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1934, 1939 were banner years for Chiefs
Red Longley, Bob McBride and ‘Big Smitty’ Smith among those who helped begin Logan’s great football tradition
BY SPENCER WAUGH
FOR THE LOGAN DAILY NEWS
Editor’s note: The following article is the first
of a series of Logan High School football history
stories LHS sports historian Spencer Waugh is
writing for The Logan Daily News this season to
commemorate the anniversaries of the great-
est Chieftain football teams of all time. This
story covers the 1934 and 1939 Chieftain teams.
Waugh is continuing the process of speaking
with LHS athletes and coaches from all eras and
can be contacted either via email at admin@
loganfootball.com or at 740-974-4531.
———
Although Logan High School claimed the
“championship” of the Hocking Valley in 1915, it
wasn’t until the 1930s that the program’s champi-
onship tradition was established.
Logan’s 1934 champions finished with an
unblemished 10-0 mark. As one of only eight
unbeaten and untied teams in Class A (the largest
half of all high schools), the Chieftains scored
304 points which was the fourth-highest total in
the entire state.
Despite all that, the team was relegated to
“co-champion” status because Middleport, the
league’s powerhouse at the time, backed out of a
“championship” game which was to have been
played at Ohio University in the first weekend of
December.
The Chieftains returned to the top of the
Southeastern Ohio Athletic League mountain
again in 1939, proving that their ’34 win wasn’t
a flash in the pan. For the first time that season,
the SEOAL played a “round-robin” schedule and
Notre Dame-bound fullback Bob McBride led
Logan to a 6-1 league record and a co-champi-
onship.
But that success didn’t come out of nowhere.
Founding members of the old SEOAL, the
“Purple and White Warriors” (as Logan was
known until approximately 1933) sniffed a
championship in the league’s first season (1925)
but finished tied for third place losing to larger
schools in champion Athens and Portsmouth.
Despite the early success, it was downhill from
there, with LHS bottoming out with a 1-8 record
in both 1929 and 1930. The 1930 season was the
only winless league season in history and saw
Logan alone in the basement of the league.
Fortunes for the football program turned
around with the hiring of John “Red” Longley
before the 1931-32 school year. A Nelsonville
native, Longley starred at Ohio University and
featured for the Masts Restaurant semi-pro team
that represented Logan in the late 1920s. Longley
had been an assistant to Coach Sawyer in ’29 and
’30.
Longley was barrel-chested and had red hair
— and the occasional temper to go with it.
“A lot of us gray hairs feel Red was the father
of the winning tradition at Logan High School,”
said Marion Allen during Longley’s induction to
the LHS Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985. Allen,
who played for Longley as a fullback and who
coached many Chieftains as an assistant football
and head baseball coach, was named in the Hall’s
inaugural class in 1976.
Dick Brandt, who played for Longley, recalled
when joining the Athletic Hall in 1986 that
“Coach Longley had as much to do or more to do
with us in our later lives than most anybody here
in our school terms. He insisted on us doing our
best and he expected it. He was the hardest on
those who had ability and he had a way to get the
best out of everybody.”
Longley switched his Nelsonville scarlet for
Logan purple during one of the most heated
times during the rivalry between the two schools.
Nelsonville defeated Logan in 1929 and ’30, the
only time in the 55-game series that the Grey-
hounds won back-to-back games. Starting with
a win in Longley’s first season, Logan wouldn’t
lose to the ‘Hounds again until 1956.
Longley’s father was a barber and his shop
was a local hangout for sports fans. One can only
imagine what the shop must have been like in the
week leading up to the big game.
Longley was known as a fierce competitor.
Allen recalled that “he’d go to any extreme to
motivate you. If you needed a good kick in the
seat, he’d do that and if a pat on the back was
needed he’d go that direction also.”
The Chieftains improved under their new
coach, winning four games each in 1931 and ’32
before a remarkable season in 1933. That year the
Chieftains recorded nine shutouts in ten games
played, but won only six games. Three scoreless
ties held down the Chieftain win total. Their only
loss came to Middleport by a 12-8 scoreline.
The Middleport Yellow Jackets were in the
beginning stages of what would become a 28-
game winning streak. The Jackets finished 10-0
in ’33, 11-0 in ’34, and 9-1 in ’35 losing a single
non-league game with Ironton. Their SEOAL
win streak would reach 18 games before a loss at
Gallipolis in 1936.
Coming off that season, for the first time
Logan and its fans felt ready for a title push. A
strong returning backfield that featured halfback
83 49
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Vaughn “Bus” Hansel, quarterback Ned Gabriel,
and fullback Dick Brandt would be paired with
a talented but inexperienced group of linemen.
Gabriel, a halfback in 1933, moved to quarter-
back to replace one of the finest in school history,
Clarence Krumlauf.
That inexperienced group of linemen would
take a hit during the pre-season. Brandt broke
his collarbone early in the preseason, forcing
Longley to move captain Pearl Derr from tackle
to fullback.
