Best DEAD Rivalries (or rivalries of the past...)

Cinciirish said:
The '68 Struthers vs Ursuline tilt was actually in week 11 as that was an option in those days if your team wanted (or had to have) a bye. Mooney had used week 11 in previous years to play Canton Central Catholic. Along with the Irish, the Cards competed against CCC for a mythical Diocesan championship. In week 10 that year Ursuline visited Boardman for their inaugural game. I remember the freezing winds that whipped around Spartan Stadium that cold night. Boardman rolled, 21-0 and very few gave UHS much of a chance against Struthers at Rayen a week later.

Wasn't Mogulich himself from Struthers? I know St. Nicholas was a major Mooney feeder.

The Irish & CCC met annually from 1945-1967 but have only faced off a few times since. In those days THAT was the big Diocesan showdown but all of that changed after the arrival of Mooney (for Ursuline) and Aquinas (for Central). The Youngstown Diocese was formed off of Cleveland by Pius XII in 1943 at the height of WW2. Mooney, Aquinas, JFK, St. Christine, and many others kept Bishop Walsh busy in those days dedicating a new school or parish church most every weekend. This was true of Dioceses throughout the US. In the Cincinnati Archdiocese Moeller, LaSalle, McNicholas, McAuley, Marian, Fenwick, Kettering Alter, & Dayton Carroll were among the many that kept the Archbishop blessing and dedicating most weekends. Truly a different time.

Other meetings that have practically evaporated were Brookfield vs. SVC foes. I think the Warriors were members for under a decade and in-over- their-heads in football. I know they had great BB teams along with their archrival Hubbard in the mid 60s. The Warriors leaving the league in '68 allowed the parochials to slide into open SVC slots when they had to scramble for games in '68. I don't think that Brookfield has played former conference foes Fitch, Boardman, or Struthers since.
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His older brother Joe was a teacher, head football coach and for a time the AD at Struthers, but they were from the south side. St. Stanislaus if I remember correctly.

While St. Nicholas was, and I guess to a much lesser extent still is, a feeder school for Mooney, and several of the kids that went to Mooney from there were from Struthers, I think a majority of the St. Nick's kids that went on to Mooney lived in the Brownlee Woods section of the south side, which was in the Wilson public school district. It is now part of the East public school district as Wilson no longer exists as a high school.

Brookfield was definitely in over their head in football in the SVC. The Warriors were admitted to the league in 1959 but I believe they were only eligible for the SVC title from the 1961-1968 football seasons. I think they had an SVC record of 9-43-1 in that time in the league, that includes a 3-2 record against SVC teams for the 1959 & 60 seasons. They have played Struthers a few times since then but very sporadically. I think it was twice in the 80s and then twice in the 2010s.
 
YTOWN said:
His older brother Joe was a teacher, head football coach and for a time the AD at Struthers, but they were from the south side. St. Stanislaus if I remember correctly.

While St. Nicholas was, and I guess to a much lesser extent still is, a feeder school for Mooney, and several of the kids that went to Mooney from there were from Struthers, I think a majority of the St. Nick's kids that went on to Mooney lived in the Brownlee Woods section of the south side, which was in the Wilson public school district. It is now part of the East public school district as Wilson no longer exists as a high school.

Brookfield was definitely in over their head in football in the SVC. The Warriors were admitted to the league in 1959 but I believe they were only eligible for the SVC title from the 1961-1968 football seasons. I think they had an SVC record of 9-43-1 in that time in the league, that includes a 3-2 record against SVC teams for the 1959 & 60 seasons. They have played Struthers a few times since then but very sporadically. I think it was twice in the 80s and then twice in the 2010s.
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I listened with great interest to either Don Gardner or Denny Barrett broadcast the Chaney-Mooney game in '67 and recall hearing the Mogulich name over and over again. Of course we at Ursuline were thrilled that Chaney won. Ursuline, too, welcomed a good number of students from the "nationality parishes" such as St. Joseph the Provider, St. John the Baptist, and St. Elizabeth all in Campbell. Our big feeders were St. Christine & St. Edward. As a matter of fact, St. Ed's still had a junior high as late as '68-'69 to lighten the load at 750 Wick Ave. The school was built for 1200 had had an enrollment of near 2000 in '67-'68.

