|
Being
the second oldest of the Ohio high school tournaments,
the boys basketball tournament is loaded with history.
Just about everyone is familiar with some of the
tournament’s more recent highlights. For instance, who
can ever forget the excitement surrounding the team from
Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary High School during its great
run of success from 2000 to 2003? Led by a freshman
sensation by the name of LeBron James, the Fighting
Irish burst onto Ohio’s high school basketball scene in
1999-2000 by going undefeated, 27-0, winning the
Division III state championship and finishing 21st
in USA Today’s Super 25 poll.
However, young Mr. James and his team from the Rubber
City were just getting started. The following season
the Fighting Irish stumbled just once as they finished
26-1, won a second straight Division III title and
climbed to #5 in the final national rankings. LeBron
James continued his sensational play and was named a
first team high school All-American, the first sophomore
to ever achieve that distinction. During the 2001-2002
campaign the boys from SV-SM proved that they were,
indeed, human by losing three regular season games, but
that did not stop them from advancing to the Division II
state finals. However, their run of championships hit a
bump in the road called St. Bernard Roger Bacon High
School, which defeated the Fighting Irish, 71-63, to win
the state championship. Nonetheless, LeBron James was
again named a first team high school All-American, as
well as the national “Player of the Year.”
During
the 2002-2003 season, LeBron James and the rest of the
Fighting Irish were again at the top of their game.
After a fantastic regular season and playoff run, they
held off a determined Kettering Alter team to win a
thrilling Division II championship game by just four
points, 40-36. That victory also earned for the
Fighting Irish (25-1) the national championship, the
first for an Ohio boys team, and only the second ever
won by an Ohio high school basketball team (the other
being the Pickerington girls of 1999).
LeBron
James was again named a first team All-American that
year, the first player to ever achieve that distinction
three times, as well as earning a second consecutive
national “Player of the Year” award. He was also named
Ohio’s “Mr. Basketball” for the third straight time, the
only player to ever earn that award three times.
Over
the years there have been many great high school
basketball players in Ohio, and it is difficult to
compare players from different eras, but one would be
hard pressed to find a better player over the decades of
Ohio high school hoops than LeBron James of Akron St.
Vincent-St. Mary High School.
Another
team making big headlines of late is the Bulldogs of
Canton McKinley High School. The Bulldogs are the
winningest basketball team in Ohio high school history
with 1736 victories through the 2005-2006 season,
placing them among the top half-dozen teams in the
country in that category. However, when it came to
winning state championships the Pups were the
personification of being the bridesmaid and never the
bride. Through the 2003-2004 season the Bulldogs had
made a record 26 trips to the state tournament, and had
advanced to the championship game nine times, yet had
come away with just one state championship in 1984.
All of
that frustration came to a sudden halt during the last
two seasons. In 2005, the Bulldogs finished 26-1 and
took home their first Division I state championship, and
only their second basketball title overall. Liking what
it felt like to be at the top, the Bulldogs repeated
their championship effort last year, finishing at 25-2
en route to a second consecutive Division I title and a
#10 ranking nationally. With their record number of
overall victories, the Pups are finally starting to add
some championships to their glorious basketball history.
These
reflections on the recent history of the OHSAA boys
state basketball tournament are but two highlights of a
tournament that spans 85 years, and in some respects
goes back almost a century.
The
state championship of boys high school basketball in
Ohio has been determined by a tournament since 1909.
Those first tournaments were sponsored by Ohio Wesleyan
University in Delaware, Ohio. Called the Inter-High
School Basketball Series, and later popularly known as
the Delaware Tournament, it was an invitational
tournament and was played from 1909-1922. There were
no separate classifications for teams in this
tournament, all of the teams playing as one group, but
they were divided into Northern and Southern Divisions.
The eventual winners of each division would play off in
a single championship game for the right to be known as
the state champion, and are recognized as such today.
Thanks
to a surviving program from the 1921 Delaware
Tournament, we get a small picture of what that
tournament was like – and it was anything but small. In
1909, only seven teams were invited to the tournament,
but by 1921 that total had grown to 160. Think of that
for a moment. 160 high school basketball teams playing
in one tournament in one location, the Edwards Gymnasium
at Ohio Wesleyan. That surviving program does not give
the dates of the tournament, but it would have to have
been played over a period of several weeks, even if the
games were played daily. The finals in 1921 were held
on Saturday, March 12, with Dayton Stivers winning the
championship by defeating Toledo Woodward Tech, 26-19.
The
names of the earliest champions of this tournament, such
as Mansfield High School (1909), West Milton High School
(1910), Plain City High School (1911), and even Dayton
Stivers, will not be readily recognized today as
“powers” of Ohio high school basketball. However,
toward the end of the tournament’s run one school did
emerge as the first power or dynasty in Ohio boys
basketball. That school was Dayton Stivers, which won
the Delaware Tournament four times in 1916, 1919, 1920
and 1921. As we shall shortly see, Stivers’ would
continue its success on the hardwood into the earliest
days of the OHSAA tournament.
The
year 1923 marks the beginning of the OHSAA sponsored
boys basketball tournament. While the tournament has
usually been played at a site in Columbus, presently at
the Schottenstein Center, it has over the years been
played at various venues around the state, including
locations in Kent, Toledo, Cincinnati, Dayton and
Cleveland.
When
the OHSAA began its tournament it divided the schools
into two classes, A and B, based on male enrollment,
with the A schools being those with the larger number of
boys. These classes were renamed A and AA (bigger
schools) in 1957, with a AAA (biggest schools) class
added in 1971. In 1988 the classifications were
reconfigured and renamed Division I-II-III-IV, Division
I being for the biggest schools.
Today
the term “tournament” refers to the Final Four, but it
has not always been that way. In 1923 and 1924 the
tournament consisted of all the games from the “Sweet
16,” roughly corresponding to today’s regional
semi-finals, to the championship game. From 1925-1935
the tournament was reduced to include only the final
eight teams, but from 1936-1941 it went back to the
Sweet 16 format. Due to travel restrictions brought on
by World War II, the concept of regional play at various
locations around the state was introduced in 1942, with
only the four regional winners proceeding to the state
tournament. This system remained in effect after the
war and continues to this day.
