Remembering the Youngstown City Series

Qcity

Well-known member
North
East
South
Rayen
Chaney
Wilson


There was some pretty good basketball played back in the day in this conference. Rayen had some stellar years with some big time players; South was always a force; North had their share of talent as well.
 
 
North
East
South
Rayen
Chaney
Wilson


There was some pretty good basketball played back in the day in this conference. Rayen had some stellar years with some big time players; South was always a force; North had their share of talent as well.
The City Series used to be real good.
Not to show my age, but I remember tournament tripleheaders at the old South High Fieldhouse. Great games, fantastic school support back in the day. (Unlike today)
Those Rayen teams in the mid-80's were awesome.
 
Joe James and all of the other greats from Rayen. What a fun place to see a game in those days. I also remember Wilson having some good players.
 
The 1978-79 Rayen team featured Joe James (signed with Michigan before transferring to Eastern Michigan) and Greg Jones (who played 4 years at West Virginia and is still No. 6 all-time in scoring, No. 8 all-time in assists and No. 2 all-time in steals).
 
I'm sure YTOWN could provide lots of great insight, and some great names from the past.

I recall Youngstown North in the early 70's was a basketball powerhouse, with guys that mostly went on to have success in college and the pro's, but in football:
Richard Bevly: Ohio University QB
Tom Hight: YSU football
Sherman Smith: Miami, Ohio QB + Seahawks NFL (RB)
Mike Cobb: Michigan State + Bears NFL (TE)

Certainly lots of great players from all the city schools listed.
 
I loved watching those Rayen teams of the late 70's with Joe James, and Greg Jones. I also believe Terry Taylor was on those teams. He ended being a all pro DB for the Seattle Seahawks.
 
Stepien and Traficant were bound and determined to put that team in the Fieldhouse so they could sell beer. Traficant strongarmed the city into agreeing to the beer sales like he did Niles on the utilities when the Scrappers came into existence. Neither he nor Stepien could understand why the suburbanites wouldn't come downtown to a building that was surrounded by multiple crack houses.
 
I loved watching those Rayen teams of the late 70's with Joe James, and Greg Jones. I also believe Terry Taylor was on those teams. He ended being a all pro DB for the Seattle Seahawks.


Dave Mason was in the middle, he could jump out of the gym along with Jones and James ........heckuva team.

North had Eric Posey and Haines I believe. South had the Parker brothers among many good players. East had McCrae and Dyson etc...
 
I remember those days. Eric Posey was by any measure a pure shooter by todays' stats averaged a triple-double in scoring, rebounding and if they took assists. I think from his sophomore year to senior he led the city in scoring and was first or tied in rebounds. Back then North would play other teams that had 2-3 bigs, Mason, Jaffee, and Anderson, then later James at Rayen, Howell, Shorter, at South with Ellington, Dyson and Jones at East. They would battle every week in the field house. 6'6' and they had to play him at a forward/center but he was clearly a 3 or wing guard, he had to avg 3-4 blocks a game. I saw him deal with double teams for 3 years and still went for 27 on South and 29 on Rayen. When he came home against YSU he shot the lights out for 20+ and had double-digit boards as a small forward/guard. He played in Spain somewhere I think. The city series had great talent and coaches back then. Anthony Haynes and the guard play in the city was brutal, they brought it every night. Greg Jones, Joe James, and Rayen always had the depth to get further in the state playoffs. One year I think North won the city playing about 8 on their squad all year. Rayen, North, South, and East were powerhouses! Frank Cegledy was a legend at Rayen, a few years before a guy at North George Ritz, East and South as well.
 
I remember those days. Eric Posey was by any measure a pure shooter by todays' stats averaged a triple-double in scoring, rebounding and if they took assists. I think from his sophomore year to senior he led the city in scoring and was first or tied in rebounds. Back then North would play other teams that had 2-3 bigs, Mason, Jaffee, and Anderson, then later James at Rayen, Howell, Shorter, at South with Ellington, Dyson and Jones at East. They would battle every week in the field house. 6'6' and they had to play him at a forward/center but he was clearly a 3 or wing guard, he had to avg 3-4 blocks a game. I saw him deal with double teams for 3 years and still went for 27 on South and 29 on Rayen. When he came home against YSU he shot the lights out for 20+ and had double-digit boards as a small forward/guard. He played in Spain somewhere I think. The city series had great talent and coaches back then. Anthony Haynes and the guard play in the city was brutal, they brought it every night. Greg Jones, Joe James, and Rayen always had the depth to get further in the state playoffs. One year I think North won the city playing about 8 on their squad all year. Rayen, North, South, and East were powerhouses! Frank Cegledy was a legend at Rayen, a few years before a guy at North George Ritz, East and South as well.
 
I remember Sebring playing North in the Struthers tourney one year too. Late 70s

That was 1980. Sebring was a sophomore heavy team. If I remember correctly, it was a close game. Sebring beat Rayen two or three times in the late 80's. I know that 89 was one game, played at Sebring, highlighted by two dunks by All-Ohioian Troy Donaldson.
 
5787

Probably outside of Struthers Fieldhouse, South was the best hoops venue in the area. Just a cool old school facility.
 
Like wow, man.
You really bring back my childhood. Saw quite a few tournament games there. They used to get some real decent crowds at South.

Nice job of finding this photo!
 
I was really young but I seem to remember a Youngstown team winning a state title in St. John Arena and the coach and team came out in tuxedos for a team picture at halftime of the next game...anyone else remember this? I thought it was a Youngstown team...
 
I was really young but I seem to remember a Youngstown team winning a state title in St. John Arena and the coach and team came out in tuxedos for a team picture at halftime of the next game...anyone else remember this? I thought it was a Youngstown team...
I believe that was the 1985 Youngstown Rayen team. I wasn’t there but heard stories about that
 
Kjonez
I was at that game where Posey went off against YSU. I remember he had a lot of fans/family in the stands. Pretty sure that was Northern Michigan back when they were in the same D2 league
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
I remember being shocked that Lorain Catholic lost in the AA state semi in 1985 to Youngstown Rayen. A kid named Floyd Showers had a big game for Rayen went on to win it all. Basketball in Lorain County was awesome in the 1970s and 80s, so we all believed LC would win it all, but Rayen got the trophy. Oberlin won the Elyria AA district the next season and brought home the state championship. Those were fun days to watch HS hoops. Packed gyms everywhere back then, all over Ohio.
 
I remember being shocked that Lorain Catholic lost in the AA state semi in 1985 to Youngstown Rayen. A kid named Floyd Showers had a big game for Rayen went on to win it all. Basketball in Lorain County was awesome in the 1970s and 80s, so we all believed LC would win it all, but Rayen got the trophy. Oberlin won the Elyria AA district the next season and brought home the state championship. Those were fun days to watch HS hoops. Packed gyms everywhere back then, all over Ohio.
Nobody from our neck of the woods was shocked to see Rayen win it all. They had super talent for years. I'm surprised they didn't win more than one title.
I watched 'em play a home game against Brookfield near the end of the regular season that year. They were something else. An unbelievable array of talent on that Tiger team.
That team had to be one of the best teams to ever come out of Youngstown IMHO.
 
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