Scudzy's Fire - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Scudzy’s Fire

Saddened to learn about the fire that destroyed Scudzy’s on Friday. What a ton of memories went up in smoke with that historic place burning down. My wife’s sister Sherry posted that 46 years ago she met her now husband Fred at Scudzy’s. After doing the math, we concluded that both were underage at the time, just like hundreds of others back in those days who imbibed at the infamous Newport bar. Here is the story from the Sidney Daily News and below two past blogs about the place back when I was in high school, then called Louie’s.

 

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Roo-shee Girls - Dave’s Midwestern Ohio Memories

A Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Roo-shee Girls

During the spring of my junior year in high school, we got knocked out of the tournament early because our team was not very good. For a reason I don’t recall, all the seniors on the team quit early in the season, so that left me and four sophomores elevated from JV as starters. To keep the scores close, our primary tactic was a stall coupled with a full court press, which worked ok during the season in the cracker-box gyms we played back then. But in Sidney High’s huge gym where the tournament was played, that strategy was dealt a fatal blow, so we lost big time.

On the following Sunday afternoon, I was riding around with some of my high school buddies, when we heard through the grapevine (predecessor to the internet) that there was a party at a farm house near Russia, so off we went, having no idea where the party was being held. So we drove up and down the various roads around Russia, finally finding a farm with a bunch of cars in the driveway north of town that we hoped was the party place. For some reason, I remember the farm also had a bunch of antique stuff around the yard somewhat like the photo below. The mailbox indicated the name of the family that lived there, and we knew there was a Russia cheerleader with that same last name. So we drove in and indeed found the party was going full blast! Apparently, the cheerleader’s parents were gone for the weekend, probably looking for more antiques!

Other than visiting my cousins in Russia, as documented in this previous blogpost, that memorable Sunday was my first exposure to the girls of Roo-shee! Wow, they were all knockouts and super friendly. Seems they were kind of intrigued by us out-of-towners almost as much as we were with them. No doubt the local guys were peeved, but who cared. We were in seventh heaven, partying to the max. It was a very fun and memorable afternoon, as from that moment on, Roo-shee girls were always on my radar screen.

Our favorite meeting place at the time is pictured above; Louie’s in Newport, now Scudzy’s, located on State Route 66 right along the old Miami-Erie canal. Louie Bruns was the proprietor, and because his bar was located about half way between Loramie and Russia, it became the place to connect up with Roo-shee girls.

The juke box was always rocking with the latest hit songs and the red booths were gigantic, so we’d all squeeze in together to share some food, drink and the latest scuttlebutt around our two neighboring towns. 

Well, that connection to Roo-shee still exists to this day, as about 6 years after my initial encounter described above, I was fortunate to meet a very special Roo-shee girl who is now my wife of 46 years. Love those Roo-shee girls!

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Jackson Center Standout - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Jackson Center Standout

During halftime of Friday’s live stream of the Russia-Jackson Center boys basketball game, Fish Report announcers Craig and Ken referenced several scoring records for the Jackson Center Tigers over the years. Included in their rundown was the fact that the 1967 team still held the scoring record of 122 points in one game. The SCAL was much more run and gun in those days compared to today, and as Craig pointed out in his commentary, the cracker box gyms were a lot smaller back then.

One of the standouts on that JC team was longtime Russia resident and businessman Dale Nichols, who also happens to be Craig’s father-in-law! I had the pleasure of playing against Dale back in my Ft. Loramie playing days. He was a tough rival who could score and really run the court. Dale was the best foul shooter in the county, having hit 31 in a row at one point during the season, which is also a school record the still stands. Like a lot of my basketball competitors from around the county, I quickly became friends with him off the court.

After games on Friday night, many players, cheerleaders and fans from nearby Loramie, Russia and Houston would congregate at Louie’s in Newport where Scudzy's in today. I had written about those times in this previous blogpost. Well, Dale would trek all the way from Jackson Center after his game and join us at Louie’s for a cherry coke or some such beverage. Because of the long drive, he'd arrive late and would invariably work the room, connecting up with all the players to chat about the results of the games around the county.

Dale would inevitably end up at a booth where a special Russia cheerleader named Kathy was seated with her friends. According to legend, a year earlier, cheerleader Kathy had spotted Dale at an early season Jackson Center-Russia game and declared on the spot that he’s the guy she was going to marry. And if you know Kathy like I and so many other people do, that’s exactly what she did a few years later and they’ve been happily married ever since. And now she’s Craig’s one-of-a-kind mother-in-law and also mother and grandmother to the crew pictured above! Kathy and I both worked at Frigidaire in Dayton one summer during college, and I recall her trying to set me up with a younger cousin of hers, but I headed off to college before the blind date could be arranged. As it turned out, her cousin is now my wife! We eventually met on a double date with opposite partners, and the rest is history, but we often wonder what would have happened had we met at that earlier time.

Dale continued to play basketball even after high school with some new Russia teammates

Speaking of high school basketball back then, it was great to read in Fish Report about the tribute Wapak High did for the old Buckland high school, which was consolidated into Wapak in 1965. I recall playing Buckland before the consolidation. They also had a team in the uber-competitive Tri-County basketball league I played in after high school. The old high school was refurbished and converted into an elementary as pictured here. Buckland was consolidated about the same time Fairlawn high school was formed out of several smaller schools in southeastern Shelby County. After those consolidations, there always was a fear that local schools elsewhere around the county would be combined. That fear thankfully motivated a lot of successful millage votes over the years to keep the individual schools funded as recorded in this previous blogpost. Long live the SCAL!

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