I'm Getting Old - 32 Years Ago Today

[TedBaxter]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GW0aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ySsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5481,2784406&dq=duane+johnson+picks+marquette&hl=en

Coaches could comment on unsigned recruits at this time. Go to page 7 where the article finishes and Wisconsin gets John Ploss over Cathage, Stevens Point and a few others. I think Brad Sellers might have committed later, but I could be wrong.

Must be really old. Thought today was the 5th.

[2013UnleashTheBeast]

Hopefully Mr. Wilson continues the rich tradition of Duanes at this institution (however their parents chose to spell it).

[Nukem2]

Yeah, things were different back in the day. Remember listening to Al, Hank and Rick over the years talking candidly on the local sports talk show about recruits. The world has changed.

[TedBaxter]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19690415&id=zE0aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MygEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5644,3612564

A couple years before I followed MU.

[IWB]

Funny thing about the Chones one....

Left column has baseball standings.....

National League - No Milwaukee
American League - No Milwaukee

Didn't get a team until the following year.

[TheSultan]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GW0aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ySsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5481,2784406&dq=duane+johnson+picks+marquette&hl=en

Coaches could comment on unsigned recruits at this time. Go to page 7 where the article finishes and Wisconsin gets John Ploss over Cathage, Stevens Point and a few others. I think Brad Sellers might have committed later, but I could be wrong.

Must be really old. Thought today was the 5th.


That Ploss article was really funny. I grew up in Madison and have no recollection of the guy whatsoever. And I was in high school at the time...he played four years too.

http://www.totalbasketballstats.com/Player.asp?id=13162

[Mark Miller]

Love the ad for Ernie von Sheldorn as well.

Dwayne Johnson absolutely killed my high school team -- Appleton Xavier -- during the 1979 WISAA Tournament. We came in ranked very highly and St. John's blew us out behind Johnson and Ronnie Williams. I still remember the Milwaukee Sentinel's coverage and Dale Hoffman's opening paragraph ...

"Delafield St. John's Military Academy was blowing the cover off the state-basketball rankings while blowing Appleton Xavier off the Milwaukee Arena floor all at the same happy time Friday."

Happy for St. John's ... not so much for Xavier fans.

[TheSultan]

Also noticed an article written by Chuck Salituro...who ended up as the sports editor there before moving to ESPN. He's still there.

http://espnmediazone.com/us/bios/salituro_chuck/

[MUMac]

I had always wanted Marquette to sign Williams. Rick was not as interested in him. He had a nice career at Florida and I think would have helped MU.

[Nukem2]

I had always wanted Marquette to sign Williams. Rick was not as interested in him. He had a nice career at Florida and I think would have helped MU.
Yes, I never got that either unless there were other issues ( academics? ). Ronnie was a real talent at 6'8".

[milkbone]

Also an article on Bucks signing Lew Alcindor.

[Markedman]

Who is that? Never heard of him.


Also an article on Bucks signing Lew Alcindor.

[MUMac]

Who is that? Never heard of him.

He was a one year flash in the pan.

[bergamont]

This will add to Mark's post about the 1979 WISAA tourney. We were set to play the same Delafield team in the 1980 tourney. Nigel Wallace from Thomas More was declared ineligible and since we lost to TM in the regional finals, we went to state. I still remember watching St. John's practice. Thomas More filed a lawsuit and we never ended up playing St. John's. I don't remember who won that game but it was full of players-----Johnson, Williams, Wallace, Neil Degner and one of my all time favorite Metro coaches Mike Fons.

[Mark Miller]

Thomas More beat St. John's and then beat us -- Xavier -- 49-43 in the state semifinals.

Marquette High beat Dominican in the other semifinal and then MUHS beat Thomas More in the title game.

[IWB]

Marquette High's Neil Johnson vs Thomas More's Neil Degner - funny, Johnson was named 2nd team all conference behind Degner, but was the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Area Player of the Year.

[Mark Miller]

Johnson was a junior in 1980 and Degner was a senior.

Johnson led MUHS to the title again in 1981, beating Tom Saxelby and Pacelli in the state title game.

Pacelli beat a superior Pennings squad in the semifinals after Pennings coach Don LaViolette went to a delay game. Ended up costing his team the contest.

[Phantom Warrior]

Majerus was once asked if he screwed up not going after Ronnie Williams, and his answer was very straightforward. He said he had seen DJ and RW so many times the past several years - since they were freshmen in NYC - that with Williams all he could see were the flaws in his game rather than his strengths. He pretty much admitted he'd messed up and he wished he'd recruited Williams harder.