The
first OHSAA Class A tournament was won by Lorain High
School, which outscored Bellevue 7 to 0 in the fourth
quarter to pull out a 15-14 victory. Talk about your
“one hit wonder,” 1923 is still Lorain High’s only trip
to the tournament, but they made it pay off in a state
championship. The Class B champion that year was
Plattsburg, which downed Bellpoint, 16-15. Like Lorain,
this would prove to be Plattsburg’s one and only trip to
the “show.” Coincidentally, both teams won their
championship games in the same manner: coming from
behind by scoring their winning points in the final
minute of the game.
One
interesting side note to that first tournament,
something that has probably never been duplicated in the
85 years of the OHSAA tournament, is the fact that one
man coached two different teams in the tournament, one
in each class. The coach is Ralph Geesey, and the two
schools were Stryker (Class A) and West Unity (Class B),
located just seven miles down the road from each other
in Williams County, which is located in the northwest
corner of the state. Before reaching the tournament
itself, Geesey had coached his two teams to a total of
eight victories along the tournament trail. Once they
got to Columbus, West Unity won twice more before losing
to Plattsburgh, 29-11, in the Class B semi-finals.
Geesey’s Stryker High squad was not as fortunate in the
Class A tournament, losing its first round game to
Columbus West by a score of 20-8.
Bellpoint High School, which lost in the 1923 Class B
title game to Plattsburgh, would rebound in a very big
way. In an era when teams seldom won more than one
state championship, much less consecutive titles,
Bellpoint High School would put on a real show of
winning in both 1924 and 1925. The team won all 32 of
its games during the 1923-1924 campaign, finishing its
remarkable season with a 24-20 victory over Archbold in
the Class B championship game. The next season
Bellpoint won its first 22 games before suffering its
only loss in a tournament held in Cincinnati, one which
featured teams from two other states. Bellpoint went on
to defeat Oberlin High in the 1925 Class B title game,
42-24.
In two
seasons the Bellpointers had won 67 of 68 games,
including a then record 54 in a row, and two state
titles. Winning two state titles was quite rare in
those days, as seen by the fact that in the first 35
years of the OHSAA tournament Bellpoint would be one of
only two schools to win two Class B championships.
In
Class A the competition was almost as stiff during those
first three decades of the OHSAA tournament. Only six
schools in that class would manage to win multiple state
championships. While the most famous of these,
Middletown High School, will be featured in an
accompanying article, at this time we will tell the
story of Dayton Stivers High School, the school that has
won more state boys basketball titles than any other.
Stivers
High School won its first OHSAA Class A state
championship in 1924. The team did not qualify for the
tournament the next two seasons, but in 1927 the Tigers
made it as far as the quarter-finals, where they
suffered only their second loss of the season in getting
bounced from the tournament.
Beginning with the 1927-28 season Stivers High School
went on a record setting run of success. That year they
led all the way in the Class A championship game, a
25-20 victory over Canton McKinley. The next year the
Tigers of coach Floyd Stahl capped a great 29-1 campaign
with a 36-22 championship victory over Dover High
School. Coach Stahl’s Tigers were one better during the
1929-1930 campaign, as they completed a perfect 30-0
season with a thrilling 18-16 win over Akron East in the
Class A finals. The Tigers stretched their winning
streak to 46 in a row before losing in the sixth game of
the 1930-31 season.
In the
85 years of the OHSSA boys basketball tournament, Dayton
Stivers’ three consecutive state championships has been
equaled only once. Stivers would qualify for the
tournament again in 1932, 1935 and 1975, with their best
finish being as the runner-up to Warsaw River View
following a dramatic 77-72 overtime defeat in the ‘75
Class AA championship game.
With
the four championships that Stivers won during the days
of the Delaware Tournament, the Tigers had won eight
state titles in the 15 years from 1916-1930. While only
two schools can claim more OHSAA tournament
championships, no school has been credited with more
boys state basketball championships than the eight owned
by Dayton Stivers High School.
The
incredible, almost unbelievable, saga of the Class B
Waterloo High School basketball team of the mid-1930’s
will be detailed in an accompanying article. Just about
that time, however, and carrying over into the early
1940’s, another team was one of the few to enjoy a
significant amount of success in the early days of the
boys basketball tournament.
Back in
1936, Newark High School qualified for the state
tournament for the first time. Like so many schools in
so many sports, the Wildcats played like tournament
veterans their first time out. They opened with a
thrilling 25-24 victory over Cincinnati Elder, and then
knocked off Akron South, 30-25, in the quarter finals.
Bridgeport fell victim to Newark, 32-22, in the
semi-finals, and the Wildcats closed out their first
successful run through the tournament with a 32-23
championship game victory over Findlay High School.
In the
1937 Class A tournament the Wildcats were pummeled by
Massillon Washington, 42-22, to earn a quick first round
exit. However, it would be the other teams taking the
door when Newark again qualified for the tournament in
1938. First Youngstown East and then Cincinnati Roger
Bacon fell victim to the Wildcats. In the semi-finals
Newark crushed a good Bridgeport team by the score of
51-24 – up to that time the most points ever scored in a
semi-final or final game.
The
championship game that year was just a bit more closely
contested. The Wildcats and the team from New
Philadelphia High School battled back and forth
throughout the game. Entering the fourth quarter the
two teams were tied at 20-20. They battled right down
to the wire, with Newark pulling out a 28-27 victory for
the team’s second championship in three years.
The
Wildcats did not qualify for the tournament the next two
seasons, but were back at it again in 1941, only to get
bounced in the quarter-finals by Xenia Central, 47-38.
The Wildcats missed the ’42 tournament, but returned in
’43, when they defeated Middletown and Martin’s Ferry to
advance to the Class A championship game against Canton
McKinley. After building an eight-point halftime lead
the Wildcats had to hold off the hard charging Bulldogs
to nail down their third state championship, 47-42,
becoming only the second school in the state to win as
many as three basketball championships.
Newark next qualified for
the tournament in 1953, where they had the misfortune of
running up against one of the great Middletown team’s in
the Class A title game, getting crushed by Middletown by
a score of 73-35. The Wildcats’ last trip to the
tournament came in 1981, when they lost a heart-breaker
in the semi-finals, 83-81, to eventual Class AAA state
champion Dayton Roth.
|
Looking Back at the
OHSAA's Basketball Championships - No. 2
A centennial moment
By Timothy L. Hudak
Sports Heritage Specialty Publications
4814 Broadview Rd.
Cleveland, Ohio 44109
www.SportsHeritagePublications.net
|
|
Since
the earliest days of the OHSAA boys basketball
tournament, a handful of schools have really stood out
as having had great success. Sometimes this comes in a
short burst over a few years, other times it is spread
out over many decades. A few of these schools were
mentioned in the preceding article. Two others,
Waterloo High School and Middletown High School, will be
discussed in an accompanying article. In this article
will be reviewed the tournament histories of some of the
other schools whose success has added rich and colorful
chapters to the OHSAA boys basketball tournament.
