This is the full speech given by Dr. Bill Ginn to commemorate the last game in the old Milton-Union High gym.

On February 18, 1939, the Milton-Union Boys’ Basketball Team defeated West Carrollton, 42-26.  That may not sound like anything special, but it was the first game of any kind played in this gymnasium, which was the first gymnasium that the school actually owned.  Fans lined up to enter the building a full two hours before it opened, and it was filled to capacity 15 minutes after the doors opened.  The scoreboard, which had been donated by the architects who designed the High School building, glowed red when there was a minute remaining in a period.  The leading scorer that night was Glen Hart, who would go on to become a long-time employee of the school system.

The court, however, looked  much different.  It was oriented North to South as opposed to the current East to West.  It was shorter and narrower:  79’ x 28’ as opposed to the current 84’ x 50’.  There, of course, was no mezzanine, and there was just a 4 foot separation between the walls and the floor.    What most people don’t know, however, is that that 1939 floor is still visible in this gymnasium:  The boards from the floor of that gym form the floor of the stage and the mezzanine area behind us.

On January 18, 1971, the first Girls’ game with 5 players per side was played in the gym.  Previously, girls had played 6-person basketball, a very limited style of play where three forwards and three guard comprised a team with only three players from each team allowed past the mid-court stripe.  The 5-person girls’ victory on the court was a 24-21 win over Twin Valley North (now Tri-County North) under Bulldog Coach Canda Weng.

On to some other highlights:
On February 26, 1974, Bulldog Margie Coate set the school scoring record here in a game vs. Sidney with 29 points. 

February 2nd, 1976, saw the greatest comeback in M-U history, when the Lady Bulldogs, down 23-6 at halftime, rallied to beat Brookville, 33-32.

On January 17, 1980, the most points ever scored in a home game by a Bulldog Girls’ team were tallied – 82 points in a win over the Dixie Greyhounds .

One of M-U’s great players broke the Career Scoring record of another one of Milton’s greatest on December 16, 1986, when Kelley Berens passed Diana Brumbaugh to become Milton’s All-Time leading scorer at that point in history in a game vs. Butler in this gym.

February 2, 1987, marked Coach Sally Dickison’s final coaching game in this gym.  Sally coached the Bulldogs to 132 wins during her 15-year career, still the most ever by any coach in Milton history. 57 of those wins came in the 109 games she coached in this gym.

The all-time girls single game scoring record in this gymnasium was set on February 10, 1996, when Hilary Reinhardt scored 33 points vs. Eaton.

On January 13, 1999, Jennifer Wright chalked up the first and only Girls’ “Triple-Double” with 11 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 steals in a win over the Newton Indians.

On November 29, 2001, the Bulldogs won their first SWBL game in 19 years over Eaton.  Milton had spent those 19 season in another league – the Southwestern Rivers Conference after leaving the SWBL in 1982 and moved back to the SWBL starting with this season.

In a game vs. Franklin-Monroe on December 22, 2008, Kaci Finfrock passed Kelley Berens to become Milton’s all-time girls’ scoring leader.  Kaci continues to hold the record to this day.

This gym has played host to 330 Girls’ Basketball contests since 1971 when basketball as we know it began at Milton, with the Bulldogs winning over 150 of those games.  

We salute this wonderful, unique gymnasium as we play our last girls game here.   It has been a wonderful place for our students and especially our athletes to learn and perform for us as fans  This place will always be very very special in the hearts of the residents of Union Township and the especially the graduates of our great school.

We are not celebrating the closing of this place as much as we are trying to remember some of the great things that happened here.  No one is happy that our gym is closing, but we accept it as a reality and look forward to opening our new gymnasium next Fall.

As a final tribute, we would like anyone who has ever played in a contest here in this gym – Basketball, Volleyball, whatever – to stand and be recognized and please remain standing.   

If you are not standing now but were a Milton-Union student who watched games or had gym class, or played in the pep band, or were in a Drama Club production, or were involved in any other of the thousands of events that took place here, please join our former athletes in standing and being recognized.
And lastly, let’s ALL stand and show our appreciation to what this place did to shape our lives for the past 73 years.

Thank you!