Puffer had that Viking mentality

By KARL PEARSON
Staff Writer

The gift of molding a team to the abilities of the personnel at hand is applauded among coaches. Sometimes overlooked in the process of making that work is the ability of the players to adapt to the coach's desires.

The late Charles Hirshey, basketball coach of the Rowe High School team in the late 1930s and early 1940s, has been recognized for his skill at molding whatever talent the Vikings had at hand into a winning tradition that produced a 172-38 record (.819 winning percentage) during his nine seasons at the helm. That translates to an average of 19 victories per season.

But he had to have players who could adjust to the circumstances of the team at that time. Hirshey was blessed to have players who could play uptempo basketball one year, then slow it down the next.

Just such a player was Robert "call me Robbie" Puffer. When the son of Harold and Mary Puffer came Hirshey's way, he showed a keen aptitude for changing to the style Hirshey needed.

When Puffer was a junior during the 1942-43 season, Rowe had a team that featured players with tremendous offensive ability, a little bit of size, knew how to run the floor and could defend. Those Vikings averaged 75 points a game and topped 100 points in a game four times while compiling a 21-3 record. Because there were other players like Fred Hirsimaki, the coach's brother, Richard and Dwayne Wheeler and Dave Jacobs around, pretty much all that was required of Puffer was to initiate the offense, get the ball to the open man and play tough defense at the top of the Viking zone.

Circumstances were completely different for Puffer's senior season. He was the only returning senior and letterman for the Vikings, so he had to take on a much greater scoring role. Puffer was also responsible for running the show at a greatly reduced pace, where Rowe averaged just 36 points per game and gave up only 27. Puffer and his teammates, who included his younger brother, Jerry, made it work, and his cousins the Wheelers, compiled an 18-9 record and won a sixth straight Ashtabula County B League championship. In the process, he received first-team All-Ohio honors.

In tribute to his skills and that versatility, Puffer has been chosen as part of the Class of 2007 into the Ashtabula County Basketball Foundation Hall of Fame. He will join his old coach, Hirshey, who has been inducted previously, and his teammate, Hirsimaki, who is also going in this year, in that body at 6 p.m. Sunday at the organization's annual banquet and awards ceremony at the Conneaut Human Resources Center.

"It means a lot to me," the 80-year-old Puffer said, tears filling his eyes at the notion. "I was really surprised. It's a great honor."

Like many of the boys who ended up playing varsity ball at Rowe or the much larger Conneaut High School, the early training Puffer received in basketball came from the vibrant church league scene that existed in the community. Matched up against players older than himself in many cases, it proved an excellent developmental step for the youngster and his siblings, older brother Willard and Jerry, who was two years behind Robbie and would have his own glory days at Rowe after Robbie graduated. All three of the Puffer boys are still alive and in the area.

"Playing in that church league helped me a lot," he said.

He was an apt pupil by the time he came under Hirshey's tutelage. Puffer played JV ball, with Hirshey serving as the coach of that squad, too, as a freshman, then became an important support player at the varsity level his sophomore year with the Vikings.

"We had a pretty good record my sophomore year, 15-5, and we won the County League," he said. "I didn't play a lot as a sophomore. I was always a guard."

Hirshey's expectations of Puffer when he moved him into the starting lineup in his junior year were pretty simple - get the ball in the hands of the proven scorers on the team as quickly as possible and don't make mistakes. He knew he should stick pretty close to the coach's plan. He didn't find Hirshey too tough if he followed it.

"(Hirshey) was pretty strict and serious, but he was fair," Puffer said. "He was pretty low key. If he got on somebody, you knew they deserved it.

"I knew my junior year I was just supposed to get the ball pushed up the floor as fast as possible. I knew Hirsimaki and those other guys were going to shoot it when they got it. It worked out pretty well."

It certainly did, as Rowe compiled a 21-3 record, won the county league and went to the district tournament. With Puffer getting him the ball, Hirsimaki averaged 18.5 points per game for his senior season and earned first-team All-Ohio honors.

"Puffer was a very good passer," Hirsimaki said. "He was a very good guard. He was a good boy."

Puffer and Hirshey were around each other the entire school year, since the former was a fine infielder for the Viking baseball team, which Hirshey almost always had in championship form in the fall, then competed in track in the spring, which Hirshey also coached to excellence.

Going into his senior year, Puffer knew his role was going to change.

"There were only eight boys in my senior class, and none of the others were athletes," he said. "I was the only returning letterman on the team. We lost Richard Wheeler, who had some kind of lung disease and had to move out to Arizona because of his health.

"I was the guard, and I still had to bring up the ball, but I knew I was going to have to score a lot more. I probably averaged about 12 or 13 points a game. I tried to go inside to the basket as much as I could, but I think I was a pretty good outside shooter, too. I probably would have had a lot of 3-pointers, but I preferred to go to the basket."

That was the way Hirshey wanted it. The Vikings played at a decidely more deliberate pace, and it worked to the tune of an 18-9 record, another county league title and a return trip to district. Eventually, it was Puffer who followed Hirsimaki's example from the year before and earned first-team All-Ohio honors.

The victory over Spencer High School, now Spencer Elementary, in the county tournament championship game that year is Puffer's best memory of his basketball career.

"There were 10 seconds to go in the game and we called timeout," he said. "Richard Olson was our center and I told him that I was going to take off and he should tip me the ball. He did, I drove down and I hit a layup at the buzzer to win the game, 22-21."