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Ashland County HS Sports Teams, Ohio
1921 - 1963
 
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The Ashland College Inter-High Tournament

Ashland County Gym
Photo from Ashland University Archives, David Roepke

The Ashland College Inter-High Basket Ball Tournament

Almost buried in the past and hardly remembered in county history is the Ashland College Inter-High “Invitational” Tournament from 1921 to 1926. Anyone under 100 never played in the event. Even the venue burned to the ground in 1926. Nevertheless, it was the original March madness in Ashland County, and the first interscholastic basket ball tournament in the area.

One inspiration behind the Ashland event was the prestigious Ohio Wesleyan tourney. Almost 250 teams played in the Delaware invite between 1909 and 1922. Its reputation was so esteemed that when the OHSAA began their State tournaments in 1923 that they adopted OW’s past champions as their own. Similar attractions were being held at colleges in Athens, Bluffton, and Oberlin. Their primary motivation was to “awaken a greater interest in the respective colleges” by drawing area high school students toward a postgraduate experience.

Now lost in the past is any oral history of stories or folklore from the participants, but the records are well documented in the Ashland College newspapers “The Purple and Gold” and the “Ashland Collegian.” The AC editor was Milton P. Puterbaugh, future AC Director of Athletics. The Ashland Times-Gazette coverage was done by sport editor Harry Horne known as “Bozo.” The Mansfield and Wooster newspapers also had write ups about the event. For six years the “invitational” tournament was held the first Friday in March at the first AC College Gym.

The Ashland invite was open only to Class B schools, since they could not compete with the large schools in a tournament. Over the six-years 39 schools played 108 games for the prize: a ten-inch silver loving cup. No school won the title twice. Just six schools: Albion, Homerville, Polk, Rittman, Spencer, and Sullivan played in all six tournaments. The teams came from nine counties with Wayne (14), Ashland (10), and Medina (6) supplying most of the participants. It is ironic that only ten teams are present-day high schools still operating under their same name today. The other 29 academies have been absorbed into consolidations.

The most successful school was Rittman with 13 wins, four appearances in the semi-finals, and three runner up finishes, but no championships. Polk and Lucas both won titles and had 11 wins. Polk had one-first, one-second place, and three Final Four appearances. Lucas and Spencer made the semi-finals three times. Savannah and Mt. Eaton appeared twice in the semi-finals. Creston, Plymouth, Seville, Shiloh, Smithville, Sullivan, and Wellington advanced to the Final Four once. Sullivan, Spencer, Mt. Eaton, and Plymouth each won the crown once.

Mt. Eaton had the highest scoring game with 58 points in the 1923 title game. Plymouth had 34-points in 1926 finals. The widest margin of victory was Mt. Eaton’s 29-point win over Rittman in the 1923 final game. Thirteen games were decided by one-point, and nine games were two-point decisions. The lowest scoring games were:  Orrville’s one point in 1924 and two-points by Loudonville in 1923. Both schools made only one appearance.

The best individual performance was Wayne Kurtz from Rittman with 25-points against Spencer in 1923. He scored 112-points in seven games over two-years 1923 & 1924, which made him the top point-getter in the six years of the tournament. The center jump after each basket was the rule until 1938 thus slower games and lower scores.

On this first Friday in March it was always a jam-packed day of basket ball. Games were played every 25 to 30 minutes, and every seat was taken. The capacity of the AC gym was 600-fans, but it was reported the 700 fans attended that first Friday and a thousand showed up for the final year. Each school was assigned a rooting section, and Polk and Lucas had a reputation for the most boisterous crowds. Ashland College usually provided a concert by their band or another musical group. The faculty wives provided a luncheon before the evening games. The first year 175 attended the first banquet. An all-tournament team was selected year, and a foul shooting contest was held beginning the second year.

On Sunday September 26th 1926 the College Gym caught fire and the local Fire Department was unable to get enough water pressure up to the hilltop to save the 1902 structure. Also, in 1926 The Ohio HS Athletic Association set up county tournaments for Class B teams to advance to the sectional and then on to the State tournament. Consequently the local college invitationals faded into oblivion. However for everyone, who has lined up outside a gym during March madness for hours to get a seat and packed every spot in the gym including the chairs along the out-of-bounds lines, you are to be reminded that these local college tournaments were just like that and it was the first time for all of these rural villages.

All these facts were obtained from the Ashland College newspapers, which are on microfilm at the AU Library, the Times-Gazette microfilms are at the Ashland Public Library, plus the Mansfield and Wooster papers of the era.

All-Tournament Teams:
2nd Year 1922
Forwards: Sheets of Rittman and Dodeg of Mt. Eaton. Center: Remert of Spencer. Guards: Griggs of Spencer, and Brown of Rittman.

3rd Year 1923
Kurtz of Rittman, Graber & Dodez of Mt. Eaton, Read of Albion, Frey of Mt. Eaton, Stuart of Spencer, Taylor of Seville, and Weisgarber of Mt. Eaton.

