John Francis "Jack" Buck was an American sportscaster, best known for his work announcing Major League Baseball games of the St. Louis Cardinals, his play-by-play work earned him recognition from numerous Halls of Fame, such as the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the National Radio Hall of Fame. He has been inducted as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum. Buck was born in Holyoke, the third of seven children of Earle and Kathleen Buck, his father was a railroad accountant. From an early age, Buck dreamed of becoming a sports announcer with his early exposure to sports broadcasting coming from listening to Boston Red Sox baseball games announced by Fred Hoey. Part of his childhood coincided with the Great Depression, Buck remembered his family sometimes using a metal slug to keep a coin-operated gas meter going during the winter to provide heat for their home. In 1939, his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio to join their father, who had a job with the Erie Railroad.

Soon after though, Buck's father died at the age of 49 due to uremic poisoning related to high blood pressure. Buck planned to quit high school in 1941 to take a full-time job in an effort to support his family. Dissuaded by one of his teachers, Buck decided to finish high school, graduating from Lakewood High School in the winter of 1942. After graduation, he followed one of his friends and began working on an iron ore freight boat operated on the Great Lakes by the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company. Buck served on a 700 foot steamer named "The Sheadle", where he began as porter and was promoted to night cook and baker. After performing various other shipping related jobs, Buck attempted to become a "deck watch". A physical examination related to the deck watch application process revealed Buck was color blind, unable to differentiate between the colors green and brown. Ineligible for the promotion to deck watch, Buck subsequently became eligible for the military draft, was drafted into the United States Army in June 1943.

After completion of his military service in 1946, Buck enrolled at Ohio State University. His early sportscasting career included work for the minor league affiliates of the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1954, he was promoted to radio play-by-play of Cardinal games on KMOX, a position that he maintained for nearly all of the next 47 years, he was known in St. Louis for his trademark phrase "That's a winner!", said after every game that the Cardinals had won. In addition to his work with the Cardinals, Buck earned assignments on many national sportscasts, including radio coverage of 18 Super Bowls and 11 World Series; some of his famous play-by-play calls include the dramatic walk-off home runs hit by Ozzie Smith in Game 5 of the 1985 National League Championship Series, by Kirk Gibson in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, by Kirby Puckett in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series. The part of his career found him working side-by-side in the Cardinals booth with his son Joe Buck, who has risen to national sportscasting prominence.

After graduating from high school, he worked on large shipping boats. Buck was drafted into the United States Army in June 1943; the physicality of Buck's work on the Great Lakes left in him good physical condition at the time he entered the Army. Buck, 19 years old, stood 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighed 165 pounds at the time, his first assignment was anti-aircraft training, was sent to Fort Eustis, Virginia to undergo his 13-week basic training regimen. After completing his basic training in 1943, Buck was designated as an instructor, assigned the rank of corporal. In addition to his instructor duties, Buck participated in boxing as a form of recreation. In February 1945 Buck shipped out to the European theater of the war, where he was assigned to K Company, 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. During the night of March 7, 1945, Buck and his compatriots crossed the Ludendorff Bridge at the town of Remagen, Germany. United States forces' successful capture of this bridge led to the Battle of Remagen, a battle lasting from March 7–25.

On the morning of March 15, 1945, Buck was the squad leader of a patrol that came under German fire in the Remagen zone. Wounded in his left forearm and leg by shrapnel, Buck received medical treatment on the battlefield from the only medic K company had at that time, Frank Borghi, he was awarded a Purple Heart as part of his service. Buck received further medical treatment at the 177th General Army Hospital in Le Mans, France where he was awarded the Purple Heart. Buck recovered, rejoined his outfit sometime after German forces had surrendered. Declining to re-enlist, turning down requests to enroll in the Officers Training School, Buck joined his compatriots in guard duty of German prisoners of war. Buck received orders to ship home in April 1946 ending his military service. After returning to the United States, Buck proceeded to work in various industrial-related jobs; when his friend Bill Theil told Buck he needed a roommate to attend Ohio State University with, Buck decided on the spot to join Theil and enroll at Ohio State.

The suddenness of Buck's decision meant he had no corresponding paperwork that could be used to formally enroll at the University, so Buck attended classes of his own choosing until he was able to formally enroll. Buck minored in Spanish, he worked several jobs including one position at an all-night gas station. Buck crafted his play-by-play skills broadcasting Ohio State basketball games. After college, he called games for the Columbus Red Birds, a Triple-A affil

The slitting mill was a watermill for slitting bars of iron into rods. The rods were passed to nailers who made the rods into nails, by giving them a point and head; the slitting mill was invented near Liège in what is now Belgium. The first slitting mill in England was built at Dartford, Kent in 1590; this was followed by one on Cannock Chase by about 1611, Hyde Mill in Kinver in 1627. Others followed in various parts of England; however there was a particular concentration of them on the River Stour between Stourbridge and Stourport, where they were conveniently placed to slit iron, brought up the River Severn before it reached nailers in the Black Country. The slitting mill consisted of two pairs of rollers turned by water wheels. Mill bars were half an inch thick. A piece was cut off the end of the bar with shears powered by one of the water wheels and heated in a furnace; this was passed between flat rollers which made it into a thick plate. It was passed through the second rollers, which slit it into rods.

