53 - Right Down The Line

RIGHT DOWN THE LINE
With Art Cicconetti
Thursday, March 12, 1953
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio


WEDNESDAY - On Wednesday morning we received a card from Gale McGrath, who while agreeing with our stand as to the basketball officiating, thought that the doors to Memorial Hall should have been opened sooner on Saturday night.  A Strasburg rooter, McGrath says "Even if we didn't agree with all the fouls etc. we think the boys did a grand job at all the Class B games at Memorial Hall."  This vote of confidence will be greatly appreciated by the officials in the area who have been beleaguered by second guessers.

As to the question of why the doors were not opened sooner at the Hall, there are several extenuating circumstances in the matter.  It all seems to start with the fact there are no reserved seats in Memorial Hall.  When the County Tournament was on there were at least 4 of the 7 nights when the SRO sign was out before the 1st game had barely started.  And in the group of people left out in the cold, on several occasions, were parents of the boys playing in the game.

SEATING - The question of seating was first come, first served with passes, students and in the adult general admission class.  As a result, many came very early and took all the available seats.  Those who got there later were just out of luck.  When the drawings were held for the District Tournament, the administrators and coaches of the schools in the tournament decided that one way of solving this problem would be to give each school a block of 200 adult tickets and 100 student tickets for advance sale.

These tickets were for the night that the school played only.  Since there were 2 schools playing each night, that would mean 600 would already be sold before the doors were opened and approximately 900 more adult tickets would be sold at the box office.

FURTHERMORE - To further insure that the team's followers would get seats, the officials decided to permit those who had purchased tickets earlier to come into the Hall by a separate entrance.  This door was opened at the same time the front doors were unlatched and the box office opened to sell tickets.  This gave the ticket holders from Strasburg, Jewett, Scio and Killbuck, a chance to get seats before the other fans and still permitted those fans who got to the front door early a chance to get a good seat.

If you happened to be one of those who waited at the front door until 7:00 Saturday, you have a legitimate gripe coming in that it was really cold and uncomfortable.  But then you can't blame the officials of the schools involved for trying to see that their townspeople get first chance at the seats.  Until they come up with a method for reserving seats at Memorial Hall, this may be quite a problem.  Had the tickets sold earlier been for reserved seats, there would have been no question about opening the doors sooner.

NOTE:  SIX STRASBURG CAGERS UNHURT IN ACCIDENT

Six of the Strasburg Tigers' Varsity Basketball Team escaped injury in New Philadelphia at 8:22PM last night (Wednesday, March 11) when the car in which they were riding struck the rear of another auto at East High Avernue.  Jerry (Goose) Von Kaenel, Jerry Haswell, Jim Weinman, Elden (Zeke) Mullett and Dick Kurick were passengers in a car driven by Gale Huffman, 16, of 215 Third Street, Strasburg.

New Philadelphia police said the Huffman car struck the rear of one driven by Clarence E. Bruce, 27, of Akron, causing slight damage to both autos.  The Bruce car had passed Huffman's auto and then stopped to make a right turn into 6th Street N.E.