Saturday, March 19, 2016

Mythical Mr. Basketball The 1960s

Mostly pretty easy choices except for 1964 and 1967.
1960 Sid Bostic, Pipestone
Bill Davis, Richfield
Ron Hanson, Thief River Falls
Merle McClung, Montevideo
Clayton Reed, Austin
1961 Bob Dropp, Chisholm
Terry Kunze, Duluth Central
Dave Nelson, Mpls. Roosevelt
Mike Patterson, Mahtomedi
Dean Veenhof, Edgerton
1962 Bruce Ackland, St. Louis Park
Bob Bruggers, Danube
Herb Hasz, Ada
Joe Mucha, Montgomery
Chuck Wobbrock, Medford
1963 Dick Braun, Rothsay
Bobby Kelly, Bloomington
Greg Lens, Marshall Central Catholic
Dave Meisner, Cloquet
Alan Redman, Wells
1964 Bryan Grohnke, Edina
Bob Laney, Proctor
Larry Mikan, Benilde
Terry Porter, Marshall
Greg Thone, Luverne
Best class of the decade but only Mikan among the 5 went D1.
1965 Dave Daugherty, Rochester John Marshall
LeRoy Gardner, St. Paul Central
Del Jessen, Luverne
Dave Lobb, Austin Pacelli
Tom Weaver, Faribault
1966 Steve Gagnon, Waverly St. Mary’s
Carl Johnson, Balaton
Marty Jorgenson, Worthington
Bob and Dick Peterson, Henning
Steve Strandemo, Kenyon
1967 Steve Fritz, Rochester Lourdes
Jim Hill, St. Paul Central
Joe Keenan, Mankato Loyola
Tom Masterson, Walnut Grove
Kurt Shellhas, Edina
This could go any which way. I could make a case for any one of the 5. Fritz would be #2. Keenan is underrated. I was shocked to learn that Hill never led the St. Paul City in scoring.
1968 Vic Moore, Montgomery
Mike Poepping, Pierz Memorial
Phil Rogers, St. Paul Central
Rick Webb, Alexander Ramsey
Bob Zender, Edina
1969 Dennis Fitzpatrick, St. Thomas
Bill Gross, Hayfield
Dan Halvorsen, Owatonna
Rolf Iverson, Waseca
Tony Jenkins, Shattuck
Lew Rickert, Duluth East
A big year in southeastern MN and of course Rochester John Marshall won it all. I have no idea who was the best player in the SE which is how it ends up with Rickert. Gross or Halvorsen would be a good choice and Jenkins was the only one who went D1.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Sunnyday in Stillwater, Fun to read some of the Minnesota Hoops you co authored. Would you be willing to meet me to sign a copy sometime? Coffee at a Dunn Bros or something? I am honored to be on your list in 1965 with Dave Daugherty of Rochester, Dave Lobb of Austin Pacelli and Dell Jessen of Luverne. I met each of them personally and played against all but Dave as he was in the Catholic League. I am a history reader, and am interested as to whatever happened with various folks from the past. I went on to play at Carleton with Jack Thurnblad who is still around in Northfield. He wrote his own Coach book a while back. My personal email is tomweaver7747@gmail.com. Fun to connect here.
    All the best with the new year. Tom Weaver Faribault 1965

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  2. Terry Porter, one of the best shooters to come out of the State, too bad they did not have a 3 pt line back then.

    Greg Lens ended up playing in the NFL, but died a few years ago from mild traumatic brain injury. Most likely caused by concussions while playing.

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  3. My high school played against Lens and Marshall Catholic. People who played against Lens called him a "bear."

    I had the pleasure of meeting Terry Porter a year or two ago. Nice man.

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  4. In the 1966 listing Marty "Jorgensen" is the correct spelling rather than "Jorgenson". Spectacular many times, he was one of the best despite never playing in the state tournament in the single class era.

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  5. Am looking for the name of a great player from Blue Earth who played '57---'58.First name George and height at 6'6"or so. Wouldn't play for Ozzie Cowles back then as he wanted to play, not dick around!!

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