This is for son Paul. It is the start of basketball’s March Madness. It is all about dreams. I’m sure Paul dreams of “what might have been” if he had continued playing Xavier High school hoops his junior and senior years. Well, I dream about things too.
It was November 1957. My Dad had just died and my Plymouth High School basketball practices had begun. We had good players and the 57-58 season promised to be pretty good. Yeah! I heard that before.
Similar to the movie Hoosiers, we had a new coach, Ken Andersen. Several years out of college, the previous year he had coached Clintonville High School to an unbeaten season. He looked like a high school senior. Thin, kind of a flashy dresser with a crew haircut.
This year our practices were a little different. Lots of practice on technique. Double down trapping of dribbling opponents, setting of brutal screens and running an offensive fast break where the ball never touches the court (no dribbling). And lots of shooting practice.
The season started with our winning the first 3 games. I remember in early December playing mighty Campbellsport on their court. It was supposed to be a big test. We won rather easy. Then we got two more conference victories before the two week Christmas Break.
After Christmas we won a few more conference games and guess what! We were unbeaten and at the top of the Eastern Wisconsin Conference. The big opponent was Kohler, also unbeaten and they had to play us on our court that year. Only one meeting. They had a guy named Dick Newton who excelled at football. Thunder thighs that acted like thunderbolts when he jumped. They also had a guy named Ron Schmeling that played point guard and could dribble behind his back. In those days that was unheard of. He would dibble around his back while driving to the basket for a soft layup. How special was that? Our two unbeaten teams met. Our Gym was packed and they turned away lines of people. It was a tight game. I remember only getting four shots all night and made all four. We won 46-44. Hey, hey. Now we were leading the conference with a 6-0 record and something like 10-0 overall.
We continued to roll. We defeated conference opponents by double digit margins. As we rolled into March with one game to go, we were 11-0 in our conference and had clinched at least a share of the conference championship with Kohler who still had only one loss. We were 15-0 overall. Our last game, our last hurdle to an unbeaten season was Valders at Valders.
The Valders gym was jumping. By the end of the season, everybody knew we were unbeaten and loyal Plymouth fans and Valders fans packed the place. In my mind, the whole game was like slow motion. They were making shots they shouldn’t have, they stole the ball a few times and wouldn’t you know with 3 minutes left in the game, we were down one point. We came out of a timeout. We had the ball and I was to inbound it. We sprung a man free and I threw to him. Then I used a line of screens to breakfree and get a return pass and make an easy layup. I did that. I had gotten bumped coming off the screens and they called me for “traveling” and the basket didn’t count. The ball went over to Valders. I still think that “travel” call was bullshit. Still lots of time. They still led by one point when we finally stole the ball with 6 seconds remaing in the game. We called time. The plan was to throw the ball to a man a mid court and then try to hit our biggest man Jerry Klemme somewhere near our free throw line. We did that! Jerry got the ball and turned and drove to the basket and got up an errant shot. The horn went off! There was total pandamonium. But wait, Klemme had been fouled and had two free throws coming. The dream was still alive. One free throw and we get another chance in overtime. Two free throws and we get our undefeated season.
Klemme was a very good free throw shooter. He never showed nerves. Well the Valders fans were under the basket waving and yelling to distract Jerry. He released the first free throw and I think it got 2/3 of the way to the basket and fell to the floor. Air ball! Air ball! Now our only chance was overtime. Jerry released the second shot but he “shortarmed it” and it hit the front of the rim and fell harmlessly to the floor. Valders had beaten us by one point.
Co-Champions of Eastern Wisconsin Conference. 15-1 overall. So close. Such a good season. Almost perfect.
But here is the dream part. I still think about the play from out of bounds where I was called for a travel. My basket would have given us the lead and who knows the final outcome. Also Jerry Klemme making two or even one free throw after time had expired might have given us the perfect season. Almost.
That is what March Madness is all about. Fullfillment of dreams. Agony of defeat. It is for that excitement that we play the games. Each of us is left to contemplate “what if”.
Our coach, Ken Andersen went on to become legendary at UW-Eau Claire. I think he won 3 national NCAA Division 3 Championships and was named UW Badger Coach.
Our team went to Sheboygan to start the State Tournament and got blitzed by Sheboygan North. We lost bad.
And Kohler which was technically a Class C school because of it’s small size, went on to win the State Class C Championship.
Ah what could have been. And my dad who had followed me religiously for years would have had a heart attack in the stands as he munched his cigar. Too bad he couldn’t have been there. Maybe he was?
So let the madness begin! Enjoy.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)