My mother grew up in Brownlee Woods but was born in Poland at a time when Catholics weren't particularly welcomed there. She and six siblings walked across Center St. bridge in the midst of the open hearth to Sacred Heart every day. On Sundays in ice and snow the Irish kids were permitted at St. Matthias but had to have a dime for a pew and recite the Hail Mary in Slovak.

Only in Youngstown.
 
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The Dock said:
Newark Catholic vs Fisher Catholic is, in some regards, a 'dead' rivalry in football. Had some good games in the 90's and 00's.

I unofficially characterize it on here, and with some pals up in sunny Newark, as the "season-killer" rivalry since they often square off against each other in the district tournament for so many sports.
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IMO Fisher's relevance in football died after Week 5 of the 2007 season. Oddly, they beat eventual state champion Newark Catholic in the same year.
 
The Dock said:
Newark Catholic vs Fisher Catholic is, in some regards, a 'dead' rivalry in football. Had some good games in the 90's and 00's.

I unofficially characterize it on here, and with some pals up in sunny Newark, as the "season-killer" rivalry since they often square off against each other in the district tournament for so many sports.
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IMO Fisher's relevance in football died after Week 5 of the 2007 season. Oddly they beat eventual state champ NC the same year.
 
LCL said:
IMO Fisher's relevance in football died after Week 5 of the 2007 season. Oddly they beat eventual state champ NC the same year.
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To the FC program’s credit, eight playoff appearances between ‘93 and ‘06. Five wins against NC b/w ‘93 and ‘07. Decent cradle of Central OH football coaches with ties to the program from the 90’s (Jeff Buchanan, Jack Hatem and Mark Crabtree.) It didn’t begin-and-end with week five that year — it’s just the beginning of the end.

That five wins against NC statistic I mentioned… in the abstract it sounds trivial. In the context of that timeframe, regular season league wins (*) in ‘04 and ‘05. Playoffs ‘06; non-conf week 3 ‘07.

(*) — of course, when you have three peer schools in Fairfield County who are sick of losing to NC to the point they’ll run ‘em out… our advocacy for the sister school ends the moment BU, LU and MP admins sing unison “you can join them too. 🎵” So that horse-trade of NC and West Jeff coming in to replace the ‘Wave wasn’t accidental. They could’ve sent Heights over, instead, but, again, administrators who have no concept of future sprawl and zero ability to read the writing on the wall picked the path of “screw it.” It’s ironic as all hell, because if you line up…

LH
HP
WJ
NC

…the school that BU, LU, MP (and by extension FC) was always most capable of beating in mid-00’s, ‘10s, last few years and the foreseeable future is NC. Obviously, you have to subtract HP under the Jack Johnson saga out of this for various reasons.

There’s other general factors that relate to the decline in football prowess, but when you have a sharp enrollment decline and you’re facing more-equipped programs amid that decline (LH, WJ, Dan Johnson’s best teams at LU and reinvigorated Grandview Heights) those years are a recipe for getting drilled into the ground. Which, accelerated the decline.

One could argue that, despite the fact it isn’t the 90’s and 00’s anymore, the spirit of the football program at its epoch lives on in the athletic department wholesale at the school. Very horizontal approach to athletics where the ratio of sports to kids is, like, 1:10. Them and NC are usually the two most consistent schools at the district final stage year over year across all sports. Smallest school in the league, but probably has the best athletic program across the board within it and has from the beginning ten years ago.
 
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The Dock said:
To the FC program’s credit, eight playoff appearances between ‘93 and ‘06. Five wins against NC b/w ‘93 and ‘07. Decent cradle of Central OH football coaches with ties to the program from the 90’s (Jeff Buchanan, Jack Hatem and Mark Crabtree.) It didn’t begin-and-end with week five that year — it’s just the beginning of the end.

That five wins against NC statistic I mentioned… in the abstract it sounds trivial. In the context of that timeframe, regular season league wins (*) in ‘04 and ‘05. Playoffs ‘06; non-conf week 3 ‘07.