Hamilton High School first played in the Class A state
tournament in 1928, losing in the quarter-final round.
The Big Blue was back in 1931, but got bounced by Canton
McKinley in the first round of play. Finally, in 1937,
Hamilton put it all together. In the Class A title game
against Massillon Washington, which was then coached by
the legendary Paul Brown, the Big Blue overcame a 20-14
halftime deficit to come away with a 37-32 victory and
the school’s first state basketball championship.
The
next season Hamilton lost a close 38-36 contest to New
Philadelphia in a semi-final game, then did not return
to the tournament until 1949. That year the Big Blue
defeated both Middletown and Lancaster to win the
Cincinnati Regional. In the semi-finals they led all
the way to defeat Niles, 49-39. In the championship
game against Toledo Central, the Big Blue rode a
29-point second period outburst to a 38-17 halftime
advantage, then coasted home with a 70-52 victory and
their second state championship. At the time Hamilton’s
70 points was a record for a state championship game.
The Big
Blue would play in three more big school championship
games. In 1951 they fell to Columbus East, 57-39, but
their next two championship game encounters would end on
much more pleasant notes.
In 1954
the Big Blue defeated Columbus South, 66-56, to earn the
school’s third state title. Hamilton’s fans would have
to wait 51 years to see their team again in the state
tournament, but it would be worth the wait. Playing in
Division I in 2005, the Big Blue survived a tremendous
title game battle with Toledo St. John Jesuit to win its
fourth state championship by a score of 51-48. Hamilton
High School is one of seven schools that have won four
OHSAA state boys basketball titles. Only two schools
have won more.
Cleveland’s East Technical High School made its
tournament debut in 1956 when the tournament was held in
the Scarab’s “backyard” at the old Cleveland Arena. In
their Class AA semi-final game that year the Scarabs
scored 78 points, a point total that would have won all
but one of the semi-final and final games ever played up
to that time. Unfortunately for East Tech, their
opponent in that semi-final game was Middletown High
School, led by the great Jerry Lucas, who at the time
was just a sophomore. The Middies drained the basket
for 99 points that night, with young Mr. Lucas setting
an all-time tournament record by scoring 53 points.
Tech
did not qualify for the tournament the next year, but
beginning in 1958 the Scarabs would make the tournament
six consecutive seasons.
It
would be awfully difficult, if not impossible, to top
the 1958 Class AA state tournament for sheer thrills and
excitement. East Tech took an early lead and then held
on to defeat Zanesville, 53-47, in one semi-final game.
In the other, Columbus North shocked the basketball
world by upsetting two-time defending state champion
Middletown, 63-62, handing the Middies their first, and
only, loss in three seasons.
Seldom
have two teams been so evenly matched in a tournament
final as were East Tech and Columbus North in 1958. And
if the folks at St. John Arena thought that they had
seen a great game when North upset Middletown, then they
were in for an even greater treat the next day. Tech
and North fought back and forth during the entire game.
With North leading 48-46 and just six seconds left on
the game clock, East Tech’s Jim Stone hit on a
35-footer to tie the score and send the game into
overtime.
Neither
team was able to score in the first overtime period. By
the rules of the day, the second OT would be sudden
death – first team to score wins. North gained first
possession of the ball in the second OT, but lost it on
a bad pass. East Tech then worked the ball down the
court. Ed Ferguson passed the ball to Gerald Warren.
Warren drove toward the basket, pulled up and , with
just 34 seconds gone in the second overtime, canned a
jump shot in the paint it give East Tech – and Cleveland
– its first state basketball title, 50-48. That year
was the last time that the sudden-death format was used.
Coach
John Broskie’s Scarabs had gone through the 1958 season
undefeated, winning all 26 games. They would repeat
that incredible achievement in 1959, finishing with a
perfect 25-0 record. In the finals against Salem High
School, the score was tied at 14-14 after one quarter.
Tech then outscored the Quakers 23-9 in the second
period and the game, for all practical purposes, was
over as Tech continued to pull away to a 71-51 victory.
East
Tech made it to the Final Four each of the next four
seasons, advancing to the championship game twice. In
the 1960 Class AA finals Tech jumped out to a 6-0 lead
over Dayton Roosevelt, but the Scarabs could not hold it
and missed a third consecutive title by a score of
51-41. In 1962, Tech was again back in the championship
game, this time squaring off against Hamilton Taft in a
game of unbeatens. It was a close game all the way, but
Tech was never able to gain the lead and dropped a 59-52
decision.
Since
its great run of the late 50s-early 60s, East Tech has
had three more shots at a state title. The Scarabs
advanced to the finals in 1967, but lost to Columbus
Linden McKinley, 88-56. In 1971, Tech lost in the
semi-finals to Dayton Dunbar; but, in 1972 they finally
won another state championship, the school’s third, by
defeating Cincinnati Princeton, 78-67.
Columbus East High School is second only to Middletown
in the number of OHSAA boys basketball championships
won. While the Tigers have only been in the tournament
10 times, they have made the most of their opportunities
by advancing to the championship game on six occasions,
winning five.
East’s
first trip to the tournament came way back in 1924. The
Tigers lost the Class A title game that year, 30-16, to
Dayton Stivers, one observer describing the East
performance as “slow, sluggish and tired.” The Tigers
qualified for the tournament in both 1926 and 1933, then
had to wait until 1951 for their next shot at a state
championship. That time the Tigers defeated Hamilton
High School, 57-39, to not only bring the first state
basketball championship trophy to East High School, but
also the first for the city of Columbus.
East
lost to Cincinnati Hughes in the 1955 Class A
semi-finals, but when the Tigers next returned to the
tournament in 1963 there was a much different result.
Now playing in Class AA, the Tigers swamped East Tech in
the semi-final game, 58-44, then took the measure of
Warren Harding, 41-32, to win their second state
championship.
