Cheerleaders - 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.

Cheerleaders

1987 Ft. Loramie Redskins - My Brother-in-Law’s Wife in first row, second from the right

My continuing series of eBay memorabilia related to local communities will take a short hiatus to focus on a topic that ended last week’s blog - cheerleaders! With tournament time coming up, basketball players have to stay focused on winning or suddenly you’re done for the season or worse yet, your career. Staying focused is exactly what did not happen to me as a senior in our first tournament game at Sidney High against Anna. One of Anna’s players, who will go unnamed, was next to me along the foul line during an Anna foul shot early in the game. Turns out Loramie’s cheerleaders were stationed right under the basket and the Anna player next to me, just as the foul shot was about to go up, asked me the name of the red-headed cheerleader on the end. I looked over to see who it was (Jane) as the foul shot went up, which was missed, but the Anna player slipped around me, got the rebound, and put up a shot that went in as I fouled him. He made his foul shot, I eventually fouled out of the game and we lost by 3. Bummer! Anna went on to the regional finals; it could have been us had it not for my lack of focus. Jane, the red headed cheerleader, was indeed cute and as proof, was named Miss Chick that summer. Also, I ended up meeting, than marrying a Russia High cheerleader, living happily ever after as documented in this previous blogspot.

My brother-in-law also married a cheerleader, shown in the photo above. She got a call out by my brother-in-law during a recent Fish Report Live interview of Ft. Loramie’s Tom Brandewie.

Bottom line, boys being boys, they will always check out the cheerleaders, but take my word for it, avoid doing so in the middle of a tournament game!

Wooden Shoe eBay Memorabilia - 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.

Wooden Shoe eBay Memorabilia

Continuing last week's blog post about local eBay memorabilia, Wooden Shoe paraphernalia represents by far the most prevalent historic items on eBay related to our local communities back home. Several examples follow:

The Wooden Shoe Brewery opened in 1869, surviving a 1888 fire and Prohibition from 1919-33. The brewery closed in 1953, but fortunately the recipe for Wooden Shoe beer lives on as the first of the modern day craft brews, Sam Adams Boston Lager. Apparently a sixth generation descendent of the founder of Wooden Shoe used the original family recipe to start the Boston brewery in 1984. Once closed, the Wooden Shoe Brewery building was eventually turned into a cannery. I recall hauling wagons loaded with tomatoes picked by migrant workers to the cannery from the fields around home. Each migrant worker was paid 10 cents a bushel while working from sun-up to sun-down. The best workers could pick about 15 bushels an hour, with entire families sometimes doing the picking, including young children and aging grandparents. The cannery no longer exists and the building has since been demolished.

Years later, a micro-brewery under the same Wooden Shoe brand opened in 2005, only to unfortunately close in 2012. However, one Minster mainstay, the Wooden Shoe Inn, pictured below, remains open to this day. This restaurant was a favorite of our family, having held many get-togethers in their back room. Proprietor Fred Meyer, pictured below tending bar, always greeted us with a smile, a mug of cold beer and some great stories from the past, one of which is chronicled in this previous blogpost.

Fred was a great basketball player for Minster, leading his team to the State Tournament in 1965. His younger sister, Pam, was a cheerleader on the team and looked like Doris Day, pictured below, only cuter! Every basketball player on teams playing Minster had a crush on her. What does that detail have to do with eBay memorabilia? Don’t know and don’t care!

Lady Raiders Regular Season One Of The Best

Russia seniors Maria Herron and Tiffany Hatcher led the

Lady Raiders to one of the best regular seasons in history

The Russia girls basketball team ended the 2016-17 regular season at 17-5, capping one of the programs best regular seasons in school history. Below is a list of the top seven Lady Raider regular seasons by winning percentage:

The 1989-90 Lady Raiders were the last team to sweep the SCL