Minneapolis Roosevelt 1956-1957 Revisited
Thanks to Tom Nordland, star of Minneapolis Roosevelt’s 1956 and 1957 state championship teams, for a recent conversation and for some other information that sheds light on the Roosevelt dynasty. Minneapolis Roosevelt has always been regarded as one of the great teams of the single class era. They were the fifth of six repeat winners after Moorhead (1928-1929), Buhl (1941-1942), Minneapolis Patrick Henry (1944-1945) and Hopkins (1952-1953) and before Edina’s three-peat in 1966, 1967 and 1968.
Minneapolis Edison’s 1937 state champions had been regarded as the greatest Minnesota team until that time. Some news reports suggested that maybe Buhl was better. It wasn’t until Hopkins in 1952 and 1953 that this suggestion—“best ever”—was made again. Then, it was raised in quick succession in reference to Minneapolis Washburn in 1955, Roosevelt in 1956 and 1957, and then Duluth Central in 1961. Among the repeaters:
• Moorhead (1928-1929) was 19-3 and 24-3, and won 2 championship games by an average score of 24-16. Coach was Glen Hanna and Earl Moran and Shorty Malvey made all-tournament 3 times.
• Buhl (1941-1942) was 26-3 and 28-0 and won 2 finals by an average of 30-29. Buhl was led by Ed Nylund and John Klarich.
• Henry (1944-1945) was 24-1 each year and won 2 finals 58-38. Henry was led by Jim McIntyre who was the first boy ever to lead the tournament in scoring twice with 86 and then 100 points.
• Hopkins (1952-1953) was 25-1 and 23-0 and 50-38. Hopkins was led by coach Butsie Maetzold and forward Dave Tschimperle. Tschimperle was the third player ever to make all-tournament 3 times. (Nobody else did it again until Khalid El-Amin and Jabbar Washington.)
• Roosevelt (1956-1957) was 20-3 and 27-0 and 80-52. Roosevelt was led by Tom Nordland and coach Wayne Courtney.
• Edina (1966-1968) was 26-0, 27-0 and 27-1 and won 3 finals by an average of 75-58. Edina was led by Bob Zender and coach Duane Baglien. With its 3-peat and its 2 unbeatens, Edina is obviously the great dynasty of the single class era.
But, who was the best of the rest?
The Undefeated
First, you might assume it would be one of the unbeatens—Buhl 1942 (28-0), Hopkins 1953 (23-0) or Roosevelt 1957 (27-0).
• But, Buhl’s unbeaten team only won the final 30-29 over Marshall. On the other hand, it’s true that they hammered Moorhead 53-29 in a semi-final.
• Hopkins, on the other hand, was in the midst of a winning streak that reached a then record 65 games, a record that Edina would break in 1968 with 69. And, Hopkins losses at the beginning and end of the streak were both overtime games—one, I think it was to Eau Claire Regis, was in a Gopher prelim game, and so the 2nd OT was sudden death. The game had to end because the Gopher game needed to get started. And, in 1954, Hopkins lost to Minneapolis Patrick Henry in Region Five play, also in OT.
That leaves Roosevelt, and the difficulty with Roosevelt was always—which was better? The 1957 team was unbeaten, sure. But, the 1956 team famously clobbered Blue Earth 101-54 in the final while the 1957 team needed OT to beat Bemidji in the state tournament 73-70.
So, I asked Nordland, which team was better, 1956 or 1957? His answer was, “Oh, 1957. We beat DeLaSalle.”
Roosevelt 1956
Minneapolis Washburn won the state title in 1955. Some thought them the best ever. But, many others thought they had cheated. Their team had played together over the previous summer, though coach Ray Ross was not involved. In those days, it wasn’t illegal for a team to play together in the summer but there was kind of a gentleman’s agreement not to do it. After Washburn won the title, in 1955, the MSHSL officially adopted a rule that said high school teams could not play together over the summer.
