Frank McKinney and Me

Frank E. McKinney (1904-1974) was a bigshot. An Indianapolis native, he was Chairman of American Fletcher National Bank, owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates and other baseball teams, and was hand-picked by Harry Truman to be the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He was even named US Ambassador to Spain, but never actually assumed the job. He owned a sprawling mansion in Indianapolis, was an accomplished pilot and his son, Frank, Jr., was an Olympic swimming champion.

Frank and My Dad

McKinney was also a friend of my Dad. I don't really know how the friendship developed. I never asked Dad and after he was gone I tried to do a little digging to find out what they had in common. The first place I looked was to check to see if Frank was a Freemason. For all I can find out he was not. Dad was the Secretary-Treasurer of his corporation's board and as such made its banking arrangements. He may have gotten to know McKinney in his role with AFNB. In addition to the Pirates, McKinney also owned the Indianapolis Indians minor league team. Dad was one of the Indians' original shareholders and they may have had that connection. Maybe it was just the fact they were both avid fishermen.

What led up to the invitation I don't know but at one point Frank told Dad to bring my Brother Jim and me to the Indiana University pool in Indianapolis where we got free swimming lessons from Frank, Jr., the eventual Olympic champion.

Another time, Dad flew to Canada with Frank to a lake inaccessible by road for a fishing trip. I do not know how many were with them, but I imagine it was a pretty small group.

Dorm Room Civil War

Throughout my high school years, I hung around with a friend who was in my DeMolay chapter. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say we were inseparable. We both enrolled at Indiana University and were roomates in Wright Quadrangle. About midway through our freshman year, we were each asked to pledge separate fraternities. I declined but Joe (not his real name) accepted.

As Joe became more active in pledging his fraternity, he grew distant to the point that our relationship completely deteriorated. Without going into detail, he became pretty nasty toward me and nothing I could do would change his attitude. In retrospect I wonder if his fraternity required its pledges to eschew former relationships in favor of the pledge's new Brothers. At any rate, things became unbearable for me. For the record, I was no angel in the dispute. Then, like today, you come at me, I come at you harder.

Joe's antics finally got to the point where I couldn't take it any more. One morning the situation hit a tipping point and I called my dad at the office and told him what was going on. His reaction was typical Dad: "You are at school to get an education. That's your job. Get to class, knuckle down with the books and forget about Joe."

Then he said the magic words: "I'll take care of this."

After the call I went to my classes. When my afternoon classes were over I walked back to the residence hall anticipating more of Joe's nonsense.

When I opened the door Joe was inside having a hissy-fit. He was taking clothes out of his closet and throwing them on the bed, cursing as he did it. He saw me come in and turned his wrath on me, "YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS! I'LL GET YOU IF IT'S THE LAST THING I EVER DO!" By suppertime he had taken all of his things out of the room and down to a waiting car. In just a few hours Dad had eradicated the little unwanted pest. I actually didn't know if Joe had been kicked out of school or just moved. I soon discovered from others in our residence hall he had been kicked out of the dorm and was moving into his fraternity – probably not the best situation for a pledge.

I questioned Dad about the situation but he wouldn't tell me what he did. His only response was for me just to concentrate on my school work.

Frank Stepped In

Fast forward a couple years. I was home for the weekend. Dad and I were sitting in the kitchen having lunch when the phone rang. It was Frank McKinney inviting Dad to go on a fishing trip. They took a while to make plans and then Dad hung up and asked me, "Remember that trouble you had with Joe a couple years ago?"

"How could I forget it," I asked.

"That's the guy I called to get him thrown out of your dorm room," he said.

It turns out, in addition to all the other impressive things on his resume, Frank McKinney was the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University. All it took was one call to him and Joe was booted from the room. I am certain that kind of thing could not happen today, but things were different back then.

Epilog

One final thing… during that same phone call Frank McKinney invited me to fly back to Bloomington in his private plane. I had been doing my share of flying over that period, but I was a nervous flier. I could handle the big jets but no way was I getting in a small private plane. Looking back, I wish I had taken him up on his offer.

As for Joe... I never saw nor heard from him again.