Richard Martinko is being inducted into the Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame this spring, one of three area diamond standouts honored in this year’s class. Born June 22, 1951, he is a native of Campbell and a 1969 graduate of Memorial High School, where he was a member of the school’s National Honor Society, Math Club and History Club, ranking 12th in a class of 215.
A three-sport standout for the Red Devils, Martinko earned multiple letters in baseball, football and basketball. In baseball, he was a standout pitcher-outfielder under former head coaches Al Centofante and Johnny Knapick, serving as a four-year starter for Campbell Memorial and tossing a no-hitter against the Poland Bulldogs in the OHSAA Northeast Ohio Class AA tournament.
During the summer months, Martinko starred for the Campbell A.C. squad from 1966-69 in the local Class B sandlot circuit under the late Steve “Sheenie” Krivonak, becoming a starter at age 15. In 1968, he finished fifth in the league with a .350 batting average, and in 1969 led all Class B pitchers with a 0.94 ERA, averaging 14 strikeouts per contest, including a 19-strikeout performance against Excel Auto Glass.
Due to league rule changes that permitted a player to compete in both the NABF and ABC post-season tournaments, Martinko became the first player selected for a team representing the league in both, joining McAuley Awnings for the NABF Tourney and Excel Auto Glass for the ABC Tourney. In the ABC tournament in Toledo, he pitched the most innings of any Excel player, posted a 0.50 ERA, struck out 12 and batted .375. That performance earned him a spot on the all-tournament team and, ultimately, a baseball scholarship to the University of Toledo.
On the gridiron, Martinko was a starting quarterback, defensive back and punter-kicker for the Red Devils under head coach Tony Cougars, earning “Player of the Week” honors three times. On the hardwood, he played for head coaches Eli Danilov and John Georges, serving as the team’s second-leading scorer and rebound leader, with a career-high 26 points against a powerful Boardman Spartans squad.
Martinko played collegiately for the Toledo Rockets from 1970-73, earning multiple letters as a pitcher-outfielder and membership in the University of Toledo’s Varsity “T” Club. He homered in his first collegiate at-bat, against Yale, setting a positive tone for his career as a Rocket. In 1971, he traveled internationally with the Rockets when they played Italian national teams preparing for the 1972 Munich Olympics, an experience that highlighted the growing global interest in baseball and the strength of both the Rockets and the Mid-American Conference. During a stellar collegiate career, he competed with and against future MLB players including Mike Schmidt, Doug Bair, Steve Swisher, John Knox, Jack Kucek, Bob Welch, Bob Owchinko, Buddy Schultz, Len Matuszek and Bob Brenly.
While in college, he also played summer ball in Toledo’s Class AA League, first with Ben Bassetti’s Home Club and later with Clarence Brewer’s Buckeye Elks. In 1971, he led the league in home runs and was selected to the NABF Sr. National Tournament all-star team in Detroit after batting .474 in tourney play.
Martinko went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Toledo in 1974, launching a career in transportation engineering that has spanned more than 50 years. He is president of Richard Martinko Consulting LLC and has been recognized with numerous professional honors, including the University of Toledo’s Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2002, Northwest Ohio’s Engineer of the Year in 2018, and induction into the University of Toledo Civil Engineering Hall of Fame in 2025. An accomplished tennis player as well, he placed third in the 1991 USTA 4.5 Tournament in Tucson, Arizona.
Martinko comes from an athletic family; his brothers Bob and Tom were also standout athletes. He and his wife, Suzanne, have been married for 52 years and have two children, Lindsay and Stephen, along with four grandchildren — twins Richard and Jeffry, and twins Rowan and Quinn. The Martinkos reside in Maumee, Ohio.