As for Dwayne Johnson, Majerus once claimed he was the best high school player in the country, period, regardless of class. DJ was a freshman in high school at the time.

Rick was given to hyperbole at times (Mike Davis, Rod Grosse, and others).

[IWB]

Sorry Mark - Degner & Johnson were both class of 1981 - Goose85's class. Here is an article from Thomas More beating Marquette at Marquette in January of '81.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19810114&id=KjAgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wCsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7096,2301252

Actually a classic story about that night. I may have only been in 8th grade, but remember it like it was yesterday. Mind you, the drinking age was 18. Either the Journal or Sentinel did their pregame story of the big matchup, and touted it as the "Thomas More blue collar beer drinkers from the south side" against the " rich suburban martini drinkers of Marquette Hhigh".

As a result of the story, Thomas More students brought newspapers and empty beer cans to the game. Between quarters, Marquette's cheerleaders formed a pyramid of sorts, and carried in a "fragile box". They presented it from guy to guy very carefully, until it got all the way to the top of the pyramid where the mascot was. He carefully opened it and displayed the contents to the crowd..... of course.....it was a martini glass. The crowd from both sides went nuts.

Classic game. Marquette got them back in the state tournament when Pat Hodan hit a shot at the buzzer to beat T-More for the title.

[Mark Miller]

My bad. As usual, you are correct.

Just checked by WISAA State Tournament program from 1981 and Degner did indeed graduate in 1981 and then played at Kansas State.

Marquette and TM split in 1980-81 and then MUHS beat Thomas More in a memorable state semifinal game before blowing out Pacelli in the title game.

[bergamont]

IWB is correct---both were '81 as was I. I could never understand what Kansas State saw in Degner. I don't recall where Johnson played in college. All I know is I made first team all Metro with those two and I ended up at Ripon. Thanks for posting the article it brought back some great memories looking at the box scores. I had forgotten about guys like Dean Derfus, Brian Morello, Miles Aquino and Moore.

[mufansince72]

I just remember wanting both Ronnie Williams and Dwayne Johnson! If I recall correctly Dwayne was academically ineligible and ended up at whitewater

[IWB]

Some great talent in the Metro conference in those years, seems like every team had some studs. Good to see you mentioned in the writeup bergamont!

[Mark Miller]

That 1981 Thomas More team had a 6-7 kid named Jon Luedke, who went on to play at Ball State.

If memory serves, Neil Johnson played at Stanford. Not sure on that, though. Perhaps IWB or one of his brothers will know.

Speaking of the Metro Conference, I just opened some of my old scrapbooks to research Dominican's winning streak for a story I did earlier this week on Germantown's quest to snap the Knights' state winning streak. It sits at 62 and Germantown has 56 in a row. Guess who Germantown plays in game No. 62 next season? Yep, Dominican.

Story with comments from Don Gosz are on WisSports.net.

[Mark Miller]

Better yet, here is the story ...

By Mark Miller
WisSports.net Basketball Editor

The start of the 2013-14 high school basketball season might be a little more than seven months away, but talk is already beginning to surface about the Germantown basketball program and its quest to break the state record for most consecutive victories.

With back-to-back 28-0 seasons and a pair of WIAA Division 1 state championships under its belt, Germantown enters next season with 56 straight victories.

The state record for most consecutive victories is held by Dominican High School in Whitefish Bay.

Depending how you interpret a forfeit victory, the Knights’ state-record winning streak is either 62 games or 71 games.

Under coach Don Gosz, Dominican won WISAA Class A state titles in 1978 and 1979 and in the process put together its long winning streak.

Dominican snapped the previous state record for most wins in a row in 1980 with a victory over Kenosha St. Joseph. That triumph was the Knights’ 61st in a row, breaking the old mark of 60 set by Milwaukee Lincoln from 1960-63.

A few days later, Dominican beat Milwaukee Lutheran for its 62nd straight victory.

And then, in a hotly contested Metro Conference game on its home floor, Dominican lost a triple overtime game to Milwaukee Thomas More, 58-57, to apparently end its winning streak at 62.

However, it was later determined Thomas More used an ineligible player in that game – forward Nigel Wallace – and thus has to forfeit games in which Wallace played.

Wallace was a 6-foot-4 jumping jack who transferred to Thomas More from New York City in the fall of 1979.

Wallace, who had 32 points and 19 rebounds in the Cavaliers’ victory over Dominican, did not have a legal guardian and thus was ruled ineligible by the Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association (WISAA).