Derr, the lone returning starter on the line,
would be remembered as “one of the finest
football players, according to his opponents, in
SE Ohio. He was a triple threat man and kept his
adversaries guessing as to what he was going to
do,” according to the 1935 Aerial. At the team
banquet, Coach Longley called Derr “the best
all-around fullback I ever saw in high school”
football.
But Longley still put together an excellent line.
On the ends were Waldo Terrell and sopho-
more Bob Ralston. Terrell was a late bloomer
who grew into the best pass receiver on the squad
with the ability to seemingly grab passes out of
his reach. On defense he took away half the field
with his quickness and fierce tackling ability.
He would go on to earn a starting berth at Ohio
University.
The tackles were junior Floyd Mason and
Dick Price. Mason made a timely move to Logan
with his family over the summer while Price was
called the “Rock of Gibraltar” by the Aerial.
At guard, undersized junior Jack Ucker held
down one post while Allen McMillen, junior
John Halby, and Bill “Pealie” Shaw all played
at the other spot. According to Longley, Ucker
had a “willingness to do anything just so he
played” while the other three were praised for
their defensive work. Shaw was the “best forward
pass defense man we ever had,” according to the
coach.
At center was Harold R. “Big Smitty” Smith.
The largest boy on the team, “Big Smitty” went
on to be one of Logan High School’s biggest
boosters and a teacher, coach, and administrator
in the Starr-Washington (Union Furnace) and Lo-
gan school districts. Longley credited “Smitty”
with “intestinal fortitude.”
Logan opened the campaign with a pair of
“preseason” games, which is how the non-league
portion of the schedule was viewed. Logan
defeated Buchtel 12-9 and McArthur 25-8. Both
games were used to experiment with the lineup
in hopes of finding the winning formula.
The game with Buchtel was organized by
the “Downtown Coaches,” a predecessor to
the Athletic Boosters, to raise money for new
uniforms and equipment for the school’s football
and basketball teams.
The new uniforms arrived in time for the
league opener with Athens.
According to the Logan Republican, the new
uniforms consisted of pants that were “brownish
grey in color with purple stripes running along
the legs. The jerseys (were) white with purple
sleeves and large purple numerals. Headgear
(were) painted white and black stripes while
socks are purple with three white stripes circling
the legs. Along with uniforms came modern
shoulder and hip pads which were of the latest
design and as near shock proof as possible.”
The Athens game turned out to be a breeze —
the first sign that Logan had real championship
material. The Bulldogs, who wore red and black
in those days, were held to a single first down
and only 12 net rushing yards in a 32-0 Chieftain
victory. Murray City next went down by a 35-0
score.
The win over the Miners set up a matchup of
the unbeatens. Logan was 4-0 and set to host
Pomeroy, which was 3-0. The Panthers had
outscored three opponents 97-0, including a
45-0 win over Athens. By season’s end, Pomeroy
would be 7-2 with seven shutouts. Only Logan
and Middleport would score against Pomeroy.
The Logan Republican wrote that the “Logan
Chieftains won a scintillating 12-0 victory Friday
from the Pomeroy Panthers through one series
of accurate passes and by a perfect demonstra-
tion of blocking.” After taking a two-score lead
Logan elected to punt the ball away on early
downs. Logan scored on a run by Brandt and on
a 52-yard punt return by Gabriel that included
“perfect interference” from his teammates.
Lancaster St. Marys (today known as Fisher
Catholic) was overwhelmed by a 60-6 the next
week. Logan’s regulars played sparingly and
Coach Longley cleared the bench.
The purple and white took a 13-0 lead against
New Boston (Glenwood), a former member of
the SEOAL located just outside of Portsmouth.
The Tigers fought back from a 13-0 deficit and
Logan had to hold New Boston to within one
foot of the goal line in the final period to win 13-
7. Hansel score both Chieftain touchdowns.
The next game brought the first of only two
games away from home. Logan visited Lancast-
er’s old North Field for a game under the lights
— at the time still a relatively new phenomenon.
Logan wouldn’t install lights until 1935.
Pictured here are Pearl Derr, Red Longley and Ned Gabriel with SEOAL football and basketball
championship trophies Logan won in 1934.
The Chieftains hadn’t defeated Lancaster since
1921, losing five times and tying twice in that
span. But this group of Chieftains would not be
denied. The Logan Republican ran the head-
line “Chieftain scalp Lancaster Hi 30-0” and
declared “Jinx buried as Logan scores in each
period.”
After Gabriel’s 65-yard punt return opened the
scoring, Logan’s second touchdown was nearly
beyond description. A 17-yard pass to Terrel gave
Logan a first down, but Terrel, believing he had
scored, stood still just past the five-yard line.
Halby recognized Terrel’s mistake and grabbed
the ball and just as he was about to be met at the
goal line he lateraled to Gabriel, who crossed the
goal line. Derr and Hansel closed the scoring.
