THE 1962 BACK TO SCHOOL BALL DROP

In just a few weeks, area school children will be back to school as a new school year begins. That brings us to this week’s topic. From our Historical Notebook this week we present one of the most unusual historical photographs I have ever seen. Notice the small plane at the top of the photo.

The date was Friday, August 17, 1962. The Albion Chamber of Commerce was sponsoring a "ball drop"as part of its "Back to School" promotion in downtown Albion. Lightweight Styrofoam balls were dropped by Sam Friia (Albion merchant) and Don Derr (advertising salesman for the Albion Evening Recorder) from a small airplane high above Superior St. Out of the 850 balls dropped, 200 had numbers on them which were good for prizes at participating merchants.

When the balls were dropped at 9:30 am., Albion youth ran up and down Superior St. trying to retrieve them. There was confusion and scuffling in the crowd. It soon became apparent that some of the balls were landing on the roofs of downtown buildings rather than in the street as they were intended. Soon, the roofs of at least three buildings were accessed by youngsters in order to retrieve some of the balls there. This could have been accomplished by running through the store and then up old staircases, or by climbing up lower back additions to access the main roofs.

Concerned merchants didn’t want their flat roofs destroyed by trampling feet, nor did they want any child to fall off the roof. The Chamber of Commerce committee quickly met, and decided that that ball drop for the next morning, Saturday, August 18 was to be accomplished by throwing the balls off the roof of the J. C. Penney store.

Yours truly was there with my left-handed catcher’s mitt and I remember this event distinctly. It was still chaos, and youth were fighting one another for those balls. Those in front had the best pickings where most of the balls were heaved out of the box, right onto the sidewalk below. Those in the back of the crowd didn’t have much to retrieve. How many of our readers remember this ball drop promotion, either by plane, or at J.C. Penney?

	Frank Passic — Albion Historian An Albion native and 1971 graduate of Albion High School, Frank Passic has been researching and writing Albion history since 1976. He is the creator of the Albion Historical Notebook, with hundreds of articles appearing weekly in the Morning Star and The Recorder. Frank maintains an extensive personal archive including Riverside Cemetery records, family surname files, genealogies, photographs, city directories, and high school yearbooks. Support his 2026 research at the Historic Albion Michigan Facebook page. Historical Notebook \| From the Archives \| Subject List \| 100 Years Ago \| Alphabetical Index \| Frank Passic Home Page \| Albion History Books \| Contact Frank
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