Steubenville Mourning a Legend, “Tennis Shoe Ernie” Hollinger
Illustration by Michael D. McElwain Trending
Around Steubenville, people consider Ernie Hollinger a "legend."
"Everybody knew him," M&M Hardware's Scott Campbell said.
Hollinger, the man known as "Tennis Shoe Ernie" and who could always be seen tooling around town on a scooter even in the dead of winter, died Feb. 3 at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center after a car-bike accident. He was 80.
"Ernie was a guy who would talk to anybody. Regardless of what people thought of Ernie, his thoughts were that whoever they were, they were approachable. That's what made him special -- he'd talk to anybody."
Hollinger didn't have much family. His parents were older -- his father was about 60 when Ernie was born and died a year later; his mother, age 40, was left to keep a roof over her own and her son's head until her death in 1976.
"I don't think a lot of people knew a lot about Ernie, I think only a few knew his family history," Campbell said.
The two of them were next-door neighbors once, and Campbell and his wife would slip him leftovers. One time in particular stands out, he said. He'd handed Ernie the extra food and started mowing his lawn.
"A couple of minutes later he came back with the containers … he told me he'd eaten it, so I asked him if he was going to help me cut the grass, he said no, he was allergic to dirt. A couple of minutes later I saw him coming out of his house and asked him where he was going … he said he was going to the softball field, he was the catcher. I told him, 'I thought you were allergic to dirt?' He said, 'That (kind) doesn't bother me' …"
Patrick McLaughlin said he'd known Ernie pretty much all his life.
"My father worked for the city, so did Ernie," McLaughlin said. "They both retired from the city, and Ernie lived right across the hall. When I'd go visit my dad I'd always see Ernie. He was a great guy; he had a heart of gold."
He said a lot of people knew Ernie as the guy who'd ride around town on a scooter and wash windows, "but there was a lot more to Ernie than that."
"Ernie was special," McLaughlin said. "He would always check on my dad -- my dad was ill and he'd knock on the door every day and check on him. And when we had to put him in a care facility in Wintersville, Ernie would ride out there every day and check on him. It could be raining but he'd ride all the way out there to check on his friend, my father. That meant the world to me."
At some point he said Ernie started working at a pool hall, "I think it was over on Adams Street," he said. "My mom was working across the street -- he'd always stop in and ask her 'Do you need anything? It meant the world to me, I could never thank him enough for everything Ernie did for my father, checking on him. He was a true friend. He'd drive out to Wintersville in rain, show, hail -- it didn't matter, he would do it. That's friendship, that's who Ernie was. He loved everybody and everybody was his friend."
Andy Tindor said he grew up a few streets away from Ernie.
"We knew each other our whole lives," Tindor said. "We went to Grant School together, then high school. He was a little older than me."
Tindor said he can't remember ever seeing Ernie mad.
"He's always been a nice guy," Tindor said. "He'd give you the shirt off his back. He was just a good, all-around person. He'd talk to you no matter what, ask how you were doing. I think the thing that made me smile about Ernie was just his kindness toward people, he was willing to do anything to help you if you asked or needed it. He was a good person."
Steve Seminara, a Wintersville resident, remembers seeing Ernie at the ball fields back in his Little League days.
"He always just wanted to be involved," said Seminara, who grew up on Ninth Street by St. Stanislaus Catholic Church. "They called that Pollock Hill," he said. "Up on the hill was a field, the Flats … that's where we'd spend our days. We played every day -- baseball, basketball, football. Ernie would always bring a team up and want to play us. His teams were always bad but we always had fun playing with him, he was a character, then."
Campbell said Ernie lived a simple life.
"Materially, he got by with the bare basics," he said. "He was definitely not a materialistic person. He was always content with himself -- when people say they can live in their own skin, he was one of those people. He didn't necessarily feel intimidated by anybody."
He also said Ernie was opinionated and didn't really care if anyone else agreed with him.
"If he believed it, that was his opinion," Campbell said. "He didn't go along with the crowd's opinion."