Touch football big deal in the 50s

Today our sentimental journey is taking us to 1952 for another look at the sports page of the Marion Star.

Our first item appeared Monday Nov. 3, 1952 with the headline: “Forest Lawn Whips Pearl For Gra-Y League Crown”.

Forest Lawn’s touch football team captured the YMCA Gra-Y touch football city championship Saturday afternoon at McKinley Park by defeating Pearl Street 34-6.

Although Pearl struck first for a score early in the first quarter, Forest Lawn proved to have too much height and speed for the losing McKinley League Champions. Mike Chamberlain hit Dick Wygle of Pearl with a 20 yard pass, which Wygle caught and ran untouched 50 yards for the first touchdown scored against Forest lawn this year. Pearl’s 6-0 lead was short lived, however, as Steve Flesher took the kick-off and ran 60 yards along the sidelines to tie the game. Flesher’s pass to Ballenger in the end-zone pushed the champs to a 7-6 lead which was never challenged.

Forest Lawn added 13 points in the second quarter when Flesher heaved a long pass to Ballenger good for 40 yards and a score. Several plays later Harl Evans intercepted a Pearl pass and ran it over to give the winners a 20-6 lead at the half. Flesher added another touchdown in the third period on a 10-yard sweep around end and then figured in the final score of the afternoon by pitching to Wally White who snared the pass while standing all alone in the end zone.

Forest Lawn and Pearl will meet Friday at the half of the Harding-Sandusky game for a half-time demonstration. Glenwood, runner-up in the McKinley League, will also appear in the demonstration.

Our next item appeared in the Marion Star Monday February 25, 1952, with this headline. “Morral Takes Tournament Finals, 52-23; Pleasant Wins.”

And the sub headline read “3,200 Fans Witness Final Tourney Session.”

Any doubt about the Morral Wildcats’ supremacy in Marion County basketball circles was completely erased Saturday night when Coach Norm Weston’s proteges outclassed a New Bloomington five that stalled before it could get started. The tall Wildcats controlled both backboards all evening and surprisingly outsped the losers to a 53-23 tune before the largest crowd in tournament history, an estimated 3,200 fans. Over 2,800 paid their way into the Coliseum.

The Pleasant Pandas turned back a fighting Claridon Hornet quintet, 44-35, in the consolation finals and earn a berth in the Westerville Class B District meet, along with the two finalists.

County Superintendent D. T. Mills presented tournament and league trophies to the respective teams following tourney action.

Scoring two of its eight field goals in the first minutes of action, New Bloomington held short-lived leads of 2-0 and 4-2 before the Morral attack got underway, and from that point on the Bloomingtonians didn’t seem to be able to buy a basket.

With Ron Craycraft scoring six times on rebounds and tip-in shots Morral jumped to a 16-5 quarter domination and was never in trouble thereafter. Big Ron finished the evening with 24 points for scoring honors. Brother John Craycraft gave him plenty of assistance around the basket as he scored 13 points and Huston Ackley followed with nine.

Ted Murphy returned to the starting line-up for Morral and gave the Wildcats the spirit they have lacked in recent encounters. Morral led, 27-12, at halftime and were 40-19 in the van when the final quarter opened.

The vaunted fast break of Coach Harry Alexander’s charges didn’t make its appearance as Morral turned the tables and performed most of the speeding and fast-breaking. The losers couldn’t get the lid off the basket. The tight Morral zone defense prevented them from working the ball under the basket, and when they did get it in their shots were blocked by the rangy Wildcats.

From the free throw line they were just as ineffective, meshing but seven of 21 attempts while Morral scored on seven of 13 charity attempts.

Jim Moury topped New Bloomington with seven points. Dwight Harruff totaled six, Bill Persinger four, David Johnson three, John James two and Doug Tron one.

Rounding out the Morral scoring were Jim Parker seven, Ted Murphy two and Junior Bell with one.

Except for two occasions in the second period when the score was tied at 10-10 and 16-16 Pleasant led all the way against Claridon. Ahead 10-7 at the quarter and only 20-18 at halftime, the Pandas pulled into the driver’s seat 30-21 in the third quarter.

Trailing 38-31 with but three minutes remaining, the Hornets meshed two quick baskets to narrow the deficit to 38-35 and send the Coliseum crowd into an uproar. That was the end of the road for Claridon, however, and Pleasant scored six more points to win 44-35.

Claridon caught Pleasant when the Panda’s high-scoring Dale Kinsell was having trouble finding the range, but they failed to reckon with Bernard Martin who pushed in eight goals from the field and a pair of free throws for 18 points. Bob Swearingen scored nine and Kinsell only six points.

Lon Earl with 10 points was high for Herb Bennett’s crew. Most of his points came from under the basket as his teammate Paul Augenstein spent most of the evening trying to work the ball under to him. Jack Griffiths scored nine and Ray Price eight for Claridon.

The Augenstein-Earl combination looked quite effective at times, exhibiting some of the sharpest passing of the evening. The Hornets were way off from the foul line, however, as they could score only seven times in 17 tosses. Pleasant dropped eight shots through 11 charity attempts.

Both games were well-played from a sportsmanship angle. Officials Bob Harmon and John Kuenzli commended all four teams for their clean play.

High school bands from Claridon, Pleasant, Morral and New Bloomington provided spirited musical entertainment throughout the evening.

Phil Reid writes about history in Marion County.