So, in 1955-1956, Washburn beat Roosevelt 63-62 in their only regular season meeting. Meanwhile Roosevelt also lost a couple of games to DeLaSalle, 64-54 and 81-63. The Islanders were in the middle of a four-peat, winning the state Catholic tournament in 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957. The 1955 team defeated Duluth Cathedral 57-33 in the final, finished unbeaten, and was named the mythical national Catholic champion by the Chicago Tribune. In 1956, DeLaSalle beat St. Thomas in the final 67-48, and also beat the St. Paul city champions, St. Paul Wilson, 63-42 and 57-47. Roosevelt beat Wilson in the Twin City game 74-54. So the wins over Roosevelt were no fluke, though it is also true that Roosevelt was a much better team in March than in December. Remember, they lost to Washburn. Well, in March, in the district tournament, they beat Washburn 91-50.
Amazingly, Roosevelt also played Blue Earth in the regular season, winning 60-58. They had improved by 42 points against Washburn. Against Blue Earth, they had improved by 49 by the time of their 101-54 win in the state final. Roosevelt also beat New Prague and Minnesota’s all-time leading scorer at the time, Ron Johnson, 70-53 in the semis.
So, by March of 1956, this Roosevelt team was clearly one of the best ever. They avenged one of their losses, big time, though whether they could have avenged the others will never be known.
Roosevelt 1957
Roosevelt played DeLaSalle just once in 1957, and that game came at DeLaSalle on December 22. DeLaSalle led 27-20 and 44-37 after the first 2 periods, but scored just 7 in the 3rd as Roosevelt tied it up at 51. Roosevelt pulled ahead in the 4th period to win 70-68. Nordland scored 34 points on 14 FG and 6-of-7 FT and Jerry Butler added 23 on 8 FG and 7-of-8 FT for Roosevelt. Paul Lehman scored 22 and Gleason 21 for DeLaSalle. Roosevelt made 14-of-19 FT, DeLaSalle just 12-of-24 on its home court. Roosevelt appears to have made 28-of-69 FG (40 percent) and DeLaSalle 28-of-52 (54 percent).
These details come from coach Wayne Courtney’s scorebook—not in his hand, certainly, but his own personal scorebook that he gave to Nordland before his death and which Nordland loaned to me.
Roosevelt also played Blue Earth (at Blue Earth) again, winning 74-31 on December 15. Blue Earth star George Dean started but was apparently injured. He did not play after the 1st quarter, and did not record a single point or foul. Nordland scored 17, Peterson 16 and Butler 14 for Roosevelt. Blue Earth made 8-of-59 FG. Roosevelt also took a road trip to Spencer, IA, and Austin, where they won 60-55 and 78-58. Nordland outscored Jones of Spencer 38-25 and Carothers of Austin 27-23. Butler did not play against Austin, yet Austin center Roger Voss, who went on to make all-conference at Colorado, scored just 4 points.
There is one other game that needs to be mentioned. Unfortunately, the game is neither dated nor is the location indicated in Courtney’s book. It was after February 9, when Roosevelt beat St. Paul Central 79-48, and it was before February 27, when they beat St. Paul Murray 55-32 at Williams Arena in the Twin City Game. My understanding, however, is that this game, too, was at Williams Arena, and it was another Gopher prelim game. For about 25 years, as you old-timers may recall, Gopher games were preceded by a high school game. This one in 1957 resulted in a tie, 46-46, between Roosevelt and Duluth East. East had opened as a junior high in 1927, and it became a senior high in 1950. Athletically, it was always the little brother or the poor cousin to Duluth Central. 1957 was no exception. Central won District 26, then lost to Tower-Soudan in Region 7 49-46, and then Tower-Soudan lost to Hibbing 65-53. In the state tournament Hibbing lost to Fergus Falls 57-55 and then Fergus lost to Roosevelt 83-59. How could Roosevelt tie Duluth East? Was Duluth East any good? I don’t know.
