Following their conquest of previously unbeaten Strasburg Tigers in the finals of the Tuscarawas County Tournament at Dover's Memorial Hall, the Midvale Blue Devils celebrated in fine style. This photo shows members of the team and Head Coach Pete Hilliard and Assistant Coach Loren "Burt" Beaber whooping it up. In front are: Tom Krocker - Coach Hilliard - "Chuck" Seldenright - Larry Swinderman and Dick Leggett, while kneeling in back of them at the right are: John Columbo - Lonnie Wolfe and Gary Haney and standing are: Dave Belknap - Loren Beans - Jerry Benedum - Dave De Mattio and Beaber. The Diablos will meet the Dover St. Joseph Ramblers in a Sectional Tournament joust at Memorial Hall Wednesday night. (The Daily Reporter Photo by McKee)
Recognized for his tremendous play during the regular season, "Slim Jim" Kuecher of the Strasburg Tigers (left) was awarded the Most Valuable Player Trophy on Saturday night. He received the trophy, donated by The Daily Times, from Dick Tolloti of the Midvale Blue Devils, the award recipient in 1952. Other winners were Ken Huston of the Port Washington Purple Riders in 1953, Jim Lorenz of the Stone Creek Golden Panthers in 1954 and Terry Deems of the Tuscarawas Broncos in 1955. (The Daily Reporter Photo by McKee)
The Mineral City Tigers were voted The Sportsmanship Award for the county tournament and the Schreiner's Insurance Trophy was accepted by 2 Tigers. Paul Lindsay (left) and Larry Yost. Lindsay holds the trophy which was given to 10 players by The Daily Reporter. The Mineral City standout also led all scorers during the regular season. (The Daily Reporter Photo by McKeel)
These 4 Co-Eds, who led the Strasburg Tigers CHEERS for the basketball fans and players, in the county tournament, were judged The Best Cheerleading Team and was presented the trophy by Superintendent W. E. Laws. Beulah Lewis (left), the only Senior, accepted the award from Mr. Laws, who was the Tournament Director. The other girls are Cookie Stanbarger, Shirley Gasser and Connie Kreis. The trophy was donated by The Schwartz Smart Apparel of Dover. (The Daily Reporter Photo by Mckeel)
DOVER - The Midvale Blue Devils and Port Washington Purple Riders "third time's the charm" opportunists...today were basking in the Annual Tuscarawas County Class B Basketball Tournament limelight. The bucket-bombing Blue Devils, with their tremendous one-two punch of Senior forward Larry Swinderman and Junior Dick Leggett playing leading roles, gave the school its 7th Tournament Championship on Saturday night when they stopped previously unbeaten and defending Champion Strasburg Tigers 72-63.
And just as the Blue Devils were proud of its hoopsters, the Purple Riders celebrated in great fashion after its Riders crushed the Gnadenhutten Indians by a 61-45 count to give the school its 1st trophy in the 34-year history of the dribble derby. Thus Port joined the Tigers and Blue Devils in this week's Class B Sectional Tournament at Memorial Hall, where Saturday night about 1800 faithful showed up for the pair of upsets. Tournament Director W.E. Laws said there were 1117 paid admissions, bringing the tournament total to 6108, an increase of 32 over last year.
Between games numerous awards were presented with Strasburg getting the League Championship Trophy and Port Washington the Consolation Division Trophy. The Daily Times donated the League Trophy and the S. Toomey Company of Dover the Consolation Division Award. The Daily Reporter's Tournament Championship Trophy and the Runnerup Trophy, given by City Auto of New Philadelphia, were presented to Midvale and Strasburg, respectively, after their hassle. Members of both teams also received miniature basketballs donated by Marsh Wall Products of Dover, Fairfield Brick of Zoarville and the Stone Creek Brick Company.
The Daily Reporter trophies were presented by the County Coaches Association President Bray Toot of Port Washington to 10 team members, while the League's Most Valuable Player Award went to Jim Kuecher of Strasburg, the Sportsmanship Award to Mineral City and the best Cheerleading Team chosen was the Strasburg quartet of Beulah Lewis, Cookie Stanbarger, Shirley Gasser and Connie Kreis. Members of the All-County Team were Swinderman and Leggett of Midvale, Kuecher and Jerry Froman of Strasburg, Glenn Hines and Lloyd Porter of Gnaden, Ron Deibel of Stone Creek, Paul Lindsay of Mineral City, Ed Bates of Port Washington and Ted Riggle of Tuscarawas.
Larry Gerber, representing the Ragersville Grade School Team received The Trophy symbolic of the County League Title.
