47 - Right Down The Line

RIGHT DOWN THE LINE
With Harry Yockey
Wednesday, February 12, 1947
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio

FIRST NIGHTER:  Writers and scorekeepers were more than ready to call it a full evening when Junior forward Floyd Blackwell, substitute Tuscarawas cager, dropped in a free throw to wind up the scoring for the initial round of the Class B Tournament last night.  His toss made the 411th point that was tallied in the 4 games.  Headed by the 92 points meshed by Tusky and the 70 scored by Strasburg, the winning teams amassed a total of 250 with the losers aggregating 164.

Only a handful of the 1,600 fans were on hand for the finish.  Even many of the Broncos' followers departed at halftime after Tuscarawas had soared into a 42-19 lead.  And, 3 minutes after the last shot had been fired Custodian Bill Berndt and his helpers were busy cleaning up the large amount of popcorn boxes and similar debris left by the fans.  Needless to say, the refreshment stand did a land office business inasmuch as many of the fans were on hand before 6PM.  The hungry late-stayers found only ice cream and pop available, a big supply of hot dogs had gone with the crowd.

I thought Referees Nick Fraszella of Akron and Vally Dirodis of Cuyahoga Falls did an exceptionally fine job in handling the 4 games.  They called a total of 141 personals with the least number 29 being assessed in the Port Washington-Baltic battle.  Some minutes after Blackwell entered the game for Tusky, the officials charged him with a technical for failing to report to the official scorekeeper the fact that he had traded jerseys with Junior center George Kopp, who was wearing No. 11.  Several of Blackwell's 10 points were credited to Kopp before the officials discovered the error.  Head Coach Pete Wolfe of Midvale was scouting from the press box and called our attention to the change when Blackwell went into the contest.

Benny (Whitey) Cox of Tuscarawas was the only boy cheerleader in action last night.  He was flanked by Helen Wilson and Edith Wertenberger.  Although they didn't have too much to cheer about, Dundee's 3 yell leaders...Jane Zurcher, Grace Wright and Dorothy Deetz...drew applause for their snappy performances.  When the crowd smilingly booed Strasburg's Champions when they took the floor the Tiger cheerleaders...Beverly Bixler, Mary Hensel, Sally Snyder and Joan Humman...went into action and let the team know it had plenty of supporters in the stands.  The Stone Creek trio of Virginia Pfeiffer, Patsy Metzger and Sally Raber had the least excuse of all to cheer as their Golden Panthers were humbled by Tusky, but they never gave up in the face of defeat and still were coaxing a few cheers at the finish.

Leading the Baltic aggregation were Virginia Westover, Wilma Rausenbach and Patsy Zinkon, while Donna Bates, Shirley Peters and Norma Hammersley performed for Port Washington.  Gnaden cheers were led by Harriet Hamilton, Helen Huebner and Ruth Jean Crouse, while Jackie Koontz, Teresa Huth and Pauline Heid did the honors for Bolivar.

Guards Junior Lundenberger and Dick Mase of Bolivar appeared to be the best long-range shooters on the court last night.  Lundenberger, along with teammates forward Dallas Seward and center Lee Lundenberger had drawn 4 personals each before the 3rd quarter was over.  Both Lundenbergers, who are not brothers, drew their 5th personals in the last 2 minutes and their departure "robbed" Bolivar of any chance for victory.

Head Coach Jim Rogers of Tuscarawas, dean of the tournament coaches, still is using a cane as the result of an injury sustained in an auto crash several weeks ago...Recorded music kept the fans entertained at all quarters...Firemen and policemen were on hand in the tournament management's compliance with a request by city and State officials...At 5:30PM spectators were standing in line from Memorial Hall to 4th Street and down 4th to Schwindt Court...Supt. W.E. Laws is the tourney manager, while J.F. Zack is chairman of the official timers who included Jerry Baird (Port Washington High School Principal), M.R. Helwick, P.O. Cochran and R. M. Virtue.  The official scorers, headed by G.E. Schumacher, are Karl Bodenbender, G.W. Jeandrevin, T.U. White and N.R. Ogg.  Harold Everett has charge of the public address system.