By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
The “House of Thrills” became a house of celebration Saturday night as Wynford celebrated the golden anniversary of the Royals’ boys’ basketball program.
If the floorboards of Wynford’s gymnasium could talk, it would speak of names like Kalb, Smith and Rowlinson running the floors, continuing a winning tradition generation after generation. It would weave tales of coaches Bauer, Sheldon, and Ehresman roaming the sidelines, and guiding teams to NCC crowns and state Final Four runs.
All of the storied history of Royals basketball was celebrated Saturday beginning with the Royals freshmen team taking the court at noon, and running through the boys varsity game against Shelby later in the evening.
Preparations for the school’s 50th anniversary began a little over a year ago when 12 people met in the library of Wynford High School to discuss how to recognize everyone in Wynford’s different varsity sports throughout the school’s storied history.
Former Wynford basketball player, coach, and current Wynford High School science teacher Lee Rowlinson took the reins of preparations for recognizing the boys varsity basketball program. Rowlinson explained why he handled the task of honoring the basketball team.
“Basketball has always been my passion; I am not coaching now, but this is kind of been game night for me, and I have been preparing for this for over a month.”
“But it’s not only me,” Rowlinson continued. “There’s been tremendous support from our community financially, labor wise, tracking down people, phone numbers, texting and helping out selling t-shirts, and donating food and working food for the luncheon.”
One of the many highlights included honoring the four previous coaches in Wynford’s history at halftime.
Wynford first tipped off on the ball court on one of the darkest days in American history Nov. 22, 1963. Head coach from Wynford’s inception through the 1975-1976 season Jim Bauer recalled that first game.
“Participation was good, enthusiasm was good, and the first game we played was the day that President Kennedy was assassinated,” Bauer said. “We played over at Buckeye Central. We played in that little gym, it only seated 400, and I’ll never forget it because our superintendent was late in getting there and they didn’t let him in.”
Coach Bauer recalled one of his favorite highlights against then rival Mansfield St. Pete’s.
“One of the highlights was beating St. Pete’s here in ’71 by one point, then a few years later we played St. Pete’s again in January, and a tornado hit down in Oceola and knocked out our electricity,” Bauer said. “In those days we didn’t have backup generators. So the deputies here did a good job and got everybody out with their flashlights. I had to call up the Ohio High School Athletic Association because we had a quarter to go yet; we only had played three quarters, and were down ten points. So they said we could finish it, so three weeks later after school one night we finished the game. We had one shot at the end of the game, and we missed it, and lost by two points.”
Coach Rob Sheldon, who coached from 1979-2003, holds more wins than any other Wynford basketball coach with 401.
“The excitement to be in this gym, we called it the ‘House of Thrills’ back in the day, and it was a community event,” Sheldon said. “And then when you add all of the good players we had, and all of the successes we had it was as close to being perfect as you can get.”
Sandwiched in between the Wynford coaching giants, Bernie Witzmann roamed the sidelined for three seasons from 1976-1979. Witzman who holds a slight edge in winning percentage at 73.8 percent of the five coaches reflected on his short stint with the Royals.
“We had three pretty good years and following a legend like Jim Bauer it always makes it a little tougher for you,” Witzmann said. “But heck we had three really good years, and some exciting times like the energy crisis, and the blizzard. It was a good time here.”
Prior to the varsity game’s tip-off, distinguished alumni were recognized including season rebounding leader Don Kalb who grabbed 334 rebounds during the 1967-68 season. Kalb who also served for `1 years on the Wynford school board after his playing days were over, recalled Royals basketball.
“The guys that preceded me a few years that started our winning tradition right off the very first year: Mike Schifer, Doug Greg, John Stucky, Mike Bednars, Mitch Albun, and their team that went right off for us young guys that started the winning tradition by going 15-3 right out of the gate.”
Kalb also recalled the support of the Wynford faithful.
“The support of the Wynford crowd, we have always been blessed with tremendous community support. Even at away games the fans would come. More (Wynford) fans would come than the home team in many cases. Great teammates carrying on the tradition, and like every little kid we had been waiting to put on the Wynford varsity uniforms. I think that has been the reason for success from little on up kids have looked up to other individuals, and desired to put on that uniform. It has been a great, great system.”
Current Bucyrus attorney Shane Leuthold, who was part of the 1986-87 state runners-up team, recalled his time with the program.
“The thing I remember most, amazingly, is not all the victories we had on the basketball court. It was the camaraderie that we had as a team; a family unit off the court and in the locker rooms and you know those are the memories that I cherish,” Leuthold said. “We could have won 25 games in a year, or we could have won 15 games a year, but I remember it as if we had won every game. Those are guys I still see today. Those are guys I still see today, I consider my brothers. And if any of them called me up in the middle of the night and needed something, I would be there in a heartbeat for them. Just because Rob Sheldon created that environment; that we were a band of brothers, and we would do anything for each other. And that is probably the thing I miss most about playing Wynford basketball is not having that relationship with the rest of those guys.”
Many of the former players who attended Saturday’s events spoke of growing up yearning to wear the varsity jersey and continuing the tradition of Wynford basketball. One of the more recent alumni from the program was Michael Powers.
“I had a great experiences, a lot of the memories of being a ball boy and coming all the way up coming up through the program and actually being on the team. And all the friends I have made over the years it has just been a blast being around the program,” said Powers.
Seven members of the storied program Dean Coffman, Jim Frankenfield, Mike Schiefer, Eldon Beidelschiese, Chuck Gerheart, Bob Clark, and Rob Gregory were remembered posthumously.
At halftime after coaches Jim Bauer, Bernie Witzmanm, Rob Sheldon, and Tim Ehresman were recognized, those in attendance who were part of the Wynford basketball tradition were invited onto the court to take part in the golden celebration of Royals Blue.
The 50th squad honored current Wynford Royals head coach Steve Mohr’s battle with cancer prior to the game by wearing white shirts with the Jim Valvano quote, “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”