Dowagiac native looking to produce film about his life
Published 8:50 am Wednesday, January 8, 2020
DOWAGIAC — For the past year and a half, Kenny Stroup has gone by the nickname, “The Magnet.”
Stroup, who spent 26 years living in Dowagiac, including some of his formative youth, got the nickname from his friend, Dickey Nutt, a college basketball coach. Stroup, who now resides in Missouri, is connecting with a movie producer through his friend, Barry Aycock, who is interested in creating a biographical film on Stroup.
In order to promote his movie venture, Stroup had sketches created of himself by a local artist in St. Louis. He sent the sketches to a bobble head company in New York. He hands out photos of his bobble head singed, “The Magnet,” to the public.
“[Nutt] started calling me the magnet a couple of years ago, and then I went with it,” Stroup said.
The movie would highlight several of his formative years spent in Dowagiac, including the time he spent playing little league. Stroup recalled playing with Edgar Wilson, who he named as one of the best athletes Dowagiac had ever seen. Wilson’s father, Charlie, was Stroup’s little league baseball coach.
At 10-years old, Stroup said he was the smallest athlete playing little league. He remembers one game where coach Wilson told him to step on the pitcher’s mound.
“I said, ‘Mr. Wilson I’m too little,’” Stroup said. “Next thing I know, I struck out all three players.”
Stroup said the back stop was filled with people at Russom Field watching him,” he said. “They were amazed at me being as little as I was and pitching like I was.”
On a recent trip to Dowagiac, Stroup returned to Russom Field with his friend, Terry Wheeler, and stood on that same pitcher’s mound at 60 years old.
After living in Dowagiac for 26 years, Stroup’s parents, who grew up in Missouri and were family-oriented, decided they wanted to move back.
“Being in the ministry field, they wanted to come back to their home base,” Stroup said.
Having developed a close relationship with his father, Stroup decided to return to Missouri and has lived there for the past 23 years.
Specifically, Stroup would like to include one scene in the movie that shows he is human like anybody else.
“I want to be on the same level as the public of people where I make mistakes like everybody,” he said. “I’ve had my mistakes like anybody else has had.”
The other day, Stroup’s nephew asked to portray him in the movie if it is produced. Stroup found this touching and hopes to appear in one or two scenes as himself in the film but ultimately would want an actor to portray him.
If a movie ends up being produced, Stroup feels the audience will not be seeing the movie just for him.
“Somebody told me the other day, ‘Why are they going to come and see you?’ They aren’t coming to see me,” Stroup said. “It’ll be the people involved in the movie that will draw the people to the box office to come and watch it.”