Benny Clary is spending part of Father’s Day in one of his favorite spots, at home on his patio. It’s the 66th Father’s Day for Clary, affectionately known in these parts as Mr. Ludlow. He’s likely on the move Sunday, but Clary will wind up back home on Laurel Street at some point.
“It’s nice,” said Clary, the erstwhile basketball scoreboard operator at Ludlow High School and tireless advocate of all things Ludlow. “There’s usually a breeze out on the patio.”
Clary is a beloved figure in the community. His home is just a few blocks away from Ludlow High School. The cottage sits next to Adela Avenue. In summer, there is a colorful array of potted plants on the patio with a table and chairs. Lots of chairs. People like to visit Benny Clary, including his three children, seven grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. There are numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Lots of friends. They all have to sit somewhere.
“I’ve got two boys with families. On Father’s Day, we used to have a lot of people over,” said Clary, 87. “There got to be so many grandkids and great grandkids, there was no room to have it here.”
In those days, the Clarys gathered for Father’s Day on the patio and enjoyed a cookout.
“We used to do the patio a lot for Father’s Day,” said Margaret Clary, the oldest of three children. All were Ludlow High School athletes. “This year, if he feels like it, we’ll take him out to eat and we’ll have a good time.”
Keeping time is one of Benny Clary’s many specialties. He was the basketball scoreboard operator at Ludlow High School for 50 years until his final game in 2010. He also operated the scoreboard at various Northern Kentucky high schools hosting holiday basketball tournaments, district tournaments and regional tournaments. Clary ran the clock at Northern Kentucky University for 33 years until stepping aside in 2004.
“I think that’s how a lot of people know my dad, that and being a ticket taker,” son Mike Clary said. “He coached a lot of kids, too. I’ve been coaching 35 years, including junior varsity baseball at Beechwood. The apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. I followed right in his footsteps. Who wouldn’t? I saw how much respect he gets. I wanted to be a coach, too.”
ON THE CLOCK
Clary was the scoreboard operator for at least one game at NKU’s Regents Hall and Truist Arena, Thomas More’s Connor Convocation Center, Xavier University’s Schmidt Fieldhouse, the old Cincinnati Gardens, and Heritage Bank Center. When the NKU women’s basketball team won the NCAA Division II national championship, the Norse gave Clary a ring. The NKU men gave him a ring when they finished national runner-up.
“I still have them,” Clary said. “Sometimes, I’ll wear them.”
Clary was the scoreboard operator for a Xavier basketball game against Notre Dame at Cincinnati Gardens. He ran the clock one year for Xavier versus Cincinnati at the Crosstown Shootout during what would be a three-year scoreboard-operating stint at Xavier. He ran the clock for eight Harlem Globetrotters basketball games at Heritage Bank Center and had a bucket of confetti thrown at him.
On top of that, Clary was a ticket taker at Cincinnati Reds home games for 46 years. He performed the same duties at Bengals home games for 48 years. He was a ticket taker at Riverfront Stadium, Great American Ball Park and Paycor Stadium, not to mention the Cincinnati Convention Center, Cincinnati Music Hall and Taft Theater. Clary eventually oversaw the ticket-taking personnel for both the Reds and Bengals, all while serving as a 33-year employee at a Cincinnati brokerage firm. He retired from the firm in 1999 and dedicated the next 25 years to Ludlow and Northern Kentucky student-athletes.
In Ludlow, Clary has been a Pee Wee football coach, a grade school basketball coach and a Knothole baseball coach. He’s been a school board member, a city council member and grand marshal of the Ludlow High School homecoming parade.
While all of that is in Clary’s rear-view mirror, the memories sustain him and drive him forward. The recollections also make him smile. He thoroughly enjoyed being a scoreboard operator and a ticket taker. Both part-time jobs were a natural extension of Clary’s ongoing gifts to humanity: His friendliness, ability to make people feel welcome and appreciated, and his innate sense of organization.
Clary honed his organizational skills as a young student-athlete in the Ludlow School District and later in high school. He hoped to play varsity sports but wound up being the head manager for the basketball team. That was 70 years ago when Clary was a 17-year-old, wide-eyed Ludlow junior. He graduated in 1955. He joined the Air Force in 1956 and remained enlisted through 1960.
“I wasn’t very athletic. I was 5-foot-5 and 115 pounds as a senior at Ludlow, so I wasn’t very big either,” Clary remembered. “But I loved sports. My coach said If I wanted a letterman’s jacket, I’ll have to be a manager. I played one year of junior varsity basketball. But I was a manager for six years, grades 7-12, and I loved it. I liked helping everybody out and being close to sports.”
