Great Article in Messenger: Athens ends SEOAL football ties

NYBuckeye96 · Post by **NYBuckeye96** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 4:38 pm

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Athens ends football ties to SEOAL

TOM METTERS
Special to The Messenger

Thursday, November 22, 2007

When Athens and Gallipolis squared off against each other Oct. 26 at Rutter Field, it marked the final Southeastern Ohio Athletic League football game for the host Bulldogs who will be moving to the Tri-Valley Conference next fall.

Unfortunately, the last few years have not been kind to the Bulldogs on the football field but overall it is a sport in which they have many strong performers and successful eras.

Although they bow out with a 17-game losing streak against SEOAL foes, the Bulldogs wind up with a 255-246-18 record in league play.

Athens captured 12 SEOAL football championships the last of which came in 1990 and had perfect overall records in 1943, 1944, 1950 and 1965. Eight of their titles were outright including the league's first year of operation in 1925.

The Bulldogs dominated league play in football in the mid-1940s and again in the mid-1960s winning three titles in a four-year span both times with all of then outright championships. Those championships came in 1943, 1944 and 1946 and again in 1965, 1966 and 1968. They also captured the 1950 title outright.

That cluster of titles included four times when they landed titles in back-to-back years - 1943 and 1944, 1949 and 1950, 1965 and 1966 and 1989 and 1990.

Of the years in which they shared the title, 1990 was the most unique. There were six teams in the league that year and four of them tied for the championship with 3-2 records. Athens was joined that year by Gallipolis, Jackson and Marietta in a true case of the teams knocking each other off throughout the season.

Athens beat Warren, Jackson and Logan but lost to Gallipolis and Marietta; Gallipolis defeated Marietta, Athens and Warren but lost to Logan and Jackson; the Ironmen beat Marietta, Logan and Gallipolis but lost to Athens and Waren; and Marietta bet Logan, Athens and Warren but lost to Jackson and Gallipolis.

Other shared titles were in 1949 (with Middleport)), 1971 (with Ironton) and 1989 (with Logan).

The 1990 season is the only four-way deadlock in the league's 83 years of operation. Three teams shared the title twice while there have been two-way deadlocks five times.

Athens made its SEOAL debut Oct. 3, 1925 with a 20-0 victory over Logan. They also defeated Ironton 14-6, Porsmouth 7-6, Nelsonville 26-0 and Gallipolis 51-0 en route to becoming the league's first football champion. They were 7-2 overall, defeating Zanesville 19-0 and Lancaster 67-0 while losing to Columbus North 7-0 and Marietta 13-7.

The Bulldogs did not face league members Jackson or Wellston that season, but in the early years, teams were required to face only five of the other SEOAL opponents.

It was the 1939 season before the SEOAL expanded league play to have a round-robin schedule where teams played all of the other schools.

There were a numer of times in which Athens and Logan squared off against each other in the final league game and many of them decided the championship one way or another.

Such was the case Nov. 5, 1965 on the Hilltop in Logan (the stadium had not yet been named for Bill Sauer). Although Athens was 8-0 overall and 6-0 in league play and could do no worse than share the title, Logan was 6-2 and 5-1 and a win would have allowed the Chieftains to have part of the top honors.

The Bulldogs were led by Todd Snyder and Dick Adams while Logan standouts included John Gasser and Chuck Kemper.

When the final horn sounded, Athens had emerged with an 18-8 victory, but it was a tight game right down to the final minutes.

Logan led 8-6 at the half and neither team scored in the third quarter, but Athens took a 12-8 lead with 1 minute, 29 seconds remaining then sealed the victory as John Stanson picked off a Logan pass and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown 13 seconds later.

Adams scored one of Athens' touchdowns and he and Snyder shared the league scoring championship for the year with 78 points.

Another game which holds a spot in Bulldog football lore was a Homecoming battke against Jackson at Rutter Field IN 1990 even though it was only the second league game of the year (it wound up being part of the four-way deadlock for the title).

If one had not known differently, they likely would have sworn that ESPN had put together a script for the contest.

The sports network had a crew in town that weekend to gain material for a feature about quarterback Bubba Lichtenberg for their "Scholastic Sports America" program. He had caught ESPN's attention when they learned he was attending the fourth school of his high school career having gone from Columbus to Iowa and then Maine before coming to Athens. His father, Tom, served as an assistant to Earle Bruce at Ohio State and then at Iowa State before being head coach at Maine and then at Ohio University.

Athens emerged with a 42-38 victory with the lead changing hands five times. Lichtenberg completed 10 of 19 passes for 123 yards with two of the passes going for touchdowns, one of them for three yards to Dave Corrigan with 4:14 remaining in the game which gave Athens the lead for good at 34-30. He also kicked the extra point after four Athens TDs.