In the
years 1968 and 1969 the Columbus East Tigers had seasons
reminiscent of the East Tech run exactly 10 years
earlier. In 1968, the Tigers went 24-0, followed by a
25-0 campaign in ’69, to post back-to-back undefeated
state championship seasons.
East
has only advanced to the tournament twice since then.
In 1979 they won the Class AAA state title, their fifth
overall, with a 74-65 victory over Cleveland St. Joseph
High School. The Tigers’ bid for a sixth state
championship in 2001 ended with a loss in the Division
II semi-finals.
Portsmouth High School was a perennial Class A
participant in the earliest days of the OHSAA
tournament, but the Trojans enjoyed their most
tournament success during five tournament appearances
from 1961-1990.
Portsmouth qualified for the Class A tournament in
1925-26-27-29, but did not advance to the finals until
its tournament appearance in 1931. In the finals that
year against Canton McKinley, the game was tied 16-16
after regulation play. In the OT session the Trojans
outscored the Bulldogs, 4-3, to take home the school’s
first state championship.
Portsmouth next qualified for the tournament, and the
championship game, in 1934, but the Trojans’ quest for a
second state title was derailed by Dayton Roosevelt,
which handed Portsmouth a 46-30 defeat. Portsmouth also
advanced to the tournament in 1939 and 1941, but came up
empty each time it its quest for a state championship.
Beginning in 1961 the Trojans would qualify for the
tournament roughly once per decade through the 1990’s,
but when they did they made the most of their
opportunity. In 1961 the Trojans used a come from
behind fourth quarter rally to defeat Elyria High School
in the Class AA semi-finals, then rallied again in the
final two minutes of the championship game to defeat
Urbana, 50-44, to take home the school’s second state
championship trophy. In the 1978 Class AA finals the
Trojans went up against the defending state champions
from Cleveland Cathedral Latin. It was a back and forth
game throughout the contest. With just 32 seconds
remaining Portsmouth took a 63-60 lead and held on to
win the game and the state title, 63-62.
In 1980
the Trojans found themselves on the short end of a
one-point Class AA championship game, dropping that
contest 45-44 to Hamilton Ross. The Trojans were next
back in the tournament in 1988, and this time they were
able to stay on the long end of a one-point title game
as they defeated Chesterland West Geauga in the Division
II title game to earn the school’s fourth championship.
Two years later Portsmouth made its final tournament
appearance, losing in the Division II championship game
to Dayton Colonel White by a score of 71-57.
St.
Henry High School (of St. Henry, Ohio) has qualified for
the state tournament just five times since 1979, but on
each occasion the Redskins have advanced to the
championship game. Playing in Class A, the Redskins
completed a perfect season (26-0) in 1979 for coach Fran
Guilbault by defeating defending champion Mansfield St.
Peter’s, 64-57, in the title game to win the school’s
first basketball championship. The Redskins’ faithful
had to wait 11 years for their team to make its next
trip to the tournament, but this time they would quickly
double their pleasure. In both 1990 (Division III) and
1991 (Division IV) the Redskins suffered just one loss
each season, but made sure not to have that loss come
during the tournament, which they won each year to post
back-to-back state championships.
St.
Henry High School was back in the Division IV
championship game in 2000, but this time suffered its
only defeat in a title game, dropping a 64-58 decision
to Fort Jennings High School. Returning to the title
game in 2004 (this time in Div. III), the Redskins
regained their championship form by defeating Versailles
by a score of 61-49, placing themselves among the
state’s elite basketball teams with a fourth state
championship.
From
1984 to 1991 there was probably not a hotter basketball
team in the state than the one from the now closed
Bishop Wehrle High School of Columbus, coached by Chuck
Kemper. In that short seven year span, Bishop Wehrle
advanced to the Final Four in the state’s smallest
classification (Class A-Division IV) six times, reaching
the championship game five times, winning four.
In the
1984 Class A final Bishop Wehrle dropped a tough 66-62
decision to Monroeville. The Columbus team lost in the
semi-finals in 1985, but from 1986 to 1990 they were
almost unbeatable in tournament play: 1986 –
Class A state champion, 1988 – Division IV state
champion, 1989 – Division IV state champion, 1990 –
Division IV state champion. The school’s three
consecutive titles from 1988-1990 makes it one of only
two schools to ever three-peat in the boys basketball
tournament, the other being Dayton Stivers way back in
1928-1930. In 1991, Bishop Wehrle again advanced to the
Final Four, only to suffer a defeat in the semi-finals.
Apparently, closing the school was the only way to
completely stop this Division IV powerhouse.
Right
on the heals of Bishop Wehrle’s success came another
school whose success was equally impressive.
Cleveland’s Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School had had
some previous success in the boys tournament as its
predecessor, the all boy St. Joseph High School, but the
Vikings had never been able to win the championship
hardware. In 1979 they lost to Columbus East in the
Class AAA finals, 74-65, despite a championship game
record 51 points by the Vikings’ great Clark Kellogg.
In 1987, the Vikings lost in the semi-finals, and in
1989 they again advanced to the championship game, this
time in Division I. Playing against Toledo Macomber and
their All-American, Jimmy Jackson, the Vikings took
Macomber to overtime before finally falling by a 75-72
score.
Enter
the 1990-1991 school year and the new era of the co-ed
Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School, with Mike Moran
directing the boys basketball program. Like Columbus
Bishop Wehrle before them, over the next five seasons
the Vikings would be just about unbeatable in the
tournament.
In
1991, West Chester Lakota would take the Vikings to
overtime in the Division I finals, but VASJ would hold
on for a 76-72 victory. The next season the Vikings’
record of 18-9 was good, but not spectacular, as
won-lost records go, but the team had played in several
top tournaments around the country, taking its lumps
along the way. However, playing all of this top notch
competition more than prepared the Vikings for the state
tournament (now in Division II) and helped them play
their way to a second consecutive championship.
VASJ
missed the tournament in 1993, but came back the next
year under new coach Ted Kwasniak to take their third
state championship in four years when they defeated
Wauseon in the Division II finals by a score of 73 to
59. Winning their fourth title in five seasons, VASJ
defeated Cambridge in the 1995 D-II finals, 58-46.
