From last week’s “A Little Local Basketball History,” a minor account of Presque Isle’s gateway into the game of basketball at the turn of the 20th century, we traverse the next 20 years and fast-forward to 1922. It’s not that those middle 20 years had no significance, but it’s simply important for me to get quickly to the Presque Isle men’s basketball of 1932.
A little history is necessary to get us to that best (arguably) team ever (with the exception of the 1961 and a few others like 1971 and 1979 … that comes later), the Wildcats of ’32, which won 19 straight games before going off to Bangor to harvest the most coveted of all high school awards, the Maine State Championship. No Presque Isle men’s basketball team before or since has achieved that top rung, that most prestigious prize, that one-of-a kind trophy awarded to only the very best. True, the 1961, 1971 and the 1979 Wildcats came as close as anyone could, but in the final games, failed to become Maine’s champions.
But first let me tell you what prompted this series on the history of local schoolboy basketball. The destruction of Cunningham School began in February of this year (2007). For many, it was a sad event. After all, the majority of us had attended Cunningham in our early, formative years and held deep-rooted memories stemming from our years there. The older readers here had even spent their high school years at Cunningham. Remember that Cunningham had been a high school up to 1949; those students who had finished their junior years at Cunningham in 1949 finished their high school careers at the new high school in the spring of 1950. It was that year, 1949-1950, that the old high school was dedicated to Frank Cunningham. Cunningham then was named principal of the new high school and the old school on Third Street was forever known as Cunningham School.
Cunningham School (originally called Presque Isle High School) was rebuilt in 1922 after a devastating fire in December of 1921. Within the walls of this new school, which educated only high schoolers (all others went to Training School, Gouldville School or the 20 or so rural schools scattered throughout the countryside) had been built Presque Isle’s very first gymnasium. Heretofore, students played their games outside in the warmer months and, as previously mentioned, the girls and the boys played organized basketball in the P.I. Opera House and the Perry Opera House. In 1922, that all changed. In the northeast corner of the new High School (later Cunningham) was built a fine gymnasium. It was in this gym that organized basketball really got a boost. No longer did the students have to walk to the P.I. Opera House or the Perry Theatre (corner State and Main) to practice or play their scheduled games; they now had their own facilities replete with their very own locker room.
A few years later in 1928, a certain PIHS coach, Chilton Kemp, organized the Gouldville-Training School League. This was perhaps his greatest contribution to Presque Isle basketball; that league became the training ground for PIHS varsities. He was heavily supported by the schools principals, Marguerite Preble of Training School and Howard Jellison of Gouldville. The Gouldville-Training School League lasted for 11 years (1928-1939). It’s not clear to me just why the league dissolved.
It would be in 1931 when five very special players (backed up with five other players) took the floor for the first time for Presque Isle’s varsity team. It would also be the “changing of the guard,” if you will, when Presque Isle’s most durable, most successful varsity coach ever would come aboard and coached that varsity for the next 26 years. That year would also be the last year the varsity and other Presque Isle teams would be called the “Blue and Whites.” Blue and white were the school colors (still are). The other name for the local teams was “Bradentown” after the famous horse, John R. Braden, which was owned by a local men’s organization, the Mooseleuk Club. Many members of that team would continue to play for the famous 1932 team (now called the Wildcats … another story, by the way). It behooves me at this point to list the original members of the 1931 Wildcats who went on to play for the next year’s team (1932). Many of you will recall, to some extent, at least some of these names: Harold Glidden, Clarence Burnett, Verdelle Clark, Elwood Harmon, Walter Shaw, Ralph and Richard (brothers) Sweetser, Neil Michaud and Bob McEachern. Added to this list in 1932 were: Dana Thompson, Harold Cheney, and Phil Christie, manager. It was these gentlemen who became Presque Isle’s only State Champions.
Next week’s installment will continue with the account of that championship team of 1932. Read about many of those players and their lives after the State Championship. Showcased will be Neil Michaud, the sole survivor of that 1932 team. And later, I’ll review the 1961 Wildcats and a few others who came but a camel’s breath away from becoming Presque Isle’s second State Champions in men’s basketball. Stay tuned for more local basketball history.
Photo courtesy of Dick Graves
THE 1932 BASKETBALL CHAMPS posing in the Cunningham School gym built in 1922 are, front row, from left: Astle Ryder, Dana Thompson, Harold Glidden, Walter Shaw, Elwood Harmon, Richard Sweetser and Bob McEachern. Back row: Coach Hanscom, Clarence Burnett, Neil Michaud, Ralph Sweetser, Verdelle Clark, Harold Cheney and manager, Phil Christie.
FORGOTTEN TIMES
by Dick Graves