If you count Thomas More’s forfeit as a victory for Domincan, the Knights streak is actually 71 straight as Gosz led his team to eight straight victories following the Thomas More contest.

For his part, Gosz considers Dominican’s record to be 62 in a row, and a banner in the Dominican gymnasium reflects that sentiment.

“Personally, I go with the 62,” said Gosz, who is retired and living in Menasha. “We got beat. A forfeit? I don’t know what that is or where that stands. A loss is a loss. Nigel Wallace beat us. It was one of the few times a player had 30 points against us and he had 32 in that game.

“We shut him down earlier in the year at Thomas More, but he came out with fire in his eyes in the second game. They had a talented team. On my brochure I send out for my basketball camp, I have 62 down as the state record.”

Gosz has had the chance to watch Germantown over the past two seasons and is very impressed with the Warhawks.

“They are extremely good,” he said. “I know they have four guys coming back. But it’s not like playing in the old Metro Conference. Nobody would ever believe a team would set that record playing in the Metro Conference, but it happened.

“Still, Germantown is extremely good and has four starters back with the same coach and same system. I’ve been very impressed with them. Records are made to be broken.”

Ironically, Germantown could tie Dominican’s state record with a victory over the Knights on December 14. That game, barring weather cancellations, would be the Warhawks’ sixth game of the 2013-14 campaign.

“It’s kind of neat that we are playing Dominican in the game that could potentially tie the record,” Germantown coach Steve Showalter said. “We have 13 guys coming back so we hope to be competitive with everybody again next year.”

That may be a bit of an understatement.

Germantown returns three potential NCAA Division I recruits in seniors Lamonte Bearden (6-1), Jake Showalter (6-3) and Evan Wesenberg (6-7).

Forwards Jon Averkamp (6-6) and Cole Karcz (6-5) along with guards Brian Bearden (6-1) and Dearionte Hudson (5-8) also return for the Warhawks.

“Some reporters have mentioned the state record for consecutive wins to our kids so they are fully aware of it,” Showalter said. “As far as the 62 or 71 goes, everybody down here talks about 62. It’s definitely something fun to talk about.

“It brings back memories of some great teams at Dominican.”

Germantown could break Dominican’s record of 62 straight wins on December 17 when it hosts Milwaukee Lutheran in its seventh game of the season.

Germantown’s 2013-14 schedule

November 26 – at Milwaukee Lutheran (57th game)

December 3 – Port Washington (58th game)

December 6 -- at Whitefish Bay (59th game)

December 7 – at Menomonee Falls (60th game)

December 13 -- at Cedarburg (61st game)

December 14 – Dominican (62nd game, would tie record)

December 17 -- Milwaukee Lutheran (63rd game, would break record)

December 20 – at Grafton (64th game)

December 21 – vs. Milwaukee Pius XI at Al McGuire Center (65th game)

December 27 -- vs. Milwaukee Vincent at WBY Shootout at Concordia (66th game)

December 28 – vs. Oshkosh North at WBY Shootout at Concordia (67th game)

January 4 – vs. Madison La Follette at Just A Game Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells (68th game)

January 7 – Nicolet (69th game)

January 10 – Homestead (70th game)

January 14 – at Brookfield Central (71st game, ties record if forfeit is counted)

January 17 – at Port Washington (72nd game, breaks record if forfeit is counted)

January 24 – Whitefish Bay (73rd game)

January 31 – Cedarburg (74th game)

February (TBD) – Wisconsin Lutheran (75th game)

February 7 – Grafton (76th game)

February 14 – at Nicolet (77th game)

February 20 -- at Homestead (78th game)

[IWB]

Yes, Neil Johnson went to Stanford. Also on that team was Dave Frederich who went on to star at Kansas Wesleyan and Darrin Chambers who was a year younger, but went on to play at Fresno State.

[Mark Miller]

I think Chambers was a sophomore on that team and actually played at Long Beach State.

[IWB]

Yep - got me, Long Beach State.

[bergamont]

I played in the game against Dominican when they set the record. I want to stay Bill Colfield was there as UW signed Dandridge. The tv stations were all there and we gave them a bit of a game. Emmerich and Lemon went on to St. Norberts. I think I have the names right. How did Degner and Johnson end up at D1 schools and me at D3 when I was better :-)t

[Goose85]

Johnson went to Stanford and did play hoops, but, may have gone there more for academics. Great games with T-More and Dominican back in those days. The high school gyms were always packed.