SEOAL Football History Part 1: Intro and Timeline

[loganlocos]

Part 2: All-Time Standings and Champions
Part 3: The Member Schools
Part 4: MVPs and Coaches of the Year
Part 5: The SEOAL and the OHSAA Playoffs
Part 6: By the Numbers (Records, etc)

Introduction:

On Friday night in Washington County, the 2,177th and final Southeastern Ohio Athletic League football game will be played between the Logan Chieftains and the Warren Warriors. The Chieftains will be the final "founding member" at the end of the 2016-2017 school year when the Jackson Ironmen leave to join the Frontier Athletic Conference. At that point, the league will no longer be in operation.

The state's oldest, continually operating non-city league was formed on March 7, 1925 at the Rogan Hotel in Wellston, OH. William E. (Bill) Thomas, a Wellston newspaper editor and postmaster called together officials from nine schools throughout southeastern. Those nine schools were Athens, Gallipolis, Ironton, Jackson, Logan, Nelsonville, Oak Hill, Portsmouth, and Wellston.

Thomas, for whom the SEOAL All-Sports Trophy is named, was a well known sports man with an impressive resume. He organized, coached, and played quarterback for the first Wellston High School football team as a sophomore in 1898 and later coached the Wellston team which played for the Ohio state championship against Fostoria in 1915.

Thomas was also a well known football referee who worked his way up from games in southeastern Ohio, to "big time" Ohio high school football, and finally up to the Big Ten. His Big Ten officiating included working the Ohio Stadium dedication game against Michigan.

On March 7, before school officials left the Rogan Hotel, eight of the nine schools signed the new constitution with Oak Hill the only school who declined to join the new league.

The league aligned itself with the Ohio High School Athletic Association and schools agreed to hold championships for basketball, football, and track. The first SEOAL track meet was held nearly two months later on May 2, 1925.


League Timeline:
May 2, 1925: First League event, a track and field meet is held. Membership includes Athens, Gallipolis, Ironton, Jackson, Logan, Nelsonville, Portsmouth, and Wellston.

1926: Pomeroy joins as the league's 9th member.

1927: New Boston Glenwood joines as the league's 10th member. Athens and Portsmouth leave following the 1928 spring season to drop the league to 8 members.

1929: Middleport joins as the league's 9th member. Ironton leaves following the 1930 spring season to drop the league to 8 members.

1931: Athens rejoins the league bringing membership back to 9 members.

1936: New Boston Glenwood leaves the league for the Big Six conference following the 1937 spring season to drop the league to 8 members. The league would not see a membership change until 1967.

1939: Round robin scheduling for football is required for the first time.

1942: Official All-SEOAL teams are selected by coaches and media through the Gallipolis Daily Tribune.

1949: Official All-SEOAL teams, MVP, and Coach of the year selections are made by the Southeast Ohio Radio Broadcasters and Sportswriters.

1952: A polio outbreak cancels or postpones part of Pomeroy's football season.

1966: Middleport and Pomeroy, along with non-member Rutland, consolidate to form Meigs High School following the spring season of 1967. Nelsonville High School, along with non-member Buchtel-York consolidate to form Nelsonville-York High School. Meigs and N-Y immediately accepted into the SEOAL. Membershipd drops to 7 teams.

1967: Meigs and N-Y immediately accepted into the SEOAL. Membershipd drops to 7 teams.

1968: Ironton (from Central Ohio League) is chosen over Vinton County as the league's 8th member.

1969: Nelsonville-York leaves the league for the Tri-Valley Conference following the 1970 spring season dropping the league to 7 members.

1970: Waverly joins as the league's 8th member from the Southern Ohio Conference.

1972: First year of the OHSAA state playoffs. No SEOAL team qualifies.

1973: Ironton is the OHSAA Class AA state runner-up.

1976: Ironton's 34-game SEOAL winning streak is snapped by Gallipolis.

1979: Ironton wins the OHSAA Class AA State Championship, defeating Akron St. Vincent St. Mary 7-6.

1981: Wellston leaves the league following the 1982 spring season for the Tri-Valley Conference dropping the league's membership to 7 teams.

1982: Ironton is the OHSAA Div. III state runner-up. Meigs and Waverly leave the league following the 1983 spring season for the Tri-Valley Conference and Southern Ohio Conference respectively. League membership drops to 5 teams.

1984: Ironton leaves for the Ohio-Kentucky Athletic Conference (OKAC) following the 1985 spring season, putting the league's future in jeopardy. Only four members remained.

1985: Marietta joins as the league's 5th member from the Central Ohio League. League coaches take over making All-SEOAL selections.

1986: Warren Local joins as the league's 6th member from the Tri-Valley Conference.

1994: River Valley joins as the league's 7th member.

1996: Point Pleasant (WV) joins as the league's 8th member. They are the first school from outside Ohio admitted as a member. Jackson is an OHSAA Div. III Regional Finalist.

2000: Logan is an OHSAA Div. I Regional Finalist.

2001: River Valley leaves for the Ohio Valley Conference following the 2002 spring season dropping the league to 7 members.

2003: Point Pleasant leaves dropping the league to 6 members.

2006: Chillicothe (from Ohio Capital) and Zanesville join and Ironton and Portsmouth re-join the league increasing membership to ten teams. The league is divided into two divisions; the North consisting of Athens, Logan, Marietta, Warren, and Zanesville and the South consisting of Chillicothe, Gallipolis, Ironton, Jackson, and Portsmouth. Each team plays three cross-over games and a single champion is crowned in football.

