By Skip Weaver

Contributing writer

Dick Jones reveals the story behind how the Middletown Middies basketball dynasty of the 1940s and 50s began in a new book, “The Second Dynasty.”

Jones, a native Ohioan, first encountered the Middies when they appeared in the Dayton Coliseum in 1944 on their way to winning the first of seven state championships, a record that still stands today. Middletown also won state championships in 1946, ’47, ’52, ’53, ’56 and ’57.

Jones opens the “readers’ eyes,” according to a press release from book publisher Xlibris, as he traces the beginning of “Ohio’s greatest basketball dynasty to the bold initiatives of the 1920s and 30s and tracks the step-by-step development of the basketball program as it parallels Middletown’s transformation from a pork-shipping hub to a thriving steel town.”

Jones, who now lives in Georgia, began his research for the book in 2009.

“Writing ‘The Second Dynasty’ began in 2009 with a month or so of surfing the Internet and exploring all the information that seemed to connect with my own Middie memories from the 1940s,” Jones said. “Then I contacted Skip Weaver at The Middletown Journal, and he helped me get the project off the ground. He told me about Shelby Linville being a preacher in Middletown and then put me in touch with Dan Humphries, who had been a team manager for the first state championship team and later became the play-by-play announcer of Middie games for WPFB radio.”

Jones then made his first visit to Middletown.

“I couldn’t wait to read the newspaper accounts and box scores of games starting in the 1930s,” Jones said. “I spent two intriguing days looking at microfilm in the Middletown Public Library, but knew I had barely scratched the surface.”

Jones continued to build his research through personal interviews with players and others from the era including Don “Woody” Withrow, Bob Cole, Jerry Lucas and longtime Middletown Journal sports editor Jerry Nardiello, as well as Sam Ashworth of the Middletown Historical Society.

“I wanted the book to make the readers feel the drama as the story unfolded,” Jones said. “I wanted them to see how it all started and how it melded with world and local history, and to understand how Middletown’s exemplary leaders had set the stage for the Middies’ dynasty. I wanted the readers to feel as though they were re-living those exciting times and listening to the play-by-play of the games on WPFB.”

Jones will be doing a book signing in Middletown on May 3 during the First Friday event at the BeauVerre Studio and Gallery.

Copies of “The Second Dynasty,” will be available at a special Middie discount of $17.50 (paperback) and $26 (hard back) at the event.

Click here to discuss New book details beginning of Middie basketball dynasty.