By Wayne Woodruff
Cedar Vale basketball fans, let's have an argument. I think the greatest CVHS basketball team was the one during year that the team included Jim Hill, Reece Bohannon, Bernard Lemert, Bob Bailey,Bob Brown and Tom Gordon, or am I mixing players and years?? They went to the State Tournament inspite of the fact that Reece was the tallest player at 6'3" and they had to practice and play on that postage-stamp size gym above the old auditorium that Gary glorified in his article.
Every seat and every standing room spot was filled with people who didn't even know they were basketball fans, but were caught up in the excitement of the chase. As I remember the players, each of them could "stuff" the ball in spite of their stature, even Tom Gordon, who was the shortest and youngest. Maybe this little remembrance will stimulate some you rabid Broncho fans to recall more facts and fantasies of that time. Don't be bashful about making mistakes in your recollections, because I am sure I am wrong about some of what I have recalled here.
4 comments:
There was a very good team from CVHS in 1941-'42. I was barely old enough to get swept up in the excitement as my sister was a classmate of most of the team members. Ernie Clark at 6'6" was center, Dick Stone (son of Josh, brother of Herb)was there amd others who I can't recall. They went to State as I remember. I wouldn't claim they were the best, but they were right in there.
Cedar Vale seemed to have a number of good basketball teams in the late 40s and early 50s. The best team that I saw was the group of 50/51. This team was very deep and literally wore down the opposition with waves of good athletes.
They were ranked #1 in the state and went into the state tournament at Hutchinson undefeated ... but where they were ultimately defeated. They wore what became the traditional uniforms of CV featuring tee shirts which gave them a unique and imposing presense of "purple and gold".
Some of the team remembered were: Bob Bailey, a transfer from Dodge City who was smooth as silk - Robert McGlasson, another smooth and smart player - Jimmy Hill, though only a sophomore made his presense known in the paint with his strength and jumping ability - Joe Ellis, an unspectacular but steady contributor - Kenny Bennett, a fearless driver to the hoop fouled often during the process - Charles Beachler, who was another outstanding athlete though perhaps injured during this time - Reece Bohannon, who also only a sophomore was a slasher who continued to improve as he became older - Possibly the older brother of Robert McGlasson, (Elton), was part of the team and I remember him as being rather tall and mistake free - Don Shaffer was a tireless competitor but had a knee injury which limited his playing time as I remember.
The rest of the top ten were quite talented but without recall at this time. Someone will possibly fill in the roster and make any necessary memory corrections. Certainly, I do remember that the old gym rocked with excitement even during the warmups which featured exhibitions of "dunking". The electric atmosphere and the talent made it quite impossible for anyone to defeat the Bronchos at home
Correction: Believe the above was the team of 49/50.
You've got to be kidding. The best CV team was the 1955/56 team.
However, we were screwed because that just so happened to be the year that other teams in the state had their best teams ever, and guess what, they won.
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