Nothing gladdens the heart of a scholastic basketball player or coach so much as a title and the trophies that go with it. Hence the expressions of happiness in the faces of the Midvale Blue Devils High School Cagers, shown above grouped around their Head Coach Clayton (Pete) Wolfe, former New Philadelphia High School and Otterbein College athlete. This season is Wolfe's 1st in the county League.
The triumphant Captains pose with County Supt. W.E. Laws who presented the trophies. At left is Captain Vic Smith of the Dundee Bulldogs and at right is Captain Jerry "Buzzy" Young of the Midvale Blue Devils.
Division of the spoils brought together this group. Captain Ken Kohl of the Gnadenhutten Indians, Consolation Divison winner; Miss Katherine Johnson of the Tuscarawas Broncos who accepted the Sportsmanship Trophy; Tournament Manager Harold Everett of Tuscarawas and Captain Bud Ross of the Bolivar Cardinals, winner of the League race.
The Dundee Bulldogs fans concentrated on their team's play as shown above, but the Bulldogs of Head Coach Ken Gartrell, making their greatest tournament showing, fell short and were defeated in the Championship game by the Midvale Blue Devils 29-24.
DOVER - The Midvale Blue Devils, for years one of the dominant teams in the Tuscarawas County Class B League, today held their 2nd straight Tuscarawas County Tournament Championship, taken Saturday night before a packed house at Memorial Hall when Head Coach Pete Wolfe's team finally defeated the scrappy Bulldogs of Dundee 29-24 in the best game of the tournament. The 2 teams along with the Gnadenhutten Indians, who won the Consolation Division Championship with a 22-20 victory over the Mighty Strasburg Tigers in an exciting game, draw tonight for places in the Class B Sectional tourney which starts at Memorial Hall Thursday night...winners there go on to the District meet.
For Head Coach Pete Wolfe, former New Philadelphia High School athlete, the Championship, Midvale's 3rd in the 19 years of the county eliminations, stamped success upon his 1st year of coaching in the county. He came to Midvale from Buffalo last fall. But to the fighting Bulldogs coached by Ken Gartrell who in his 2nd year at the Wayne Township school, went the honor of makinghistory for their school. The last time the Dundee club reached the finals was in 1934 when it was runner-up and the elusive title was again unsuccessfully sought by the Bulldogs in 1928.
A crowd of 1,181 paid admission Saturday night to see the 2 final games and saw the smaller Dundee club, led by forward Milton Fruchey, make Midvale's high scoring combine play its top game. Handling the ball like veterans and playing a slow deliberate game, the Bulldogs took command in the 1st quarter when Fruchey made everything that came his way to score 4 field goals and 2 free throws...all his team's points as Dundee took a 10-7 lead at the end of the period.
But Fruchey was held to a fielder in the 2nd and his teammates added only 2 more free throws as Adrian Ford, Midvale's star guard, found his basket eye and flipped 4 field goals to give the Blue Devils a 17-14 lead at the half. Dundee was held to 3 free tosses in the 3rd stanza as Midvale tightened its defense in a battle of zones and the Blue Devils made only 4 to still remain in the lead 21-17 going into the stretch.
Forward Jerry "Buzzy" Young scored a free throw before Senior guard Vic Smith sliced the nets with his long shot to cut the Midvale lead to 3 points. The Blue Devils' Ford came through with his 5th bucket, but it was matched by forward Junior Machan's only field goal of the game and only 4 minutes remained with the score 24-21. Young scored a free throw and a field goal and center Al Turrin an action shot to complete Midvale's scoring and the Blue Devils started to stall. Smith sent another long shot whistling through the net and followed with a free throw, but the game ended there.
The contest was the best played in the entire tournament, both teams handling the ball nicely and making few mistakes as they made every chance count, but Midvale's superior heighth and shooting ability was too much for Dundee. Fruchey scored the only field goals his team made in the first 3 periods, all of them on hard chances, but went scoreless in the final when Machan, who played with an injured knee and Smith started coming through.
The tiny Fruchey was easily the outstanding player of the game with his 14 points, while Adrian Ford was Midvale's big scorer, turning in 11 markers. Calvin "Tod" Hostetler, small Midvale forward, played a fine floor game and added 7 points on long shots. Only 8 fouls were assessed against Midvale by Valley and Francis Dirodis, while Dundee was charged with 10 with Machan going out in the final quarter. Midvale made 7 of 11 free throws, while Dundee dropped 8 of 10.
MIDVALE BLUE DEVILS - 29
Jerry "Buzzy" Young F 2-3-7
Calvin "Tod" Hostetler F 3-1-7
Al Turrin C 1-1-3
Dale Ford G 0-1-1
Adrian Ford G 5-1-11
Vic Paris G 0-0-0
DUNDEE BULLDOGS - 24
Milton Fruchey F 5-4-14
Junior "Buck" Machan F 1-1-3
Don Weber C 0-1-1
Vic Smith G 2-1-5
Paul Jones G 0-1-1
Saam C 0-0-0
Jerry Bussinger F 0-0-0
Monday, March 3, 1941
John Stratton, Sports Writer
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio
THE DAILY REPORTER'S ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1ST TEAM
FORWARD - Milton Fruchey (Dundee Bulldogs)
FORWARD - Jerry Young (Midvale Blue Devils)
CENTER - Al Turrin (Midvale Blue Devils)
GUARD - Don Miller (Gnadenhutten Indians)
GUARD - Adrian Ford (Midvale Blue Devils)
2ND TEAM
FORWARD - Bud Ross (Bolivar Cardinals)
FORWARD - Calvin Hostetler (Midvale Blue Devils)
CENTER - Bob Woodard (Port Washington Purple Riders)
GUARD - Bill Lint (Baltic Eagles)
GUARD - Vic Smith (Dundee Bulldogs)
HONORABLE MENTION
BOLIVAR CARDINALS - Warren Klink
DUNDEE BULLDOGS - Paul Jones
GNADENHUTTEN INDIANS - Dale Crites and John Metzger
MINERAL CITY TIGERS - Tom Smitley
STONE CREEK GOLDEN PANTHERS - Dale Wherley and Bill Ridenour
STRASBURG TIGERS - Ken Houtz
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