58 - Right Down The Line

Sports Editor
Wednesday, February 12, 1958
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio

WITH THE COUNTY TOURNAMENT at hand it's time to dust off the record book!

STRASBURG TIGERS - The Tigers are the current leader by about a mile in the number of Tournament Championships won.  The Bengals, who grabbed their 1st Trophy in 1923, first year of the tournament and has won 14 titles in all.  Their last was in 1955.  Three other time they were the runner-ups.

MIDVALE BLUE DEVILS - The Blue Devils, the current pre-tournament favorite, has salted away 7 titles and on 7 other occasions were 2nd best.  The Diablos are 2nd only to Strasburg in the number of appearances in the finals.

THE OTHER FELLOWS - The Gnadenhutten Indians, which took the title last year, has won 5 crowns, the Sugarcreek-Shanesville, now Garaway, captured four, the Tuscarawas Broncos and Bolivar Cardinals, now part of the Tuscarawas Valley Trojans, 2 each and the Stone Creek Golden Panthers and Dennison Railroaders one each.

That leaves the Baltic Eagles and Port Washington Purple Riders as the only teams which haven't won, excluding Tuscarawas Valley and Garaway.  The Eagles have appeared only twice in Championship games and the Purple Riders have never been in the finals.  However, Port Washington did win the Consolation Division Championship in 1956.

THE YEAR FOR THE BIGGEST ATTENDANCE of the tournament was in 1954 when 7,271 fans made it through the doors of Dover's Memorial Hall.  That year the Tuscarawas Broncos, with Terry Deems aboard, copped the Championship, while the Strasburg Tigers were runner-up and the Baltic Eagles were the Consolation Division winner.  The attendance in 1954 bested the mark of 7,268 in 1949 when Midvale bested the Mineral City Tigers in the tournament finals and Sugarcreek-Shanesville walked off with the Consolation Division Title.  No attendance figures were kept between 1923 and 1930, but the lowest on record was in 1934 when only 2,818 attended.

SCORING RECORDS are not well kept, but it is doubtful that if anyone has ever come really close to the 50 points scored by Ed Bates of Port Washington last year.  Bates got that many in the Purple Riders' 105-74 romp over Baltic.  The 45 points scored by the Dover Tornadoes' Jake Lengler in the 1950-51 season against the Coshocton Redskins was Memorial Hall's previous mark.  Bates also went over the 44 points racked up by Jerry (Goose) Von Kaenel of Strasburg against Midvale in the 1955 tournament.

The Port Washington Purple Riders' scoring machine...Ed Bates (50 Points...1958)

58 - The 36th Annual Tuscarawas County Class B Basketball Tournament

The 1958 Garaway Pirates Basketball Team.  This is the 1st year for the new school and basketball team which was a consolidation of Dundee (Bulldogs) and the Sugarcreek-Shanesville (Pirates) and are now called the Garaway Pirates.  The name of GARAWAY came about from GAR which is from SuGARcreek, the A from Auburn and the WAY is from WAYne...the name was due to the consolation of Sugarcreek-Shanesville, Ragersville and Dundee schools.  FRONT:  Bill Slemmer (Dundee) - John Goso - Chuck May - Gordon Gerber - Butch Yakley and Carl Squires.  BACK:  Head Coach Jim C. Stull - Jim Gerber - Charley Stingel - Dean Burrell (Dundee) - John Sigrist (Dundee) - Dave Banks - Koran Zehnder - Manager Dick Barnhart.  (Photo from the 1958 Souvenir Booklet)



DOVER - The Midvale Blue Devils, who comprised the Cinderella Team of Ohio's 1957 Class A Tournament until they reached the semi-finals at Columbus, will be odds-on favorites to add the forthcoming County Tournament Championship Trophy to their display case.

This forecast is based on the Blue Devils' record for the season just ended.  They were undefeated over an 8-game County League route and have an overall record of 16-2.  They bowed to the West Lafayette Generals 75-70 and to the Strasburg Tigers 80-77.  Head Coach Pete Hilliard's boys currently are riding a 14-game win streak.  It will be a long time before county cage fans forget Hilliard's 1956-57 edition.  Even though they walked off with the Consolation Title of the county by beating the Tuscarawas Valley Trojans 96-58, the Diablos were accorded little chance of advancing on the playoff trail.