Both
Bishp Wehrle and Villa Angela-St. Joseph high schools
had quite a run of success over a relatively short
period of time. However, with a break here or a key win
there, Bishop Wehrle might have won as many as seven
consecutive championships, and VASJ five in a row. That
would have been truly incredible, but both schools are
probably quite satisfied to have won four titles in a
five year span, while VASJ, at least, looks forward to
capturing championship #5 sometime soon.
|
Looking Back at the
OHSAA's Basketball Championships - No. 3
A centennial moment
By Timothy L. Hudak
Sports Heritage Specialty Publications
4814 Broadview Rd.
Cleveland, Ohio 44109
www.SportsHeritagePublications.net
|
|
Over
the years the high school hoops fans of Ohio have been
dazzled by the play of some truly great basketball
players and teams. Players like Jerry Lucas, Clark
Kellogg and LeBron James. Teams like the national
champion Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary team of 2002-2003,
those great Middletown teams from 1956-1958, the
undefeated Cleveland East Tech squads of 1958 and 1959
just to name as few. Many of us have seen at least some
of these players and teams in action, so it might come
as a surprise to many of you to learn that the greatest
Ohio high school basketball team of all-time spun its
magic on Ohio’s hardwood courts more than 70 years ago,
that the team came from a school that had just 26 boys,
the tallest player was only 6’2” – if that, and they
played so many games in their second championship season
that they did not have time to hold practice sessions
once the season began outside of their 45 minute gym
class.
That
team was the one representing little Waterloo High
School during the 1933-34 and 1934-35 seasons. Their
school nickname was the Little Generals, but it did not
take long before their on court expertise, and antics,
had earned the Waterloo basketball team a more deserving
moniker – the Waterloo Wonders.
Waterloo, Ohio, is located in Lawrence County at the
southern most part of the state. This is rural farm
country. Before the 1933-34 season there was little
real reason to believe, or to even hope, that the local
basketball team would be anything but decent, at best,
that year. The first hint of future success may have
come when Magellan Hairston returned to Waterloo High
School as the basketball coach and principal in 1932.
Hairston, just 26 years old at the time, had been at
Waterloo High School previously in 1929, but he had
moved on to other Lawrence County schools, a total of
three others, to advance his teaching career. However,
as a basketball coach his record was very good, showing
only a dozen losses in six seasons.
In his
first season back at Waterloo, Hairston’s Little
Generals won the county championship, their first title
ever, with their home “court” being an old church
building. When the community built a real gym for the
high school later in 1932, the Waterloo team obliged by
winning another county title during the 1932-33
campaign. Two consecutive championships was a bit out
of the ordinary for the schools of Lawrence County.
This team, therefore, was getting a winning reputation,
at least at the local level. They were now about to
take their winning state-wide.
Coach
Hairston had three returning starters, all juniors,
around whom to build his team for the 1933-34 season:
guard Orlyn Roberts (6’0”), forward Wyman Roberts
(5’10”), who was Orlyn’s cousin, and center Curtis
McMahon (6’2”). Rounding out the starting line-up would
be another junior, Stewart Wiseman (5’7”), a forward and
the son of the team’s previous coach, and sophomore
Beryl Drummond (5’7”), a transfer from nearby Cadmus who
said that he had been “lured” to Waterloo by the high
school’s new gym.
These
five boys made up the Waterloo team over the next two
seasons. Kevin McCauley was the team’s sixth man.
There were at times as many as three or four other boys
on the team, but for all practical purposes these five
boys were the Waterloo Wonders for the next two seasons.
The
Wonders’ statistics are impressive, in fact, somewhat
mind boggling when you consider what they did and when
they did it. In their two championship seasons they
played an amazing 100 games, winning an even more
astounding 97, including a then state record 56 in a
row. Playing 100 varsity games, some of them against
college freshman teams, is incredible enough. However,
the thing that separates the Wonders from most of the
other great teams in Ohio history is how they did
all of this. Think Harlem Globetrotters in a high
school setting, without the tall guys, and you get
something of an idea of what they were like. They were
great basketball players, with a great coach and a great
system, who also knew how to have fun, a lot of fun, on
the court.
Amazingly, unlike the Globetrotters or even other high
school teams, the Wonders had no set plays. Through
hours of off season practice, on their own after
completing their daily chores, the Wonders had, among
other things, perfected a passing game unlike any seen
before - or since. They instinctively knew where each
other would be on the court, and the speed with which
they moved the ball around baffled both opposing teams
and the spectators trying to follow the action. The
Wonders followed no set pattern of play, had no favorite
spots from which they took their shots. They roamed the
court at will, free-lancing to the nth degree, and
adapting their court tactics on the fly as the situation
dictated.
Orlyn
Roberts was the team’s sharpshooter, their most accurate
point getter. More than 70 years later he still holds
the Class B scoring record of 69 points for a three-game
state tournament, as well as the record for most field
goals in a Class B tournament, 29. Like the other team
members, Orlyn was also a dazzling passer who often
initiated the team’s mesmerizing passing exhibitions.
Stewart
Wiseman, Orlyn Roberts’ backcourt partner, was less
flamboyant than Orlyn, and because of this opposing
teams often down played his importance – to their great
dismay. Wiseman was not the scoring threat that his
teammates were, but he could pop in a basket, and his
points often came when they were least expected, but
most needed. He was the team’s back court guard,
rarely venturing much past the foul circle. On those
rare occasions when the Wonders fell victim to a fast
break, it was not unusual for Wiseman to hold off two or
three opponents until help arrived, often ending the
threat himself by stealing the ball.
Curtis
McMahon played the pivot, and his uncanny ability to
feed the ball to his teammates was just as important, if
not more so, than his own ability to score. And his
scoring ability was almost second to none, as he was
able to hook with both hands - and occasionally thrilled
the crowd by blindly tossing the ball over his head for
two points. When he was not scoring, McMahon’s
deceptive movements and pinpoint passing exchanges with
his teammates confused the defense and opened the others
to easy shots. He had a great knack for hiding the ball
like a football quarterback, holding onto it until the
last possible second before passing off to a teammate
for an easy two-pointer.
Wyman
Roberts was the team’s best passer and a master at
finding the other team’s weaknesses on defense. One of
the two corner players (with Beryl Drummond), Wyman
would hang out in the corner, apparently not involved in
the play. Then, all of a sudden he had the ball and a
split second later was either setting up shots for the
others with his incredible passing, or he would toss in
a two-handed set shot from the corner or break across
the key for a left-handed hook.
Beryl
Drummond, a sophomore, was the youngest and least
polished of the five as a player. While not a big time
scorer like the others, his passing was just as crisp,
and as he moved into his second year on the team his
performance improved accordingly.
