His signature drop-step move has become a rarity. But when Frank Wachlarowicz got the ball in the low post, a familiar result ensued.
"Any time I got the defensive guy on my hip, the ball was either in the basket or I was on the free throw line,'' said Wachlarowicz, who in 1975 led Little Falls to its only high school boys' basketball state championship.
The 6-6, 215-pound center, nicknamed "Frankie Alphabet'' by sports reporters at the time, was one of 15 people announced as 2020 inductees to the Minnesota High School Basketball Hall of Fame.
One media person who never messed up his name was Jules Perlt, the legendary Gophers public address announcer, who also handled the high school tournament.
"Wock-la-row-its scoring,'' Perlt intoned over and over during the Flyers' historic run during the program's first state tournament trip since 1922.
"He did the pronunciation to a T,'' recalled Wachlarowicz, who scored 1,330 points, still the Flyers' school record.
Victories over Hibbing (with future NBA star Kevin McHale), Cooper and since-closed Robbinsdale earned Little Falls — the smallest school in the Class AA tournament — the state title.
Two nights later, before a snowstorm-reduced crowd of just 1,200 people, Little Falls defeated Class A tournament winner Chisholm 54-50 in the last playoff game held to determine a single-state champion.