In September of 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson was president of the United States, The Beatles held the No. 1 song and album in the country (Help!), the cost of both a postage stamp and a Hershey’s bar was five cents, and Bill Bohren logged his first win as a high school football coach.

The country has since experienced 10 presidential changes — roughly the same number of coaching changes in Bohren’s career. And while presidents, The Beatles and inexpensive chocolate have come and gone, Bohren remains very much a fixture on the sidelines.

On Saturday, Bohren will look to earn his 300th win as a head coach when his Mathews Mustangs travel to SPIRE Institute in Geneva to take on St. John.

This past Friday Mathews (4-2) defeated Fairport Harding 36-0, giving Bohren his 299th career victory. Based on records compiled by the Ohio High School Athletic Association, Bohren would become the 16th coach in state history to reach the 300-win milestone.

Bohren, 87 years old, began his coaching career at Ohio High School in Ohio, Illinois. In his first season he led Ohio High to an 8-2 finish. He made several other stops in Illinois, then made his way to Ottawa-Glandorf. He followed that up with a three-year stint at Steubenville before making himself a fixture in the Mahoning Valley.

Bohren’s 1976 Steubenville team finished 7-1-2, Big Red’s best showing in the All American Conference. At Lakeview, Bohren compiled a 32-18 mark. At Boardman, his Spartans were 59-26 with two Steel Valley Conference titles and a trip to the Division I state title game.

Salem won its first league title in 104 years under Bohren, and at Niles he won a pair of league titles and made two trips to the playoffs — including Niles’ only regional final appearance in 2000.

Bohren compiled a 46-46 record at LaBrae, including two trips to the postseason. In the three years prior to Bohren’s arrival, the Vikings were 3-27.

In 2007 Bohren was inducted into the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

HOMECOMING NON-GAME

The lights were on Friday at the Joe Lane Sports Complex in Mineral Ridge. The Rams marching band and cheerleaders entertained the crowd, spectators filled the stands.

From a weather standpoint, it was a perfect night for football.

The only thing missing was a football game.

This past Friday, Mineral Ridge had its homecoming game canceled because of COVID issues within the Jackson-Milton program. The cancellation originally meant that some of the homecoming festivities would be delayed until this coming Friday when the Rams host Sebring.

Then, members of the homecoming court approached Weathersfield Local Schools Superintendent Damon Dohar with the idea of holding the ceremonies this past Friday without a football game.

“I’d like to take credit for the idea but it was the students who came to me and pointed out that some had family members in from out of town, they all had their hearts set on Friday,” Dohar said. “In the end we want to do what’s best for the students, and in this case the girls were right, this was best for all involved.”

“We made the best of a bad situation and it really turned into a special night.”

In keeping with tradition, the homecoming court was paraded into the stadium from the school’s parking lot. The girls were introduced to the crowd and a homecoming queen was named. It was the typical Mineral Ridge homecoming football game without an opponent.

“Basically we played against COVID and we won,” Dohar said. “We didn’t allow COVID to get in the way of a very special night for a lot of our students.”

INDIANS NO MORE

On Sunday, Cleveland’s professional baseball team played its last game as the Indians. The franchise will now be known as the Cleveland Guardians.

In August, a pair of Ohio lawmakers introduced a resolution in the Ohio House calling for school districts throughout the state to retire Native American mascots and nicknames. The resolution currently only acts as a recommendation.

Several states have already banned the use of such mascots. Most recently, Colorado signed into law a bill prohibiting the use of Native American-themed mascots, nicknames or likenesses at its public schools. Any school which currently uses such a mascot must change them by June 1, 2022 or face a $25,000-per-month fine.

Locally, six area school districts would be affected should such a ban be put in place in Ohio. They include; Girard (Indians), Southern Local (Indians), Brookfield (Warriors), West Branch (Warriors), Badger (Braves) and Warren G. Harding (Raiders).

Throughout Ohio, 78 school districts — more than any other state in the country — use a Native American-themed nickname, mascot or logo.

Incidentally, numerous schools throughout the country have also recently dropped the “Rebels” nickname because of an association with the American Confederacy. Such is not the case at Crestview High. Students at Crestview were put in charge of choosing a school nickname and mascot at a time when the movie “Rebel Without A Cause” was making James Dean a household name. With the movie in mind, the Rebels were born.