In the titular tussle last year the Strasburg got a record-breaking 42-point performance out of All-Ohio Jerry (Goose) Von Kaenel as it smacked down the Midvale Blue Devils 91-65. But this time the Strasburg Tigers (2-1) (19-1) (93-25) had nothing to resemble a "Goose" Von Kaenel effort. They were out rebounded and outshot..there was no denying this...as the magnificent Midvale Blue Devils (3-0) (18-5) (66-30) splurged for one of their best nights, shot-wise, this winter.
Head Coach Ken Newlon's Orange and Black hit at a 36 percent clip, enough to win a lot of games even in this day and age. However, Midvale unleashed a basket assault that showed 27 goals in 60 tries for an amazing 45 percent mark. The Tigers had 26 fielders in 72 attempts. While the smooth Senior forward Jim (Lefty) Kuecher and the Bengals' No. 2 scorer, scrapper Junior guard Jerry Froman, operated at subpar as Senior forward Larry Swinderman and Junior guard Dick (Dandy) Leggett took the spotlight for the winning cause. To say these 2 lads were terrific wouldn't be stretching the point.
Both collected 20 points, grabbed rebound after rebound and played fine defensive games, Junior forward John Columbo and Senior center Chuck Seldenright scored in double figures, while Junior guard John Beans made 8 markers as Head Coach Pete Hilliard used his starters without relief. The Bengals didn't go down without a fight. Senior forward Willie Rieger matched Kuecher's 15 markers and Senior guard Lloyd Deibel pumped in 14, while Froman tallied 12, but yet the Cats were outgoaled by one, 27-26.
At the free throw line the Blue and Gold padded its margin as Hilliard's hustlers converted 18 of 25 and the Strasburg Tigers made 11 of 17. From the field Strasburg missed numerous easy shots and personal fouls kept them in hot water as the Blue Devils pulled away in the final 8 minutes. The score was tied 4 times in the 1st quarter before a rebound goal by the hard-tolling Seldenright at 3:32 sent the Diablos ahead 10-8. With Leggett making 4 field goals in that frame they moved out to an 18-12 cushion at the end of the panel, during which they connected for 9 fielders in 16 shots.
The Tigers outscored the opposition by 3 points in the 2nd heat as they narrowed the gap to 28-25 and things really hummed in the 3rd stanza. With the Devils in front 36-31 The Bengals threw in 6 straight points. A jump shot by Froman, 2 free throws by Deibel and a rebound goal by Froman at 3:35 put the Cats in klthe van 37-36 and some of the fans were heard muttering "Well, here they go!"
But the Strasburg Tigers couldn't stay in the driver's seat. The fighting Midvale Blue Devils shot ahead again on a jumper from the corner by Swinderman and after 2 more free throws by Beans and another corner jump by Swinderman it was 42-37. Strasburg wasn't about to give up the ship. Froman, who began to warm up to the situation, dropped in another jump shot land Kuecher turned a 3-way trick to knot the count at 42-all. A jump shot by Seldenright and a set by Froman tied it again before a drive-in by the pocket-sized Swinderman put Midvale in front again. And there the Blue Devils remained. A fast break layup by Leggett left them to a 48-44 lead entering the final canto.
At the outset of the last frame, Seldenright rebounded and hit for 2 and Swinderman swelled the difference to 52-44 on a brace of gratis pegs. Kuecher got the Tigers back in the thick of it on a set shot and 2 charity tosses and it was still a 4-point spread for the Blue Devils after Swinderman and Deibel exchanged doubledeckers.
But the Diablos then showed they were boss. Leggett hit on a set and followed with 2 free throws before Deibel dunked in a pusher. A charity throw by Seldenright, a rebound goal by Swinderman, 2 more free throw tosses by Collumbo and a layup by the latter as good as ended it. In the late stages of the battle the Devils switched to a deliberate game and the Bengals lost Senior center Ron Gray and Froman on personal fouls.
And the fouls hurt because in that final stretch the Cats outgoaled the Midvale Blue Devils 8-6, but the Champions padded their lead on a dozen connections at the penalty stripe.
MIDVALE BLUE DEVILS - 72
Larry Swinderman 9-2-20
John Colombo 3-6-12
Chuck Seldenright 5-2-12
John Beans 2-4-8
Dick (Dandy) Leggett 8-4-20
STRASBURG TIGERS - 63
Jim (Lefty) Kuecher 6-3-15
Willie Rieger 5-5-15
Ron Gray 3-1-7
Lloyd Deibel 6-2-14
Jerry Froman 6-0-12
Chuck Burris 0-0-0
Bill Hensel 0-0-0
MIDVALE 18-28-48-72
STRASBURG 12-25-44-63
Monday, February 28, 1956
Charlie Powell, Sports Editor
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio
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