By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor
Don House, namesake of the Corbin High School baseball complex, passed away Monday after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
He was 79 years old.
House was one of Corbin’s longest-serving baseball coaches, and is credited with starting the “Field of Dreams” fund to build the current baseball complex.
Don’s son, Joe House, said his father began his baseball career as a pitcher at London High School. He played college ball for two years at Sue Bennett College, one year at Berea College and one year for University of Kentucky.
“He did minor league ball in the Cincinnati Reds organization in the mid-1950s,” Joe said. “He played in Arizona and New Mexico, and then after that he didn’t make it to the majors and he decided he’d better get him a real job — mom was pregnant with my oldest sister.”
Don had married London-native Tommie Gabbard House on April 9, 1954, and she followed him the few years he played minor league ball.
“He loved to tell baseball stories,” Joe said, recalling tales of wild games played in Mexico, baseball brawls (among the other players, of course) and a favorite story in which, during a pre-game warmup called “pepper,” he caught a ball while doing a complete somersault mid-air.
But with a growing family to support, Don decided to go into a more practical business.
“He had a twin brother that came out of the service and got into the dry cleaning business in Illinois,” Joe said.
The two brothers worked for another dry cleaning business for a few years until Don decided to go into business himself, opening a dry cleaners on Corbin’s Main Street — where it still stands today.
“He opened up the Corbin One Hour Cleaners the day after Labor Day in 1962,” Joe said.
It was after moving to Corbin, in the mid-1960s, that Don left his mark on the local baseball program. Up until Don’s involvement, the sport had never gotten serious attention from the school’s coaching staff.
“What would normally happen, about every year, they would need a baseball coach,” Joe said, “so a football coach or a basketball coach or a track coach would say, ‘I’ll coach them.’”
As the story goes, according to Joe, the latest in a string of temporary coaches was in Huff Drugs one day, saying he didn’t know the first thing about coaching baseball and asking for someone to help.
Those hanging around the drug store said, “Don House, give him a call. He played some minor league ball.”
On and off for almost 40 years, Don was a pitching coach and assistant coach for the Redhounds, and for the most part he was never paid for his hours spent with the team.
“The last couple, maybe three years, he was a paraprofessional coach,” Joe said. “It’s basically a volunteer coach that they actually pay a little money for, $300 or $400, which he in turn usually spent on the senior baseball players.”
Starting in 1985, under the direction of then-coach (and now assistant principal) Randall Sawyers, the baseball program began to flourish.
“Randall Sawyers is really responsible for turning around the Corbin baseball program,” Joe said. “That’s when it became a more legitimate sport instead of just a ‘spring sport’ for players to play when they weren’t doing something else.”
Sawyers, who coached until 2002, said Don was a constant presence on the field, and spent many years as his teaching coach.
“Don was a gentleman,” Sawyers said. “Don helped many, many young men who couldn’t afford it, he funded their Florida (baseball) trips. He bought many, many baseball jackets. He loved the kids and working with the kids, and he just loved baseball.”
Don was able to start the “Field of Dreams” fund, which called upon the community and the school board to help build the current baseball complex.
At the time, the team was playing at West Corbin Park, now Miller Park.
“We wanted to have our home place,” Sawyers said, “and it took some fighting, they didn’t want to fund baseball at that time.”
Don spoke to members of the school board, and helped convince them to fund $150,000 for lights and a backstop. The rest of the field, including all the brick work and stands, was completed from monetary and in-kind donations from the community, which Sawyers estimated to be worth about $500,000.
Don House Field was completed and dedicated in 1993.
“He was totally surprised,” Joe said of the field’s namesake. “They were able to keep it a surprise up until the unveiling at the dedication.”
Don was also a long-time member of the Corbin Varsity Club, and was inducted into the Corbin Hall of Honor in 1999. He also worked often with Little League and senior league teams, Sawyers said.
During his many years spent on behalf of the Corbin Baseball team, Don also remained dedicated to his successful downtown business, which remains in family hands today.
“He loved working with the public and his customers and dealing with the customers day in and day out,” Joe said. “Probably 90 percent of our business and his business were repeat customers and downtown people. I know he said he wouldn’t trade his job with a bank president.”
Don retired from Corbin One Hour Cleaners in 1996, but continued to work just about full-time for the next few years, until his wife became ill.
Upon Don’s retirement, Joe left a 17-year career with the U.S. Postal Service to take over the family business.
Don was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about a year and a half ago, Joe said, and the last four or five months had truly taken a toll on his father.
Don leaves behind his wife, Tommie, and three children, Jennifer Hannah and Joe House of Corbin, and Jill House of Frankfort.
Funeral services will be at 1 p.m. Thursday at Corbin Funeral Home Chapel, with burial to follow at Cumberland Memorial Gardens in Lily.