4th Year 1924
Donley of Polk, Kurtz of Rittman, Mitchell of Lucas, Brouse of Spencer, Arehart of Lucas, Gast of Polk, Fulton of Lucas, Ritter of Rittman, Stuart of Spencer.

5th Year 1925
1st team: Brodbeck of Rittman, Mitchell of Lucas, Backenstow of Shiloh, (Capt) Long of Creston, Gladden of Lucas.
2nd team: (Capt) Rumbaugh of Polk, Eby of Seville, Immel of Sullivan, Briner of Polk, Kiplinger of Polk.
Honorable mention: Jeandrevin of Mt. Eaton, Miller of Creston, Jacobs of Shiloh, Fulton of Lucas, Mosier of Shiloh, and Nepp of Creston.

6th Year 1926
1st team: forwards: Becker of Plymouth and Miller of Creston, center: R. Kepler of Wellington, guards: Rowland of Wellington, P. Hartzler of Smithville.
2nd team: forwards: Lofland of Plymouth and Zeigler of Sterling, center; Donley of Polk, guards: Carter of Plymouth and Burkholder of Smithville.
Honorable mention: (F) Harris of Lucas, Van Campbell of Big Prairie, McVicker of Chatham, Long of Seville. (C) Fulton of Lucas and Harter of Rittman. (G) Smail of Shreve and Glesner of Creston.

www.ashlandcohssportsteams.com.


Ashland College Invitational
1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926
Teams 10 14 17 21 24 28
Won
Lost
Albion
1-1
0-1
1-1
0-1
0-1
0-1
2
6
Apple Creek      
0-1
     0 1
Arlington        
0-1
   0 1
Bellville      
0-1
0-1
0-1
0
3
Big Prairie        
0-1
2-1
 2 2
Burbank
0-1
0-1
0-1
0-1
0
4
Chatham
0-1
0
1
Chester
0-1
0-1
0-1
0
3
Congress
0-1
0-1
0-1
0
3
Creston
1-1
1-1
1-1
1-1
4
4
Danville
1-1
1
1
Doylestown
1-1
1
1
Fredericksburg
0-1
0-1
0
2
Homerville
0-1
0-1
1-1
1-1
0-1
1-1
3
6
Jeromesville
0-1
1-1
1
2
Leroy
0-1
0
1
Lodi
0-1
0
1
Loudonville
0-1
0
1
Lucas
0-1
0-1
4-1
4-0
3-1
11
4
Mt. Eaton
2-1
4-0
1-1
2-1
9
3
Nankin
0-1
1-1
0-1
0-1
0-1
1
5
Nova
0-1
2-1
2
2
Orrville
0-1
0
1
Perrysville
0-1
0
1
Plymouth 
4-0
4
0
Polk
1-1
0-1
0-1
4-0
4-1
2-1
11
5
Rittman
2-1
3-1
4-1
2-1
2-1
0-1
13
6
Ruggles
1-1
1
1
Savannah
1-1
2-1
0-1
0-1
1-1
4
5
Seville
2-1
2-1
0-1
4
3
Shiloh
2-1
3-1
1-1
6
3
Shreve
1-1
1-1
2
2
Smithville
0-1
0-1
0-1
3-1
3
4
Spencer
0-1
4-0
2-1
2-1
1-1
0-1
9
5
Sterling
1-1
0-1
1-1
2
3
Sullivan
4-0
1-1
1-1
0-1
1-1
0-1
7
5
Wakeman
0-1
0
1
Wellington
3-1
3
1
West Salem
0-1
0-1
1-1
1-1
0-1
2
5
108 108

The 1924 Polk High School championship trophy

Polk 1924

Ashland College Inter-High Tournament
Most Points by Individual
1st 1921 Vaughn of Sullivan 12 pts vs Albion
2nd 1922 Ward of Savannah 21 pts vs Congress
3rd 1923 Wayne Kurtz of Rittman 25 pts vs Spencer
4th 1924 Kurtz 17 pts vs Mt. Eaton
5th 1925 Jeandrevin of Mt. Eaton 15 pts vs Nova
6th 1926 Miller of Ruggles 17 pts vs Perrysville
Most Points by a Team
1st 1921 Rittman 24 pts ve Nankin
2nd 1922 Savannah 33 pts vs Congress
3rd 1923 Mt. Eaton 58 pts vs Rittman
4th 1924 Polk 31 pts vs Spencer
5th 1925 Shiloh (vs Seville) & Lucas (vs Polk) 26 pts
6th 1926 Plymouth 24 pts vs Smithville

 

The 1924 Polk High School championship trophy from the Ashland College Inter-High Basket Ball tournament: The trophy was donated by jeweler A.J. Sharick, and it is on display in the trophy case at the Mapleton Elementary School. Also, on display are several of the trophies from the Polk County and Sectional Tournament championships.


  
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