From the Archives

Mike Gregory ’29 certainly wasn’t afraid of hard work. When he was a student at Denison, he rose every day at 5 a.m. (and sometimes as early as 2:30 on the coldest days) to head down to the heating plant and pump coal into Denison’s boiler. It’s estimated, according to documents in the archives, that Gregory likely shoveled a ton and a half of coal every hour he worked, totaling about 2,000 tons his freshman year alone. That hard work extended to athletics, where Gregory was a Denison football and track star and served as captain of both teams. He held several shot-put records and was an All-Ohio, All-Buckeye, and Little All-American football player. He drop-kicked a 55-yard field goal against the University of Cincinnati in 1927—it was the longest field goal in the U.S. at the time. Gregory went on to play pro football with the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Redskins before retiring and opening Gregory Hardware on the corner of East Broadway and North Prospect. Gregory was often called “Mr. Denison,” and when the pool was built in the physical education center 1962, it was named in his honor. This whistle was likely used by Gregory when he extended his athletics legacy as an assistant with the Denison coaching staff.