While
the Wonders won 97 of 100games during their two
momentous seasons, and often by wide margins, they just
as often trailed at the half, especially when playing a
tough opponent. This was all part of their strategy,
which was to see what the other team was capable of
doing, sort of like scouting the opposition as they were
playing them. By halftime the Wonders’ careful
observations and mental notes on the play of the other
team had given them all of the information that they
needed with which to comeback and defeat that opponent
in the second half.
This
defensive strategy was apparently more than effective.
During the Wonders’ undefeated 1933-34 season their
margin of victory averaged 26 points, was as high as 60
points and only twice did they win by less that 11
points. The next season, playing twice as many games
and a considerably tougher schedule, they still managed
to maintain a winning margin that averaged more than 16
points.
The
Wonders’ ability to avoid fouls was another of the
team’s great traits. It was almost uncanny. Often the
boys would go through an entire game having committed
only one foul apiece. There were even a few games in
which the team was never whistled for even one
infraction. They were not totally immune to getting
whistled for a foul, however, and one of their three
defeats during the ’34-’35 season was in part due to
four of the boys fouling out of a particularly “rough”
the game.
About
halfway through the 1933-34 season the Wonders’ winning
streak was starting to attract some notice. But the
thing that was really grabbing everyone’s attention was
the way in which the Wonders were winning their games.
It was not just the fine shooting, the great defense and
the slick passing, but also the other antics that the
boys employed.
The
stories of these antics have evolved into the thing of
legend, but the simple and amazing truth is that they
actually did most of them – as incredible as it may
seem. Often after winning the opening jump ball the
Wonders would immediately give the ball to one of the
players on the opposing team and invite him to take a
free shot. Another “tactic” after that opening jump
would be for one of the Wonders to race toward the wrong
basket and drop in a two-pointer for the other team. As
Dick Burdette writes in his book “The Fabulous Waterloo
Wonders”: “The confusion that followed was worth the
price of admission. The crowd roared, the officials
bickered and the Wonders performed like Broadway
veterans.”
At
other times, when they lost the opening tip off the
Wonders would politely step aside and allow the other
team a free shot at the basket. If the shot was missed,
they just as often gave the rebound back to the other
team for another free shot. The psychology behind this
was incredible, for the opposing team was often unable
to regain its composure and confidence after being
treated in this manner.
Other
antics included the Wyman cousins sitting down at
midcourt and starting up a game of marbles in the middle
of the basketball game. At other times two or three of
the boys sat down on the bench for a breather in the
middle of a game, grabbing some popcorn or a hotdog
while the rest of the team remained on the court. If the
score was particularly one-sided, they would
occasionally bounce the ball hard off of the floor and
into the basket, or even dropkick the ball from center
court for a two-pointer.
But
there was a real purpose behind all of the Wonders’
clowning and grandstanding. Again, quoting from Mr.
Burdette: “Wherever the Wonders played, fans flocked in
droves to see their unusual style. But despite the
endless run of grandstand clowning, no one wrote them
off as showoffs who lacked the basic skills of the
game. For when the Wonders clowned, it was for a
purpose, a purpose as vital as passing, shooting and
other phases of the game. When they clowned, they
entertained, they rested and they agitated. And when
they finally finished, only the opposing team had
suffered. Throughout the entire routine, the Wonders
controlled the ball, protected their lead, and drilled a
bit further into the frazzled nerves of their
opponents. And each time they performed, they enhanced
their reputation of being the most talented, the most
colorful, and the most unusual team ever to play on an
Ohio basketball court.”
Even
with all that has been related, perhaps the most amazing
thing of all was that the Wonders were able to win their
games in spite of the tremendous schedule that they
played. During the 1933-34 season the Wonders played 32
games and won them all, including the Class B state
championship. Five times they held the other team to
less than ten points. In an era when 45 points was
considered a relatively large score, the Wonders scored
more than 50 points ten times, including a season high
69 points twice. Their victories included wins over
three college freshman teams.
By the
end of the season their reputation had spread far and
wide – and everyone wanted to play them the next
season. Coach Hairston was most accommodating, perhaps
more than he should have been. So accommodating, in
fact, that for 1934-35 the Wonders’ schedule had more
than doubled to 66 games. They played the usual Class B
teams, but also a lot of the big school Class A squads,
as well as some of the better teams from across the
river in Kentucky, including the defending state
champion – which also lost to the Wonders. Today, not
counting playoffs, that equals three years worth of high
school basketball.
In a
way the hefty schedule may have taken its toll. After
winning their first 24 games to run their streak to a
then state record 56 in a row, the Wonders dropped an
overtime decision to Greenfield McClain High School,
26-24.
Needless to say, with a schedule like this the Wonders’
games were not restricted to Friday and Saturday
nights. During one stretch they played five games in
six days, all against Class A teams like Cincinnati St.
Xavier, and won them all by an average of 16 points. To
put this into some kind of perspective, that would be
like one of today’s small school Division IV basketball
teams playing five Division I teams over a six day
stretch, and beating them and beating them soundly. On
another occasion they played seven games against Class B
opponents in nine days, and won all of those games as
well.
Scheduling so many games was bound to cause a problem or
two, and one did pop up. One night coach Hairston
discovered that he had scheduled two games for the same
night, in two different towns no less. Not a problem.
In the first game, against Chesapeake High School, the
Wonders went right to work and ran up a huge lead in the
first half. At the intermission the five starters
jumped into coach Hairston’s car and motored to the
second game over at Jackson High School, leaving the
seldom used bench players to finish the game against
Chesapeake, which they did with Waterloo winning easily,
47-5.
When
the team finally arrived at Jackson High School at 10:00
P.M. they were greeted by a still packed house, as
nobody wanted to miss an opportunity to see the Wonders
play. The Wonders proceeded to win that game as well,
45-24.
Just
under 9,000 people (including about 500 who got in by
breaking down a couple of doors) attended the Wonders’
final game, the 1935 Class B championship game. That
number was almost 2,000 more than had attended the whole
Class B tournament just two years before. The Waterloo
Wonders won that championship game, 25-22, over Oxford
High School. They are still one of only two schools, and
the last one to do so, to win back to back Class B or
small school Class A state championships.
That
victory, the Wonders’ unbelievable 63rd of
the season, brought down the curtain on one of the most
amazing sports stories in Ohio high school history.
