Members of the first Marysville High School boys basketball team in 1904 are pictured. They are, front, Hubert Scott; middle from left, Milton Stevenson, Edward Sellers and Luther Powers; and back, Joe Reagle.
(Photo Submitted)
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MHS senior Jen Patterson pitches during the 2016 Division I regional softball semifinals at The Ohio State University. Patterson guided the Lady Monarchs to a regional runner-up spot. The softball program has been the most successful of Lady Monarch sports over the years.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
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The community of Marysville is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year.
A big part of the community’s heritage is its high school athletics, which began less than 100 years after its founding.
To learn a little more about the history of Marysville High School athletics, the Journal-Tribune sat down and talked with Tim Davidson, who is a 1977 MHS graduate.
Davidson is known throughout the area as a historian of local high school sports. Chronicling the history of not only Monarch athletics, but sports from other local school districts has long been his passion.
Davidson was ready for the newspaper’s visit with quite a bit of information.
“Marysville first played football in 1901 and the first game that season was on Nov. 8,” he said. “The first-ever home game was the last one of that season on Nov. 28.”
Both games were played against Plain City and resulted in losses of 5-0 and 11-0.
“That first game was played at what was called the Ohio Central Tracks,” said Davidson.
Former MHS assistant coach Jack Ruetty compiled a Monarch football history a number of years ago.
His history agreed with the game location, which was just east of what was then the train depot.
There were no football teams fielded in 1907 and 1908.
MHS has, however, continuously played football for more than a century, since 1909.
The Monarchs sent two players on to lengthy professional careers.
Gary Shirk (Class of 1968) played for the NFL’s New York Giants, while Chase Blackburn (2001) played for the Giants and Carolina Panthers.
Blackburn is currently the special teams coordinator for Carolina.
Steve Devine, who also graduated in 1968, retired in 2019 after 18 years as a Giants scout.
Devine had also previously served as an assistant coach at The Ohio State University.
Marysville added the sports of basketball and baseball in 1904.
It took track and field much longer to arrive on the scene – sometime in the 1930s – according to Davidson.
Marysville added many boys sports during the ensuing years, including golf in the 1950s, wrestling and cross-country in the 1960s and later soccer, tennis, swimming and lacrosse.
MHS sponsored a girls basketball team during the 1920s, but that sport disappeared for many years.
The Girls Athletic Association (GAA) was formed in the late 1950s-early 1960s, but those activities were not recognized as varsity sports.
The group was formed by the late Polly Widner.
“GAA was just something for the girls of that time to do,” said Davidson.
It wasn’t until the 1970s, when Title IX legislation was approved, that girls’ school sports began to grow.
One of Marysville’s first ventures into sports during that era was softball (1973), coached by Widner and the late Jim Shipp.
Girls track and field began about that time and girls basketball started to gain strength in the mid-to-late 1970s and into the early 1980s.
Widner began the volleyball program in the early portion of the ‘70s.
It was played as a spring sport its first year.
“It changed to a fall sport in 1972,” said Davidson.
The school added additional girls sports as the decades went by to include cross-country, tennis, golf, soccer, lacrosse, swimming and gymnastics.
Davidson feels the decades of the 1940s and 1950s could easily be called Marysville’s “Golden Era” of sports.
“We won several boys basketball district championships and had a couple of undefeated football teams (1954 and 1957),” he said.
Things switched directions for much of the 1960s.
“We were one of the smallest schools in the Mid 8 Conference,” Davidson said, in explaining some difficult seasons.
From the 1970s on, Monarch teams have had periods of great success, from state football playoff appearances to district championships in softball and wrestling.
Individual athletes have also had standout success, with several – Luke Wimmers, Ben Rings, Josh Palivoda, Austin Pfarr, Noah Forrider, Taleb Rahmani and Hayden Lee – claiming state individual championships in wrestling.
Chris Nichols-Allwine also won a girls state 3200 meter track and field title in the late 1980s.
Carly Truitt captured girls state golf championships in 2002 and 2003.
For years, Davidson has kept Monarch sports history in notebooks and on his computer.
He was also instrumental in the formation of the kiosk that is located in the sports lobby of the high school.
The kiosk displays Marysville High School athletic records and photos from throughout the years.
A history project of this nature is one that is in constant need of updates.
“It’s sometimes hard to update everything,” said Davidson. “I don’t have all the statistical information I need from every coach over the years.”
Despite the struggles of gaining information, Davidson doggedly pursues his goal of preserving Marysville High School’s athletic heritage.
He does it because he’s an MHS alum and a self-professed “sports nut.”
Davidson also does it because he realizes what sports do for a community.
“There’s a sense of pride for a town in its high school sports,” he said. “That’s why I keep all my histories.”