Clinchscales, Oscar

 

Oscar Clinchscales – (2000)

 

Anyway you tell it, the Oscar Clinchscales basketball story was
one for the books at Clearview High School. His scoring feats are all
the more amazing because 3-point baskets were not part of the game.

Oscar transferred to Clearview in September, 1953, after he
had earned all-state Negro League honors at Wheeling,-W. Va.,
Lincoln High School as a super sophomore averaging 27 points a
game. Because of academic and transfer rules in Ohio at the time,
he was ineligible to play at Clearview until January, 1954. In his
Clipper debut under Coach Russ Lynch against Oberlin, the catlike
6-1 junior scored an eye-popping 37 points in only 26 minutes of a
97-78 victory, breaking Larry Lukenic’s school record of 35 points.

In his one-and-a-half seasons spanning 28 games at Clearview,
the silky smooth Clinchscales amassed 901 points for a 32.17
career scoring average. In his senior year, Oscar was the Greater
Cleveland Area scoring champion with 598 points in 18 games, a
33.2 average that still ranks second all-time in Lorain County
scoring annals. His top games as a senior were a school record 50
points against Columbia and a Lakeland Conference record 48
against Huron.

Following his brief Clearview career, Oscar was offered a tryout by the world renowned “Clowns of
Basketball,” the Harlem Globetrotters. While in Chicago, he roomed with Meadowlark Lemon, the
Trotters’ super clown of that era. While the main team kept only 10 players, Oscar was considered their
11th man. He quickly signed with the Globetrotters’ farm team, the Kansas City Monarchs. Unfortunately,
his impressive pro career ended when fate dealt him a setback with a severe knee injury,
thus ending his playing career.

Oscar returned to Lorain to work at the Ford Motor Company where he was
employed 33 years until retiring in 1991. He was able to continue playing amateur
basketball locally in Lorain city and YMCA men’s leagues as well as with the
Ford Falcons and a Sandusky team where a teammate was younger brother Tom.
Oscar, now 63, and his wife, Lavern, have four children, eight grandchildren and two
great grandchildren.