2007: Athens leaves for the Tri-Valley Conference Ohio Division following the 2008 spring season dropping the league to 9 members.

2008: Zanesville leaves following the 2009 spring season dropping the league to 8 members.

2009: Ironton leaves following the 2010 spring season dropping the league to 7 members. Round robin scheduling is resumed.

2010: Marietta leaves for the East Central Ohio League following the 2011 spring season dropping the league 6 members. Logan's 34-game winning streak is snapped by Jackson.

2012: Chillicothe leaves for the South Central Ohio League following the 2013 spring season dropping the league to 5 members.

2014: Portsmouth leaves for the Ohio Valley Conference following the 2015 spring season dropping the league to four members.

2015: Jackson is an OHSAA Div. III Regional finalist. Gallipolis leaves for the Ohio Valley Conference following the 2016 spring season dropping the league to three members. Warren becomes an affiliate member of the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference.

2016: Jackson will leave for the newly formed Frontier Athletic Conference following the 2017 spring season. Logan will become an independent. Warren will be an independent with an affiliation with the OVAC.

[loganlocos]

Credit to Dave Bolender, Tom Metters, Randy Heath, Junior Wilson, Craig Dunn and many others for their years of work and research that went into compiling the leagues history. Without their work, assistance, and advice I wouldn't have this information to share.

[moonshine]

As always OUTSTANDING INFO LOCOS!

[Orange and Brown]

Great job! Thanks for posting this!

[loganlocos]

Right now my plan is for this to be a six part series:

Part 2: All-Time Standings and Champions

Part 3: The Schools and Stadiums

Part 4: SEOAL MVPs and Coaches of the Year

Part 5: The SEOAL in the OHSAA Playoffs

Part 6: By the Numbers (Aka Facts and Figures, Records, etc)

[route7]

This is great! Keep it up Locos! I'm a history nut add sports and its better!

[TRENCHFOOT]

Very nice job Locos.

[doubleplay643]

A simple: Thank you.

[Chieftain2009]

This is just fantastic, thanks for sharing part 1 of this historic league.

[1987chieftains]

Great stuff LL!! As always, Thank you for your time and hard work!

[knightruner]

Thank You for doing such a fine job of putting this together. I have really enjoy reading it.

[Raider6309]

I always liked this site. Every SEOAL game from 1925-1986
http://seoal.weebly.com/1925.html

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

I'm looking very much forward to reading everything on it. god bless you buddy and thanks. what a great time to start this. at the end of the regular season. and the end of an era with SEOAL football. I miss it already.

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

I just got done reading down to here. I wish someone would write a book about the league, great reading. glad n proud to have been a small part of it in 75 n 76. before a knee injury.

[trojandave]

Sad to see the demise of the SEOAL, but everyone will survive and move on. I enjoyed Portsmouth's time in the league, but we are in a situation that is better for us.

LoganLocos: Great to see you preserving the history of the SEOAL. As the historian for www.trojanhoops.org., I value greatly the keeping of records. I know it's a lot of work, and I admire your passion for the SEOAL.

[79Tiger]

Very nice

[loganlocos]

I always liked this site. Every SEOAL game from 1925-1986
http://seoal.weebly.com/1925.html

I put that website together. Most of those seasons are technically "hidden" but still public. Its pretty accurate, but I have updated some of that info. Trying to figure out the best way to make it accessible.

[loganlocos]

Sad to see the demise of the SEOAL, but everyone will survive and move on. I enjoyed Portsmouth's time in the league, but we are in a situation that is better for us.

LoganLocos: Great to see you preserving the history of the SEOAL. As the historian for http://www.trojanhoops.org., I value greatly the keeping of records. I know it's a lot of work, and I admire your passion for the SEOAL.

Thanks, Dave.

Work like yours and many others helped inspire me to collect and share the history of Logan football and SEOAL football.

[NYBuckeye96]

Great job locos! I have a question and what I think is a correction........

For the question...................concerning 1966 and 1967..........

1966: Middleport and Pomeroy, along with non-member Rutland, consolidate to form Meigs High School following the spring season of 1967. Nelsonville High School, along with non-member Buchtel-York consolidate to form Nelsonville-York High School. This temporarily drops the league to 5 members.

1967: Meigs High School and Nelsonville-York High School join as the league's 6th and 7th members.

Did Meigs and Nelsonville-York have to formally apply to join the SEOAL or were they grandfathered in since Pomeroy, Middleport and Nelsonville were members? If they were grandfathered in, I think the comment about temporarily dropping the league to 5 members is not accurate. If they had to formally apply for admission, it is an accurate statement.

1968: Ironton (from Central Ohio League) is chosen over Vinton County (Tri-Valley Conference) as the league's 8th member.

The TVC was founded in 1969. I believe Vinton County decided to get together with Warren, Belpre and Federal Hocking to form a new conference after VC was rejected by the SEOAL. That is how I have always understood it. If that is indeed accurate, the reference to VC being a member of the TVC in 1968 is not accurate.

[loganlocos]

NY96 -

I think you might be right - especially regarding the 1966-1967 transition from Mport/Pomeroy to Meigs and Nelsonville to N-Y. I may rewrite that section.

Same for your TVC note. I think I have Vinton County's football history - put together by the great Dave Bolender - at home. I will check and re-write as needed.

Thanks!