The Panthers’ rise

(Con­tin­ued from last week)

York won it’s sixth straight and 21st win of the sea­son in deci­sion­ing Ada 47–41 in the dis­trict opener.

In the hec­tic final min­utes of play with the score knot­ted at 38–38, Larry Bow­er­sox put the Pan­thers up by two. Ada tied it at 40 sec­onds later. Jerry Bogner put York up for good with a free throw, Hay­ward and John­son stretched the lead to 45–40 with Hay­ward con­nect­ing on a tap-in.

Ada scored the final point on a free throw in the final sec­onds. York cap­tured its sec­ond Dis­trict title in four years with a 57–41 win over Lake­side. Hay­ward, Bogner and Rich Zieber were in dou­ble fig­ures to lead the Pan­ther attack. And for the sec­ond time in four years York made it to the regionals.

The Pan­thers squared off against Gomer in the opener. Paced by Bud Hayward’s 12 points and Jerry Bogner’s with six, York took a 21–11 lead at the end of the first period and hung on to win 54–47. With two min­utes to go, York held a slim 50–46 lead.

Gomer’s Bruce Roberts and Dave Kesler made just one of five attempts from the free throw line, while hold­ing the Pan­thers score­less. Johnson’s tap-in with 22 ticks on the clock, at the :05 mark Jerry Bogner con­nected on two free throws, and the Pan­thers were in the regional finals for the first time.

The Pan­thers, only one game away from their first Class A state tour­na­ment appear­ance and in their first regional title game, squared off against Pet­tisville. The Black­birds 20–5 shaded West­ern Reserve 71–63 then coached by Elvin “Ike” Fer­res, a mem­ber of Bellevue’s “Whiz Kids,” the 1945 state bas­ket­ball champions.

Gwin’s Pan­thers showed 2,300 fans at Shawnee High School in Lima, a dis­play of team work, that was a York trade­mark. Two big peri­ods sent York into the state finals as they tripped Pet­tisville 69–62. With all five starters click­ing, the Pan­thers raced to a 19–7 lead at the first quar­ter break. The Black­birds began mount­ing a come­back but York led at the inter­mis­sion 34–23. Pet­tisville found the range in the third canto and outscored the Pan­thers 23–10 to take a 46–44 lead into the final frame.

The Black­birds extended their lead by six at the out-set. Bogner’s two long bombs and Hay­wards lay-in on the end of a fast break tied it at 50–50, Richmond’s tap-in put the Pan­thers up by two, but the Black­birds knot­ted the count at 52–52 at the halfway mark. Hay­ward, Zieber and John­son scored to put the Pan­thers up 58–52 at the three-minute mark. A Pet­tisville score was coun­tered by Zieber’s fast break lay-in and the Pan­thers were never headed.

Bob Gwin, coach, turned into Bob Gwin, ath­letic direc­tor, on Mon­day morn­ing and began sell­ing tick­ets to the state Class A finals at St. John’s arena in Columbus.

On Tues­day of that event-filled week, Gwin was given the high­est honor a coach could earn. He was named Class A “Coach of the Year” by the Asso­ci­ated Press. In a four-year span (1960–64) Gwin posted a 81–12 record. His over-all 10-year record at York was 155–67. Another honor came to one of his play­ers. sopho­more sen­sa­tion Gary John­son was named All-Ohio, Hon­or­able Mention.

The Tour­na­ment Trail, often called the Heart­break Trail, ended when the Jack­son Cen­ter Tigers eked out a 44–40 win. The Tigers put their best Foote (Marv) for­ward with two clutch free throws with :10 to give them a 42–38 lead. Bogner’s jumper nar­rowed the count 42–40 with six sec­onds left. The Tigers added two free throws at the buzzer.

The Pan­thers 24–3 record was the best ever by a York team.

A huge throng of area and local fans lined Belleuve’s Main St. to wel­come the York Pan­thers on their return from the state tour­na­ment. The Belle­vue Gazette head­lined their story with — “York’s Pan­thers Told ‘You’re Our Cham-pions.’”

Mayor William C. Tran­sue, in con­grat­u­lat­ing the team and their coaches, pre­sented the key to the city to Coach Gwin. The parade included bands from Belle­vue, Thomp­son and Townsend.

The York gym was packed to capac­ity by appre­cia­tive fans, school offi­cials, York Town­ship offi­cials and a del­e­ga­tion of the Belle­vue Cham­ber of Com­merce. Each of the group’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive heaped praises upon Gwin, his assis­tant and for­mer Pan­ther star Eddie Weller, and the Pan­ther squad for their out­stand­ing achievements.

(To be continued)

———

Belle­vue His­to­rian Bill Oddo writes a weekly col­umn for The Belle­vue Gazette.

Posted by Becky Brooks on Feb 24 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.