(1-26-2021) A hundred years ago a small country school in Mercer County had both a boys and girls high school basketball teams – Washington Township.

Resources online are very limited, but thanks to the Coldwater Library and their newspaper digital site some details of those early years are available.

Below are snippets from the Coldwater Chronicle. Newspapers during this time did not have a regular sports section, but information would be spread out around the paper. Washington Township was usually featured in the Washington Center updates, along with other communities in the county.

Basketball in Mercer County was emerging, it was the early days of the sports and the rules don’t resemble of much what we know today. But this was a special time…and this is what helped to make basketball a staple in high school athletics.

12-16-1921

12-23-1921

1-22-1922

1-30-1925

11-27-1925

12-11-1925

12-25-1925

2-11-1938

It looks like 1938 was the last season for Washington Township boys basketball, girls basketball was ended by schools earlier in the 1930’s.

What ended Washington Township High School? Ohio and the Mercer County Board of Education were in the process of decreasing one-room schools and small districts. The process included enlargements, St. Anthony Schools would receive 40 students and 5 1/2 square miles from Liberty and Washington Townships in 1939.

7-28-1939

As much as we know about Washington Township High School, there is much we do not know.

  • Did they have a mascot?
  • School colors (possibly green and white)?
  • Did they play games inside the school (moving the desks to the sides)?

But don’t ever forget they were a big part of Mercer County High School basketball history.

Advertisement