A man of indomitable spirit, Benny Clary has a way of making people smile. That made him a perfect fit for the Harlem Globetrotters.
“Nobody kept a better clock,” daughter Margaret said. “I’ve been working at Heritage Bank Center since 1994. When I found out one year they needed a scoreboard operator for the Globetrotters, I told them my dad had been doing that for years at Ludlow and NKU, and they hired him for a game. He did such a good job, they kept bringing him back.”
Clary continues to attend Ludlow basketball games and receive fist-bumps from the home team, a tradition that began upon his return from triple bypass heart surgery eight years ago. He had a subsequent period of relatively good health, but he’s been in and out of the hospital this month as he seeks a remedy for blood clots in his right leg. He had to lie on his stomach for an hour during a procedure and is taking medication. He’s a candidate to have a stint placed in his leg to help with blood flow.
Also too, this is the family’s first Father’s Day without Ann Clary, Benny’s wife for 66 years. She passed away in March at the age of 86. Ann Clary loved cooking and spending time with family and friends. Sometimes, that meant a lot of cooking for lots of people. When all the chairs filled up inside the house, there were plenty more available outside on the patio.
“Dad likes being out there where he can relax and watch traffic. That’s probably where he’ll be some of Father’s Day,” eldest son Mark Clary said. “I’m getting back Sunday from a golf trip. People will be coming and going and stopping in to see him.”
A MAN OF THE PEOPLE
Benny Clary’s home sits near a stop sign. If he’s out on the patio, he occasionally hears a honk as vehicles roll to a stop.
“Everybody in Ludlow knows my dad. A lot of people just like to say hi,” Mark said. “One day when I was over there somebody honked and I asked who it was. He said he didn’t know but they always honk.”
When traffic rolls down Adela away from the stop sign, it’s not unusual for Clary to receive a friendly wave out the passenger side window and from backseat occupants as they pass the house. He waves back.
Fittingly, Benny Clary was the grand marshal at this year’s Ludlow Memorial Day parade.
“He was on cloud nine,” Mike Clary said. “He had a great time.”
Benny sat in the back seat of the parade car with his name on the doors and did one of the many things he does so well. He greeted the people.
“Dad didn’t have to work at all on his parade wave,” Margaret said. “He’s been waving at people for years as they drive by the house.”
No wonder its airy on the Clary patio. There’s so much waving going on there’s bound to be a breeze.
“It’s not just Ludlow. I live in Independence and there are people out here who know my dad,” Mark Clary said. “They all remember him and say what a great guy he is. They say he’s a legend. It’s awesome when we go places and I hear how he coached somebody in youth football years ago and he made an impact.”
Benny gets recognized out of state, as well. He’s been picked out of a crowd by former players, fellow ticket takers and basketball officials as far away as Chicago, Myrtle Beach and Sarasota, Florida. When his daughter received a package she ordered at work, the delivery person recognized the last name.
“He said he had a coach named Benny Clary as a boy who really made a difference in his life,” Margaret said. “He asked me if I happened to know him. I told him it’s my dad.”
HALL OF FAME FATHER
Benny Clary is so highly thought of that he’s a member of five halls of fame, including the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame and the Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame.
His children think he’s a hall of fame father. They say their humble dad doesn’t even realize he’s the star.
“I take him to Ludlow games and he still takes out his pass,” said Margaret, who lives in Bromley. “They just tell him to put his pass away and say, ‘We know who you are.’ Dad has a lifetime pass to every game at Ludlow and he doesn’t have to show anything.”
Mark Clary, like his brother, also has experience coaching Beechwood junior varsity baseball. He assisted with Scott High School baseball for 15 years and has coached middle school basketball.
“Dad is known by everybody,” Mark said. “They all say he was a great coach and great for kids. That’s why I went into coaching. I saw what kind of impact you can have.”
Mark passed down the family coaching legacy to his son, Blake Clary, the former Ludlow High School girls head basketball coach.
Margaret said the genuine friendliness and kindness shown by her father belies a determined side. She said he always made sure the Clary kids had what they needed. He made sure they had all the love they could possibly want.
“His work ethic. He always said it was important and to do your best,” Margaret said. “I could not have asked for a better father. I think the world of him. He’s my best friend. I love him a lot. I’m lucky he’s my dad.”
Benny says he’s the lucky one.
“I’m very proud of all my children,” he said. “My wife did a fantastic job because I was gone a lot. I’m proud of my grandchildren, too, and my great grandchildren. The kids at Ludlow. I’m proud of them.”
That’s Benny Clary, parent of three and father to all.
“He brought us up the right way,” Mike Clary said. “We love him. Everybody loves him. He’s Mr. Ludlow.”