But, in the Sectional Tournament the "boys from Stumphill," as they were nicknamed because of a comic strip team in vogue at the time, turned back the Killbuck Bucks 91-52, the Stone Creek Golden Panthers 76-71 and the Walnut Creek Cardinals 77-58.  The Gnadenhutten Indians were the other Sectional Tournament winner, beating the Augusta Blue Devils 86-71.  Then in the District Tournament event, also staged at Dover's Memorial Hall, Midvale knocked over the Adena Golden Waves 95-68 and took the Indians 73-59 to advance to the Canton Regional.

There the Blue and Gold Blue Devils nipped a touted Vienna Flyers quintet 64-62 and then squeezed into the State semi-finals on a 1-point, 61-60 decision over the Savannah Sailors.  The Midvale Blue Devils were paired with a bunch of bombers in Ayersville's Pilots and combined with a cold shooting night, found the going too rough and bowed out of the tournament picture on a 71-57 loss.  Ayersville went on to beat the Gratis Trojans for the State toga.

Coach Pete Hilliard saw 6 members of that team graduate.  They were:

STARTING FIVE

John Columbo
Dick (Dandy) Leggett
Lonnie Wolf

RESERVES

John Beans
Gary Haney
Dave De Mattio

Because of those departures, the Blue Devils weren't expected to cut too much ice in the campaign which has just ended.  Two wins and 2 losses in their first 4 outings seemed to bear out the forecast.  But on December 13th Midvale caught fire in a 58-49 victory over the Tuscarawas Valley Trojans and kept right on burning up the nets for 14 games.  Their League play gave the Diablos their 1st uncontested loop crown since 1949 (their 7th).

Forming the nucleus of this season's squad are 2 cagers who were on last year's starting five.  They are Tom Krocker, a 5-10 Junior and Russ Hobart, a 6-2 Senior Center, who is the squad's tallest player.  Rounding out Hillard's top 6 are Juniors Jim Clark and Dave Belknap, both at 5-10 and Sophomores Dick Housel, 5-10, and Ron Breniser at 5-11.

The Tribe of Gnadenhutten, which copped the 1957 County Tournament Championship by beating the Stone Creek Golden Panthers 75-66, may offer the Devils stiff competition in the upcoming tournament.  Gnaden finished 2nd in the League race and were 15-5 over the full route.  The Golden Panthers tied with the Trojans for 3rd place in the loop and in the 1956-57 campaign tied with Gnadenhutten for 2nd place, behind the Strasburg Tigers, which was unbeaten in 9 loop games.  The Panthers then pulled a big upset by beating the Tigers 69-52 in the tournament.  Strasburg was 4-4 in this season's loop competition.

The Bengals meet the Garaway Pirates in Thursday night's 6:30 opener with the Blue and Gold of Midvale tackling the Port Washington Purple Riders at 7:45 and Stone Creek encountering the Baltic Eagles at 9:00.  On Sasturday night Tusky Valley will engage the Strasburg-Garaway winner at 7:30 and Gnaden will collide with the Tusky Broncos at 8:45.



Tuesday, February 11, 1958
Norm Singleton, Sports Editor
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio

THE TUSCARAWAS COUNTY LEAGUE

1.  Midvale Blue Devils 8-0 1.000 (7th Title)
2.  Gnadenhutten Indians 6-2 .750
3.  Stone Creek Golden Panthers 5-3 .625
4.  Tuscarawas Valley Trojans 5-3 .625
5.  Garaway Pirates 4-4 .500
6.  Strasburg Tigers 4-4 .500
7.  Baltic Eagles 3-5 .376
8.  Tuscarawas Broncos 1-7 .125
9.  Port Washington Purple Riders 0-8 .000

THE TUSCARAWAS REGULAR SEASON

1.  Midvale Blue Devils 16-2 .889
2.  Gnadenhutten Indians 15-5 .750
3.  Tuscarawas Valley Trojans 11-5 .688
4.  Strasburg Tigers 11-7 .611
5.  Baltic Eagles 12-8 .600
6.  Stone Creek Golden Panthers 12-8 .600
7.  Garaway Pirates 10-10 .500
8.  Tuscarawas Broncos 7-10 .412
9.  Port Washington Purple Riders 1-16 .058

58 - Right Down The Line

Sports Editor
Tuesday, February 11, 1958
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio

WHEN THE COUNTY CLASS A TOURNAMENT gets underway at Dover's Memorial Hall here on Thursday night, the 36th Annual meet will introduce several changes.