(*) — of course, when you have three peer schools in Fairfield County who are sick of losing to NC to the point they’ll run ‘em out… our advocacy for the sister school ends the moment BU, LU and MP admins sing unison “you can join them too. 🎵” So that horse-trade of NC and West Jeff coming in to replace the ‘Wave wasn’t accidental. They could’ve sent Heights over, instead, but, again, administrators who have no concept of future sprawl and zero ability to read the writing on the wall picked the path of “screw it.” It’s ironic as all hell, because if you line up…

LH
HP
WJ
NC

…the school that BU, LU, MP (and by extension FC) was always most capable of beating in mid-00’s, ‘10s, last few years and the foreseeable future is NC. Obviously, you have to subtract HP under the Jack Johnson saga out of this for various reasons.

There’s other general factors that relate to the decline in football prowess, but when you have a sharp enrollment decline and you’re facing more-equipped programs amid that decline (LH, WJ, Dan Johnson’s best teams at LU and reinvigorated Grandview Heights) those years are a recipe for getting drilled into the ground. Which, accelerated the decline.
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Yea, LU had some good teams. WJ replacing NC didnt change much of the balance of the old MSL Cardinal. LH probably shouldve been sent to the Ohio, but from a competetive standpoint it didn't make any sense. Up until the late 2000s, LH wasnt very good at all. FC and NC were the class of the League.

Honestly, when NC left I figured they'd bring in a MBC team like Johnstown, Northridge, Utica or Centerburg. Johnstown already played LH every year it seemed. Would've more sense to me to add another Licking County school considering the travel to WJ was terrible. Cant imagine what a trip from Sugar Grove to WJ would be like in the middle of the week. WJ belonged in the Ohio really, but geographically they didnt really fit anywhere. The '05 WJ team didnt even beat a team with a winning record and Grandview beat them 54-7, so that probably gave them leverage to being in the Cardinal where they just dominated every year.

The MSL-Cardinal post NC was composed of Division 5 & 6 schools, with LH being a D4 school before enrollment moved them up to D3 in 2009, then D2 in 2011. Their quick increase in enrollment during that span really didnt show itself competetively. Becoming a D2 school didnt mean they automatically became the best team. In fact, they didnt win league until their final year in 2012.
 
The Dock said:
So that horse-trade of NC and West Jeff coming in to replace the ‘Wave wasn’t accidental. They could’ve sent Heights over, instead, but, again, administrators who have no concept of future sprawl and zero ability to read the writing on the wall picked the path of “screw it.”
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Who wouldve replaced LH in the MSL Cardinal if they sent them to the Ohio? WJ or still or another punching bag for NC like Fairfield Christian, Miller, Rosecrans? In hindsight NC belonged competing in the Ohio just as much as WJ shouldnt have been in the Cardinal for geographic reasons alone.
 
These have been mentioned but I wanted to comment on it.

Cathedral Latin had some very interesting Cleveland-centric matchups. Benedictine-Latin was very much a neighborhood rivalry as outlined on page 3. With the Charity Game, Latin vs. Holy Name became a strong rivalry, Holy Name ended Latin's win streak at the Charity Game in epic fashion in 1947. Latin traveled to Waco, TX to play a game in like 1926 and routinely traveled to Massillon in the 30s and 40s. CL is an example of not adapting as a Catholic school with changing neighborhoods. After WW2 they never really recaptured their golden era, with a revolving door of head coaches and downed enrollments. Interestingly enough, compared with Benedictine you do wonder how was Latin mismanaged as the Bengals remained consistent and built a powerhouse of a program under Augie Bossu. Hudak's book is a good read, despite any biases he may have. He isn't the greatest writer but he is the one who did the work.

Ed's-Joe's was always a great rivalry. You had the East side vs West side dynamic at play but they were more similar than they were different. Ed's, founded in 1949 in Lakewood, Joe's founded in the early 50s on the border of Cleveland and Euclid. Both founded by independent orders, both serving similar populations in similar areas from the 50s through the 80s. Both all boys. Joe's still holds the W/L record against Ed's even when counting the VASJ games in the early 90s. Ed's football history has shown that it has never had a head coach for longer than 9 years I think, interesting for a storied program with a lot of success. St. Joe's had Bill Gutbrod, who was their only coach. At the height of the Crown Conference, the Ed's-Joe's games were hotly contested and that remained true through the 80s.

Ed's-Lakewood is an interesting game that no longer happens. It was always early in the season and Lakewood became Sisyphus, trying so hard, bringing a hostile crowd and usually losing a close game. This game totally changed when Gibbons took over and the scores went from like 15-8 and 10-2 to like 56-0. Even a playoff bound Rangers team in 2003 (went 8-2 with their only losses coming to Mentor and Ed's) lost 34-7 to the Eagles. After '04, Lakewood stopped the game.

A short-lived rivalry of the early to mid 2000s was Ed's and Warren Harding. After getting completely run over by the Raiders (and Maurice Clarett) in 2001, WGH won an epic playoff game the next year 18-16. Ed's lost one more time in the regular season the next year in OT before turning the tables in the playoffs with an upset in 2003. Ed's swept them the next year with a blowout at Mollenkopf Stadium and then a great 27-24 game in the first round of the playoffs. Harding upset the Eagles in '06 with a 7-3 game at Cleveland Stadium in the playoffs, ending the John Gibbons era.
 
Along the same regional lines as WGH v Ed's would be Benny v Mooney. Was a constant on the schedule for decades and the series record was relatively close. Not sure why it was dropped other than when Benny got into the short lived NCL they were full in the 2nd half of the year.
 
Auggie said:
Along the same regional lines as WGH v Ed's would be Benny v Mooney. Was a constant on the schedule for decades and the series record was relatively close. Not sure why it was dropped other than when Benny got into the short lived NCL they were full in the 2nd half of the year.
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Series stands at 12-9 Mooney. Last regular season game was played in 2010 but they did split two playoff games since then. I would like to see the series resumed.
 
The East Liverpool Potters were a NE Ohio power back in the day, but the city has fallen on hard times and so have the Potters. Beginning in the '70s EL has lost 2/3 of its population --- another rust belt victim whose glory days are in the past. Once they could compete regularly with the likes of Alliance, Boardman, Steubenville, Mooney, Ursuline...
 
Steubenville vs. Steubenville Central Catholic met annually from 1943-2000 (57 straight years) but haven't met since.
 
WJ-OSU-STEELERS said:
I never attend a game between these two but a big Columbus City League tilt was Brookhaven vs Beechcroft. Brookhaven was closed by CPS probably 10 years ago.
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Northland / Brookhaven was a much longer North end rivalry and Northland was closer to Brookhaven by a couple of miles. All of those matchups Northland vs Brookhaven / Beechcroft , Brookhaven vs Northland / Beechcroft or Beechcroft vs NL / Brookhaven drew big crowds and show cased some of the best talent the City had to offer. Even Mifflin would rise up and challenge those 3 some years. Throw in DeSales and the North End had a abundance of Friday night Talent in the 80's and early 90's . DeSales vs Brookhaven or Beechcroft had some epic games as well and drew huge crowds.
 
sehs said:
These have been mentioned but I wanted to comment on it.

Cathedral Latin had some very interesting Cleveland-centric matchups. Benedictine-Latin was very much a neighborhood rivalry as outlined on page 3. With the Charity Game, Latin vs. Holy Name became a strong rivalry, Holy Name ended Latin's win streak at the Charity Game in epic fashion in 1947. Latin traveled to Waco, TX to play a game in like 1926 and routinely traveled to Massillon in the 30s and 40s. CL is an example of not adapting as a Catholic school with changing neighborhoods. After WW2 they never really recaptured their golden era, with a revolving door of head coaches and downed enrollments. Interestingly enough, compared with Benedictine you do wonder how was Latin mismanaged as the Bengals remained consistent and built a powerhouse of a program under Augie Bossu. Hudak's book is a good read, despite any biases he may have. He isn't the greatest writer but he is the one who did the work.

Ed's-Joe's was always a great rivalry. You had the East side vs West side dynamic at play but they were more similar than they were different. Ed's, founded in 1949 in Lakewood, Joe's founded in the early 50s on the border of Cleveland and Euclid. Both founded by independent orders, both serving similar populations in similar areas from the 50s through the 80s. Both all boys. Joe's still holds the W/L record against Ed's even when counting the VASJ games in the early 90s. Ed's football history has shown that it has never had a head coach for longer than 9 years I think, interesting for a storied program with a lot of success. St. Joe's had Bill Gutbrod, who was their only coach. At the height of the Crown Conference, the Ed's-Joe's games were hotly contested and that remained true through the 80s.

Ed's-Lakewood is an interesting game that no longer happens. It was always early in the season and Lakewood became Sisyphus, trying so hard, bringing a hostile crowd and usually losing a close game. This game totally changed when Gibbons took over and the scores went from like 15-8 and 10-2 to like 56-0. Even a playoff bound Rangers team in 2003 (went 8-2 with their only losses coming to Mentor and Ed's) lost 34-7 to the Eagles. After '04, Lakewood stopped the game.

A short-lived rivalry of the early to mid 2000s was Ed's and Warren Harding. After getting completely run over by the Raiders (and Maurice Clarett) in 2001, WGH won an epic playoff game the next year 18-16. Ed's lost one more time in the regular season the next year in OT before turning the tables in the playoffs with an upset in 2003. Ed's swept them the next year with a blowout at Mollenkopf Stadium and then a great 27-24 game in the first round of the playoffs. Harding upset the Eagles in '06 with a 7-3 game at Cleveland Stadium in the playoffs, ending the John Gibbons era.
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In regards to Latin-Benedictine,you answered your own question. Latin kept changing coaches after Herb Eisele left. Joe Rufus turned the tables on Latin starting in 1948,winning 6 of 7 games,before becoming Athletic Director,and tuning the coaching reigns over to coach Bossu in 1955. Coach Bossu stayed at Benny into the 90's.He also had the same assistants for years. Just seems like Benny had the more stable program.
 
DRB84 said:
In regards to Latin-Benedictine,you answered your own question. Latin kept changing coaches after Herb Eisele left. Joe Rufus turned the tables on Latin starting in 1948,winning 6 of 7 games,before becoming Athletic Director,and tuning the coaching reigns over to coach Bossu in 1955. Coach Bossu stayed at Benny into the 90's.He also had the same assistants for years. Just seems like Benny had the more stable program.
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I guess I would think there was more going on. Benedictine had to deal with changing neighborhoods and working class Catholics moving out too yet they remain and Latin closed in '78. It's just interesting to me. I do think Bossu's longevity and consistency played a big role in it all. All the more impressive is the point I made about St. Ed's and their own coaching changes. Don't get me wrong, Ed's has had some phenomenal coaches (Marcin coached in the pros, Currence became a long time Massillon coach, O'Neil is a Hall of Fame coach but spent the last part of his career at Ed's). I thought Flaherty had the worst luck for a successful coach, his '78 team was really good but a strike cost them a game and they missed the playoffs. They gave Moeller a hell of a game that year but he was out as a head coach after '83. For more modern coaches, McQuaide was there the longest surprisingly. I wouldn't be shocked if Lombo eventually beats that, his staff has been more or less the same and he's by far been the most successful.
 
lancaster90 said:
I have lived in Lancaster nearly all my life and did not now that BIS had a football team. Here is a question, how many reform schools not just in Ohio but around the country either has or had football teams? And no, private Military Schools like Fork Union do not count.
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Summit Academy in PA. Foothill in Albuquerque, NM.

Famously, Gainesville State in Texas.

www.espn.com

Rick Reilly: Gainesville State high school football gets the best gift of all: hope

There are some games in which cheering for the other side feels better than winning.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
sehs said:
I guess I would think there was more going on. Benedictine had to deal with changing neighborhoods and working class Catholics moving out too yet they remain and Latin closed in '78. It's just interesting to me. I do think Bossu's longevity and consistency played a big role in it all. All the more impressive is the point I made about St. Ed's and their own coaching changes. Don't get me wrong, Ed's has had some phenomenal coaches (Marcin coached in the pros, Currence became a long time Massillon coach, O'Neil is a Hall of Fame coach but spent the last part of his career at Ed's). I thought Flaherty had the worst luck for a successful coach, his '78 team was really good but a strike cost them a game and they missed the playoffs. They gave Moeller a hell of a game that year but he was out as a head coach after '83. For more modern coaches, McQuaide was there the longest surprisingly. I wouldn't be shocked if Lombo eventually beats that, his staff has been more or less the same and he's by far been the most successful.
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I remember going to that 78 Eds-Moeller game.Great game. Didn't know that the longest a coach stayed at Eds was only 9 years.Denny Marcin was a Benny grad. I would say that Lombardo is currently the best coach in the area. He's won at 3 different schools,and turned Eds into a machine.
 
sehs said:
I guess I would think there was more going on. Benedictine had to deal with changing neighborhoods and working class Catholics moving out too yet they remain and Latin closed in '78. It's just interesting to me. I do think Bossu's longevity and consistency played a big role in it all. All the more impressive is the point I made about St. Ed's and their own coaching changes. Don't get me wrong, Ed's has had some phenomenal coaches (Marcin coached in the pros, Currence became a long time Massillon coach, O'Neil is a Hall of Fame coach but spent the last part of his career at Ed's). I thought Flaherty had the worst luck for a successful coach, his '78 team was really good but a strike cost them a game and they missed the playoffs. They gave Moeller a hell of a game that year but he was out as a head coach after '83. For more modern coaches, McQuaide was there the longest surprisingly. I wouldn't be shocked if Lombo eventually beats that, his staff has been more or less the same and he's by far been the most successful.
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The Marists made a huge mistake closing Cathedral Latin, looking at their location today it is basically in the heart of a vibrant University Circle and the Cleveland Clinic footprint. Heck the Opportunity Corridor, which has helped Benny a bit, dumps right to the back door of the old Cathedral Latin campus. Benedictine on the other hand is in a real tough place, especially with the current state of Buckeye Rd. and St. Luke's gone. I will give the Monks credit, they take a vow of stability and they stay with it; they have planted roots in the neighborhood and are not going anywhere. Now if their numbers continue to dwindle and the Monks still around get tired of dealing with the hassles they may just close shop, merging with a Beaumont is not their style. Time will tell...
 
Auggie said:
The Marists made a huge mistake closing Cathedral Latin, looking at their location today it is basically in the heart of a vibrant University Circle and the Cleveland Clinic footprint. Heck the Opportunity Corridor, which has helped Benny a bit, dumps right to the back door of the old Cathedral Latin campus. Benedictine on the other hand is in a real tough place, especially with the current state of Buckeye Rd. and St. Luke's gone. I will give the Monks credit, they take a vow of stability and they stay with it; they have planted roots in the neighborhood and are not going anywhere. Now if their numbers continue to dwindle and the Monks still around get tired of dealing with the hassles they may just close shop, merging with a Beaumont is not their style. Time will tell...
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Latin was run by Marianist order,which was located in Dayton. They didn't have the Cleveland roots the Benedictine monks have. But,I agree the University Circle-Little Italy area is thriving now.But at the time of the closing,who knew it would improve like it has.
 
DRB84 said:
Latin was run by Marianist order,which was located in Dayton. They didn't have the Cleveland roots the Benedictine monks have. But,I agree the University Circle-Little Italy area is thriving now.But at the time of the closing,who knew it would improve like it has.
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The Marianists were appointed by the Archbishop of Cincinnati to staff Purcell & Moeller as well as Chaminade in Dayton. They also staffed Covington Catholic across the river in Ky. Their headquarters is at Mt. St. John in Dayton. Chaminade (now Chaminade-Julienne or "CJ") is just down the street from UD. The University of Dayton is one of theirs as well. They no longer have a presence in the high schools because of the vocation crisis, but Purcell, Moeller, Cov Cath, & CJ all still claim the Marianist "charism." The last Marianist left "CJ" last June. In Cleveland they had both Latin & St. Joseph high schools. Several parishes in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati were staffed by the Marianists but they gave them back to the Archdiocese because they no longer have the numbers. I suspect that the same was true in the Diocese of Cleveland.
 
Stow-Cuyahoga Falls (although it hasn’t been competitive in a long time across the board) is another long running rivalry…..unfortunately w/ Falls’ athletics being at the point of no return and then being in the SL American, games against them will probably end up like the ones played against Kent nowadays in baseball or basketball….just another game on the schedule
 
TCSoup said:
Northland / Brookhaven was a much longer North end rivalry and Northland was closer to Brookhaven by a couple of miles. All of those matchups Northland vs Brookhaven / Beechcroft , Brookhaven vs Northland / Beechcroft or Beechcroft vs NL / Brookhaven drew big crowds and show cased some of the best talent the City had to offer. Even Mifflin would rise up and challenge those 3 some years. Throw in DeSales and the North End had an abundance of Friday night Talent in the 80's and early 90's . DeSales vs Brookhaven or Beechcroft had some epic games as well and drew huge crowds.
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Man Brookhaven produced athletes! Why exactly did they close down
 
YTOWN said:
His older brother Joe was a teacher, head football coach and for a time the AD at Struthers, but they were from the south side. St. Stanislaus if I remember correctly.

While St. Nicholas was, and I guess to a much lesser extent still is, a feeder school for Mooney, and several of the kids that went to Mooney from there were from Struthers, I think a majority of the St. Nick's kids that went on to Mooney lived in the Brownlee Woods section of the south side, which was in the Wilson public school district. It is now part of the East public school district as Wilson no longer exists as a high school.

Brookfield was definitely in over their head in football in the SVC. The Warriors were admitted to the league in 1959 but I believe they were only eligible for the SVC title from the 1961-1968 football seasons. I think they had an SVC record of 9-43-1 in that time in the league, that includes a 3-2 record against SVC teams for the 1959 & 60 seasons. They have played Struthers a few times since then but very sporadically. I think it was twice in the 80s and then twice in the 2010s.
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Interesting thing about Brookfield was the number of PA teams they played regularly. Before state playoffs, and without any aspiration for convincing voters, it was common for Brookfield to play Sharon, Sharpsville, and even my high school, Greenville. What's really interesting was that for many years, Greenville and Brookfield closed out their seasons on Thanksgiving Day against one another. Truly a different time.
 
Sykotyk said:
Interesting thing about Brookfield was the number of PA teams they played regularly. Before state playoffs, and without any aspiration for convincing voters, it was common for Brookfield to play Sharon, Sharpsville, and even my high school, Greenville. What's really interesting was that for many years, Greenville and Brookfield closed out their seasons on Thanksgiving Day against one another. Truly a different time.
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Probably because Sharon sits on the state line. There's only 3 miles distance from Brookfield to Sharon, Sharpsville, Farrell,... The distance between Youngstown East & Youngstown Chaney is 6 miles, to put that in perspective.
 
Sykotyk said:
Interesting thing about Brookfield was the number of PA teams they played regularly. Before state playoffs, and without any aspiration for convincing voters, it was common for Brookfield to play Sharon, Sharpsville, and even my high school, Greenville. What's really interesting was that for many years, Greenville and Brookfield closed out their seasons on Thanksgiving Day against one another. Truly a different time.
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The Warriors continued to play those Pa. teams after the playoffs started as well. In their state title year of 1978 Brookfield played and defeated Kennedy Christian, Hickory & Sharpsville. I'm pretty sure that Sharpsville gave Brookfield its only loss the year before and Brookfield gave Kennedy Christian its only loss in 77. KC was coached by Ursuline alum & future Irish HC Dick Angle then.
 
What were some of the biggest Cincinnati Public School rivalries from back in the day? I assume Withrow was the biggest target for many schools.
 
Don't know if it has been mentioned but Dayton Roth vs. Dayton Dunbar 61'-82' neighborhood rivalry, battle of the westside, same hangouts, girls and guys dated and married from opposing schools. Both schools dominated in Dayton at some point. When Roth closed in 82' most Roth students transferred to Dunbar. Also, Roosevelt/Roth 61'-75', Roosevelt/Dunbar 33'-75', Roosevelt was also on the westside and was "THE" powerhouse for all sports. Also Kiser/Fairview 30's-82', Steele/Stivers late 1800'-1930's.
 
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