JackGordon.org
From the May 10, 1970, issue of The Seattle Times,
Home-run hitters, leadfooted drivers or touchdown-gallopers make the headlines in the sports world. But the world wouldn't know about a lot of these heroics if it weren't for that much-maligned practitioner behind the scenes — the press agent, the "holler guy."
Such a one is John F. (Flash) Gordon.
Flash first came to notice as an irrepressible "flack" for O'Dea High School athletic endeavors; later played the same roles for Seattle University and Greater Seattle Inc., and eventually became our own Uncle Miltie — master of ceremonies for countless pregame, halftime and post-game rituals which enlivened games, races and what have you.
Flash badgered sports editors in the late 1930's with glowing accounts of his O'Dea classmates' feats.
There followed a Navy hitch and service on all three Seattle newspapers (remember The Star?) and The Northwest Progress. Memory betrays us as to the sequence of these events, because The Flash had so many irons in the fire.
But one kaffee klatch in early 1948 sticks in our mind. It was with Gordon and a big young bruiser named AI Brightman in a booth at Pat's Barbecue, famed as a refuge for Seattle University people.
The meeting was to announce Brightman's appointment as the Chieftains' basketball coach. He was to make himself and the school nationally famous, and Flash flexed fingers and tonsils to help make it so.
The following years were big ones for the Chiefs — Brightman, the O'Brien twins, Madison Square Garden, Elgin Baylor.
Then came the Gold Cup and the yearly whoopdedo which marked the hydroplane-racing era. Flash also served as a civic greeter for Greater Seattle and became renowned as Seattle's answer to Grover Whalen ("Let's hear for him!")
One of the O'Dea gridders Flash used to extol was a big, rawboned tackle named McCluskey.
Today the Rev. Neil McCluskey is a distinguished educator, theologian and administrator, whose tours of duty include such widely separated places as Gonzaga, Notre Dame and Central Africa.
Father McCluskey was here to assist in ceremonies honoring Gordon with Seattle University's Distinguished Service Award for Alumni. No doubt, the padre had, in the back of his mind, a most appropriate salute: "Let's hear for him!"
You are at JackGordon.org,
a salute to John F "Jack" Gordon, Mr. Seattle