Longley said of that win over Lancaster that,
“I have always wondered how it would feel to
coach a perfect football team, and I came as near
as I’ll ever come.”
Logan closed the season by routing Gallipolis
(36-7) and Nelsonville (49-6). The Nelsonville
game, played on Thanksgiving Day, was a fit-
ting finale. The purple and white scored at will,
including plays with multiple backward throws
before one back launched the ball downfield to a
receiver and an interception and return for touch-
down by Ramon “Big Smitty” Smith.
“Nelsonville was on the East end, around
the 20 or 30 yard line, they threw a ball which
was blocked at the line of scrimmage — it went
up in the air — and our big tackle intercepted
it and waddled into the endzone. He was a big
man (about 230 pounds, which was 100 pounds
heavier than most of his teammates). He didn’t
run fast at all. You didn’t think he was going to
get there!” Dr. Jack Rauch, then an eight-year-
old, recalled watching the play.
It would prove to be the culmination of Long-
ley’s tenure as Chieftain coach. He would leave
at the end of the school year for Ashland, but
not before winning the school’s first basketball
championship as well. From that team, Coach
Longley, Brandt, Derr, Gabriel, Hansel, and Ter-
rel would all end up in the LHS Athletic Hall of
Fame.
1939
Longley’s departure could have stifled Logan’s
new-found championship culture, but the arrival
a new legend in 1936 dispelled those notions. In
fact, Logan’s new grid boss would later be hailed
as the “Builder of Champions.”
The Chieftains had followed up their ’34
championship season with a 7-2-1 season under
Carl “Ducky” Schroeder, but the Massillon
native didn’t stay in Hocking County for long.
His departure opened the door for the arrival of
Tommy Bender from Mt. Gilead.
Bender had won over 80 percent of his games
at the Morrow County school. During his six
years in purple and white, Bender would coach
five championship teams — two in football and
three in basketball. He also coached the 1938
baseball Chiefs to the state tournament, which at
the time was the top 16 teams or the equivalent
of the regional level today.
Bender, a native of Loudonville, had been
a standout at Ashland College where he was a
three-sport athlete. His .600 batting average as a
senior was believed to be the best in the country.
Dr. Jack Rauch, who played for Bender as a
sophomore before going to be the team physi-
cian for over 25 years, recently remembered that
“Bender was one of those coaches that if he said
‘jump over that cliff’ you would have — and
not even worried about what was below you,
you would have just jumped. A man you totally
respected as a coach. You almost felt like he was
walking on water. Everyone who played for him
respected him entirely.”
Tracy Conrad, a teammate of Rauch and a
fellow Hall of Famer, said of his coach that “he
was one of the best. You’d either listen, or you
didn’t play.”
The Logan Daily News
Bob McBride — pictured here while playing
college football at Notre Dame — was one of
Logan High School’s all-time great athletes.
He was the driving force who powered the
1939 Logan Chieftains to the school’s second
Southeastern Ohio Athletic League football
championship.
Bender’s first team struggled to a 2-7 record
in the last season played in front of the old
wooden bleachers on the Hilltop. His ’37
Chiefs rebounded to a 7-3 season, losing to
Lancaster, Columbus South, and Gallipolis.
The Gallipolis game was by a heartbreaking
20-19 score and cost the team a co-SEOAL
championship.
The Bendermen were 6-3-1 in 1938, a season
which set the stage for a championship season.
The 1939 Chieftains were described by The
Aerial as “a skyrocket” and that on a team
made of stars, “Captain Bob McBride was the
brightest.” Of note, 1939 was the first time that
the SEOAL required round-robin scheduling
for all members.
The 1939 Chiefs shut out their first six op-
ponents.
McBride may be the greatest football player
produced by Logan High School. But relegat-
ing him to “just” a football star would sell him
short. He went on to play and coach at Notre
Dame under Frank Leahy, winning a national
championship.
He may be most famous for his activity dur-
ing the European Campaign during World War
II. McBride was captured at the Battle of the
Bulge and made to march across northern Eu-
rope, losing over 100 pounds in the process. He
returned to Notre Dame, rebuilt himself physi-
cally, and served as the team captain during the
Game of the Century against Army in 1946 as
the Irish marched to a National Championship.
But while McBride, who moved to fullback
after playing tackle the previous two seasons,
provided the senior leadership; it was a group
of sophomores who pushed the Chieftains into
championship contention.
That group of sophomores included Louis
Casto and Bill Johnston on the ends along with
Tracy Conrad and Jake Ervin, who split time at
one of the guard posts. Additionally, back Mor-
ris Hummel and tackle Roy Kelch would play a
part in the championship run.
Casto and Kelch both earned All-SEOAL
berths while Johnston and Conrad would
both become LHS Athletic Hall of Famers.
Johnston would replace McBride at fullback
in 1940 and ’41.
SEE HISTORY ON PAGE B6