When we take “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl” to Costas Inn in Dundalk, old friends are bound to walk in and when James Thomas tried to sneak out, Nestor pulled him back in to discuss everything that’s happened since he was the quarterback of their 1978 Pop Warner football team in Logan Village. Let now CCBC Catonsville Cardinals assistant women’s basketball coach Jimmy T and Soup For The Soul’s Stacy Nagel tell you why Dundalk folks stick together almost 50 years later.
Nestor Aparicio, a long-time friend of James Thomas, reminisces about their childhood in Dundalk, highlighting their shared history on the Dundalk Longhorns football team. James, who has been coaching at Morgan State for 36 years and is now an assistant coach at Catonsville Community College, discusses his transition from football to basketball and his mentorship under influential coaches like Ron Schultz. They reflect on the impact of community leaders and the importance of mentorship. Nestor humorously recounts his Hall of Fame induction and their shared love for Dundalk High School. They also discuss the current state of local sports and the need for community support for college basketball programs.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Dundalk High, Hall of Fame, Morgan State, Catonsville coach, women’s basketball, Ron Schultz, athletic mentorship, community support, alma mater, football memories, coaching transition, mentorship committee, local talent, college games, community pride
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Speaker 1, James Thomas
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Go ahead. Welcome home. We are W N, S T, A of 1570 tasks in Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. Nothing more, Baltimore positive being here in the bar at Costas Inn in my Dundalk homeland. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery, rubbing the magic eight ball, running into friends. I didn’t even plan this segment, this guy’s nervous because nobody’s here to be a rope, even though we’ve known each other since we were 10 years old, nine years old. It’s all brought to you by friends at wives markets as well our wise conversations and our friends at the Maryland lottery. You know, went around a bar and, um, you know, I’m standing at the front door Costas, and inevitably, somebody I know is gonna walk in. It’s cost us, you know, woman at Royal farms asked me recently from if anybody listened to my show or if I had any coffee drink. I said, just stand somewhere in a city with me. And people come in. So Jimmy T comes in. He was my, my fifth grade and sixth grade quarterback on the Dundalk Longhorns in 1978 79 two years me. You John Rollo Herman, call Dave, cause he named some of these guys. John Richards,
James Thomas 01:08
Jerome Hall, all those guests, goes on and on. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 01:11
man. So this guy’s in all my childhood pictures. He’s a Dundalk, high, little younger than me, little younger than me. Graduate 87 I’m 85 and somehow they put me in a Dundalk high Hall of Fame instead of putting the real Dundalk high quarterback heroes. And you’ve worked at Morgan Three decades. How many years you’ve been
James Thomas 01:30
at Morgan? 36 years? Four decades? Yeah, I’m on the process of retiring in the next year
Nestor Aparicio 01:35
and a half, well and more than that. And this is where you become a great guest for me. You’re a kid that I’ve known all of my life, one of my oldest friends, literally, I don’t know how many people that I would know run into I know longer than 1977 right? You and me, right? And we played ball together. We went to high school for a minute where I was a little older than you, and I had a kid probably your senior year, Junior year high school. So like, all these years later, you’ve had like, one gig, right? Like, literally,
James Thomas 02:03
when you first come out of high school, you gotta find your niche, and then once you go from job to job, and finally get there again, 36 years later. But
Nestor Aparicio 02:12
I know of you as working at Morgan. You’re wearing Morgan gear. You and Morgan, and I’m copping sponsored, by the way, so Dr Jenkins, I mean, I’m trying to make friends on the other side of town, and we’re doing a show Cocos of this week, right on the Morgan campus, really. But like, you made a life coach in basketball. Like, that’s, I could bring you on as coach Thomas. I could bring you on as coach Thomas, coaching community college kids. You were, you were up in Harford County for a while, right? Harford County, and now you were Catonsville, right? So you’re, you’re the head coach of the Catonsville community college team, assistant coach, I’m sorry, Assistant, no problem. But you weren’t ahead before. Yeah, I was an assistant,
James Thomas 02:48
but when they made a coaching change, stay under the new leadership center. I’m ready. I
Nestor Aparicio 02:54
saw your suit. I thought you were a head coach. I wasn’t sure. Yeah, so you’re coaching the ladies. How many years to be coaching ladies basketball.
James Thomas 03:00
Oh, this is my 16th year.
