The "Dirty Shirts" of Farmer High School - 1946

The Farmer High School Boys Basketball team of 1946 made local history, at least, when they won the Class B State Championship that year.  In their four years together, this team of 33 boys won 100 games and lost 4.  Known affectionately as the "Dirty Shirts," but really the Farmer Tigers, they gave Defiance County reason to crow about their accomplishments.
On the 40th anniversary of the win, the Bryan Times ran a recap of that championship game.

From The Bryan Times -  June 5, 1986

"...The state tourney was played in Springfield that year as St. John Arena in Columbus was still in the future.  
On Friday, the Tigers tamed Bradford by a score of 57 - 29 and could have probably reached 65 points had not coach Ollie Zedaker brought in subs off the bench in the second half.  The Bradford team had defeated the 1945 champs, Northridge, the week before and the southwestern Railroaders were heavily favored, but the Tigers were not awed as they drove Bradford batty with a devastating fast break.  

Farmer jumped to a 10 point lead at the start of the game and were never headed after that.  Bradford had won 26 of the 28 games they had played as they had held their foes to an average of 28 points per game before they met their match with the Tigers.  Leighton Fritz paced Farmer with 19 points.

Then the Tigers met Worthington on Saturday for the championship and proved a good little team can beat a bigger team as they scored a 36 - 32 victory.  The game was close as Worthington led five times and Farmer nine times.  Farmer led 10-8 after one period, but trailed 17-14 with 10 seconds to play in the half.  However, the Tigers scored four points in those 10 seconds to lead 18-17 at the half.  

The game was nip and tuck in the third period with Farmer leading 30-26 as the final stanza opened.  They refused to give up the lead and became the champions of the 580 Class B teams in the state.

Fritz was not as hot in his shooting as in the win over Bradford, but was able to make some fine passes to Ed Lord who tallied 17 of the 36 points.  

After the game the Farmer team was presented the trophy with each player getting a gold basketball.  Fritz, Lord and Bob Beerbower were named to the AP all tourney team.  

Farmer closed the school on Friday and three busloads of students and scores of fans in autos made the pilgrimage to Wittenberg College for the state meet.  The school reopened on Monday for all but the players.  On Sunday afternoon, the team was welcomed back to Farmer as they were met two miles from town by the fire department and taken to the auditorium for their welcome back.  Most of the people were sleepy after driving most of the night to get back from Springfield to do their chores, but sleep was the furthest thing from the minds of most of the fans who welcomed home the conquering heroes..."

Other factoids from the article...

Farmer was the first Northwestern Ohio team to win the state title. 

In 1926, Ney H. S., coached by Edgar Bergman, went to the state semi-finals.

Mark Center H.S. was runner up to the Waterloo Wonders in 1934. 

The only loss Farmer had in 1946 was to Edgerton and they later defeated them in a rematch, 61-23.

Leighton Fritz scored 1533 points in four years, which was  the all-time Defiance County record.

Farmer High School no longer exists, but Worthington has grown considerably.