TOM METTERS OF THE ATHENS MESSENGER

Metters served as sports writer at The Athens Messenger for 27 years, with primary emphasis on coverage of high school athletics. With the cooperation of the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association's Board of Directors, he began compiling won-lost records of high school basketball coaches in Ohio in the mid-1970's. He has been active in the Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association and assists in maintaining a variety of records through that group and other sources.

Boran in Columbus, Metters has been an Athens boys since he was four months old. He graduated from Athens High School in 1957. and received his degree in journalism from Ohio University in 1965. He began his sports coverage at the Messenger while a student at OU as part of a longtime cooperative program between the newspaper and the university. Much of his three years in the Army were spent in the Information Office at Fort Lee, Virginia. He was editor of the post newspaper, The Traveler, for two years.

He has received a variety of honors, including induction in the Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association's Hall of Fame in 1990, and writing awards for the OPSWA and the Ohio Associated Press Sports Writers Association. He also has been honored by the Ohio American Legion for assistance at the state Legion Baseball Tournament, and by the Green and White Club, the OU booster organization. He is a lifelong member of the Green and White Board of Directors, and has served as secretary for a number of years. He was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel in 1992. He is the son of Mrs. Thomas H. Metters of Athens, and the late Mr. Metters, who died in 1949.