He goes by many names, including “pope” and “senior.”
On the radio, he is Jim Allen.
Early Thursday morning, Jim Allen Popiel said he was sleeping at his home in Lorain when he heard a knock at the door. He ignored it.
The next moment, he said there were two strange men in his bedroom demanding money. They ripped a phone from his hand.
“I would not tell them anything,” Popiel said. “One of the two people struck me on the face and it appeared to be a gun. It was pitch dark.”
The attack left him with bruises around his eyes and nose.
“It’s a very scary situation…for them to invade your home property, it’s terrible,” he said.
They eventually left with his wallet and phone after the home’s security alarm went off.
Popiel was a popular Spanish teacher at Admiral King High School in Lorain from the early 1960's to the early 1990's.
He is also an announcer on the radio.
“It’s like Vin Scully for the Dodgers. He’s Lorain’s Vin Scully,” said Ron Jacobs, a former student. “He’s just well-known, well liked. "Just a good man."
All of Lorain seems to know him.
“His favorite thing was thumbs up, he would always give everybody the thumbs up and say, ‘keep it up, keep going. You will do fine,’” former student Harold McMiller said. “He was always an encouraging man.”
Tonight, Jim wants everyone to know he is doing well and thankful for their concern. The damage to his home was fixed by a former student.
He adds he did not get a good look at the suspects’ faces, yet believes they were both white men in their late teens or early 20's, making them too young to be former students.
WATCH: See more from Jim Allen Popiel as he joins Andrew Horansky on WKYC's Facebook Live: