The "Onliest" Dragon Alive

March 20, 1936 - July 19, 2002

 

    
  Most of us remember Dragon, and many of us counted him as a friend. He often rode to the beach with us on weekends, and he occupies a special place in our hearts.

"Mike, you know that the onliest 'dragon' in captivity is over at Bay High," Joe McKinney told me during one of the baseball games of the Summer of 1958.

Any time there was a football game at Tommy Oliver Stadium, Dragon was there, and he encouraged many of us impressionable young men.

Our "Dragon" was no Forrest Gump, but some of us can remember Dragon on the BCHS riding lawn mower, cutting the grass on a home-game-Friday night.

He also worked in the lunch room (several football players with big appetites also pulled trays, worked in the scullery, etc. and were rewarded with generous portions with an option for seconds). Some can remember singing along to Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang." Dragon's version moved the emphasis from "gang" to the last syllable in "chain."

He was a good natured fellow, and we're better people for having known him and sharing part of our formative years with him.

He lived over in the Projects on 11th Street (could have been 15th Street) with his mother.

Dragon passed from this life in the middle of 2002, when he was in his middle 60s. But my image of him is frozen in time to 1960-61...much like the photo to the left.

"Now cracks a noble heart.
Good-night, sweet prince,  
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"

-- Horatio to Hamlet in "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" Act 5, Scene 2