NUMBER 1 - The 1st innovation is the single elimination, the first since 1933.  The reason for that change is the presence of only 9 teams what with the consolidation of the Bolivar Cardinals and the Mineral City Tigers into the Tuscarawas Valley Trojans last year and the Dundee Bulldogs absorption into the the Sugarcreek-Shanesville Pirates to form the Garaway Pirates for the 1957-58 year.  The "lose and out" play will result in one less representative for the Sectional Tournament, also slated for Memorial Hall on February 25th, 27th and 28th and on March 1st.  Only the County Tournament winner and runner-up will be in that event.

NUMBER 2 - This change is in the seating capacity.  There will be 50 less seats because the first 3 rows immediately under the baskets have been removed to provide room for players to drive in for field goals without going into fan's laps or empty seats.  In either instance there was the possibility of injuries.

NUMBER 3 - This one involves the coaches.  Two new ones will be making their initial appearances in the county joust.  Robert Heller will be at the helm of the Tuscarawas Valley Trojans.  When he served as an Assistant Coach at Dover High School for the Tornadoes, it was also he who was the Official Timer for the tournaments.  Bill Oppenheimer will be the other new tournament face.  He is cage boss for the Port Washington Purple Riders and his team is in the dubious position of playing the Midvale Blue Devils (League Champions) on the 1st night.

But even with the elimination of the Consolation Division Bracket the hall is expected to be bulging every night of the classic.

58 - Season...Flashback!

Sports Editor
Thursday, February 6, 1956
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio

LOOKING AT THE CLASS A FIGURES we find the Stone Creek Golden Panthers' Rod Reinhart may be on his way to snaring the scoring Championship of the county; although, he is having competition from the Urichsville Tigers' Arnold.  "Hot Rod," although some times guarded by 2 or 3 foes, has hit the nets for 189 field goals and 63 free throws for 441 points and an average of 24.5, one-tenth of a point better than Arnold's mark.

Two other Class A players are over the 20 points-per-game mark.  They are Gary Caviness of the Tuscarawas Broncos and Russ Hobart of the Midvale Blue Devils.  Caviness has 132 action shots and 42 free throw tosses for 306 points and a mark of 20.4, while Hobart, who is a returnee from the Blue Devils team which made the trip to the State Championship semi-finals last year, has a 20.2 average.  He has tallied 142 times from the field and 56 times from the foul line.  Representing the Baltic Eagles in the top10 is John Rice, who has scored 352 points for 18.8 per tilt, good for the 4th spot.

Ben Price, the Tuscarawas Valley Trojans' star center, follows Rice with 239 points on 107 goals and 25 free throws for a 17.7 per game, while Tom Maitland of the Dennison Railroaders is in 6th place with an average of 17.5.

Tusky, which along with Midvale are the only teams to have 2 representatives in the first 10 places.  Tom Vesco is 7th with a 16.9 average, while Ron Bradley of the Gnadenhutten Indians is next with 16.5.  The Diablos round out the select list with a 16.4 average.  The Dover St. Joseph Ramblers' Eddie Joe Young is averageing 15.7

