Pollard named to hall of fame

No, unfortunately, not that hall of fame. The other one. Yes, they’re both in Ohio, but that’s where the similarities end. While Pollard’s output and the quality of his work with Guided by Voices et al more than qualify him for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, it is his exploits in another field — or rather, on another field — that led to his induction this weekend into the new Northridge High School athletics hall of fame in Dayton.

Pollard and his brother, Jim, another former member of Guided by Voices, were among the inaugural induction class in the hall thanks to their athletic prowess while at Northridge.

Most of the things you read about Pollard are rather fawning when it comes to his music, so it is amusing to see how the “straight” press deals with hit. here is how the Dayton Daily News describes Pollard: “Another inductee making it big on a national level after a colorful NHS career is Bobby Pollard, (’75) a pop-rock artist from Clayton who heads up the group Boston Spaceship, previously known as Guided By Voices.”

That is so small-town newspaper that it’s actually pretty cute. Never mind that it gets wrong the name of Pollard’s latest band and the evolutionary arc between that and GBV, but I’ve never thought of Pollard as a “pop-rock artist.”

Regardless, the honor is clearly justified. As the Daily News goes on to explain, Jimmy is the “high-scoring ‘Ridge basketball whiz,” while Pollard’s claim to fame “was pitching the first no-hitter in Wright State history in ’78. He was the Bears’ quarterback on the gridiron.”

Seeing the Pollards and their parents (photo from the Daily News above) makes Robert seem aged and mortal, when his career has been all about (intentionally or not) making him seem ageless and super-human. It’s nice to see him humanized, but I’ll take it for what it is, a blip in the narrative that supports the theory that Superman was a rocker.