First Posted: 3/27/2015
The emotions, passions and memories generated by a basketball team’s advancement to the state tournament can impact a young athlete for a lifetime. The value of the rewards gained by the experience does not change over time or eras.
Jim McPheron, 88 years young, can attest to that premise. 70 years ago this week he helped lead his 1944 Lima St. John’s High School “Titans” to the state championship game in Columbus. “It’s something that stays with you for your entire life,” admits McPheron, who has been married to his high school sweetheart, Katie, for 67 years and has lived in the same house on Collins Avenue here in Lima for more than six decades. His eyes light up with the memories. “I remember it like it was yesterday,” he says.
The story of the march of Lima St. John’s to Columbus is fascinating. Not only because the achievement itself is worthy, but because the hurdles facing the St. John’s boys were daunting and the era they competed in was laced with monumental challenges.
The week of the 1944 state tournament the headlines in the Lima News sports section were filled with tributes to the “Johnnies” as they prepared for their big weekend. But the headlines on the front page screamed a different story. In March of that year, the United States was in the midst of World War II. The German army in Europe and the Japanese forces in the Pacific were still on the march. Every aspect of life in this country was shadowed by the war effort.
The war impacted the tournament run of St. John’s in a manner I believe today’s young athletes would probably find shocking. Led by their captain and point guard, Leo Murphy, the Titans captured their first district title ever with a victory over New Knoxville and began preparation for regional play. The following Monday was Murphy’s 18th birthday which meant he was eligible for the draft. Being a student in high school did not protect young men from being drafted. If they were 18 and passed the physical, they were eligible to immediately join the war effort. On the night before the critical regional semifinal game at Bowling Green State University, Murphy was not with his basketball team. He was on a troop train headed for Marine boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. Within the year, Leo Murphy was charging beaches with the Sixth Marine Division in the Pacific, including the bloody battle for Okinawa, Japan.
Despite the loss of their leader, the Titans roared through the regionals. Paul Mullenhour stepped in to the starting lineup for Murphy, and Bob Riepenhoff assumed his duties as team captain. With victories over Woodville and Marseilles, St. John’s earned a berth in the class B state championships held at Ohio State University. It was only the fourth time an Allen County class B team had made it to state. Delphos St. John’s (1924), St. Rose (1926) and Bluffton (1929) all previously made it to Columbus but failed to bring home a championship trophy.
One of the obstacles the St. John’s players faced was adapting their game to the bigger gymnasiums they were seeing in the tournament. Their home court, appropriately nicknamed “the hole,” was located in the basement of the St. John’s church. Their home gym had a very low ceiling, forcing the players to perfect low trajectory shots with almost no arc. That placed them at a distinct disadvantage when they played in larger gyms. There were also four large concrete pillars on the corners of the court that threatened to maim anyone who ventured too close. McPheron remembers, “Nobody wanted to play us in our gym, and I can’t blame them. We only played four home games that year, and they weren’t very close.” The next time you are near St. John’s church on South Main Street, walk down to the basement and try to imagine the games played there.
The state tournament was played in one day in that era. St. John’s had a 1 p.m. game Saturday with powerful Worthington High School and, if they won, the Titans would have to come back and play the title game later that evening. Before the game Fr. Scott, an assistant Pastor at St. John’s, had a surprise for them. “He had dry cleaned all our uniforms and handed out brand new white shoe laces for all the players. That might not seem like much compared to what kids get today, recalls McPheron, but we were thrilled.”
In the semifinal vs. Worthington, McPheron kept the “Johnnies in the game with key free throws and a critical shot that put the game into overtime. The game went to a second overtime which, in that era, was “sudden death,” meaning the first team to score two points was the winner. Bob Riepenhoff took the tip and drove to the basket. When his shot rolled off the rim, Fred Foster, the 6-foot-4 center, was there for the tip in and the victory. St. John’s became the first team in Lima history to make it to a state championship game. It was their 19th consecutive win.
In the title game that night, the Titans fell to Akron Ellet 49-39. St. John’s held the lead at halftime but lost its center, Foster, to fouls early in the game and were unable to compete with the size of Akron. The Titans’ coach, Dick Bechtel, a house painter by trade, drove the boys back to Lima that evening. Years later, Paul Mullenhour described their homecoming to me. “There was no big fanfare, no pep rally” Mullenhour recalled. “We got out of the cars in the empty parking lot, shook hands and walked home.”
Bechtel returned to Columbus five years later as coach of the Delphos St. John’s Blue Jays and led them to their first state championship.
The St. John’s’ boys were invited to a city council meeting where they were awarded engraved wallets as a memento of their achievement. Life eventually returned to what passed for normal in those war torn years. Shortly after graduation, Jim McPheron turned 18 and was drafted into the army. Less than a year later he was marching into Germany with the famed 99th Infantry Division. Every senior on the 1944 St. John’s’ squad would end up joining the war effort. Bob Riepenhoff (Army) Louis Goedde (Navy), Paul Miller (Navy) and Paul Mullenhour (Army) all served with distinction.
Leo Murphy and Jim McPheron returned home after the war and resumed their lives. Murphy became a pharmacist and real estate developer in Van Wert. McPheron worked as an accountant and salesman for Lima Locomotive Works for nearly 40 years. Both married and raised families. All the St. John’s’ boys returned safely home from the war.
Every athlete in every era has their own story to tell. Those lucky enough to be a part of something special, like a state tournament run, stockpile memories that will last their lifetime. The boys from St. John’s added memories of war to their story. They all came home men.
I believe the true rewards athletes earn while achieving great team success are the same today as they were in the generations that preceded them. The special bonds of friendship forged with teammates, the personal confidence gained and the feeling of pride that results from achieving a difficult goal, binds all athletes, regardless of their era.
For that reason, and for the unique challenges they faced, the story of the young men of the 1944 St. John’s Titans must never be forgotten.
