At Waite High, William Romp won 10 varsity letters, played for the 1957 and '60 City League championship baseball teams, hit .460 as junior and was second in the City League in batting.

In basketball, Romp was on a team that defeated undefeated Central Catholic (18-0) in the sectionals. He was also on Waite’s 1959 state championship bowling team.

Romp played baseball at the University of Toledo four years and held the Rocket's single season base stealing record for 31 years, He finished second in the nation in base stealing in 1963, and he continued to play baseball went into his 60s for a Roy Hobbs team.

Bill Romp

Romp has since been inducted into Waite’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Where does he say his athletic roots are? At the East Toledo Family Center, an organization he continues to serve today as a lifetime member.

“I probably started to get involved in the East Toledo Neighborhood House, the predecessor of the family center, when it was on Vinewood Street. We called it ETNH,” Romp said. “East Toledo Family Center is the kingpin of all of them in Toledo. That’s the main thing about it.

“We would go down there and play basketball on Saturday mornings. We had a little gym over there in the Neighborhood House on Vinewood. The building is torn down years ago, but there is great history there. There were tennis courts in the back. There was a playground on the left of the East Toledo Neighborhood House that we hung out at.”

Romp’s athletic career began as a youth under the tutelage of a man named Warren Densmore. The late Densmore was director of the family center for 30 years, retiring one year before being inducted into the University of Toledo’s Varsity T Hall of Fame. Today, the ETFC building at East Broadway is named for Dunsmore.

“He was just an amazing man and a great inspiration to a lot of kids in East Toledo. He was a figure of a guy who was a great man,” Romp said. “He took in a lot of kids there that didn’t have good family life and they hung out at the East Toledo Neighborhood House. He was our guy. He was a father and a mentor for probably hundreds of kids over the years.

“We would never do anything without him, but we didn’t know much about his history. We did not know what a great athlete he was. He was just our ‘Denny.’ Little did we know about him, but he coached so many kids and he was always involved. He was always there and he was always around. We never knew about his family until we were adults, and it was just 20 years ago when we finally met his family,” Romp said.

Before coming to the family center, Densmore was a three-time letterman in football (1938-40) at UT and was known as the "Iron Man.” Playing both offensive center and linebacker, he never missed a game and only one hour of practice in three years. 

His 1939 team had the best record at UT up to that time (7-3). Densmore captained a 1940 team that went 6-3. He was named first-team All-Ohio as well as the team's "Most Outstanding Player" his junior and senior seasons.

Vince Renda, Warren Densmore, Bob Carson and Gertrude Kerwin.

Upon graduation, he was drafted by the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and in 1941 and played in the College All-Star Game against the Rams. He enlisted in the military service, however, but did play with the Rams in 1945-46.

“He was my coach for a number of different sports when I grew up,” Romp said. “I probably started going there in 1954 when I was probably 10-years-old and he was the coach for me in what was at that time fast-pitch softball for kids. We called it midget softball.

“He also was my coach as I got into the seventh and eighth grade. He coached us in basketball when we played in the Police Athletic League.

“We called him “Denny” Dunsmore, and he was coach for White Hut Super King — one of our sponsors. We would play all the different neighborhood houses around, which at that time was Frederick Douglas and North Toledo Community Center, the Friendly Center (North Toledo) which is where I played against (future NBA basketball star Howard) ‘Butch’ Komives. We played against him all the way into the eighth grade, because he lived in the North End and he went to Parkland.

“As we got into seventh and eighth grade, I played football for Oakdale, and he was my coach in the East Toledo Junior Football League. I was quarterback in eighth grade and he was our head coach and we’d practice down there at Navarre Park where the baseball field is. We had an assistant coach named Clarence Rather, and Denny was our coach.”

On May 5, 1990, Warren Densmore wrote a letter to Romp that still hangs in the lobby of the ETFC today. It was soon after the ETFC held a dinner honoring Warren and his wife Lois.

“Having spent 35 years ‘across the river’ no one could know how friendly and caring you people have been,” Dunsmore’s letter begins. “To be remembered with this elaborate dinner and evening is something I appreciate beyond description…and to have kept it a secret was overwhelming.

“I have not been a frequent visitor to East Toledo of late and to visit with ‘old friends’ — real people — left me with a very warm feeling. My wife said it brought tears to her eyes.”