After going 7-3 in the regular season, the Bulldogs qualified for the playoffs for the first and so far only post-season appearance but lost to Columbus DeSales 42-0 in a first-round game played at Lancaster.

It is sad to see the Bulldogs leaving the league, particuarly since they were among the charter members and were in it all but three of the 83 years.

Many fond memories have been built up over the years among coaches, players, fans and media personnel. Hopefully, many of the individual friendships will continue even without the league affiliation.

http://athensmessenger.com/main.asp?Sec ... cleID=6683

buckfan84 · Post by **buckfan84** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 10:51 pm

I am not the spelling police but I am shocked by all of the typos in this story. Some of them are not even words so they couldn't get past spell check. "Numers" being the first that comes to mind. I am shocked that this story was not proof read and if it was, WOW!!!!

I realize you didn't type this NY 96 so nothing against you. I actually went to the website and saw it. I realize we all make typos on here but this was in the paper.

The story though is a good one and a lot of history that many are probably not aware of.

Run Bubba Run · Post by **Run Bubba Run** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 1:40 pm

Just wondering when that great sport soccer was started at Athens. I am willing to bet it was in the mid to late 80's. Is it just a coincidence that the Athens and Alexander FB programs deteriorated in the 90's? Hmmmm.

91blue14 · Post by **91blue14** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 5:58 pm

that 1990 year was a real campaign. very painful, on high then low. what a great bunch of kids. i enjoyed competing with you guys. LOSING TO LOGAN BY A FIELD GOAL 3-0 still hurts :cry:

but i guarantee if you were present you were in for a ballgame ;-)

YOU'RE TIGER BAIT · Post by **YOU'RE TIGER BAIT** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:19 pm

WHINE ME A RIVER, D2 TEAM BAILING OUT FOR LOWER PASTURES SICKENS ME. BURN THE BARN DOWN, GET RID OF THE NAYSAYERS, AND START OVER. GOOD RIDDANCE. ;-)

I HOPE NY, OWNS YOU.

NYBuckeye96 · Post by **NYBuckeye96** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 12:14 am

You're Tiger Bait wrote:I HOPE NY, OWNS YOU.

Actually, other than the couple years of QB Grant Gregory-led Bulldogs, Athens has lost every other game against NY going back to 1990. So in the entire lifetime of anyone who is in high school now, Athens has never won against NY without Gregory as QB, and they played each other every season.

As a side note to that, those were the years that Wellston won the TVC OHIO, so NY wasn't even the top team in the TVC when Athens had those two victories against NY. So it could be argued that had Athens joined the TVC immediately after their last SEOAL championship, the Bulldogs still might not have won a TVC title. But every other year, NY beat Athens so that would have translated to no league titles for sure in those years.

Athens will eventually compete and win TVC championships, but no one should think they will dominate the TVC because past performance versus NY says otherwise.

Zanes-Vegas · Post by **Zanes-Vegas** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:05 am

YTB ... Athens is D3, and maybe closer to D4.

Gib25 · Post by **Gib25** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 2:26 pm

TO YOU'RE TIGER BAIT. It was probably before you were born when Ironton left the SEOAL because the league made no sense to them. The long trips up 93 during the winter for boy's and girl's games were a nightmare. The spring sports make travel so bad that the athletic directors decided the spring sports would only play people in the own division. We were not sorry to see Ironton leave because we saw it was not to their advantage to stay. Something changed their mind(probably because they have so much trouble getting someone to play them), but talking to people at the Ironton girl's game with Athens last year, gave me the impression that they should reconsider their rejoining of the league. Why all the bitterness toward's Athens leaving the SEOAL? I really don't understand how someone from Ironton can say anything about us leaving the league.

Totaled Cav · Post by **Totaled Cav** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 2:33 pm

64, Tiger baits just a little older than that :lol:

Totaled Cav · Post by **Totaled Cav** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 2:34 pm

I wonder if this whole leaving the SEOAL to improve all athletic programs at AHS will eventually return Athens to the SEOAL?

NYBuckeye96 · Post by **NYBuckeye96** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 4:04 pm

Totaled Cav wrote:I wonder if this whole leaving the SEOAL to improve all athletic programs at AHS will eventually return Athens to the SEOAL?

I doubt it. Especially since the SEOAL is so spread out and the TVC is so compact in size.

Plus, I would be willing to bet that there are hard feelings from some in the SEOAL that Athens left and they wouldn't let the Bulldogs back in even if they wanted in (which I doubt they ever would want back in).

Athens is a good fit in the TVC. Rivalries with Nelsonville-York and Alexander will intensify with league title implications on the line in various sports.

In addition, Athens wil renew old SEOAL league rivalries with NY, Meigs, and Wellston.

Athens vs. Vinton County should become a great rivalry as both schools are similar in size.

