Counties

Below is a complete listing of all Ohio Historical Markers. To find a detailed marker listing including text, photographs, and locations, click on a county below. Our listing is updated by the markers program as new markers are installed and older markers are reported damaged or missing.

5-69 The Miller City Wildcats / The “Cinderella Kids” of 1950

Side A: Team photograph here Standing, L to R: Coach C. Norris Simpson, Donald Alt, Bill Ziegler, Roy Meyer, Jerry Kuhlman, Karl Inkrott, Vern Schroeder, Mel Lammers Kneeling, L to R: Joe Lammers, Junior McDonald, Frank Schroeder, Ralph (Skip) Meyer, Dick Barlage Team manager: Charles Warnimont Cheerleaders: Betty Lou Meyer, Agnes Riepenhoff, Clara Schroeder, Audrey Wischmeyer School colors: Blue and Gold “You have got to have the boys and I had the boys” –Coach C. Norris Simpson
Side B: The 1949-1950 season of the Miller City Wildcats boys’ basketball team is one of Ohio’s great sports stories. First-year coach C. Norris Simpson assembled an undersized group of farm boys and led them to 29 straight victories, including 11 tournament wins. The Wildcats played home games in the “The Barn,” which was heated by two pot-bellied stoves (later the site of Miller City Sportsman’s Club). Sportswriters nicknamed the team the “Mighty Mites” and “Cinderella Kids,” among others, because the underdog squad regularly beat bigger opponents. The Wildcats defeated the Eaton Eagles in the Class B state championship game on March 25, 1950 and became the only one of more than 1,100 teams in Ohio to end that season with a perfect record of all wins and no losses. Thousands of fans welcomed the state champs home to Miller City, then a village of approximately 150 residents.
Sponsors: Miller City-New Cleveland Community and The Ohio Historical Society
Address: Miller City New Cleveland School, 
Miller City, 
OH, 
45864
Location: Entrance to school is across from 209 Main Street. Marker is at entrance to the school building.
Latitude: 41.1048030
Longitude: -84.1279200