Little Known things that happened in Greater Cleveland

  Indoor baseball

Around 1890 an indoor baseball league was founded in Cleveland.The team was founded after indoor baseball was seen in Chicago 

Indoor baseball was just like regular baseball but indoors with dimensions based on size of the venue.The games were played at the Red Cross Rink and the Forest city Armory

The first four teams were from Lodges which were forms of social and religious clubs of the early 1900’s

These teams were the Criterion Lodge and Forest City’s of the East Side.The other two teams were 

From the west side were the Damon’s and Stars.The Damon’s were from the Red Cross Lodge.

Cy Young the Hall of Fame pitcher played  part of the indoor season.

This league lasted off and on until the 1920’s

The 1920 World Series Scoreboard

In 1920 the Cleveland Indians played the Brooklyn Robins for the Championship in baseball.

This was a few years before radio started in Cleveland.Also not every fan could  afford to go the game

On East 6th street where the Plain Dealer  was located set up a big scoreboard that fans could watch on game day.

Using a telegraph the count with the  position of each runner.Also inning and  the score were placed manually on the scoreboard.7000 fans came to East 6th to watch.At that point it was a best 5 out of 9 series.

Cleveland won the series 5-2.

Cleveland was on Central  Standard Time

Cleveland was on Central Standard time from about 1905 to 1916.

After 1916 Cleveland added Daylight Saving Time and then went to Eastern time which added an hour

When Cleveland was on Central Standard time year round.It got light very early in the summer and dark around 4 p.m in the winter.

Daylight saving time was optional after WW2

In the the 1950’s there was no national daylight saving.Ohio gave the option of each city to have it or reject it

In 1953 Akron,Alliance and Cleveland were on Eastern Daylight Saving time on April 26.Niles went to Eastern Daylight Saving time but decided to wait to May.

This also set up odd situations when Standard time would come back in the fall.New York City changed back to Standard time in late September.Cleveland decided to wait until late October.This meant that Cleveland saw network tv shows and hour earlier for one month.The network tv started at 6:30 p.m instead of 7:30 

Browns regular season home games blacked out

The Browns regular season and playoff  home games were blacked out from 1949-1972.According to NFL rules no home games could ever be shown within a 75 mile radius.This was changed in 1973 when Congress passed a law that if the games were  sold out within 72 hours prior to the game the blackout would be lifted.

In contrast  Home Indians games were broadcast on WEWS beginning in 1948.Due to technical limits back then it was easier to broadcast home games rather then away games.From about 1949 to 1953 all home games were broadcast with limited away games shown.

Margaret Hamilton was from Cleveland

Margaret Hamilton was raised in Cleveland and taught Kindergarten in a few Cleveland schools

Margaret Hamilton best known for being the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz.She was an  stage actress and performed at Playhouse square.In the 1930’s she moved to New York City.

She happen to teach one class with Jim Backus when he was a little kid.Backus grew up in Bratenhal. Backus was best known  in Gilligan’s island and cartoon voices.

Tv shows were delayed or not shown in Cleveland

In late September 1963 an episode of Outer limits was cut short by Don Perris General manager of station WEWS

Outer Limits was a tv show similar to Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone.It was a fantasy show about futuristic events or space travel.Outer limits on many occasions would use monsters as part of the tv episode

On this evening the last two minutes of the Outer limits was not shown in Cleveland.Don Perris believed that this would be too scary for younger viewers.Instead the last two minutes were shown before the 11p.m news including the monster.This then caused hundreds of irate viewers to complain about censorship.

A few years before that Don Perris had refused to show the Untouchables on WEWS  of what he considered too much violence.

On February 5 1969.A show called Turn On was supposed to be a show that would be similar to NBC’s Laugh In.The show was strange for the time.The switchboard had many complaints.This then caused Don Perris to send a telegram to ABC half way through the show that they not show it again.A few other stations complained which led ABC to cancel the show after just one episode.

The Brady Bunch was delayed a day on WEWS from 1970 to 1971.The Brady Bunch was to be shown at 7:30 on Friday Nights.Instead a show called untamed world was shown in place of the Brady Bunch.

The Brady Bunch was moved at 6:30P.M on Saturday nights after the news.

