'The State Tourney': Competitors recall glory days of one-class basketball in Minnesota

Jeff McCarron was the co-star with Tom Mulso on the Sherburn team that won Minnesota's one-class boys' basketball tournament in 1970. Drew Kindseth was a standout for the Marshall team that lost 71-60 to Sherburn in the semifinals.

McCarron and Kindseth were talking recently about the glory days, and decided to take on the large task of organizing a reunion for players who were on tournament teams for the final one-class decade, from 1960 through 1970.

There were the champions from eight regions, which were based on geography, not population. That led to Bemidji being a regular attendee from Region 8 in northwest Minnesota, and Regions 2 and 3 were from the farmland to the south and west and almost guaranteed to send a small-town team.

Kindseth and McCarron did their best to make contact with players from all teams. There was a turnout of 50-some players on Thursday at the Graduate Hotel, a 10-minute walk from Williams Arena's elevated court.

The reunion had to be held on Thursday, because that was always the first day of the one-class, eight-team tournament over three days:

Two-game sessions afternoon and night on Thursday, the semifinals on Friday night, and then a championship game scheduled to tip off at 9 p.m. on Saturday, after the consolation final and third-place game.

The first item on the agenda at 9 a.m. for the group of players from 22 different schools was to make the walk to Williams. The hue of the floor is now pale and capacity has been reduced by almost 5,000, but it remains uniquely elevated.

There were basketballs dribbled and a few shots taken. One of symbolism came from Larry Higgins, a standout from the Bemidji team that lost to Duluth Central, 51-50, in the 1961 title game.

It would've been a monumental upset, with unbeaten Central considered one of Minnesota's greatest-ever teams.

Higgins walked resolutely to the same free-throw line at which he had stood on that fateful night in March 1961.

"I had a one-shot free throw and missed it,'' he said. "I've always said, 'If I made that free throw, we would've gone to overtime.' This morning, I made that free throw, 60 years too late.''

Dick Jonckowski was the emcee for a program at the hotel. "The Polish Eagle'' was a fine choice, since most of his jokes come from the same generation as did the players.

The Eagle did fall into genuine tears, knowing this would be the final gathering of such a group to look back at that last decade, when boys' basketball was the "The State Tourney'' and captivated Minnesota.

It's amazing, when you consider what happened to sports in this area in the '60s, to realize that many championship sessions through 1970 still would draw attendance of more than 18,000.

The Twins and the Vikings were both announced as coming to Minnesota in 1960 (to start in 1961). The Gophers went to the Rose Bowl. And yet, none of those stories was bigger at the moment than when the Dutchmen from tiny Edgerton won The State Tourney on March 25, 1960.

How rabid was the crowd of 19,000? When Austin, a perennial powerhouse, had the temerity to run up the stairs to face Edgerton, the Packers were booed as if they were Bobby Knight's Indiana Hoosiers doing so a dozen years later.

The warm tales kept coming Thursday. Of the Henning Hornets' three-overtime loss in the semifinals to the Edina Hornets in 1966. Of Moorhead's 107-89 track-meet win over Highland Park in the first round in 1968. Of Sherburn bookending Edgerton's title from 10 years earlier with its win over South St. Paul in 1970.

Marshall 75, Cloquet 74, in 1963.

Porter looked at Meisner and Forrest and lauded them as the best guards he ever faced, and then his voice cracked in memory of Whitey Johnson, his backcourt partner, now deceased.

No story topped one from Bemidji's Higgins: The one-point loss to Duluth Central had ended in large controversy, when Bemidji's Lee Fawbush took a jumper near the baseline, had a defender hit him a moment after the ball was released, and an uncertain referee didn't call a foul.

Central's players had heard about Bemidji's complaint for decades. The Trojans were having a 30-year reunion in 1991. Roger Hanson, a Central star, contacted Higgins and others to lobby for the Lumberjacks to bring their '61 team to Duluth for a redo.

"We said, 'Yeah, that will be fun; everyone will have a good time,' " Higgins said. "Our coach, Bun Fortier, and Central's, Jim Hastings, both were there. It was going to be a great time.

"First possession, Kunze comes flying in and sends a blocked shot into the stands. They were serious. We lost by 27, and then the Duluth paper had a headline that read, 'Central shows they are greatest team in history.' "