The Daily Reporter Sports Editor (1-11-56)

STRASBURG'S Bob Grimm, who has been one of several area athetes affected by the new state ruling which keeps a 19-year-old out of high school sports if he reaches that age prior to September, has quit the Bengal basketball team and enlisted in the Army. The husky Grimm, football fullback and invaluable substitute on Ken Newlon's cage club, won't enter the service until next March, but has decided to stay away from the basket court for the rest of the season. The rule was approved by a recent referendum by high school principals and last Saturday the state board of control ruled that it did not have authority to alter a referendum. The measure allows athletes reaching 19 after November 1 to play basketball and those becoming 19 after March 1 to participate in spring sports. The Principals also set October 1 as the starting time of practice for basketball teams not playing football and November 1 for those playing football. Up to that time cage teams have been practicing from the start of school, or shall we say from the end of one season until the start of the next. The only barrier to the schoolboy was that he couldn't play on an independent team after the season. The rule did not apply to intramural ball and that's where the basketball coach had his year-round opportunity. Even with the new rules the basketball season is six months for non-football schools and five months for football schools. What about track? Some schools over-emphasize their track programs far more than coaches emphasize football or basketball. There are practically no restrictions on track. They can work out the year round. Some of the larger schools around the state have facilities to work out indoors when the weather is bad. Usually these are the teams which always figure in the state meet "money."
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Wednesday, January 11, 1956
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio