Anyone remember going to City Series triple headers at South Field House in '50s & '60s? Imagine Rayen vs. Ursuline, East vs. Mooney, Chaney vs. South all on one night. It was the way all conference games were held in those days. Fans would rotate in and out, but could stay for all 3 games. Throngs found their way to the southside every Friday night. Hard to envision today but it was the norm back then.
I don't know how I never saw this thread but I didn't. I certainly remember going to those City Series triple headers at South and watching YSU there also.
I'm old enough to recall Ursuline & Mooney in the City Series, too. The schools left for the SVC in '68 because Ytown voters rejected levys for schools over and over. BB coaches for East, North, Rayen, South, & Wilson worked w/o pay in '67-'68. Chaney didn't even field a team that year. It looked like athletics would be scrubbed in '68-'69. So under the direction of superintendent of schools Msgr. (later Bishop) Hughes (Ursuline grad & founding principal of Mooney) the Irish & Cards were accepted in the SVC. In those days the parochials as well as Chaney dominated football. Chaney, East, & South were tops on the court in the '60s. I was sad to see the Catholics schools end such rich rivalries. Backyard rivals Ursuline & East (under two miles apart) wouldn't play on the grid iron again until '85 and met on the bb court only by chance at tournament time.
The voters voted down 6 levies in 23 months and as a result the YCS closed from Thanksgiving in 68 until Jan 2, 1969. As far as anybody knew at the time no other school system in the country had ever closed for a month in the middle of a school year. As a result of that the voters of Youngstown were awarded the infamous Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In TV show. I remember that Mayor Flask was seriously pissed off about all of it.
As far as City Series hoops in the late 70 and early 80s talked about above I did not see Chaney's Herb Lake Jr's name. He was a junior in the 78-79 season and joined Rayen's Mr. James and Mr. Jones on the 1979 1st team All-City team. He actually led the City in scoring and rebounding in the 1978-79 season and the next year. He went to Wisconsin originally and then transferred to Pitt.
I did see Dave Mason's name mentioned and an Anderson named. I assume that is Dave Anderson. They were both seniors at Rayen in 77 and led them to the first of the 10 consecutive district titles they won. Mr. Mason went to Akron and I think Mr. Anderson went to Xavier.
In 82 South won the City Series title but Rayen went to the the AA title game. They were led by two juniors, Mark McLendon (went to Purdue originally and transferred to Akron) and Kevin Spivey (went to Oregon St. originally and transferred to YSU) The Tigers had a ton of talent all of those years. IIRC Ken Brantley was another Rayen D1 guy, went to S. Florida.
From that late 70s early 80s time frame, other than Greg Jones, the best college career probably belongs to a guy I never hear mentioned. Robert Dykes from South. He never made All-City but he had a really nice career at George Mason. He scored over 1600 points and had over 900 rebounds in his career there.
When I was growing up in the 60s probably the City Series player that had the best college career that nobody really talks about is Fred Holden from Mooney. Freshmen were ineligible in college then. Mr. Holden started at Louisville for three years with Wes Unseld and then 2 years with Butch Beard. He was the 2nd leading scorer behind Unseld as a soph & 3rd behind Beard and Unseld as a jr. He averaged just under 13 PPG for his career there and was drafted by the Bulls.
I want to mention one other City player that you never hear mentioned. When I was a young kid Nick Milasnovich of Wilson scored 610 points, 60 against Leavittsburg, in his senior season. To my knowledge those two totals were the most ever scored by a City player in a game and in a single season. Press Maravich recruited Mr. Milasnovich to Clemson where he started for three years. He averaged jut under 15 PPG as a soph and double figures for his career. He was playing against guys like Billy Cunningham, Art Heyman, Jeff Mullins, Len Chappell and Billy Packer.
Tim Joyce averaged just over 30 PPG his senior season at Ursuline but he didn't score 600. He had an excellent college career at Tennessee and Ohio U and was drafted by the Cavs.
The area was never like football as far as producing D1 players but I think there were many more than a lot of people think. Guys went to ACC schools, Big 10 schools, the Pac-10, Xavier, Detroit Mercy, St. Francis, MAC schools etc.