Preface

To trace the history of high school football in Trimble Township a variety of resources have been used.  They include yearbooks, newspapers and other historical websites both past and present that have listed records for different seasons.  The reliability of these sources is overwhelmingly sound, but there are occasions when contradictions arise between sources or an article will announce the scheduling of a game to which no result can be found.  What also hampers the research is prior to the 1940s, a lack of a definitive sport page in a newspaper which meant the game reports were reserved for the “social news” of Glouster, Trimble, or Jacksonville.  The primary newspaper resources are as follows: all incarnations of The Athens Messenger, The Zanesville Times Recorder, The Zanesville Signal, The Gallia Daily Tribune, The Pomeroy Daily Sentinel, and the Glouster Press. Dr. Tom Pappas is also an invaluable resource for Glouster Football history.  Accessing old emails from Dr. Pappas provided many early pictures and rosters of teams from the 1920s-1960s.

It has also become apparent in this research that the earliest football in Trimble Township was Association Football, or very similar to modern day soccer.  Glouster’s club team (The Glouster Rovers) excelled in the 1890s and was known in various publications as the best football club in three states.  It is worth acknowledging this feat, but it is not officially included in this history since it was a club sport and not representative of high school football.  

Beginning in the 1920s Glouster was home to a number of semi-pro football teams sponsored by local businesses (Drury Drug Store was a longtime sponsor) or the American Legion.  It was in fact the American Legion that constructed the first true football field that Glouster High School would use for their home games until the WPA built Glouster Memorial Stadium which was completed in 1940.  While the impact of these semi-pro teams was felt by the high schools of Trimble Township, they too will not be covered by this history.

This history also serves as a glimpse into the cultivation of sports reporting.  In the early years most game reports were more about the starting rosters, the size of the crowd or the health of the players than the particulars of the game itself.  Statistics were very rarely given in game reports until the late 1960s and post season honors were non-existent in the first decades of Trimble Football history.  Players designated All-State were usually reserved for only the larger schools in the urban parts of the state, so many of the stand out players in the early years were not acknowledged.  It was considered statistically easier to be named a College All-American than to get on the All-Ohio Football team in the 1930s and 40s. 

This document will serve as a living body while more information is found.  There will be updates and changes as research continues and any information is welcomed to increase the accuracy of this report.  The information will be broken down by decades starting with the 1910s.