Nestor Aparicio 03:03
All right, so how do you transition your love of being a football player? You got it. You went and got a job for yourself. You didn’t play college ball right at all. No,
James Thomas 03:11
I just stuck around and under a lot of Jamie Wilcox and Don Beasley. You know, those guys brought in Mike pack. You know, they groomed us to eventually be coaches. So my Knicks was with basketball, and that’s where I just took off, and Ron Schultz helped me out as well. So when I was doing that, then you say
Nestor Aparicio 03:28
Ron Schultz, here we got a timeout we gotta talk about. Now Ron Schultz’s son, famously, is Curtis Schultz, correct that Curtis trained me, and we listened a lot of Wu tan back when we were I was training with Curtis, but Curtis played in Maryland. Everybody remembers Kurt, big, wide guy. Kurt has been a an athletic trainer for the Cincinnati Bengals, Miami, Minnesota Vikings, USC basketball. Kurt’s got a ring on a Maryland team. Kurt was one of the trainers with Gary Williams team 24 years ago. Ron’s his dad, Ron was the athletic director at overly high school at Dundalk high, was a Dundalk high basketball coach. Just mentorship of an incredible level that we had these leaders, Bob Hutzler to look up to, back in the day when we were kids and and, you know, I wrestle for Bo Ebner, who was also a baseball Yeah. But you know baseball coach. You know, this is great men in our community that turned you into a coach for life is what you’ve been now. You’re 50 something. He looks younger than me by a lot, but, you know, we’re all getting
James Thomas 04:31
old. I mean, you have so many mentors. Just it’s, it’s by committee. You know a lot of people, they just gravitate to you and take you under their wing, and they talk to you whole conversations that lasts a lifetime, like, you know, even Dave Hopper, oh, yeah, I would play against him. So now we talk on the phone, and we, you know, he always tell me, look, hoops. Hop, yeah, just do what you’ve been doing, you know. And those guys just reach out, because we come from the same community.
Nestor Aparicio 04:57
See, hoops could go up on that. To the playground up at the top of German Hill. Oh, she wanted me to sing the Dundalk hive. Hold on a second. Oh, come back in here. Come come back. I’m not done with you. She ain’t sleep. She tried to sneak out the damn door. Come on over here. I know you got people to feed. We got to do this. I just want to say this about hoops. He would shoot threes before there were threes. This is back in the early 80s, right? I’ll get your mic up for you. He shoot threes. And I’m telling you, if you bet money at any point to play, to shoot, play horse, he’s winning. He’s winning. Nobody in neighborhood would ever shoot money hoops. Would hop look, because you couldn’t beat him. Hey, he was like a
Speaker 1 05:38
garland globetrotter. He would come now practice when I set these Caucasian
Nestor Aparicio 05:42
you know, it couldn’t you couldn’t be a Harlem Globetrotter. He could tell you
James Thomas 05:44
how you shooting wrong, either you pushing it this way, or you shooting it correctly. Have you
Nestor Aparicio 05:48
met super to soul, you guys? She’s really short. I gotta get her into the thing here. So she’s giving me a hard time. So we got three done. Dog, you don’t. Can you sing the Dundalk high alma mater. I cannot. Can you sing the Dundalk? At
James Thomas 06:05
least I’m honest. I
Nestor Aparicio 06:06
don’t have any pull in this, because the man who helped me get into the Dundalk high Hall of Fame is now down in Sarasota. Derek Mackey. He’s running the Orioles ticket office down in Sarasota. He’s a snow bird. He goes down to Florida. He loves the Orioles. He called me 10 years ago and said he was running the Dundalk when the school got new 19. It was 2000 in 1516, he called me, said, You should be in the Dundalk high Hall of Fame. And I said I was a terrible wrestler. I was a decent tennis player, but I don’t belong. He’s like, no, no, no for all, you don’t community and some nominating you, you can’t you. And I’m like, it might embarrass me because I wasn’t, and then I found out, like it’s for community goodwill and spirit, but I always think of it as being an athlete is in the athletic wing in a new building, and they brought me over. My mother had just died. I cried all night. My speech sucked that night. I mean, I just was a mess my you know, it’s the mess that night that I got putting it all out. I see these people winning Grammys and stuff, and I’m people lose their ish up there, and I’m like, Yeah, I’m only getting put into one Hall of Fame. And I blew it, but I meant to sing the alma mater that night in the Hall of Fame, and I didn’t in the audit, brand new auditor. I’ve only been to school once in my life, and they put me in Hall of Fame. Now they won’t let me back in so but I had to sing this when we were playing for the state title. Dundalk football has played twice for the state title. As you know, we played Baltimore back in 17 or 15 when my wife was really sick,
James Thomas 07:29
because I remember I saw you in Annapolis at the let i years ago. Nah, man,
Nestor Aparicio 07:33
I saw you at the stadium. We played down it. We got run over by that team, Lincoln, or there were the great Damascus. But
James Thomas 07:40
then funk, right? Annapolis, right? So
Nestor Aparicio 07:44
the first time was 15, and then we were in Annapolis, and maybe 19 or 2019, 20 in there, because the mayor, Mayor Scott, went to merva, right? And by the way, that game I was at, we Marine Corps, so you were at that you don’t even had to sing the fight song that the alma mater.
