Williamsburg High School Golden Era Of Basketball : 1957

Don Appleman writes about Williamsburg High School’s Golden Age of Basketball in the late 1950’s. This is the first in a series on the 1957 Williamsburg basketball team.

Over the past few years, former Blue Pirate athlete and “Morrisons Cove Herald” columnist, Rich Tate, and I have written, including this one, ten articles covering the “Golden Era of Williamsburg High School Boys’ Basketball,” which extended from 1954-55 through 1967-68. A final story will follow in the near future detailing the years from 1958-59 through 1961-62, with an emphasis on the ‘60-61 campaign.

Over the course of 14 seasons, the Blue Pirates won 12 Juniata Valley League titles, nine District 6-C championships, six Western Regional crowns, and two PIAA State Championships (1958 and 1966). All of these championship seasons were achieved under the phenomenal direction of coaches Bill Casper (1954-58) and Dick Buckley (1959-69).

What were you doing in 1957? A better question might be what was happening in the USA and the world in the mid-1950s? Dwight Eisenhower was just sworn in for a second term as president. Richard Nixon was his vice president. Elvis Presley was “All Shook Up,” and Pat Boone sang about “April Love.” The Hula Hoop and the Frisbee arrived on the scene. There were 4000 drive-in movies across the country, and two of the favorite stars were John Wayne and Sophia Loren. The year’s best picture was “The Bridge Over the River Kwai.” “Gunsmoke” and the “Ed Sullivan Show” were huge on television (in black and white), while teens rarely missed “American Bandstand.”

In sports, the Braves defeated the Yankees in the World Series. Hank Aaron was the National League MVP, while Mickey Mantle was the same in the American League. The New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to California to play baseball.

The Boston Celtics defeated the St. Louis Hawks for the NBA title, and the Detroit Lions won the NFL title. North Carolina beat Kansas for the NCAA men’s basketball championship, 54-53. Didn’t Wilt “the Stilt” Chamberlain play for Kansas in that game?

Gas was 28 cents a gallon, milk was 29 cents a quart, a loaf of bread cost 20 cents, and 3 cents bought a first class stamp.

In Williamsburg, Bardell’s Dairy delivered milk to your doorstep in thick glass returnable bottles. At Annie’s Restaurant on East First Street, one could purchase a delicious cheeseburger, fries “to die for,” and a delectable cherry Coke for 55 cents – and there was change left over for the jukebox.

Our four family doctors made house calls. They actually parked in front of the house, brought along their medical bags, came inside, and visited the sick. They really did.

Yes, the good old days are gone forever but never forgotten.

What was it like growing up in small towns like Martinsburg, Roaring Spring, Claysburg, or Williamsburg? Well, Williamsburg had six flourishing churches, two funeral parlors, four doctors, a dentist, gift shops, a shoe shop, three department stores, five full-service gas stations, two hardware stores, two barber shops, five grocery stores, the Dean Theater, two established banks, the J.L Norris Furniture Store, the Frank Insurance Agency, and more. Add to all of that two thriving industries: the paper mill and Penelec. Williamsburg was a booming industrial-agricultural center, without a doubt. Who needed Altoona, Hollidaysburg, or the malls? We had it all.

On top of that, we had our own elementary school and high school and still do. The class of 1957 had 45 students. My class, seventh grade, had 47, including only 14 boys; the class of ’61, eighth grade, had 75, of which 49 were boys. That class produced championship teams in both football and basketball – no surprise there.

The 1955 football team, coached by Mr. Bill Rhodes, produced an undefeated regular season (10-0) before losing a conference playoff game to John Carroll High School. The ’56 squad, the final season for Coach Rhodes, looked to have a season very similar to that of ’55, even though the entire starting backfield had graduated except for quarterback Galen Hall. Eldon Lower and other talented underclassmen returned. After two games the Blue Pirates were 1-1, losing the second game to an excellent Claysburg squad. The Williamsburg gridders finished with an outstanding 8-2 record, losing only one more game, to Moshannon Valley, which was played without quarterback Hall, who had suffered a badly sprained ankle in the preceding Everett game.

Not to worry: the next year’s team (’57) would go 9-0 and claim an undisputed conference championship under Coach Sam Fonzi. Names like Lower, Kavel, Zeiders, Funk, White, Leamer, Snyder, Michelone, Homsey, Fry and more made history with the school’s only perfect season in close to 100 years of football (1926-2020).

When the leaves had fallen, football was over, and another evening Halloween parade had been put to rest during the fall of 1956, the conversation at Singleton’s News Stand (Shickles”), Norris Furniture, Hoy’s 5-and-10, and Hammond’s Garage turned toward basketball.

With Coach Bill Casper’s squad coming off a 26-1 season, losing only in the state championship game to Jenkintown at Juniata College, the local faithful had high hopes. The reason was that the 1956-57 team had five experienced players returning: Jack Campbell, Dick Dibert, Hall, Ken Flaig, and Jim Hancuff, three starters the previous year and two valuable subs in that order.

Some of our more ardent fans felt like the regular season would just be a necessary preliminary, prior to the playoffs and the ensuing state title game, as almost a certainty. Unfortunately, some of the schools on the WHS schedule had plans of their own, and a dose of reality would hit home early in the campaign.

For the season opener, the Blue Pirates confidently jumped on the bus for an engagement with fellow “paper-towner,” the Tyrone Golden Eagles. When the final buzzer sounded, the Pirates were on the short end of a 68-55 disappointment to start the winter. Williamsburg returned home across the bridge 0-1, with a huge hole in all that confidence displayed earlier. Time to get to work.

Fortunately, the schedule makers came to the rescue, bringing Tyrone to Williamsburg that same week. With the Pirates’ regular season winning streak snapped at 30, they were ready to host the Golden Eagles. With senior forward Jack Campbell burying 26 points and four other Blue Pirates hitting for nine or more points, the season-opening loss was avenged 71-59. Hopefully the earlier road defeat was just a minor glitch, and now, at 1-1, all was well in Blue Pirate country.