CLASS A INDIVIDUAL SCORING

NAME  FIELD GOALS  FREE THROWS  TOTAL POINTS  AVERAGE

Reinhart (Stone Creek) 189 - 63 - 441 - 24.5
Caviness (Tusky) 132 - 42 - 306 - 20.4
Hobart (Midvale) 142 - 56 - 344 - 20.2
Rice (Baltic) 150 - 52 - 352 - 18.8
Price (Tusky Valley) 107 - 25 - 239 - 17.7
Maitand (Dennison) 99 - 31 - 229 - 17.5
Vesco (Tusky) 113 - 28 - 254 - 16.9
Bradley (Gnaden) 135 - 43 - 313 - 16.5
Krocker (Midvale) 105 - 79 - 289 - 16.4
Guida (Dover St. Mary) 92 - 43 - 227 - 16.2
Huprich - (Baltic) 121 - 62 - 304 - 16.0
Young (Dennison St. Joseph) 84 - 41 - 205 - 15.7
Clark (Gnaden) 131 - 33 - 295 - 15.5
Burris (Strasburg) 112 - 60 - 284 - 15.5
Baker (Stone Creek) 101 - 60 - 262 14.5
Nick Haswell (Strasburg) 106 - 31 - 243 - 14.3
Stingel (Garaway) 113 - 40 - 260 - 13.7
Roth (Gnaden) 113 - 40 - 260 - 13.7
Davis (Dennison) 72 - 21 - 165 - 12.9
Ruof (Tusky Valley) 84 - 20 - 188 12.8
Still (Dennison St. Mary) 68 - 40 - 176 - 12.7

58 - Season...Flashback!

Thursday, January 30, 1958
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio

"MANY MOONS" have set since the last time the Midvale Blue Devils team had pocketed a County Class A League Championship.  But with tomorrow night's battle against the Port Washington Purple Riders they should accomplish that goal.

Head Coach Pete Hilliard's Blue Devils, who went all the way to the State semi-final tournament in Columbus last year, need only to down the Purple Riders for their 7th League win, thus eliminating the possibility of Gnadenhutten tying for the Crown.  It has been 8 years since Midvale has held sole possession of the County Championship.  In the 1949-50 season, when Bob French was at the helm and the Diablos finished the League campaign with a 9-1 mark, it was also the 3rd consecutive League Crown captured by the Devils dating back to the 47-48 season.

In the 1950-51 campaign, the Blue and Gold, the Tuscarawas Broncos and the Strasburg Tigers tied for the toga with 8-2 records.  The loop then was called the Class B League instead of the modern "A" version.   In the 1951-52 season the Midvale Blue Devils went into the final League game against the Broncos with a 9-0 loop mark and was considered a good bet to win.  But Tusky came through by a 62-56 margin and the Blue Devils of Midvale had to be content with sharing League Honors with the Dundee Bulldogs, which now is part of the Garaway consolidation.

The Tigers of Strasburg ended that campaign in 7th place with a 4-6 record.  But then the Bengals came up with their powerful squads and became the perennial team to beat.  But even during Strasburg's League reign the Blue Devils managed to cop 2 County Tournament titles and was runnerup once in addition to last Springs's State Tournament title bid.

58 - Season Flashback!

Thursday, January 9, 1958
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio

THE STONE CREEK GOLDEN PANTHERS' "Hot" Rod Reinhart is the leading scorer for the county's Class A clubs.  The 5-10 Golden Panther Senior has scorced the nets for a total of 129 field goals and 48 free throws for 306 points in 12 games, an average of 25.5.

Right behind, but for 13 games, is the Baltic Eagles' John Rice, who has caged 260 points on 106 field goals and 47 charity tosses.  That gives him an average of an even 20.0.  Following him in the top 10 are Russ Hobart of the Midvale Blue Devils, averaging 18.6 points for 10 games and teammate Tom Krocker and Gary Caviness of the Tuscarawas Broncos with 18.5 averages.  Caviness has appeared in all of Tusky's 8 games to date.

The Dover St. Joseph Ramblers' Ed Young is 6th on the list with 49 field goals and 26 free throw tosses for 124 points.  Ed has missed 2 of the Ramblers' 7 contests and has an average of 17.7 points per game.  Ron Bradley of the Gnadenhutten Indians is in 7th place with an average of 17.6, Jim Guida of the Dennison St. Mary Blue Waves has notched 174 for a 17.4 mark and Tom Maitland of the Dennison Railroaders follows with 17.3.

