Coach Harold A. Dodd

Dodd Field dedication program from September 17, 1971

Rachel Dodd beside the plaque honoring her husband, Harold A. Dodd, for his years of service

Plaque honoring Harold A. Dodd for 43 years of service as a teacher, coach and administrator

Coach H.A.Dodd at the entrance to the Bellefontaine City Schools football stadium named in his honor

Harold A. Dodd spent forty-three years at Bellefontaine City Schools as a teacher and football and basketball coach.

Harold A. Dodd was born May 16, 1901, in Orient, Ohio to Joseph and Kate Jenks Dodd.

He attended Clarksville High School where he was a star basketball, baseball, and track performer. If Clarksville would have had a football program while he was in school, he would have played on the team. Dodd graduated from Clarksville High School in 1919 and then attended Wilmington College where he graduated in 1924. During his last two years at Wilmington College, he coached the high school basketball team at Clarksville. Dodd also coached basketball at Spencerville in Allen County for two years, and two years at Rockford High in Mercer County. He earned his master’s degree from Ohio State University in 1941.

On one of Dodd’s early trips to Logan County in the summer of 1922, he and a few of his friends planned to fish at Indian Lake, however, they got sidetracked and ended up camping along the Miami River at the Quincy dam. While in Logan County, Dodd and his friends decided to join a baseball team in DeGraff. In his first game with the DeGraff team, Dodd pitched a no-hitter at Urbana.

In the spring of 1928, Dodd considered quitting his coaching job and joining his father-in-law selling hardware items. Dodd frequently stopped at a gas station on the corner of Main St. and Sandusky Ave. in Bellefontaine. When the gas station attendant discovered he was a coach, he tried his best to persuade him to coach at Bellefontaine. He finally convinced him to talk to Bellefontaine School Superintendent, S.A. Frampton. Dodd set up a meeting with Frampton and told him he and his wife, Rachel, were looking for teaching jobs. Frampton promptly hired both Harold and Rachel Dodd.

Dodd began his successful coaching career with the Bellefontaine City Schools in September 1928. His first basketball team played in the old Hubbard School gym. The floor was only 60 feet long and not very wide. Players frequently bumped into doors and walls and got hurt. In 1931, they got to play in the new middle school gym that, at the time, was one of the biggest in the area.

Coach Dodd did a little bit of everything in his 40-plus years with the Bellefontaine City School system. His basketball teams won 254 games and lost 138, in 25 years, and won six Western Buckeye League titles. He coached three young men who went on to be college All-Americans, brothers Don “Sid” and Mac Otten were basketball standouts and Johnny Montgomery was a football quarterback-tailback. Dodd coached football for 21 years. His squads had 108 wins and 63 losses and 18 ties.

Dodd also supervised physical education from the third grade up at Susie Parker, West, McBeth, Mary Fulton, Central and Hubbard schools. As Athletic Director, he made out all the schedules, hired all the officials, bought athletic equipment, and lined the football field. He taught Junior High and was Principal at Central School from 1959-1968. He was Assistant Principal at the Middle School until his retirement in the spring of 1971. During the summer, Dodd was director of the Bellefontaine Summer Recreation Program.

On September 17, 1971, the Bellefontaine High School stadium and track was officially dedicated as Dodd Field in honor of Coach Harold A. Dodd. The plaque reads, “H.A. Dodd, in recognition of his forty-three years of service as a teacher, coach, and administrator to the students of this community.” After retirement, Dodd continued to support the Bellefontaine City Schools, and was an inspirational speaker prior to important Chieftain games. Coach Dodd passed away unexpectedly in October 1978.