Harold Hixenbaugh

Harold Hixenbaugh was Sports Editor of the Taylorville Breeze Courier from 1953 to 1984. At the beginning of his tenure as sports writer for the Breeze Courier, there were only four varsity sports and they were all for boys. The sports page was made up short articles and box scores. As the number of sports increased, not only at the high school, but at the junior high school and summer recreational baseball leagues, the sports page increased in volume and in quality.    He first drove to all away football and basketball games, but as the distances began to increase and girl's basketball was introduced, he became a regular passenger on the team bus, rarely ever missing a high school athletic event, home or away. Hixenbaugh was known for his objective reporting and his accuracy of details. For over thirty years, he provided the citizens of Taylorville a full report of athletic events that took place both in the schools and the parks and gave any moms and dads plenty of scrapbook material to save and relive the great games of the past.    Hixenbaugh was also an early participant in the development of the Red Bland Little League program. In 1951, he, along with Mr. Darrel Wareham, managed the first little league team representing the first ward. The original league established only four teams with players selected from the city ward in which they lived.    As the little league expanded into the pony and colt leagues, and the number of teams expand from four to over twenty, Hixenbaugh changed from coaching a team to providing press coverage for all of the teams.He became official scorekeeper for local tournaments and in 1967 was official scorer for the Pony League World Series played in Taylorville.