If you didn’t live it, I would think it would be difficult to understand what summer baseball was like in Noblesville in the 1970s and 1980s.

The team I wrote about in Thursday’s column, Don Dunker’s American Legion team, was something special in this city. When Dunk’s squad won the Advance Babe Ruth state championship in 1972, the story was the lead on Page 1 in the local newspaper.

It was that big. Dunker’s team drew large crowds when the Legion played at Forest Park.

Another team which drew lots of at attention during this period of time was the Howard Insurance Babe Ruth team.

When Babe Ruth baseball was organized by Dunker in 1967, 19 players reported. If you’ve followed the local Babe Ruth program since then, you know how it has grown by leaps and bounds.

Back then, Noblesville didn’t have enough players to form a league, so the Howard Insurance team for a few years was it.

I spent 20 years coaching that team, so I can tell you first hand what life was like when the program first began at the diamond on 16th Street and then later when Babe Ruth built its own facility at Forest Park.

I don’t use the word “coach” in a boastful way. I kind of just hung around. Dunker’s Legion (and high school) players were role models and the younger kids already had picked up the game before they arrived on the Howard Insurance team as, mainly, 14- and 15-year-olds. Also, there were other coaches who worked with me and knew the game far better than I did. I hope I don’t leave out anyone (the memory isn’t what it once was), but there was Carl Lowery, Lyle Howell, George Grimes, Clarence Sherrill and Terry Coomer. I just know I left out someone.

Lowery was a baseball nut. When Noblesville hosted its first state Babe Ruth tourney in 1970, Carl was the driving force. He brought TV-6 to Forest Park for the championship game.

Howell, in the summers, spent more time in the batting cage than he did at home. Grimes and Sherrill always were there, doing whatever was needed.

Coomer coached a couple of years. A normal schedule was meeting for batting practice at about 3 p.m. and playing a 5:30 p.m. doubleheader. That wasn’t enough for Terry. After many games Terry would take the players into the outfield to run. You think I didn’t hear an ear-full from parents who wanted to get home for dinner?

Howard Insurance played 40-50 games a year, depending how far the team advanced in the postseason tourney. In 11 of the 20 years, Howard Insurance made the state finals, finishing second two times.

During the week, Howard Insurance played in a Hamilton County Pony League. Competition was tough with Carmel, Arcadia, Fishers, Sheridan and Westfield.

On weekends teams from throughout the state, and other states, came to Noblesville to play Howard Insurance, or Howard would hit the road for weekend trips. The parents would gather and off we would go.

I always felt the parents enjoyed those trips more than the kids. It was a family and everybody chipped in. The players did not pay to play or travel.

Those weekends were fun. I’ll write a little about them in my next column on summer baseball.