During a time when college football was only beginning to gain national prominence, and professional football

1919 Roster

Ted Bates Robert Mealick Roy Brown Harold Showers George Chamberlain Vernon Springer Gerald Conaway Neil Stanberry Wilfred Foreman George Tedrow Roy Hearing Pete Van Atta Floyd McGuire Harold Watts

leagues had not yet organized, a small town in southeastern Ohio hopped on the gridiron band wagon and fielded a football team.

The Crooksville High School Football program began in 1919. That year, school Superintendent E.D. Bates called a meeting for boys who were interested in participating. Several attended the meeting and it was decided that Crooksville High would field a team for the 1919 season.

Having decided to start a football program, the next step was to find a head coach. Crooksville was fortunate enough to find two. The Reverend WJ Foster and RA Cope volunteered to coach the first Crooksville team. Getting players was another issue; and if you think Crooksville has depth problems now, the 1919 roster consisted of only fourteen boys. With Cope, Foster & the fourteen players ready to start the season, a generous parent offered to travel to Columbus to purchase the team uniforms. She returned with eighteen uniforms, one hard helmet and two moleskin helmets (In those days, not all players needed helmets and indeed, few teams even had uniforms). The outfitting was complete after the players paid a visit to local cobbler Mr. Frecker, who attached coils of leather to the bottom of their shoes to serve as cleats.

While the team was ready to have at 'em there wasn't much to have at.

1919 Schedule

Opponent R PF PA Zanesville L 00 56 New Lexington L 00 06 Carroll W 20 06

The 1919 season saw the Crooksville "Big Red", as they were known then, play only three of five scheduled football games. The Big Red's first game was a wash. They were defeated by Zanesville, 56-0. The second game of the season saw the Crooksville squad travel a few miles south to face New Lexington. This would be the first game of a rivalry that has seen at least one game played every season since. Unfortunately, the Big Red dropped this historic match-up by a score of 6-0. After losing their first two games the Crooksville squad posted their first victory at Carroll, 20-6, in what would be the last game of their season. The team had scheduled return games against New Lexington and Carroll, but the games were never played, as a flood interfered with New Lexington's travel and Carroll's bus broke down on the way to Crooksville.

In the years that followed Crooksville joined the Perry County League, and won at least two county titles before 1930. In 1927 the team also won the SEO title, going 7-0-3 and scoring 104 points to their opponents 22.

By 1930 the team was a member of the MVL's predecessor, the Big Five, which also included New Lexington, Glouster,

1931 Schedule

Opponent R PF PA Dresden W 38 00 Roseville W 82 00 Caldwell W 44 00 New Concord W 24 00 Glouster W 58 00 McConnelsville W 46 00 New Lexington W 32 00 Bremen W 69 00 Logan W 14 00

McConnelsville and New Concord. It was as a member of this league that the Big Red posted one of the most impressive seasons in the annals of Ohio high school football. The 1931 squad went 4-0 in league play & 9-0 on the season. Not only were they unbeaten, and untied, but they also went the entire season without giving up a single point, outscoring their opponents 407-0. Even more remarkable, the 1932 Krux-Hi-Skan reports that no team had ventured beyond the Big Red's 20 yard line…a remarkable season indeed.

1935 saw the Big Red become the Crooksville Ceramics. The name was the brainchild of team captain Frederick R. Reed, who won a "name the team" contest sponsored by the local IFKA Society.

If you have information about the Crooksville football program 1920-1937, please send it to the Archive.