Speaker 1 08:01
All the needles were at that game. Man, I
Nestor Aparicio 08:04
saw Elliot’s. I saw Dundalk people in Annapolis. I didn’t know, the hell they let him get to that. I didn’t know if they knew where an apples was. Well, stop on ocean. Widow should say, so all the Dundalk people gathered again in the mervo game. And it breaks my heart that y’all don’t know the alma mater. So I’m about to teach it to you. I gotta get a little Hold on. I go something to drink here. Hold on. Here. Hold on. Let me see here. We laughing at you. Wanting the Hall of Fame. I’m gonna make
James Thomas 08:28
this hey, I want to be where you at, but I don’t know that that alma mater song. Well, we
Nestor Aparicio 08:32
gotta to me, if you get into the Dundalk high Hall of Fame, you should be able to sing the alma mater. You’re absolutely right. Well, I will learn it. I bet your sister in law can sing it. I
Speaker 1 08:40
bet she can. Why don’t we call my Oh, don’t
Nestor Aparicio 08:44
do that. I mean, I took phone calls for 23 years. You know, Louis Anderson tried to talk me into being a comedian so I can be one. Maybe it’s all over. All right, so in 15 I printed the words and I told everybody to meet me at the Johnny United statue, my wife was in a hospital, battling for her life. She’s like in a coma. When that happened, it was awful. It was cold. That night, we got our ass kicked. Remember Damascus, but I tried to get everybody to meet me the Johnny you statue. I had printed out the words, figuring people would know how to sing it. Mr. Eric Miller was our band director and our chorus leader at Dundalk high in 1981 82345, I don’t know if he’s still there. In 90, he was there. When you were there, he would gather all of us and hit the little note on the piano. Mr. Stadium would be happy right now. He’d hit the little note. There I am singing it in the Dundalk high jackets. I’m on the internet doing this already, and 1000s people see somebody shared on Wednesday, and they’re like, I remember this song. Mr. Miller tried to get us to learn this song and and apparently nobody learned a song. All right, so I can, I can sing the song from anywhere. Let me get the microphone off here. Ready, ready? Let each fellow join a chorus. Egg. Far and near, we will ever sing in triumph, and we’ll always cheer march on dun Duk march right onward till we reach our pose and a cheer from each good fellow means we have not lost to our own dear Dundalk High School, we do celebrate All our hearts and Hands and Voices till we separate march on the dog march right onward to we reach our host, and the cheer from each good fellow means we have Not lost no
10:58
good, good. Yay.
Nestor Aparicio 11:01
Okay, all right, little off, Kate, sorry about that. Ace. You good. All right. So tell everybody how to support your your college basketball program. My
James Thomas 11:10
thing is, you know, we your Women’s League on the women’s team for Kingsville Community College. You can even hit on the website come out and see us play. Or, you know, donation to Kingsville. Thursday,
Nestor Aparicio 11:19
I’m over state fair all day, Thursday. Oh. UMBC, kids out over there. I’ll tell you what our last
James Thomas 11:24
home game is, February 11, if you can make it the senior night, and if anybody like to come and support we’d be there. Jimmy
Nestor Aparicio 11:30
teach coaching over at the what did Kate don’t talk with the lions. What do Catonsville? What
James Thomas 11:34
are their names? We are We are the Oh, don’t say no. Don’t say that. Don’t say that. Our grades say, Well, you know, all cooked together to CCBC, okay, we’re the Cardinals. Cardinals.
