[Leaping Lee]

All the fuss could have been avoided if Ashland, since it obviously knew Russell had blackballed Kouns, choose someone other than Kouns to referee the tournament. By selecting Kouns, even though it knew of the blackball, Ashland set itself up to have him call its games. It also gave Ashland an "excuse" if anyone complained about it.

Slick? Absolutely. But no one ever accused the Ashland people of being dumb.

Unfortunately for them, NCC was far superior to Ashland.

But, I agree with most of what Leaping Lee has stated. On the rest, we can just agree to disagree. Nothing wrong with that.

All could be avoided if Bob Kouns was blackballed by the entire region. That is certainly a common ground we share. I think you are reaching a bit on Ashland's ability to predict the future. I think most interested observers felt Russell was an underdog in their opening round game, if they had lost Kouns could have called opposite Ashland. I'm not sure that's what would have happened but it would have been possible.

I agree that NCC was the superior team, not only to Ashland but to the entire field. Anyone who had seen them play knew that going into the tournament.