“There are places I remember all my life, though some have changed. Some forever not for better, some have gone and some remain.” — “In My Life,” The Beatles

With the new Elyria High School springing from the ground, there is a tinge of sadness knowing the Pioneer gym will be torn down at the completion of the school year. A lot of fond memories and wonderful history will be razed as well.

The old place hosted its final Elyria High basketball game Sunday against Brunswick in the regular-season finale. The Division II girls district tournament takes place all week.

Since Jim Roughton, captain of the basketball team, first ran through a papier-mache hoop to officially open the gym on Dec. 16, 1955, there have been thousands of events staged there. Volleyball matches and wrestling tournaments. Choir and orchestra concerts. Senior proms, assemblies and science fairs.

More photos below.

The structure has held up pretty well over the years, but basketball has always been its biggest attraction.

The bleachers were reconfigured to seat more than 2,600 at one point and were painted all red for a time. You can still get a feel for the history by glancing at the trophy and display cases in the lobby outside the gym. The original overhead scoreboard was long ago replaced by side boards and replaced again with the current scoreboards that give each player’s point and foul totals. The stands were updated several years ago and a scorer’s table was added, but the charm of the gym has remained pretty much as it was when Roughton first burst through the doorway.

“I remember going from that cracker-box gym to the new one,” said Roughton, retired and living in Marshalltown, Iowa. “It was like a palace. It was a first-class facility. That first night I was asked to give a little talk to the crowd. As I recall, we lost that first game by 36 points to Findlay. I think it was the all-time losing record (for deficit). We only had three seniors on that team.”

Jerry Gilbert Sr. scored the first basket for Elyria against Findlay.

With a capacity of 2,200, Elyria was awarded what was then called the Class A sectional tournament. Elyria hosted it through 1962, when Admiral King opened. Elyria shared the tournament with Admiral King for a few more seasons before it was shifted completely to Lorain and eventually to Midview. Elyria then held the AA or Division III boys tournaments just about every year. The girls Division II district will be decided next week.

Elyria Catholic will miss the gym, too.

It played many memorable tournament games at the gym — including a one-point win over Elyria West in 1978 that’s still talked about — but none more bizarre than a 10-8 sectional title win over North Ridgeville during EC’s state tournament run in 1973.

North Ridgeville had lost to the Panthers during the regular season by 20 points. EC was 19-1, and North Ridgeville was 8-11. The rematch was March 3.

“Dave (Dudik, North Ridgeville’s coach) told me later he figured the only chance they had was to hold the ball,” said Bob Guinta, EC’s longtime Hall of Fame coach. “He had a couple of guards that handled the ball pretty well. We were so much bigger than they were. I sat there and ate popcorn and just watched. I’m sure the crowd wanted their money back. It was really a boring game for the fans.”

“He didn’t attack us,” Dudik said. “They had beaten us 54-34 the first time we played. Why would we do something to let them just jam it down our throats again? At the end of the game, (Ken) Bachna’s shot went in and I thought he was fouled. I’m thinking we have a chance to win it with the free throw but the referees had waved it off. They said the shot came after the buzzer.”

“You know Russ (Doan, Elyria’s longtime athletic director and tournament manager) always liked us to win,” said Guinta. “We sold a lot of tickets. Russ liked that. We had a lot of good runs over there.”

Elyria’s old gym and running track will also be torn down after the school year. The oval track made shooting the basketball from the corners impossible, and it wasn’t wide enough for the 3-point arc that began with the 1986-87 season. Vic Janowicz — the 1950 Heisman Trophy winner — played there and held Elyria’s career scoring record for a time. Eddie Wingard was perhaps the best to play exclusively at the old gym before moving on to Miami of Ohio, where he was a teammate of Wayne Embry.

It didn’t take long for legendary coach Dale Reichenbach to turn the new gym into a home-court advantage. Until he stepped down following the 1965-66 season, Reichenbach’s teams won 111 times and lost only 24 — five coming in that first season. At the tournament, Elyria’s advantage was even more evident. The Pioneers lost just once on their home court — to Lorain in the finals of the first year. They won 27 tournament games on their own floor.

