years in the US Air Force, had two tours of overseas duty...
• Used the GI bill, attended Old Dominion University....
• Graduated with an EE degree...worked for the Department of the Army/Navy for 36 years.
• Recently retired.
• Now work as Mr. Mom, taking care of the house and all the cooking, cleaning, not to mentioned the yard works.....
• Is Chinese-American

• NAME THAT GENERAL?

Where We Live... 31 States & 3 Foreign Countries

Alabama  190
Arizona  1
Arkansas  1
California  6
Colorado  3
Connecticut  1
Delaware  1
Dominican Republic  1
Florida  18
Georgia  11
Guam  1
Illinois  1
Indiana  1
Iraq  1
Kansas 1
Kentucky  2
Louisiana  2
Maine  1
Maryland  4
Michigan  2
Minnesota  3
Mississippi  1
Missouri  2
Nevada  1
New Jersey  2
North Carolina  8
Ohio  1
Oklahoma  1
Pennsylvania  1
South Carolina  6
Tennessee  15
Texas  18
Virginia  6
Washington  5

Congratulations to John Esslinger Class of 1967

Huntsville Hall of Fame: Track standout John Esslinger

Published: Tuesday, April 05, 2011, 10:31 AM

By Mark McCarter, The Huntsville Times 
This is one in a daily series of profiles on the incoming class of the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame. The class will be inducted at a banquet on Monday, April 18 at the Von Braun Center.

John Esslinger had 41 state championship as track coach

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Ever since his high school days at Lee High School of Huntsville in the mid-1960s, John Robert Esslinger seemed destined to make a big name for himself in the related sports of track and cross country. And he certainly did.

It began when Esslinger was a young prep athlete at Lee, where he showed early promise as a runner. He eventually fulfilled his potential as a senior in 1967 by becoming a sectional champion in both the 120-yard high hurdles and the 180-yard high hurdles - still a school record.

"I remember the first race that I won," Esslinger says. "I didn't win any until I was a senior. I had worked hard every day on my hurdling, and didn't realize how fast I had become. I was so surprised to be out in front that I almost stopped. I'll never forget that feeling."

But in the years to come, it was in the realm of coaching in neighboring Jackson County where John Esslinger made his indelible mark. Following graduation from Lee in 1967 and Jacksonville State University in 1971, Esslinger went to Scottsboro, serving eight years as a teacher and assistant coach in football and track.

After a break from coaching in the early 1980s, Esslinger was named head track and cross country coach at Scottsboro High School in 1985, where he quickly became known as a man who would give the unlikely athlete a chance to succeed in something other than football or basketball.

The results speak volumes. In 21 years as head coach of cross country and track and field at Scottsboro, Esslinger has produced 41 state championship teams - nine in boys cross country from 1971 through 2008, 16 in girls cross country from 1992 through 2009 (including nine in a row from 2001-2009), five in boys indoor track (2001-2005), three in girls indoor track (2001-2003), four in boys outdoor track (2002-2005), and four in girls outdoor track from 1997 through 2003. Those teams totaled nearly 100 individual state champions.

"As a coach, my first state championship in 1991 was special," recalls Esslinger. "My son Rob was one of the captains of that team."

Among his many honors, Esslinger was named Citizen of the Year for Jackson County in 1999 and Coach of the Year for the National Federation's Southern Region in 2000. He also served on the Alabama High School Athletic Association's influential Cross Country Committee from 2008-2010.

Esslinger, son of the Margaret Esslinger and the late Bill Esslinger, was born Oct. 2, 1949, in Little Rock, Ark. He and his family moved to Madison County in 1952. Esslinger and his wife Betty will have been married 40 years next month. Their son Rob is now a mechanical engineer at Redstone Arsenal, and their other son, Tom, is a coach and teacher at Homewood High School in Birmingham.

Profiles written by John Pruett, former sports editor, The Huntsville Times. Photos courtesy of Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame