Grundy Center native authors book recounting area’s finest athletes

GRUNDY CENTER – A native of Grundy Center, David Pike has always been inspired by sports. During high school he earned 15 letters in various sports and was Harry Dole’s first catcher on the 1968 and 1969 Spartan baseball team. After graduation he went on to wrestle at UNI, where he lettered all four years and won a conference championship. Then, in 2004, he and a few others started the Grundy Center Sports Hall of Fame. Now, Pike is working on penning a book to commemorate the athletes in the Hall of Fame.
It all started in 2004, when notable Grundy Center athlete Jim Basye passed away. Pike said he noticed that not many people remembered just how outstanding Basye’s athletic accomplishments were.
“I thought wow, how sad is that? He was one of greatest athletes we ever had,” Pike said. “And there’s got to be a lot of great athletes that have been forgotten. Who’s going to remember these guys?”
This prompted Pike and others to find a way to honor local athletes of the past that others may have forgotten about – and so the Grundy Center Sports Hall of Fame was established.
Pike said that the next step in telling these athletes’ stories is the book he is currently working on, which will be titled “Grundy Center Sports Hall of Fame.”
For the full story, check out the April 14 edition in The Grundy Register.