All are invited to see it for free during the celebration set for 2 p.m. Sunday, May 30, in the Heritage Center of Clark County.
The program will include Dick Hatfield’s comments about a broadcast of the game available on CD, and remarks by both historian and SHS Class of 1950 graduate William Kinnison and team member and retired Springfield surgeon Bill Goettman.
A 10-minute film of the parade welcoming the players home will show not only the players, cheerleaders and tens of thousands of Springfielders lining the route, but also the background buildings as they stood in 1950.
“Some of these things have been shared with the community since 1970,” when the first reunion of team members occurred, said Pitzer, whose late father, Elwood, coached the team. (Dick Pitzer was not yet 6 months old when the Wildcats won the title.) “But for some of these things, it will be the first time they’re displayed.”
Today, offered as hors d’oeuvres before that main course, are snippets from the newspaper coverage of the Wildcats’ improbable 1950 tournament run Dick Pitzer has assembled.
‘Strictly average’ season turns magical
Entering the tournament, the Wildcats had what Springfield Daily News sports writer Bob Sullivan called a “strictly average” season. Their record was 11-7 and they’d gone 2-4 in their last six games.
• On their tournament run, they beat Troy, Sidney, Springfield Catholic Central, Xenia, Middletown, Hamilton, Mansfield and Akron South.
• A sense that the Wildcats might go somewhere came after the district title win over Xenia. The Tuesday, March 21, Springfield Daily News showed Art Gueth and Don “Spanky” Rinker, who stood in line starting at 11 p.m. Monday outside of Tiffany Gym to get tickets to the Friday regional game at Memorial Field House at Xavier.
• After a 40-34 come-from-behind win against Middletown, the Wildcats managed a 44-42 victory over defending state champion Hamilton, which had beaten them 55-33 and 54-43 during the regular season. Hamilton, however, was without its star big man Bob “Pappy” Smith, who was lost to injury.
• After beating Hamilton, Coach Pitzer said: “You know, it’s easy to say that some boys are the finest you have ever coached, when they win. But I tell you that this team is the finest bunch of boys I’ve ever worked with since I started coaching back in 1938.”
State tournament
The next week, the News-Sun ran this information under a photo: “Springfield High’s rampaging Wildcats got their first look at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum here Wednesday and impressed approximately 50 newsmen, photographers, electricians and carpenters with their height, poise and shooting ability.” They would face Mansfield that Friday.
• After 11 ties and lead changes in the first half, Bob Bronston and Chrystal “Boo” Ellis inched the Wildcats into the lead, then four “net strippers” by Bill Goettman and Jack Sallee in a minute and a half put Springfield into a lead they wouldn’t relinquish as they handily beat Mansfield, 60-48. Mansfield managed just two free throws in the third quarter.
• Columbus Dispatch reporter Lou Berliner offered some observations about the semifinal game:
When two Mansfield Tigers and a Wildcat sprawled onto the sidelines and a spectator got involved, “quick action on the part of officials and Officer Jerry Grady averted serious trouble.”
“Nat Murphy, who played a bang-up game for Springfield in the first half, didn’t see action in the regionals.
“The 65-piece Springfield band (accompanying the team) was under the leadership of Phil Botsford.
“Captain of the Springfield yell leaders is Lowell Horton. He is ably supported by Sylvia Ballentine, Phyllis Martin, Carole Ann Brown, Nancy Wear, Roseann Powers, Barbara Huffman and Lois Weinbrecht.
“Springfield probably had the largest student attendance in many a year. It seemed like the entire student body was on hand.”
“First Springfield rooter on the floor after the (semifinal) game was Jim McDonald, the school’s football coach. And it was a lusty pat on the back he gave each Wildcat as they walked from the floor.”
“Springfield’s winning Wildcats ... returned home immediately after the game. Coach Elwood figured a good night’s sleep away from the battle scene would be more beneficial for the boys.
Championship game
Although Akron entered the final game 18-3 and Springfield 18-7, long-time Dispatch reporter Paul Hornung said “talent-wealthy, fast-breaking Springfield will undoubtedly rate an edge over Akron South in the evening finale.
• “Elwood Pitzer, coach of the scrappy sharp-shooters from Springfield says, ‘These kids are going to be tough to lick. I think our chances are good against Akron, very much so.’ ”
• Daily News reporter Sullivan said in the title game played before 8,048 wild, screaming fans jammed in the Fairgrounds Coliseum, “the Wildcats faltered frequently but ... never folded.” With cold shooting, errant passes and defensive lapses, “the anguished moments the Wildcats caused their followers had many a grey hair popping out here and there.”
• In attendance were Coach Oliver Metheny and many members of the Wildcats’ 1925 state championship team.
• Charles Freeman scored 18 for Akron, and Ellis had 21 and Sallee 17 for the Wildcats as Springfield won 53-48.
After the win ...
News-Sun sports writer Dick Otte said “You could hear a pin drop in either dressing room ... A big smile and a soft thank you was the typical response” of the winners “to the congratulations offered by school officials and friends” after the win. “As in every game since the Middletown contest ... victory celebrations carried a subdued tone.”
• Goettman and Ellis were named to the Class A Tournament first team. Bill McKaig and Sallee were on the second team.
• In the celebration, team members harvested feathers from the bright red hat Betty Pitzer, the coach’s wife, wore through the tournament. “I didn’t dare to go to a game without it,” she said. “The boys were rather superstitious.”
• Not wanting to tempt fate, Coach Pitzer wore the same suit to every tournament game.
Tidbits
• A crowd of 750 appeared at the Wittenberg Field House to celebrate the state title. Keynote speaker was Nat Holman, basketball coach of the City College of New York team that had that year won both the NIT and NCAA tournaments.
• At a Lion’s Club appreciation banquet at the Hotel Shawnee, Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown said the consolidation of the National and All-America pro football leagues had put professional football on a sound business footing.
• The two celebrations brought Ohio Gov. Frank Lausche to Springfield twice in a 30-day period.
• Springfield Sun editorialist Maynard Kniskern called the team’s win a “many-sided victory:” a victory for the underdogs “against the dopesters;” a victory for the home town; a victory for organized sports, as “it would be hard to imagine a better example of team play and effective leadership;” and a victory for Elwood Pitzer, who not only showed that he could win a state title, but that “in his main job of molding character through athletics he can produce winners who are gentlemen as well as fighters.”
Added Kniskern: “That’s the biggest victory of all.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.
About the Author