'Augie's Eagles'

Alive and well. The coach revered by Monroeville fans after leading that school to the 1984 state basketball small-school championship, Dave Augspurger, is just weeks away from celebrating his 83rd birthday. One would never know that, however, from the way he recalls teams he has had in the past including the one that both made him a legend in Huron County and sent him into retirement. Augspurger and wife, Linda, have resided seven miles south of Oxford, the home of Miami of Ohio University, for 24 years. It is from there they made hundreds of road trips watching their sons Tony and Tosh excel in the same sport that their father made a career of. Making sure the next stop was the right one was always the case with Dave Augspurger. "You are right. I never went back to coaching after Monroeville," he said. "And the reason was I never got the job I wanted. I had been doing it for a long time and rather than make a mistake on my choice, I decided to settle down with Linda and watch the boys." Augspurger talked about his sons, who both live in southwest Ohio. Tosh, who lives near Hamilton, has been a private contractor for three decades. Tony retired as a teacher and career basketball coach but is now the athletic director at Lewisburg Tri-County North, about 20 miles east of Richmond, Ind. Augspurger has fond memories of his years at Monroeville, especially that banner year when his team lost their first game of the season to Mansfield St. Peter by two points and then faced them again in the first game of district, winning the rematch, 52-49. The district final game was an even closer game, this one a 59-58 victory over Western Reserve. "As I think back of all the great moments that year, I can still hear that crowd chanting 'Augie's Eagles' with 10 seconds left in our game with Bishop Wehrle. Our fans were great. The story on Augie's Eagles started with the selling of buttons with those two words on them and ending up as a perfect chant by the fans, one that virtually rocked St. John Arena that morning. I have seen 20 state finals and there were a lot of cheering but no chant measured up to the volume mustered by the fans from Monroeville." Augspurger talked about his bid for a state title in 1967 when he had Ross Southeastern in Columbus battling Gnadenhutten Indian Valley South. "A lot has been made about my getting to Columbus twice (1966 and 1967) and losing both times in the semifinals," he said. "Many just look at the score and visualize it was just another close loss but those who kept score in 1967 realized we never trailed in the game until the final two seconds. The game had been tied twice but we led by one when IVS took the ball out with nine seconds left. "I had my people set up to take the charge because I figured Charlie Huggins would have his player drive to the bucket and hope for a foul. My kid held his ground and got run over but did not get the call. Rather the kid with the ball rifled a pass to a player who was 1-for-10 for the game and he hit the shot at the buzzer. The obvious charge occurred 10 feet from the official who for whatever reason, refused to blow his whistle. Few teams have lost a game like that. Needless to say our kids and fans were devastated," Augspurger said. On a sad note, however, Augspurger talked about the three recent deaths, two players from that 1984 team, Mike Landoll and Don Beck, and Sandy Haas, the wife of Bob Haas, the Hall of Fame coach his boys played for at Willard. "That made it a tough year for all of us. We are very respectful for what transpired over a one-year period," he said. Interesting tidbits from the Augspurger era Augspurger taught at Monroeville for five years but coached for just the last two, amassing a 46-4 record… Maybe it was because he got his masters at Miami of Ohio that he moved back to that area. He got his bachelor's in education from Ohio State… When he was at Monroeville, Steve Ringholz was the football coach while Dennis Doughty headed the wrestling program. Augspurger coached for 23 years and as he told one reporter as he tried for a third time to win a state title, he survived three firings and much frustration to get here again… This time he grabbed the brass ring as the Eagles topped Maria Stein Marion Local 72-66 in the semifinals and then stopping Columbus Bishop Wehrle 66-62 in the championship game. Monroeville had more than its share of nail-biters getting to Columbus. After edging both St. Peter and Western Reserve in the district, the Eagles had to survive Miller City 66-64 and Van Buren 68-59 in the regionals at Bowling Green. Wehrle was equally strong in track, winning three state titles in four years. For whatever reason, they were favored that year in Columbus, probably because of the schedule they played and the fact that they had a super post player in junior Jerry Francis. And they proved their worth by taking out the No. 1 ranked team in Skyvue, a team that shot a record 65% from the field against them. Skyvue, which did not have football or wrestling programs in 1984, beat Wellsville in the regional finals the week before, shooting 73% from the field.