Herbert “Mickey” Thomas – (2005)

Herbert (Mickey) Thomas moved from Johnstown (Pa.) at a young age when his father relocated here to join the steel mill.

Mickey enjoyed outstanding football careers at both the scholastic and collegiate levels, despite his career being interrupted by World War II.

Thomas played under head coach Hal Pryor (a 1996 LSHF inductee) and line coach Chuck Urbanic Sr. (a 1983 LSHF enshrinee) in 1937 and 1938 at Lorain High School. It was a golden era when Lorain won 75% of its football games and averaged more than 6,000 fans per game. Pryor was just one of two coaches who went undefeated against Woody Hayes’ great New Philadelphia teams, beating the Hayesmen, 14-6 in 1937, 14-7 in 1938 and 54-0 in 1940.

Urbanic Sr., who later became head grid coach at LHS, called Thomas the “best offensive lineman I coached at Lorain High.”

Thomas, who was above average in height and weight (he was 6-2, 220 in college), played as a two-way end in football and also kicked off. His size helped him win a starting berth in LHS basketball and track, where he excelled in the shot put for the Lavenders, as they were then called.

When Thomas was a junior at LHS, the quarterback was Mickey’s future Baldwin-Wallace teammate Marion Bulzomi, a 1977 LSHF inductee. In the 1938 finale against rival Elyria, the unbeaten Pioneers were favored by three touchdowns but LHS beat them 13-12 behind the play of Bulzomi and Thomas.

In author Bill Nichols’ fine book, “And We Must Excel,” the history of B-W football from 1893-2000, Thomas is mentioned prominently on no less than 11 pages. Big Mickey played for the Yellow Jackets in 1940 and 1941; spent 3 1/2 years in the U.S. Army, then returned to star for the Jackets again as a married man in 1946 and 1947.

During the 1940s, B-W, under Coach Ray Watts, played a rugged schedule. As an example in 1940, the Jackets lost to the Kentucky Wildcats, 59-7, and the Kent State Golden Flashes, 14-7, but they defeated the Akron Zips, 13-7, and the Toledo Rockets, 14-12, during a 4-4 season. Thomas grabbed a 42-yard scoring aerial to account for B-W’s lone score against Kentucky. Against Toledo, Herb tallied on a seven-yard end-around.

During its 3-4-1 campaign of 1941, one of the Jackets’ highlights was beating Akron, 14-0, as Lorainites Thomas and John Willis (a 1971 LSHF inductee) each nabbed scoring aerials in the shutout. Thomas also scored twice in the 44-13 victory over Davis & Elkins.

When “Johnny Came Marching Home Again” in 1946, B-W fielded one of its strongest teams in years. A total of 86 candidates reported to fall practice. En route to a hard fought 4-2-2 campaign, the Jackets were led in most games by quarterback-placekicker Bulzomi , as well as the glue-fingered Thomas and Norb Hecker, who went on to earn eight NFL championship rings as either a player or coach.

After World War II became a memory and life returned to normal in 1947, the NCAA rule that formerly prohibited freshmen from playing varsity ball was reinstated around the country. That helped assure repeat starting berths for such B-W veterans as ends Thomas and Sonny Degyansky, interior linemen Don Fuchs, John Scanlon and Dale Wilson, plus running backs Hecker and Lee Tressel.

However, due to aforementioned toughness of their slate and now having players of normal college age, the Jackets had to settle for a 5-4 record in ’47. Following his graduation, Thomas received pro grid offers from the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers, but he chose to enter business in California.

Thomas passed away in September 1979 when he was returning to California after a visit to Lorain. Mickey suffered a heart attack at age 59 near Indianapolis, Ind. For a time, Thomas had owned a motel located on the Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, California.

*WELCOME THE MEMORY OF MICKEY THOMAS, INTO THE LORAIN SPORTS HALL OF FAME*