West Frankfort regional champs in 1945

by Steve Dunford

This came up in my news feed on Facebook in the memories.  There is a website that I will try to find again that has a lot of old post season scores.  I hope to find it and post things from time to time.

What is impressive about the West Frankfort Regional of 1945 is it was a Franklin County tournament except for Johnston City.

The FCHS auditorium, the most likely site of the 1945 regional tournament. The FCHS wrestling team uses the auditorium for matches. (Hudl photo)

This was before Max Morris gym, which was built in 1949.   The site was most likely the auditorium, or the gym at Central Junior high, which was located behind the post office.

Valier, Royalton and Thompsonville were definitely district schools.  You had to win your district to play in the regionals.  Sesser and Christopher might have been also.

Zeigler was not a district school because of their success in athletics during that time.

It looks like my Tigers hung around with the Benton Rangers in the first round.

Here are the scores from the regional below:

West Frankfort 109-42 Christopher…