Nebraska Basket Ball Tournament
Seven of the boys along with Supt. Dowers journeyed to Lincoln to the eleventh Basket Ball Tournament of Nebraska which was held March 10-12. This is considered the largest tournament of its kind in America. About 1700 high school boys were in attendance besides the coaches, sponsors, and managers who accompanied them. The different teams had an opportunity to practice any time Wednesday on any of the playing floors. Our boys practices on the Y.M.C.A. and the Armory floors where they played three of their games.
Basket Ball began in full blast Thursday morning at 8 o’clock and continued until 10 o’clock at night without even stopping for dinner or supper. Halves of games were alternated with teams so there was no time lost. The games continued all day Friday playing on six different floors as they did on the previous day. Friday afternoon the semi-finals were played off. Saturday the finals came in for all of the thirteen different classes. There has been a greater change in the basket ball during the last ten years than in any other athletics. To be a star basket ball player it does not necessarily require a boy to have size, but the more essential qualities are skill, quickness, pep and plenty of fight.
The boys played their first game at 9:40 A.M. [Thursday] on the Y.M.C.A. floor against the Palmyra high school team. The boys seemed to have a little touch of stage fright during the first half as the score stood 6-9 against us. During the last half they pepped up wonderfully and shut out their opponents ending the score 16-9 in our favor! McNickle scored three field goals and two free ones, Stebbins three field and Buss one field goal.
The second game was played on the Auditorium floor 9:20 a.m. [Friday] against Kenesaw. During the first half the boys showed a great deal of pep and when the first half was over the score stood 10-1 in our boy’s favor. Goodrich was substituted for LaBounty the next half. Kenesaw came back with abundance of fight and began piling up scores. LaBounty was put back after about ten minutes of play, Goodrich being hurt. When the whistle blew for time, Farnam had the largest end of the score of 13-10. Stebbins scored three, Greenlee one, McNickle one and three free throws.
The Cortland team had been winning from other teams by quite a large score so we rather feared them. The boys took a good rest after the Kenesaw game for the Cortland game which was to be played at 4:20 p.m. [Friday] at the Armory. This team had a little forward who weighed about 110 pounds which was feared by all teams heretofore. We knew in order to win this game we would have to put someone on this swift little man so McNickle was the man to hold him down while the rest of the team could do the scoring. When the time for the first half was up the Farnam lads had them beaten to the tune of 6-14. During the second half each team scored a field goal which ended up 8-16 in favor of Farnam. Stebbins got three field goals, Buss two, Greenlee two and McNickle two free throws.
Our final game was scheduled at 2:30 p.m. [Saturday] at the Armory. We were lined up against the Waco team who had won from the Curtis Aggie’s the day before by a score of 16-10. The center on this team was the most successful goal shooter on any team we had seen. He could shoot goals from most any position on the field and at most any angle. This team centered all of their work on this one man. In order to win it was necessary to put a man on him to hold him down. Greenlee was placed as guard over him and he threw three field goals in spite of the excellent guarding. All the others played the defence game from the start to the finish. When the first half was over the score was 3-3. At the close of the second half the score was still even 6-6. Five minutes more time had to be played and during this time the Waco team landed a field goal and the Farnam team secured only a free throw which ended the final game 7-8 against Farnam. It was simply luck who would get the most goals during the extra five minutes. The boys made only two fouls during this whole game while the Waco team were called for 10. We can truthfully say right here that we played a great deal cleaner game even tho they did win out. All through the other three games there were only a very few fouls called on our team which shows that the boys did not try to win by roughness, or by some other means than science and skill.
We consider that the boys did exceptionally well taking in consideration that none of them had ever been to the tournament before and only a few of them had ever been to a city of this size. Many good teams go down to defeat because of the adverse conditions. We feel that such a trip as this one, has been educational as well as beneficial to the boys. Many different and new plays were caught up by the team and can be used to our advantage next year.
We feel that we have as strong a team for next year as we have had this year.
Editor's note: The team members named in the article, along with their position and grade are: George Buss, forward (11); Williams Stebbins, forward (10); Harry Greenlee, center (12); Marion LaBounty, guard (12); Dell McNickle, guard (12); Lysle Goodrich, forward (11).
The team was honored by the Farnam businessmen and community at a banquet the following week.