Nestor Aparicio 11:43
Okay, we used to be the lions back in the day. Now, you know, we had a basketball team at Dundalk Community College
James Thomas 11:50
back when I was there. Was so amazing is all the communities come together, whether you’re Essex Dundalk or Catonsville, but unfortunately, we don’t have a team over at Dundalk. We just had the men’s team. Okay, all right, all
Nestor Aparicio 12:02
right. Well, we’ll get that going. I had Coach Woods on from Coppin women’s games just on fire with Caitlin Clark and and as Angel Reese. I mean, I saw her play over Coppin last year. Dawn, Staley’s bringing South Carolina up to COVID next year to play. Yes, yes. I mean, so like college basketball from back when you were mean, Dana Johnson and breezy Bishop back in the day, so many
James Thomas 12:23
talented players come out of Baltimore on the female side that we don’t pay attention to until they get to the biggest stage. Then we say, wow, they went to that page, right, right. But they need to come home and schedule some games against some of Baltimore teams to bring them one time they can play at home in their career. You know, in college, you know, something like North Carolina. They always had a guy that would, you know, his senior year. He may play in New York. Of course, bring that back to both Well, that was
Nestor Aparicio 12:46
Dean Smith. Would always do that, play a game for somewhere else, absolutely come back home. All right, except if you’re Wojo skier, one of those guys, well, but not against us. All right, we’re gonna get you into the Hall of Fame. You gotta learn a song. You’re in the soup, you’re in the people Hall of Fame, because you’re doing beautiful things for people stays, you know. So I’m just me, all right, well, I have a try shout it out everybody. Monday is super the soul day. We’re taping this on a Monday. We’re casa. I gotta get you out of your server. Alright? Super, the soul duck.org. Jimmy T is over, the mighty cardinals, nothing like the mighty owls. And I’ll say this about Dundalk, all right, because I live out in the woods now, and we have out real owls in the woods. I hear him. Who? Who you hear him? I never heard I’ve grown Dundalk. I never heard an owl in my life. And I always thought like and I’ll mean this the wrong way, and don’t take this wrong if you’re ornithologically inclined. But I thought the owl was a little bit of a wussy bird, like I thought owls, they’re just smart. Owls are unbelievable creatures. So like, being an owl is like, really, I don’t need to be a patriot or a pointer. Some of these other things going on around here. Being an owl, we should be proud of that. We know
James Thomas 13:59
we’re proud of you rough. And reason why I say that is because when you some come back to the community and love doing what you’re doing, it even makes it even better. You think
Nestor Aparicio 14:09
I love doing this? Oh, it gives you that idea you’ve been here a long time because you sang, and
James Thomas 14:13
I’ve been with you since what you say, it was 78
Nestor Aparicio 14:16
Hey, man, my quarterback in 1978 and I had quarterback envy. I’m like, why does he get to be the quarterback? Well, he was taller, faster, stronger, threw the ball. Nobody could tackle him, and I got stuck as a fat bottom on the front line, spitting the cup, trying to make weight at 73 pounds, I didn’t make weight that day over Patapsco. I didn’t let me play.
James Thomas 14:40
That’s how far it’s been. We used to get weighed in. You could be two pounds. You weren’t one of
Nestor Aparicio 14:43
the ones calling me meatball or the Pillsbury Doughboy. Were you? But we I was an oval teen. I was a little short. I mean, I was a little lineman back. And then I got I grew up to be five eight. You were like 511 when you were like nine, he, I used to call you string bean because he, I was just my nickname because he. Was he turned sideways, but, man, he could throw the ball this guy here. Well, I’ll leave you on that should be in the Hall of Fame, is what you should be. I need people like you to give you learn the song. I’ll tell you one thing, though, when you ride past our former football field and see what’s over there, now you you’re a marvel at where we come from, because, you know, over there, Chester where we used to play at, sure, do you look? CNN, like, wow, I’m playing my son’s like, you didn’t play them football over there because they got houses in it said, No, they didn’t have houses when we was going the train. Man, we never forget. No, 40 years. Man, more than 40. You and I playing ball was 47 years ago. Yes, and you still don’t know the fight song. Jimmy TS here go see him in Catonsville. Support these good folks, all the good folks we have coming on in the Maryland Food Bank and doing great things. Super the soul dundalk.org Go see and we’re Costas. Thanks to wise markets in the Maryland lottery, and thanks to friends for just stopping in and saying, hello. It’s great. You.
