BROWNS IN THE OHIO HIGH SCHOOL STATE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
By STEVE KING
The Ohio high school boys basketball state tournament begins on Thursday morning and continues through Saturday night at Value City Arena on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus.
I get it. You’re now asking, “So what, pray tell, does that have to do with the Browns, since brownsdailydose.com is kind of a Browns website?”
A lot, actually, and it’s all pretty cool.
The senior captain of the 1941 Class A (big-school) state champion Martins Ferry Purple Riders was All-Ohio center Lou Groza. Groza went on to play football at Ohio State – for only a short time, though, as World War II began shortly thereafter and the country needed his services even more than the Buckeyes did – but, when the war ended, he was recruited to the start-up Browns in the start-up All-America Football Conference by his OSU head coach, Paul Brown.
It worked out pretty well. The left tackle/kicker, who played a franchise-record 21 years for the Browns, is, of course, in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Riders, under head coach Floyd Baker, who had previously coached at arch rival Bridgeport, edged Xenia Central 36-34 in the semifinals and then topped Lakewood 37-30 in the championship game to complete a 27-2 season.
Speaking of Paul Brown, the Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach began his coaching career at his high school alma mater, Massillon. Brown built the Tigers into a national power in his time there from 1932-40.
But what you may not have realized is that Brown was also an outstanding basketball coach at Massillon. In fact, twice he took the Tigers to state, and both times they faced arch rival Canton McKinley.
In 1937, the Tigers beat McKinley 33-28 in the Class A semifinals but ended up losing 37-32 to Hamilton in the title game.
Then in 1940, McKinley got revenge by roaring past Massillon 46-14 in the Class A semifinals.
One of the teams that made it to the state tournament in 1940 but failed to qualify for the semifinals was none other than Martins Ferry, with a junior star by the name of Lou Groza.
Enjoy the tournament.