The cutters had intersecting grooves. The technology is said to have been brought from Sweden by the industrial espionage of Richard Foley of Stourbridge, a Puritan and ancestor of Baron Foley; the story is related as follows by Samuel III Lloyd of Farm, in his 1907 family history The Lloyds of Birmingham with some Account of the Founding of Lloyd's Bank: "It was early in the seventeenth century when the neighbourhood of Stourbridge was the centre of the nail-making industry of England that Sweden became a discomforting competitor to those engaged in this industry. This caused young Foley of Stourbridge to resolve to find out, if possible, how their underselling was accomplished, he accordingly started for Sweden, but with so little money that it was exhausted on his arrival there, he was left with the solitary but somewhat lively resource of a fiddle. He was, however, an excellent musician, as well as a pleasant fellow, he begged and fiddled his way to the celebrated Dannemora Mines, near Uppsala.

He ingratiated himself with the iron-workers. He therefore returned to Stourbridge, full of hope that he had acquired the secret of the construction of a slitting-mill, by means of which plates of wrought iron could be slit into nail-rods. So persuaded was he of success that a gentleman was induced to advance the requisite money. Foley therefore set out for Sweden a second time, receiving on his arrival a joyful welcome from the Swedish workmen. So gladly indeed did they receive the returned fiddler, with a disastrous confidence, to make sure of him they lodged him in the citadel of the business, the slitting-mill itself, looking on him, in their simple-minded, uncommercial good-fellowship, as a mere fiddler, nothing more, he remained long enough to ascertain where his mistakes lay, again disappeared. On his return to Stourbridge he succeeded in having machinery constructed that performed the work required. Thereafter he not only supplied the nail-makers with the nail-rods they wanted, but made a fortune in doing it.

It is pleasant and gratifying to record that while amassing wealth himself, he was not unmindful of the needs of others. How far this legend reflects what happened is doubtful; the earliest version of the story to name Foley is that of William Playfair in 1809, which takes him to Holland. However the earliest version was published by Stebbing Shaw, quoting the manuscript history of Dr Richard Wilkes of Willenhall, About a mile above is a place called the Hide... Here was the first mill for rolling and slitting iron, erected in Englkand. One Brindley, whose posterity enjoyed it until about 20 years ago, whent inot Germany, there he acted the fool, from thence brought back this excelelent machine, so servicieable and has brought do much money into the country. Richard Foley was a substantial entrepreneur in 1627 when he leased Hyde Mill for conversion to a slitting mill, leased Himley Furnace from Lord Dudley in 1625; the application of the story to Foley is thus not credible, but it could refer to his brother-in-law George Brynley, who ran the mill for Foley.

His son Richard bought Hyde Mill and Farm in 1647, it descended in the family until John Brindley became bankrupt in 1730. In a map of Birmingham dated 1731, 7 years after the death of Sampson I Lloyd, Lloyd's slitting and corn mills are shown with access from Digbeth by Lower Mill Lane. A map dated 1751 shows the slitting-mill with a mill pool and a large garden. A description of the slitting mill survives in a letter dated 31 July 1755 written by visitors from London to the Pembertons, Lloyd cousins: Next Morning we went to see Mr. L's Slitting Mill, too curious to pass by without notice, its use is to prepare iron for making nails. The process is as follows: they take a large iron bar, with a huge pair of shears, work'd by a water-wheel, cut it into lengths of about a foot each.

James Wheeler was an English footballer. He played as striker for Reading, he became a coach at Reading and manager of Bradford City. Wheeler had a prominent career in schoolboy football and two years as an amateur at Spartan League side Huntley & Palmers, he moved to hometown club Reading where he played for 16 years, scoring 147 goals in 406 league games. He was the club's top scorer for three successive seasons from 1958–59 to 1960–61, he broke his leg at Barnsley in September 1964, which ended his league career. He continued to play and coach Reading reserves and became assistant manager of the club to Roy Bentley. Wheeler joined Bradford City as manager in June 1968, he was the first full-time manager since the death of Grenville Hair in training in March 1968, with coach Jim McAnearney and captain Tom Hallett taking over first-time duties in the intermediate period. Wheeler had instant success at Valley Parade and secured promotion from Division Four in 1968–69 which included a record-breaking sequence of 21 games without defeat to come fourth.

The following season started well but results tailed off and the team came 10th in Division Three. Wheeler had been booked just once during his 16-year playing career, but on 6 December 1969 in an FA Cup tie at home to Lincoln City he fell foul of the FA during a touchline outburst. Wheeler was fined £35 and censured and instead had a direct telephone line installed between his seat in the stand and the bench. In the 1970–71 season, City escaped relegation by just a point with Wheeler's former team Reading occupying the final relegation spot. By the start of the following season, results failed to improve and Wheeler resigned after the fans turned against him. List of one-club men Jimmy Wheeler management career statistics at Soccerbase