Ron Huprich of the Eagles rounds out the top select group with an average of 16.2.  The Strasburg Tigers' Chuck Burris just missed the top 10 by 2-10ths of a point.  He has an average of 16 per game.

CLASS A

PLAYER    FIELD GOALS   FREE THROWS    TOTAL    AVERAGE

Reinhart (Stone Creek) 129  48  306  25.5
Rice (Baltic) 105  47  260  20.0
Hobart (Midvale) 80  20  188  18.6
Caviness (Tusky) 62  24  148  18.5
Krocker (Midvale) 69  45  185  18.5
Young (Dover St. Joseph) 49  26  125  17.7
Bradley (Gnaden) 103  31  247  17.6
Guida (Dennison St. Mary) 69  36  174  17.4
Maitland (Dennison) 42  20  104  17.3
Huprich (Baltic) 82  47  211  16.2
Burris (Strasburg) 70  50  208  16.0
Clark (Gnaden) 100  14  214  15.3
Stingel (Garaway) 64  37  165  15.0
N. Haswell (Strasburg) 84  24  192  14.6
Price (Tusky Valley) 59  19  137  13.7
Davis (Dennison) 34  9  77  12.8
Baker (Stone Creek) 53  43  149  12.4
Still (Dennison St. Mary) 52  20  124  12.4

NOTE:  CONSOLATION DIVISION IS DROPPED

The 36th Annual Tuscarawas County Class A Basketball Tournament once again will be held in Memorial Hall here on February 13,15,20 and 22.  The Consolation Division games played in previous years have been dropped this year because there will be only 9 teams in the event and will represent the county in the Sectional Tournament here February 25th.

Admission for the county meet will be $1.00 for adults and 60 cents for students.  Tournament passes will cost $4.00.  In the past the passes have been issued to the participants and to a limited number of tournament program advertisers.  Many individuals have requested the opportunity to buy passes so a more liberal policy has been adopted.  People wishing to purchase passes should make their requests to merchants.  They are advised to do this during January.

NOTE:  GARAWAY

This year Garaway High School was due to the consolidation of Sugarcreek-Shanesville, Ragersville and Dundee.

58 - Season...Flashback!

Sports Editor
Thursday, December 12, 1957
The Daily Reporter

TOMORROW NIGHT in the County High School Class A League 4 games are scheduled for the 1st full card of the season.  Quintets in the loop will meet in the 36th Annual Tuscarawas County Class A Basketball Tournament at Dover's Memorial Hall in February.  The League always comes up with individual stars and this season is no exception.

Guard 5-10 sensational Rod Reinhart of the Stone Creek Golden Panthers, appears to be on his way to the county scoring title.  In 6 games to date he has meshed 159 points, an average of 26.5 per game.  When the Golden Panthers entertain the Tuscarawas Broncos tomorrow night he and Harold Baker, who has scored 68 points will be pacing the Panthers, who have won 4 of 6 games.  Heading the Broncos will be Gary Caviness, who has netted 70 points in 4 contests for a 17.5 average.

Facing the Gnadenhutten Indians, the Strasburg Tigers, who remain unbeaten, will be led by Nick Haswell.  He has tallied 91 points in 5 tilts for an 18.2 average.  Teammate Chuck Burris is close behind him with 85 and an average of 17 points per game.  Three Indian players are in a close race.  Tom Roth is the leader with 84 points in 6 battles for a 14 point average.  Ron Bradley has tallied 81 and Larry Gooding 72 for averages of 13.5 and 12 respectively.

Ben Price, although appearing briefly in 2 contests and going all the way in the other, is the leading scorer for the Tuscaraway Valley Trojans who meet the Midvale Blue Devils tomorrow night.  Price has scored 27 points for a 3-game, 9-point average.  Russ Hobart and Tom Krocker pace the Blue Devils.  Hobart has an average of 18 points per contest, scoring 72 in 4 battles.  Krocker is averaging 14.1 with 57 markers to his credit.

The Baltic Eagles, idle tomorrow, is being led by John Rice's 19.4 average per contest.  John has the top point total in the county with 173, but has played 9 games.  Teammate Ron Huprich has scored 149 points for an average of 16.5.