The only school Athens doesn't have a natural rivalry with is Belpre, but the schools are only around 40 minutes apart from each other, and I think this could become a great rivalry, particularly in basketball.

The Plains to Nelsonville - 13 minutes, 8.83 miles
The Plains to Albany - 20 minutes, 15.43 miles
The Plains to Pomeroy - 35 minutes, 29.13 miles
The Plains to McArthur - 37 minutes, 31.47 miles
The Plains to Wellston - 45 minutes, 37.09 miles
The Plains to Belpre - 47 minutes, 40.49 miles

You basicly have a league team within ten minutes of Athens High School (Nelsonville-York), a league team twenty minutes away (Alexander), two league teams slightly over a half hour away (Meigs, Vinton County), and two league teams around 45 minutes away (Wellston and Belpre).

I don't think Athens would want to leave that for the longer road trips that are part of the new SEOAL.

Offsides · Post by **Offsides** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 4:25 pm

I'm one of the real "old timers" who has played against Athens in the 1940s, and have seen some truly great contests between Athens and Gallipolis over these some 60 years. In a way I can understand why Athens chose to bolt from the SEOAL, but from a truly emotional and nostalgic standpoint I would rather see them remain as a league member.
Over these six decades I have made many friends in Athens, and I will certainly miss the comraderie and fellowship that I enjoyed with these fine people. This was a very good example of a Sportfolio article. He is a true professional jouralist in every sense, and when he is out of the sports scene at Athens it will mark the loss of a gentleman, good friend, and very knowledgeable man. Good Luck to all of my long time friends in Athens.

Army · Post by **Army** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 6:39 pm

Bulldog64 wrote:TO YOU'RE TIGER BAIT. It was probably before you were born when Ironton left the SEOAL because the league made no sense to them. The long trips up 93 during the winter for boy's and girl's games were a nightmare. The spring sports make travel so bad that the athletic directors decided the spring sports would only play people in the own division. We were not sorry to see Ironton leave because we saw it was not to their advantage to stay. Something changed their mind(probably because they have so much trouble getting someone to play them), but talking to people at the Ironton girl's game with Athens last year, gave me the impression that they should reconsider their rejoining of the league. Why all the bitterness toward's Athens leaving the SEOAL? I really don't understand how someone from Ironton can say anything about us leaving the league.

Bulldog64,
I think it was the best move Athens made concerning there sports programs for there kids. They become the fourth original SEOAL Charter Member to leave for the TVC. The first was;

1. Nelsonville-York in 1970
2. Wellston 1982
3. Pomeroy-Meigs 1983
4. The Plains-Athens 2007

All we need is Gallipolis, New Boston, Portsmouth, Ironton and Jackson to join the TVC and you have all the original members from the SEOAL.

Just Joking

All were Original Members in forming the SEOAL in 1925 at the Hogan Hotel in Wellston, Ohio.

The Original Teams were;

1. Wellston Golden Rockets 1925-1981 (TVC and TVC Ohio 1981-)
2. Jackson Ironmen 1925-
3. Athens Bulldogs 1925-2007 (TVC Ohio 2007-)
4. Gallipolis Blue Devils 1925-

5. Middleport Yellow Jackets 1928-1966
6. Pomeroy Panthers 1925-1966

Middleport, Pomeroy and Rutland consolidate in 1967 to form Meigs

7. Pomeroy Meigs 1967-1982 (TVC and TVC Ohio 1982-)

8. Nelsonville Greyhounds 1925-1967

Consolidated with Bucthel-York 1967

9. Nelsonville-York 1967-1970 (TVC and TVC Ohio 1970)

10. Logan 1925-
Consolidated with Murrey City?, Union Furnace in 1972
Logan since 1972- is a County High School

11. New Boston Tigers
SEOAL 1926-1935
SOC 1946-

12. Portsmouth Trojans
SEOAL 1925-1927
G.O.L. 1940-1974
Independent 1975-2005
SEOAL 2006-

13. Ironton Fighting Tigers
SEOAL 1925-1930
C.O.L. 1963-1967
SEOAL 1968-1984 SEOAL Champions 1969-1984
State AA Football Champs 1979 and 1989 D4 Champs
OHKYAL 1986-1992?
Independent 1992-2005
SEOAL 2006-

TVC Ohio Division 2007-2008 SEASON

The Plains-Athens Bulldogs D3 2007-
Nelsonville-York Buckeyes D5 1970-
Wellston Golden Rockets D4 1982-
Pomeroy-Meigs Mauraders D4 1983-
McArthur Vinton County Vikings D3 1970-
Albany Alexander Spartans D4 1973-
Belpre Golden Eagles D5 1973-

All they need to do now, is, convince Belpre and Nelsonville-York to vote yes for the (Chesire River Valley Raiders D4) who will move to Bidwell in 2009 not far from Wilkesville, Ohio on Rt. 160. Right now RV is still in the OVC. I think they would make a great fit by joining and rounding out the TVC Ohio to become the 8th team in the Ohio Division. They already play Belpre, Nelsonville-York, Athens, Wellston and Vinton County in several sports.