There will probably never be another team like them.
They were truly unique – they were the
Waterloo Wonders.
(The
book “The Fabulous Waterloo Wonders” by Dick Burdette,
was one of the sources used in the researching of this
article. If you can find a copy - I had to photo copy
mine page by page at the Cleveland Public Library - buy
it, it is a truly incredible story.)
|
Looking Back at the
OHSAA's Basketball Championships - No. 4
A centennial moment
By Timothy L. Hudak
Sports Heritage Specialty Publications
4814 Broadview Rd.
Cleveland, Ohio 44109
www.SportsHeritagePublications.net
|
|
As has
already been shown, there have been some truly great
high school basketball teams in Ohio over the years. It
is very difficult, if not impossible, to designate the
best team when the history of the sport covers so many
years and so many different eras of play, as does Ohio
high school basketball. However, our vote has been cast
for the single best team in state history, the Waterloo
Wonders of 1933-34 and 1934-35. There are those who
will argue with our choice of Waterloo as the best,
although they would still have to admit that the Wonders
were certainly the most colorful team.
However, in terms of number of championships, and the
total number of years of their dominance, no team can
top the Middletown Middies of 1944-1959. Over those 16
seasons of their “golden era” the Middies won 342 games,
while losing just 47, for a .879 winning percentage. In
the process they set a state record of 76 consecutive
victories, qualified for the state tournament nine
times, winning a record seven state championships.
Three times Middletown has won back to back state
titles. During one memorable stretch, 1944 to 1947, the
Middies played in four consecutive championship games,
winning three of them. During this run of unprecedented
success the school has added two names to the ranks of
the legends of not only Ohio high school basketball, but
Ohio athletics in general: coach Paul Walker and
all-time great player Jerry Lucas.
Middletown’s first appearance upon the state tournament
stage came back in 1937, when the tournament still
included the “Sweet 16.” The Middies’ stay that year
was short lived, but exciting. Their opponent in the
first round of Class A play was Canton McKinley, who the
Middies took to overtime before dropping a 40-38
decision. Their next tournament appearance came four
years later in 1941, where they again dropped a close
first round Class A decision to Canton McKinley, 30-28.
It
would be three more years before the Middies again saw
tournament action, but this time they were here to
stay. Under the direction of coach Royner Green, the
Middies advanced to the Class A championship game by
defeating Martins Ferry, 38-34, in the semi-finals. The
state title game against Toledo Woodward was “something
that will have fans talking for years to come” according
to one newspaper. The Middies held Woodward without a
field goal during the entire first quarter, and early in
the second held a 14-2 lead, but then Woodward came
storming back and by halftime trailed by only 16-14.
Woodward caught, and passed, Middletown in the second
half, only to have Middletown’s Howard Schueller score
three points over the final 34 seconds to send the game
into overtime. The Toledoans scored the first three
points of the OT, but Middletown, which ended the season
23-1, came back to score the last six to win its first
state championship by a score of 50-47.
Middletown went through the 1944-45 campaign undefeated,
entering the Class A tournament at the University of
Toledo Fieldhouse riding a 42-game winning streak. Both
the semi-final and final games would be played the same
day. In their semi-final game the Middies were able to
settle a couple of old scores when they defeated Canton
McKinley, 29-28, on a last second basket. The
championship game, played that same evening before a
standing room only crowd of 7,500, pitted Middletown
against Bellevue. This game was just as exciting as
Middletown’s previous one, but Bellevue was able to hold
on and defeat the Middies, 36-34, with a basket of their
own in the game’s final seconds. The defeat halted the
Middies win streak at 43 in a row, their first chance at
an undefeated season ending at 24-1.
The
1946 Class A tournament returned to the Toledo
Fieldhouse, as did the Middletown Middies. Middletown
easily disposed of Toledo Woodward, 53-29, in their
semi-final encounter, but it would not be as easy
against Akron North in the title game. North jumped off
to a 13-6 lead after the opening quarter, but Middletown
came back to tie the game at the intermission 22-22.
North led by two points, 31-29, after three quarters,
but Middletown took a 37-33 lead early in the fourth
quarter and never again trailed. The Middies 42-37
victory gave them their second championship in three
years. Led by All-State center Phil Lansaw, Middletown
totally dominated the all-tournament team with four
placings. Joining Lansaw on this select team were Don
Bolton (F), Omer Blevins (F) and Milton Wells (G).
That
1945-46 campaign was not a bad one for Middletown coach
George Houck, either, who led the team to a perfect 26-0
season in his only year at the helm.
For
those Middletown fans who were concerned to find the
team being run by its third head coach in as many
seasons when the 1946-47 season dawned, those fears were
completely unwarranted. Taking over as the Middies
coach that season was Paul Walker, who would remain the
Middletown head coach for the next 30 years.
Middletown High School was on top of the Ohio basketball
world after the 1946 Class A tournament, having win 70
of its last 72 games; but, as an article in the
Cincinnati Enquirer noted at the time of his death
in 1999, “Paul C. Walker turned a little steel mill town
into a high school basketball Mecca.” As the Middies
head coach, Walker won 562 games, out of a career total
of 695, while losing 136, for a wining percentage of
.805. At the time of his retirement he was Ohio’s
winningest coach (607 victories), having guided
Middletown to five state championships. Six of his
teams had undefeated regular seasons.
Among
his many honors Paul Walker was four times named Ohio
“Coach of the Year,” was the 1974 National High School
Basketball Coach of the Year, and was inducted into the
National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.
Obviously a great basketball coach, many of his former
players also remembered Walker as a truly caring person
and someone who could motivate others to realize their
full potential.
Paul
Walker’s first Middletown team finished the regular
season with a modest 13-6 record. The Middies then
struggled through six tournament games, but managed to
win them all to earn a spot in their fourth consecutive
Class A final. In that championship game the Middies
took no chances. Paced by All-Ohio center Shelby
Linville’s 18 points, they dominated East Liverpool from
start to finish, winning the game 47-29 for their third
title in four years.
The
Middies would average more than 17 wins per season over
the next four years, but would not return to the
tournament until 1952. That year the tournament
consisted of three games. The Middies entered the
tournament with a record of 22-1. They easily disposed
of Cleveland St. Ignatius, 58-42, in the quarter-finals
and Cincinnati Withrow, 67-48, in the semis to earn a
championship game match-up with undefeated, 28-0,
Steubenville. However, the Big Red proved to be no more
difficult than Middletown’s other tournament foes as the
Middies grabbed a 20-point lead in the first half, then
coasted to a 63-53 triumph to claim their fourth state
title.