But, for one night, East was as good as Roosevelt. It was 22-22 and 32-32 after the first 2 periods. In the 3rd East pulled ahead 41-38. The 4th went to Roosevelt 8-5 for a 46-46 tie. This time (unlike Hopkins and Regis in 1952) there was no OT at all. Nordland scored 17 and Peterson 14, while Bert Sibley scored 17 for East and Jim Mitchell 10. East made 6-of-18 FT (33 percent), 2-of-10 in the 2nd half! But, Roosevelt made just 15-of-73 FG (20 percent). The first period was 22-22, after that it was 24-24 for 3 periods. The shooting over the final 3 periods must have been horrendous. Nordland had 11 points at the half. He made one FG and 4-of-4 FT in the second half and 11-of-12 for the game. Roosevelt made 5 FG in the 2nd half.
In 1925, St. Thomas and St. Paul Mechanic Arts played to a 21-21 regular season tie. Mechanic Arts went on to win the MSHSL title, and its won-lost record is listed as 17-1-1. (St. Thomas won the state Catholic title.) In 1957, Roosevelt tied Duluth East, won the state title, and it’s won-lost record is listed as 27-0. Go figure.
We noted that Roosevelt beat St. Paul Murray 55-32 in the TC Game. Willmar beat Murray in the regular season 85-59, and Red Wing beat Murray 57-39 in the Region 4 final. Roosevelt beat Willmar for the 2nd straight year in region play. In 1956 it was Roosevelt 63 Willmar 60. In 1957 it was 63-59. And, Roosevelt beat Red Wing 59-51 in the state final. DeLaSalle beat Winona Cotter 67-41 in the Catholic final to complete its 4-peat.
In that famous Bemidji game, by the way, the one that Roosevelt won 73-70 in OT, Roosevelt shot 13-of-33 FT (39 percent). Nordland was 2-for-2 and scored 22 points before fouling out. The great Ray Cronk scored 34 for Bemidji including 10-of-16 FT. So, other than Nordland and Cronk, the FT shooters made 1-of-15! Ouch! In their 2nd and 3rd games combined Roosevelt shot 58-of-80 FT and just 42-of-128 FG. Nordland scored 31 and 31 and made 11-of-12 and then 19-of-20 FT. For the tournament he was 32-of-34.
What Does It All Mean?
Well, it means that, yes, Roosevelt was better in 1957 than in 1956. Tommy Nordland says so, and he would know. But Roosevelt’s 1957 state champions, who finished 27-0-1, have to be rated behind Hopkins 1953 among the high school teams between Edison in 1937 and Edina in 1967. “We beat DeLaSalle,” as Nordland said, but we also tied Duluth East.
Tommy Nordland
At the time, Nordland was regarded as the best jump shooter ever to come out of Minnesota. Certainly he was one of the best FT shooters. Nordland has since spent his entire life teaching people how to shoot a basketball. His “Swish” videos have been distributed all over the world. So it’s worth noting that Nordland shot the ball on the way up. Back in the day, people shot a set shot. The ball was released with the feet on the floor, though there might be a little jump because of the upward momentum. The innovation of the “jump shot” at the time was that you generated a little more upward momentum and you actually shot the ball with your feet off the floor. But, Nordland described his shot as a semi-set shot because he shot it on the way up, and not at the top of his jump.
Wayne Courtney
Jim Robinson, who surely refereed thousands of high school games in Minnesota, once said that he thought Wayne Courtney was the best coach he ever saw. I asked Nordland about this. He hesitated and with furrowed brow said, “No.” He went on, “None of us ever did anything in college.” Courtney didn’t prepare his kids for the next level. He didn’t teach fundamentals, Nordland said. “We played a zone defense. I never knew how to play a man defense.” Nordland was a catch-and-shoot shooter and, yet, he said, “I never knew anything about coming off a screen. We never set a screen.”
Nordland, for the record, went to Stanford on a basketball scholarship but never played.
Once again, I think you would have to agree that Tom Nordland would know about these things. Thanks very much to Tom, who now lives in Eagan, for a candid conversation (and a scorebook) that helps shed a lot of light on what many regard as the Golden Age of Minnesota high school ball.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete