Foley, Jim

 

Jim Foley – (1999)

 

Football and track were as much a part of Jim Foley’s scholastic and college athletic career as medicine is with doctors. He lettered three years (1955-56-57) in football and earned another three varsity letters in track (1954-55-56) at Lorain High School.

Not blessed with great size, Foley more than made up for it with speed and elusiveness as a halfback on Coach Art Lave’s Steelers, twice leading the tough Buckeye Conference in rushing his junior and senior years. On the track team, coached by Don White, he set school records in both the low hurdles and 440-yard dash.

His gridiron and track reputation earned him an athletic scholarship to Ohio University where he again excelled in both sports, winning three varsity letters in football and track. Foley was a key player on the undefeated (10-0) 1960 Bobcats eleven that won the Mid-American Conference championship and was declared National Small College Champions. In track, he set a school record in the 440-yard intermediate hurdles event in his freshman year.

Foley’s graduation from OU was delayed until 1966, courtesy of a four-year stint in the U. S. Air Force. He returned to school to complete his student teaching to earn his degree after which he returned to northern Ohio where he became a fixture in the Vermilion school system as an assistant high school football coach from 1966 to 1974. A highlight of that period was seeing the 1971 Sailors go undefeated at 10-0. Also, from 1966 to the present, Foley has been boys and girls track coach.

In 1977, Foley began officiating locally on the small college level as well as boys and girls basketball and bantam and junior varsity levels in football at area elementary schools. Foley retired in 1998, but remains active—until this summer—when he was asked to fill-in as acting principal at Vermilion St. Mary Elementary School until a new full-time principal can be found.

Jim and his wife, the former Barbara Schneider of Westlake, met at OU and are the parents of three children: daughters Sharon Jones, 34, of Chattanooga, Tenn., and Diane Foley, 32, of Wakeman, and a son, Mark, 27, of Elyria. They are grandparents to Sharon’s twin girls.