Reichenbach wouldn’t lose to Lorain again. He coached Elyria to 25 straight wins over the Steelmen, a streak that ended the following year at Lorain under Bob Hersman. Reichenbach had turned Elyria into a hotbed of basketball.

“He had such a mind for basketball,” said Bob Slager, a longtime assistant for Reichenbach. “Without even scouting a team, he could figure out pretty quickly what they were doing. He’d always come up with a good game plan.”

Among the best to play for Reichenbach were Thurman Taylor, Ted Gottfried, Paul Walker, Walt Rock, Bill Mrukowski, Jimmy Jones, Sam Davis, Bill Gast, Rick Coven, Lee Johnson, Bill Masonis, Ron Korka, Chester Ross, Mike Fischer, Ed Ransom and Greg Davison. Fischer once tossed in 32 straight free throws over a seven-game stretch before missing one with just under four minutes to play against Lorain. Elyria won that game, 63-35.

“I didn’t even realize it until after the game,” Fischer said. “I have a lot of good memories. The gym was full every game. We had great support from both adults and students. Looking back, you don’t see that at too many places today. It was a great place to play.”

“I remember they’d pack the house when we played,” said Johnson, Elyria’s first All-Ohio basketball player. “The fans were great. The whole city was really behind us.”

Johnson led the Pioneers to the state tournament in 1961, the first of four appearances.
After Reichenbach retired, Hersman took over. Among the best to suit up for Hersman were Harold Day and Chris Reinhardt.

Mike Riley took over in 1971-72 and led the Pioneers to 60 home wins against just 10 defeats.  During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Undermans — Jay, Tom and Mike — all played for Elyria, as did Jerry Gilbert, Fred Balser, Richard Montague, Terry Wearsch, Jeff Thomas and Mark Cannon.

Dick Roth, John Dickerson, Keith “Butch” Sooy and Art Daniels followed Riley. Mike Walsh coached the boys for two years before making the successful switch to the girls, and two of Lorain County’s all-time winningest coaches — Mitch Gillam and Bob Walsh — piloted the Pioneers. Bob is Mike’s father and assists Mike with the girls.

Both Walshes have fond memories of the gym.

Mike’s first year as boys head coach in 1994-95 ended with an Erie Shore title run that included a 60-59 victory over Lorain High — the last time the schools played. Lorain High closed that spring.
“We’ve had some good ones here — both boys and girls — but the one I remember the most was the last time we played Lorain,” Mike said. “It was for the conference championship and we beat them.”

Bob is the only coach to win for both Elyria and Elyria Catholic against the other school. His Panthers won the 2001 Lorain County Holiday Classic by beating Elyria 89-83 in overtime. It was the only time EC defeated Elyria in boys basketball.

“When I was at Oberlin, we always had a hard time getting out of here (the district tournament),” Bob said. “It seemed like something would always happen. I recall one year it was Chris Kelley (Lorain Catholic) that beat us with a long shot.”

But Walsh got out in 1986, leading Oberlin all the way to the state championship after starting with the district title at Elyria.

More recently, Elyria’s big-time players have been Jeremy Jones, Jeff Cornute, Bret Daly, Robert Nelson, Demetrius Dalton, Promis Cabbil and all-time career scoring leader Lou Tumblin. John Srnis, now at Amherst, spent nearly 20 years as either assistant or head coach at Elyria.

Brett Larrick, Elyria’s current coach, still holds the school’s single-game record for points at the gym. He poured in 43 against North Ridgeville to close out his home-court career in 1993.

His brother Adam scored 37 a year later against Southview when he made his first 11 shots and finished 14-of-16 from the field. Brett has run the gamut as a fan, ball boy, player, assistant and head coach.

“It was my last game on this floor,” Larrick said. “Not that I had a bad first half but I just remember everything I was throwing up was going in. We got on a hot streak and I think I had four or five threes in a row. Teammates did a great job of finding me when I was hot. It was Senior Night. The last home game of the year. It made it a little something special.

“When I played everything was a sea of red. To walk in here — the bleachers were red, all the walls were red. At the same time, we’re excited for our new gym. It’s going to be a great facility for us.”

Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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