Your Mom and I watched the end of “Hoosiers” last week. We’ve seen it many times before but you can’t help but get wrapped up in the excitement of a little high school in Indiana (less than 200 students) going to the State Tournament and slaying the dragon. The won! Again!
It brought back memories of stories my Dad told about Plymouth High School basketball teams trying to make it to the big State Tournament. When I graduated from high school in 1958, Plymouth still had not made it to “State” in Madison.
My Dad’s stories (and repeated by Art Mueller and Harry Stroebel) centered around a talented basketball player named Walt Lautenbach. He played in the mid to late 1930’s for Plymouth High School. I think they won a Conference championship or two. Making it to the State Tournament was another story. One year, Plymouth first played two games in the State Regional Tournament. They won both. Plymouth advanced to the Sectional. If they won two games, they would be in the State Basketball tournament for the first time. They won the first game. Everything came down to the final sectional game. As the story goes, it was close and Plymouth had a chance to win at the end of the game but failed. Walt Lautenbach couldn’t seal the deal. He was talented enough to attend UW-Madison after he graduated high school and was a star for the Badgers for several years.
So my Dad died in 1957 knowing the Plymouth Panthers missed their one golden opportunity. He believed until that the end that Plymouth someday would succeed. Someday the Plymouth High School team would make it to the State Tournament.
I was never as optimistic as my Dad. Plymouth was a relatively small school compared to the Milwaukee schools. Big schools have a bigger talent pool.
Then things changed. The State tournament was separated into Classes (A,B,C and D). Plymouth was classified into the B group so that it played more schools it’s size. In the early 1970’s, Plymouth had two talented brothers (I think it was the Cummerfords). They went to the State Class B tournament in Madison and they won the title. It was a mini-version of “Hoosiers”. My Dad would have been in his glory.
Pursuing the dream was all about stories of past failure (Walt Lautenbach and Plymouth Panthers) and believing that the ultimate goal was out there to be achieved. Someday. Yep, someday!
So I do have a reason for watching the NCAA tournament games with some passion. It is all about dreams! I grew up with stories about dreams.
Love,
Dad