The
1953 tournament would be a record setter for Middletown,
but first coach Walker’s team had to overcome a stubborn
bunch of St. Ignatius Wildcats in the semi-finals. That
game was tied 33-33 at the half, but the Middies
outscored the Wildcats 22-12 in the third period, on
their way to a 75-63 victory. After that, the title
game against Newark was almost anti-climatic as the
Middies crushed Newark’s Wildcats by a score of 73 to 35
to earn a record fifth state basketball championship.
Middletown failed to make the tournament in either 1954
or 1955, but it was as if they were simply gearing up
for another record setting run over the next three
seasons.
Coach
Walker’s Middies cruised through the 1955-56 season,
posting 23 straight victories. Only once were they
really tested, holding on for an 81-79 victory over
Hamilton High School. Leading the Middletown victory
parade was a sophomore sensation by the name of Jerry
Lucas. The 6’ 8” center, a first team All-Ohio
selection, was pouring in points at the rate of 28.1 per
game. He would come close to doubling that production
in the tournament.
The
tournament was played at the Cleveland Arena in 1956,
and the hometown fans were hoping to see their East Tech
Scarabs knock off the Middies. In what would be a wild
and woolly record setting game, those Cleveland fans
almost got their wish. The Scarabs jumped off to a
24-19 lead after one period. The Middies started their
comeback in the second quarter, but East Tech still held
the lead, 39-38, at the break.
The
second half was all Middletown. Led by their star
center, Jerry Lucas, who poured in 53 points for the
game (still a semi-final record), Middletown outscored
East Tech 61-39 over the last two quarters to post a
99-78 victory. The Middies’ 99 points is still a
tournament record, and the 177 point total is the second
highest for any tournament game.
In the
finals Middletown faced off against Canton McKinley’s
Bulldogs. The Pups “limited” Jerry Lucas to 44 points,
but the Middies still cruised to a 91-69 championship
game victory. In addition to the state championship,
the Middies were also named national champions, a title
they shared with Crispus Attucks High School of
Indianapolis.
After
the game both coach Walker and McKinley head coach Bup
Rearick agreed, along with most other knowledgeable
basketball people around the state, that the 1955-56
Middies were perhaps the best team that they had ever
seen. Unfortunately for the rest of the state, although
Middletown only had two starters returning, one of them
was Jerry Lucas – the Middies were just getting started.
The
1956-57 Middletown victory parade rolled into Columbus
for the state tournament sporting a record of 25-0 and a
50-game winning streak. Unlike the last tournament,
however, this one would be no walk in the park for coach
Walker’s team.
Playing
Toledo Macomber in the Class AA semi-finals, Middletown
jumped out to a 20-10 lead after the first quarter.
Macomber came storming back in the second quarter,
outscored Middletown 26-12, and took a 36-32 lead at the
half. After three quarters Macomber held a 47-46
advantage, setting up an incredible finish.
Middletown had closed to within one point of Macomber
when one of the Toledo players was fouled with just nine
seconds left in the game. He made only one of the two
foul shots. The Middies raced down the floor. The ball
was passed off to Lucas, who sank a shot from just
beyond the foul circle as time expired, tying the score
at 61-61. Lucas had scored 12 of Middletown’s 15 fourth
quarter points to keep his team in the game.
In the
overtime Jerry Lucas tossed in seven of his team’s nine
points as the Middies pulled out a 70-65 win. He
finished the game with 46 points.
The
championship game against Kent Roosevelt was almost as
intense. The Teddies played the Middies tough, and at
the half the game was all tied up at 35. Kent hung with
Middletown until late in the third quarter when the
score was still deadlocked at 45-45, but Jerry Lucas
then tossed in three consecutive two-pointers and the
Middies were on their way. Final score: Middletown 64,
Kent 54.
Middletown had won a seventh state title, extending its
win streak to 52. The Middies were also named the
national champions for a second consecutive year, and
this time they shared it with no one.
It
looked to be more of the same for Middletown in the
1957-58 season, Jerry Lucas’s senior year, and it was.
The Middies again entered the tournament undefeated,
having won all 24 of their games to that point to extend
their win streak to an incredible 76 in a row. But this
would be no ordinary Class AA tournament, as all four
teams were undefeated, the first time this had ever
happened.
Middletown’s semi-final game opponent would be the Polar
Bears of Columbus North High School, also sporting a
record of 24-0. It would be a tight game all the way.
The Middies led 16-14 after one quarter, but at the half
the game was tied at 30-all. Middletown fell behind by
four early in the third quarter, but tied the game at
38-38 and took a 48-43 into the fourth quarter.
A 12-6
run to start the final frame gave the Polar Bears a
55-54 lead with 4:02 left in the game. As the Cleveland
Plain Dealer reported, “Then the Middies lost
their poise and weakened. North upped its margin to
four points and the cause of the Polar Bears looked
good.”
The
Polar Bears had increased their lead to 59-54 with 1:36
to play, when the Middies started their comeback. A
pair of field goals by Lucas and one by Larry Emrick cut
it a one-point lead, 61-60, with 10 seconds left.
Middletown’s Tom Sizer then nailed a pair of free throws
to give Middletown a 62-61 advantage.
North
took a timeout to plan its next move. That move proved
to be Eddie Clark’s driving lay-up with six seconds to
go that gave the Bears a 63-62 lead. The Middies’ Larry
Emrick fired a desperation shot at the buzzer. The ball
hit the rim and fell off. “It was the end of an era,
the crumbling of the greatest cage dynasty the state has
ever boasted.” (Plain Dealer)
Jerry
Lucas scored 25 points in this game, rather he was
“held” to 25 by the North defense, about nine points
below his career average, in this the only high school
game that he ever lost.
The
Middies still had one more year left in their “golden
era.” The very next season coach Walker had his team
back in the tournament. They went up against Salem High
School in the semi-finals. It was a close game all the
way, but the Middies never could gain the lead and
suffered a 68-65 defeat.
The
greatest era of Ohio high school basketball was over.
16 outstanding seasons. Seven state championships. Two
national championships. Numerous great players, and two
legends – Paul Walker and Jerry Lucas.
|
|
|
|