Good Luck in the TVC Bulldogs, except when you all play my alma mater The Wellston Golden Rockets

Post by **noreply66** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 7:00 pm

Are you sure that was Murrey City going in with Logan?

Army · Post by **Army** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 7:23 pm

noreply66 wrote:Are you sure that was Murrey City going in with Logan?

Not sure but I know you all had Union Furnace in 72, and I think two others in the 50's and 60's?

NYBuckeye96 · Post by **NYBuckeye96** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 7:44 pm

Murray City and the rest of Ward Twp. in Hocking County (Carbon Hill) lost their school charters in the early 1960's. Both Murray City and Ward Local schools decided to become a part of the Buchtel-York Local schools at that time. Subsequently, Buchtel-York Local Schools consolidated with Nelsonville City Schools in 1967 to form Nelsonville-York City Schools. Murray City retained one building for an elementary school that was used for another twenty years (until around 1980). Ward Local (Carbon Hill) elementary students went to York Elementary for classes as soon as the consolidation with Buchtel-York took place. Around 1980, the elementary school in Murray City was closed and Murray City elementary students went to York Elementary.

Nelsonville-York City Schools serves all of York Township in Athens County and all of Ward Township in Hocking County. There is a small strip of land in Trimble Township in the Murray City area that is also in the school district, but it just a tiny strip of land. So if you go back to when schools were originally chartered, NY includes four former school districts:
Nelsonville City
Buchtel-York Local
Murray City Local
Ward Local (Carbon Hill)

Buchtel-York had already taken in Murray City and Ward Local about seven years before the consolidation with Nelsonville City Schools.

Post by **noreply66** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:17 pm

It was probably Laurelville with most of them going to Logan Elm

Gib25 · Post by **Gib25** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:41 pm

NYBuckeye96 wrote:
Totaled Cav wrote:I wonder if this whole leaving the SEOAL to improve all athletic programs at AHS will eventually return Athens to the SEOAL?

I doubt it. Especially since the SEOAL is so spread out and the TVC is so compact in size.

Plus, I would be willing to bet that there are hard feelings from some in the SEOAL that Athens left and they wouldn't let the Bulldogs back in even if they wanted in (which I doubt they ever would want back in).

Athens is a good fit in the TVC. Rivalries with Nelsonville-York and Alexander will intensify with league title implications on the line in various sports.

In addition, Athens wil renew old SEOAL league rivalries with NY, Meigs, and Wellston.

Athens vs. Vinton County should become a great rivalry as both schools are similar in size.

The only school Athens doesn't have a natural rivalry with is Belpre, but the schools are only around 40 minutes apart from each other, and I think this could become a great rivalry, particularly in basketball.

The Plains to Nelsonville - 13 minutes, 8.83 miles
The Plains to Albany - 20 minutes, 15.43 miles
The Plains to Pomeroy - 35 minutes, 29.13 miles
The Plains to McArthur - 37 minutes, 31.47 miles
The Plains to Wellston - 45 minutes, 37.09 miles
The Plains to Belpre - 47 minutes, 40.49 miles

You basicly have a league team within ten minutes of Athens High School (Nelsonville-York), a league team twenty minutes away (Alexander), two league teams slightly over a half hour away (Meigs, Vinton County), and two league teams around 45 minutes away (Wellston and Belpre).

I don't think Athens would want to leave that for the longer road trips that are part of the new SEOAL.

I couldn't say it any better than you. Athens has no intentions in ever going back to the SEOAL. We had a good run, but the league does not make geographic sense any more. If gas prices keep going up I'm not sure how any school will be able to justify long trips.

Gib25 · Post by **Gib25** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:43 pm

I guess I messed up the last post, but you know how it is when you get old. I would like to say sorry to NYBuckeye96 for intruding on your post.

Run Bubba Run · Post by **Run Bubba Run** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:07 am

Army,

The SEOAL formed during its initial meeting on March 7, 1925. Schools represented at that first meeting included Athens, Gallipolis, Ironton, Jackson, Logan, Nelsonville, Oak Hill, Portsmouth and Wellston.

All schools signed the new league's constitution to become charter members of the SEOAL except Oak Hill which felt that the league requirements were a bit too heavy for them at that time.

Pomeroy was added during 1925 but was not a charter member. New Boston was admitted in December of 1926 as its tenth member.

Middleport did not become a member of the SEOAL until the league meeting in December of 1928. At that time, it was admitted for one year on a probationary basis.

SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

Great Article in Messenger: Athens ends SEOAL football ties

Great Article in Messenger: Athens ends SEOAL football ties

Sad to see Athens leave the SEOAL