DELPHOS – It started with six players, a three-game schedule and a homecourt on the second floor of the school.
Now, 100 seasons later Delphos St. John’s is one of the most well-known high school boys basketball programs in Ohio, with three state championships, four state runner-up teams and five other teams who reached state tournaments.
Former players, coaches, cheerleaders, trainers, managers and fans will be recognized at Saturday night’s game against Lincolnview at the Robert A. Arnzen Gymnasium and are invited to the Knights of Columbus Hall after the game as part of this year’s celebration of a century of St. John’s basketball.
“We’re expecting a big crowd but as far as a number, I can’t tell you,” said Bob Ebbeskotte, one of the organizers of the event.
St. John’s first season of basketball was in 1918-19 when it split a pair of games against Ottoville and defeated the Ottawa Triangles.
It didn’t take long for St. John’s basketball to become much bigger and much more successful, though.
By 1922, St. John’s – which wouldn’t be know as the Blue Jays for another 25 years – had a 19-1 record.
The 1924 state semifinalist team went 22-4. That season was the first of 23 seasons in which St. John’s has won 20 or more games. There has never been a decade when St. John’s had more losing seasons than winning seasons. It also celebrated its 1,500th victory earlier this season.
In 1949, the Blue Jays, coached by Dick Bechtel, won the first of the school’s boys basketball state championships.
Two others followed in 1983 and 2002. And the 1954, 1973, 1998 and 2001 teams were state runners-up. Only Canton McKinley (28), Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph (16), Portsmouth (15), Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary (14) and Middletown (14) have played in more boys basketball state tournaments than St. John’s.
“A lot of good players and a lot of good people have come through there. It’s a big part of that community,” said Steve Pohlman, an all-state player on St. John’s 1983 state champion team.
Jim Arnzen, an all-state guard for his dad, Bob Arnzen, in the mid-1970s, described St. John’s basketball as “a special thing.”
“A lot of places haven’t been able to keep it going that long and they’ve been able to do that in Delphos,” he said. “They keep it going.”
Two things happened in the 1950s that elevated St. John’s program to an even higher level than it had been on before.
In 1950, the school hired Bob Arnzen, a 23-year-old with no previous head coaching experience. And in 1957 it opened the 1,700-seat gym it still uses.
Arnzen, who grew up in Newport, Ky., across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, stayed 43 years, coached 676 St. John’s victories and became a legend. The gym also became legendary — for its reputation as a tough place to play, for its unique features like the “bucket” seats and for so many season ticket holders sitting in the same seats year after year.
St. John’s had a tradition of winning basketball when Arnzen arrived, but it only got stronger in his more than four decades.
“You couldn’t wait to be part of the team. I think it’s something that is just born in the St. John’s community,” said Gene Klaus, who played at St. John’s in the early 1960s before becoming a starter on some the University of Dayton’s best teams.
“And Coach Arnzen was a special individual. He was an icon,” Klaus said about his late coach.
The icon had to wait until his 33rd season to win a state championship, though.
His 1954 team lost to New Lexington St. Aloysius in the state title game by two points after St. John’s point guard Chuck Geise suffered a broken ankle in the first quarter. Some of his best teams, like the 1963 team with Jim Carder, Jerry Carder and Klaus, had to play in the big school division in the tournament in an era when there were only two classes in Ohio high school basketball.
The 1973 team was also state runner-up. The 1983 team did not go into the season with quite the hype as the 1982 team. which included Ohio State recruit Alan Kortokrax. But it went on to win Arnzen’s only state title and is the only St. John’s boys basketball team to have an undefeated season.
Pohlman said, “When I was a junior we got beat in the semifinals by Middletown Fenwick, a team we had scrimmaged and beat pretty good. There were a lot of people who thought our best shot to win it was over with.
“But guys like Kevin Trentman, Dan Geise, John Bockey, Kevin Geise and Jeff Osting, we were all pretty close. We had a bond. We said, ‘Hey, we have a lot of talent here yet.’ We said, ‘Hey, we can go back to state and win that thing,’ “ he said. “Our main goal that season was to win it for Coach Arnzen.”
The tradition of St. John’s basketball mattered then and still matters, Pohlman said.
“That fan base, you’re playing for them. They’re there for you through thick and thin. That’s a sixth man,” he said.
“We had plenty of tight games — against St. Henry, Kalida in the tournament and others. Those people pulled us through. It’s not just the players, it’s the community. That’s a big part of it.
“I was able to watch Delphos St. John’s in the regional in Toledo last year. You can see it. It’s still there. They have great pride.”
Former coach Brett Norris and current coach Aaron Elwer also said tradition is alive and well 100 seasons later.
Norris coached St. John’s 2002 state champion team and its 2001 and 1998 runner-up teams. Elwer was a starting guard on the 1998 team and was the Blue Jays’ coach in their most recent trip to state last year.
The Blue Jays football team played 14 or more games six times in an eight-year span while Norris was at St. John’s and several of the key players on the basketball team were also football starters. He says tradition is one of the things that kept the multi-sport athletes in the basketball program.
“I think the tradition of our basketball program meant a lot. It helped keep kids involved in our program even after long football seasons. Our players had a sense of obligation to the teams that came before them and a pride that I know still exists today,” Norris said.
Part of the aura of St. John’s program is the distinctiveness of its gym in an era of look-alike gyms and its perceived homecourt advantage.
“I always felt like it was such an intimidating place for the opponents,” Norris said. “I thought Ottawa-Glandorf and Delphos St. John’s were the two most difficult places for a road team to get a win in my 10 years at St. John’s.”
Elwer said the Arnzen Gymnasium is “one of the big factors” in St. John’s basketball tradition.
“It’s typically what everybody brings up. They talk about ‘The Vatican’ or playing in the Robert A. Arnzen Gymnasium and the history that goes along with the tradition there. It is mentioned a lot and maybe we do play with a little confidence at home,” he said.
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