Before he was one of the world’s top racecar drivers, Tony Stewart was a jazz band musician and drama club member at Columbus North High School.
But having won an IndyCar and three NASCAR championships in the 27 years since he graduated from North, Stewart will be honored with fellow Bull Dog alumni Marty Newsom, Terry Schmidt and the late Duane Barrows as they are inducted into the Columbus North Alumni Hall of Fame.
The fourth annual Bull Dog Alumni Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place Sept. 9 before the home football game against Franklin Central High School.
Newsom and Schmidt plan to attend the induction ceremony. Barrows’ niece, Jane Cooney, will accept the award in her uncle’s honor. Stewart’s mother, Pam Boas, will accept her son’s award in his place.
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Stewart — a 1989 North graduate — will be in Richmond, Virginia, where he will try to qualify for a NASCAR Sprint Cup race that weekend. “He’s terribly sorry that he can’t be here,” Boas said of her son’s racing commitments, which run from February through November.
In high school, Stewart was more interested in the arts than he was in athletics, Boas said. He played the trombone in the Columbus North Jazz Band, and also helped out with behind-the-scenes production work for the school’s drama club.
After graduating in 1945 from Columbus High School, renamed Columbus North in 1973, Newsom launched a career working in leadership roles with the organization then known as the Girls Club of America, which took her to locations all across the country.
Newsom credits her love for and success with Girls Inc. to the years she spent growing up in Columbus, where she was a member of the local chapter of the Girls Club of America.
Her career with the girls organization took her away from Columbus for 36 years, so Newsom said she was “knocked away” that her alma mater would choose to remember her legacy by inducting her into the Alumni Hall of Fame.
Schmidt graduated from Columbus High School in 1970 and after college spent 11 years in the National Football League. After his playing career, he went into dentistry and provided dental services for military veterans. He also went on mission trips to provide services to underprivileged residents in other parts of the world.
Barrows, a 1946 Columbus High School graduate, returned to his alma mater as a teacher and swimming coach, with his teams winning six state championships. He left in 1965 to become men’s swimming coach at Indiana State University. He was killed in a 1979 car accident following an Indiana State swim meet.
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Tony Stewart, Class of 1989, is a racecar driver, team owner, track owner and series owner. His racing accomplishments include:
- The Triple Crown — first driver to win the Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown divisions in the same year (1995)
- IndyCar series champion (1997)
- Three-time NASCAR champion (2002, 2005, 2011)
- Only driver to have won both NASCAR and IndyCar championships.
- Rookie of the Year awards in USAC, Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR Sprint Cup
He is retiring after this year as a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver.
In 2003 he formed the Tony Stewart Foundation, which funds programs that serve chronically ill and physically disabled children, at-risk or endangered animals and drivers injured in the sport of racing. The foundation has awarded more than $6.5 million to more than 150 organizations.
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After graduating from Columbus High School, Class of 1946, Duane Barrows earned his bachelor’s degree from Franklin College and his master’s degree from Butler University. He returned to Columbus High School as a teacher, assistant football coach and head boys swim coach. His swim teams won six state championships.
Barrows coached the Indiana State University men’s swimming team from 1966 and 1979, serving as an assistant professor at the university. Barrows taught swimming to people of all ages while developing the Donner Swim Club in Columbus and Terre Haute Aquatic Club in 1971. He was killed in a car accident following a 1979 swim meet.
He earned the Franklin College Alumni Athletic Award for Outstanding Athletic Achievement and was inducted into the Indiana Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame.
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Martha May “Marty” Newsom, Class of 1945, earned her bachelor’s degree from Franklin College and her master’s degree from Ohio University.
She spent 41 years working with organizations dedicated to the betterment of girls and women. Newsom was executive director of three different Girls Club of American organizations between 1948 and 1963. She organize the first regional office in Los Angeles from 1965-1966 and became national field services director, headquartered in New York, from 1966 to 1983. From 1983 to 1990, Newsom served as director of service centers in Indianapolis.
Newsom was involved in the fundraising drive for the $2.2 million project in Columbus to rebuild Foundation for Youth in 1997. Former Indiana Gov. Robert Orr honored Newsom with a Sagamore of the Wabash award.
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Following his graduation, Class of 1970, Terry Schmidt attended Ball State University, where he became an All-American safety in football and Academic All-American. Schmidt played in the NFL two seasons with the New Orleans Saints and nine with the Chicago Bears. He is in the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.
Schmidt earned a degree at Loyola University’s College of Dental Surgery, which allowed him to serve as dental service chief at Veterans Administration medical centers in four locations, including Johnson City, Tennessee, where he is in his 28th year of providing dental care to United States veterans.
Schmidt also travels to parts of Central America, South America and Africa on annual medical and dental mission trip to provide dental care to the underprivileged residents of those areas.
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When: Sept. 9
Where: Columbus North High School, 1400 25th St.
Schedule:
- 4:30 p.m. Annual meeting of the Bull Dog Alumni Association
- 5 p.m. Tour of Columbus North High School
- 5:30 p.m. Reception in the Student Commons
- 6 p.m. Hall of Fame induction ceremony
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