Right Down The Line - With Norm Singleton (2-15-58)

PHOTO: Port Washington Purple Riders - Bill Jones (Manager)
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WITH THE COUNTY tournament at hand it's time to dust off the record book. Strasburg is the current leader by about a mile in the number of tournament championships won. The Tigers, who grabbed their first trophy in 1923, first year of the tournament, have won 14 titles. Their last was in 1955. Three other times they were runnerups. Midvale, the current pre-tourney favorite, has salted away seven titles and on seven other occasions was second best. The Blue Devils are second only to Strasburg in the number of appearances in the finals. Gnadenhutten, which took the title last year, has won five crowns. Sugarcreek-Shanesville, now Garaway, captured four. Tuscarawas and Bolivar, now part of Tuscarawas Valley, two each and Stone Creek and Dennison one each. That leaves Baltic and Port Washington as the only teams which haven't won, excluding Tuscarawas Valley and Garaway. Baltic has appeared only twice in championship games and the Purple Riders have never been in the finals. However, Port did win the consolation championship in 1956. Year for biggest attendance of the tournament was in 1954 when 7,271 fans made it through the doors of Memorial Hall. That year Tuscarawas, with Terry Deems aboard, copped the championship, while Strasburg was runnerup and Baltic the consolation winner. The attendance in 1954 bested the mark of 7,268 in 1949 when Midvale bested Mineral City in the tourney finals and Sugarcreek-Shanesville walked off with the consy 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 Dover High's Jack Lengler in the 1950-1951 season against Coshocton was Memorial Hall's previous mark. Bates also went over the 44 points racked up by Jerry Von Kaenel of Strasburg against Midvale in the 1955 tournament.
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Wednesday, February 12, 1958
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio