The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
The 1923 Lorain team won the first official Ohio boys state title.
For a community that rightfully takes great pride in its basketball lineage, one notion seems ironic in a sense within the boundaries of Lorain.
Long hours have been spent in driveways, on playgrounds, in recreation centers and in schools for decades, dreaming of taking Lorain to the highest echelon of the sport.
But the truth is, perhaps the most important basketball in town hasn’t been touched for decades.
There it sits — weathered, crackling and worn — at the Lorain Sports Hall of Fame in a glass case at the high school, a reminder of a time long gone, but an accomplishment that weathers the years well.
It is the basketball from the day the 1922-23 Lorain boys basketball team reigned as Ohio’s first official state champion.
As the latest edition of the Lorain boys hoops team strives for state glory this weekend in Columbus, it’s a perfect time to harken back to its first team to arrive at that destination. Transitioning over
Lorain coach A.W. Collins had to wait for the football players to trade the gridiron for the hardwood, but he had plenty to decipher until they got there.
Around 150 boys showed up for the first week of basketball practice in November 1922, with another 30 expected from football. Between voluntary exits and Collins making cuts, he eventually got his roster to 25 for varsity and reserves.
Lorain featured just four returning lettermen from the winter prior — team captain Ralph Faris, Howard Ross, Mal McPhie and Johnny Alexander. McPhie and Alexander could play only half the year because they were due to graduate in January. Also making varsity were Al Grendow, George Van Arman, Roland Horn, Hiram Gove, Calvin McNutt and Clark King.
“With his squad of 25 men, Collins hopes to build a championship team, which will go through the season with as good a record as the football team which recently closed its season,” the Lorain Journal wrote.
The 1922-23 campaign marked the first with an Ohio High School Athletic Association-sponsored state tournament. An unofficial state tournament was played for 15 years prior, but not under OHSA A auspices.
It was impeccable timing for a memorable season on the shores of Lake Erie. Special season
Lorain opened its season against Berlin Heights, a returning state qualifier from the unofficial tournament the year before, and staved off the visitors, 15-13.
“The teams traveled at break-neck speed during the entire 40 minutes of play, keeping the large crowd which packed the gymnasium on its toes all the time,” the Journal reported.
Not including a pair of games against alumni, Lorain started the season 5-0 heading into league play in the old Little Big Seven. Highlights of that nonconference stretch were routs of Shaker Heights, Mansfield and Akron North. In a different era for transportation, Lorain drove to Mansfield but stayed overnight after a 43-22 victory, paced by Faris with 16 points.
“The Purple and Lavender lads showed their best last night, performing well in all branches of the game,” the Journal stated. “While Mansfield was able to hold them in check during the early part of the game, they weakened under the onslaught of the visitors and were soon smothered.”
During a practice before the Little Big Seven opener against Norwalk, McPhie and Alexander were given their fourth and final varsity basketball letters, then led a 29-18 win.
“While these two men will be lost to the squad, and their loss will be keenly felt, the Washington Avenue mentor has worked several other men into trim to fill their shoes,” the Journal wrote in January 1923.
Ross was moved from center to guard, Grendow found his groove as a scorer, and Lorain kept on rolling. Stretch run
There were a couple of hiccups — Lorain suffered its first loss to longtime league rival Bellevue, 37-28, and Grendow missed time due to a cracked rib.
There was also an issue unique to the archaic beginnings of basketball. Lorain had to adjust when it went to play elsewhere because its gym had an overhead running track that prevented shots from the sides.
At one point, Lorain had to use the Longfellow Middle School gym for practice so it didn’t always have to shoot straight on.
Despite all those challenges, Lorain went into the Class A sectional at Western Reserve University at 132, including turning away Elyria, 30-18, in its regular-season finale.
The loss to Bellevue proved to be Lorain’s last in Ohio that year. State charge
The top two advanced from the Class A Western Reserve Sectional, meaning Lorain had to win four games in a weekend to get to Columbus.
It nearly fell apart off the bat, but a Ross putback with four seconds left gave Lorain a 12-10 win over East Tech. Defensive lockdowns of Cleveland West (19-13) and Lakewood (15-9) followed, making a clash with Cathedral Latin its biggest game of the season.
Win, and join St. Ignatius as the Cleveland big-school entries in Columbus. Lose, and get ready for the spring.
Win it did, 25-11, to become co-sectional champion.
The first OHSAA state boys basketball tournament had a 16-team field in each of its two classes.
In order to win a state title in that era, four wins over two days were required. The first two came at Ohio State for Lorain over Ada, 15-13, and Marietta, 24-18, to get to the final four March 10, 1923.
At the Columbus Fairgrounds, Lorain dispatched Alliance, 19-11, to set up a chance for revenge. Coming out of the other half of the bracket was none other than Bellevue, the only varsity team to which Lorain fell in the regular season.
Down, 14-8, entering the fourth quarter, Lorain scored the game’s final seven points, including a basket by substitute Van Arman in the final seconds for a 15-14 victory and the state championship. Faris paced Lorain with nine points.
Lorain returned two days later to a hero’s welcome and had more games left. End game
Lorain received an invitation to play in a national tournament in Chicago featuring state champions and runners-up from across the country in April. It won its first game over Aurora (Minn.), 28-24, before falling in the single-elimination bracket to Windsor (Colo.), 31-25.
Counting all-star and alumni games, it capped a 23-3 season for Lorain. Grendow, who didn’t letter the year prior, led the squad with 199 points, including a tournament-high 32 in sectional.
The team eventually went semi-pro, representing the community around the region during the 1920’s. Ross was a trailblazer for his community at the high school and pro level, said to be the second AfricanAmerican player to ever appear in a pro game.
“From that time on, that team became close to the heart of every Lorain sports follower,” longtime Lorain journalist Jim Mahony said in a 1980s oral history preserved by Lorain Public Library. “The aftermath was that the Lorain Lions Club sponsored this team and this team performed with regularity at the Hotel Antlers.
“They’d put Lorain in the circuit because Lorain had a good sports following here, and the team was classy.”
They had put Lorain on the map in the basketball world.
While that basketball at the Lorain Sports Hall of Fame obviously can’t speak for itself, the impact of that day still speaks volumes as another edition at Lorain vies for state glory.
“It has already been heralded as the greatest season in history for basket at the Washington Avenue institution and the only one in which an outfit from here hopped over to Chicago and competed in the national tournament,” the Journal stated in April 1923. “When the curtain was rung down on the sport last week, it also marked the only year in which a Lavender and Purple five annexed a state title, which notice has already been posted innumerably.
“It was truly a great record to be hung up in the annals of the cage sport, and may there be many more like it.”