The Wide World  of Sports was taped delayed by one week on WJW from 1961 to 1971 

 

Cable and the Blackout Rule

 I grew up in Northeast Ohio in the city of Euclid .My family got cable around 1982.I became a huge sports fan when i turned 10 years old. The Indians and Cavs were not very good at the time. The most interesting team at the time was the Cleveland Browns. The Browns had just come off a great season in 1980 but a very bitter loss to the Raiders in a playoff game. This was the famous Red Right 88 that turned into an interception that sealed the game for the Raiders. This led to a subpar 1981 at 5-11.

I was still very interested in the Browns  in 1982.The strike of course happened this year. It was a loss of 7 games that year. The strike began after the second week of the 1982 season. NBC had a plan to show Canadian Football league games on Sunday during the strike. At 1p.m that day the NBC pregame show ended and what i thought  would be Canadian Football. Then a voice was heard saying due to contractual reasons the Canadian Football could not be shown. I asked my dad and he said that meant the game could not be shown because of blackout rules. That was the first i had ever heard of a TV blackout .It was far from the last time i would hear of it. The worst part was instead of  Canadian Football they decided to show the Browns vs Raiders playoff that they had lost on Red  Right -88. A very bad decision to show in the Cleveland area.

The following football season we had cable and then i started seeing an even stranger thing with Cable and the Cleveland Browns. Whenever the Browns were at home they had to sell out the huge Municipal Stadium. In the years i was watching it was between 78,000 and 80,000.It was hard to sell out every game. The rule at the time was a sellout had to occur 72 hours prior to the game .I started noticing that it said on Viacom cable in the Eastern Suburbs of Cleveland the game would be shown even in case of blackout There was  a catch to this in the city of Euclid in 1983.I soon learned that is was only south of the railroad tracks in Euclid. I lived north of the railroad tracks. The cities of Shaker and University Heights all were able to get the game
but only a small part of Euclid. 

This was due to an odd set of rules set by the NFL and upheld by court cases throughout the 1950's.When the NFL first began televising games in the late 1940's and Early 1950's each team made there own decision of what games they would  televise. Teams would get one sponsor for each telecast, In 1950 the Los Angeles, Rams decided to telecast each home game and attendance dropped dramatically. This then led the NFL and its teams to never show a home game unless it was agreed to by both teams.

Starting in 1953 all NFL  home games even the Championship games  would not be shown. In 1965 Telerama cable began in Beachwood, Ohio. This quickly spread  to Shaker Heights, University  Cleveland Heights and Warrensville Heights, Euclid was added  along with Richmond Heights in 1966.This only covered a small part of Euclid because the lines were easier to bring down Richmond .Road into that part of  Euclid. The wider part of Euclid was not wired because of arguments over a contract .It was also more expensive the further North into Euclid. The FCC before 1966 had ruled that they did not have control over Cable or CATV as it was called in the 1960's.The  FCC under pressure from broadcasters did set rules for how many out of town signals could be in each city and set rules for rural areas. They then asked  Congress to set rules for Cable Television. Since Telerama was in existence before the new rules.They could show Browns home games starting in 1966.The signal was usually taken from Toledo or Erie Pennsylvania.

In  1970 the first Monday Football game was shown between the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets. The game even though sold out was not shown on Channel 5 WEWS. The game was not telecast on Telerama Cable either because a signal could not be acquired from Toledo or Erie. The game was only on radio on September 21 1970

In 1973 the Congress passed a temporary bill that would allow home games to be shown if  it  was sold out 72 hours before a home game. The league had blacked out all Super Bowl games starting in 1967 at the site of each Super Bowl. This led to lawsuits in Miami over the blackout rules. The law expired in December 1975 but the NFL kept the 72 hour blackout rule in effect.

Willoughbeach Park-Willowick

 Willoughbeach was created by the Cleveland,Painesville & Eastern interurban railroad.The hope was to create a popular amusement park like Euclid Beach without the crowds.The park opened in 1907 and continued until 1926.The park was located across the street from the current Shoregate shopping Center,The site is now occupied by condos and partly by the Willowick City Hall.

The carousel was a popular feature.There was also a ballroom.

A baseball field was also an attraction with seatings for hundreds,Company picnics were a big deal at this time.

The beach was located within the park. It was connected by a bridge.People could swim or bathe in the Lake Erie Waters.

A bridge connected the beach with the park.A very nice scenic walking view of the Lake and the park.

In 1917 a small roller coaster was built.In 1925 an Automobile coaster was installed,This allowed people to drive their own cars on rollercoaster surface.

This was a newspaper ad for July 4 1921 for Willoughbeach,They even had bowling and Tennis besides baseball and dancing in the evening,

Euclid Elementary Schools

The first school in Euclid goes back to about 1823.In 2012 four of the schools were torn down and new schools built.These were Roosevelt,Thomas Jefferson,Glenbrook and Upson.They were all renamed.

Euclid started out with 11 school districts.Districts 6 to 9 schools are now in what is Richmond Heights,Lyndhurst and South Euclid.

These were the District 2 schools which was located at Lakeland Blvd and Babbitt Road.They were referred to as the twin schools.Noble replaced these schools.These were town down when the freeway was built in 1960.

In 1919 Noble School was built.When it was built it had about 140 students,6 teachers and seven rooms.
In 1925 the auditorium was built and in 1929 eight more rooms were built.Then in 1943 ten more rooms were built. Bessie Wells was at Noble from 1921 to 1954.In 1988 Noble Closed.

                                                                     

Before the freeway was built in 1960 Noble had a two baseball diamonds and room to play in the back.The size of Noble's back yard was cut down to make room for the freeway.

District 10 was located on the North Side of Lake Shore Blvd and East 260th.The school district had been in existence from about 1850 to 1920.In 1920 it was purchased as a private residence and moved to 26251 Lake Shore Blvd.In 1968 it was purchased by a developer torn down and the Watergate Apartments were built on the site.

In 1925 Upson School was built on East 260th street.In 1925 it had six classrooms and a assembly room.it had about 120 students and cost $113,000.In 1929 five classrooms were added and a Auditorium and Gymnasium.Between 1942 and 1952 more classrooms were added.In the mi 1950's it had 1096 students.

The Berwick School was Public School #3 and located at Lake Shore Blvd and East 200th.It was built in 1876 and torn down in 1929.

In 1919 the second Berwick School opened at East 200th street between Arbor and Trebec Avenue.In 1920 the name was changed to Roosevelt School.Hazel Brandt was Principal from 1927-1957

In 1947-1948 Parklawn Apartments were built on East 260th.Euclid decided to build a new school that would ease overcrowding at both Upson and Noble.Thomas Jefferson opened on January 18 1952.It had 25 classrooms and 800 students.

Benjamin Franklin was dedicated on January 26, 1953.It was located at Wilmore Avenue and East 215th street.It had eight classrooms and a all purpose room.in 1958 it added three classrooms and a library.It was closed after the 1977 school year due to declining enrollment.

Russell Erwine was built in 1954.It was built on Zeman Avenue which is just off 250th.It was named after Superintendent Russell Erwine.It had about 400 students when it opened. It was closed in 1976.It was torn down in 2013.

Russell Erwine was Superintendent of  Euclid schools from 1939-1952. In 1952 he retired due to health problems and died in 1953.

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Glenbrook Elementary was built between East 234th Street and Glenbrook Avenue.It was opened on November 24,1954.It had 12 teachers and 340 students when it opened.

Lincoln was built at East 206th street.It opened in 1955.In 1959 more classrooms were added and a library built.

Memorial Park was dedicated in May 1956.It is located at 22800 Fox Avenue.The back of the school borders Memorial Park.

Wells Elementary was located at the corner of Lake Shore Blvd and Lloyd Rd.It opened in 1956.The construction of the school had many problems.It was delayed due to a rainy summer in 1955 when it was being built and had constant problems when it opened with the roof.. In 1979 it was closed.It was then torn down in the late 1980's.

On July 12,1979 the school board voted to close Wells.There was opposition by parents.Students were bused to other schools starting in 1980.


Indian Hills was opened in 1958.It had 16 classrooms and 2 kindergartens when it opened.In 1988 Indian Hills closed.