Kansas Prep Basketball History Part 6                       Kansas High School Basketball  History

 Part Six:  Kansas CLASS AA, A & B Tournaments  1941-1951              * = Overtime    ! = Forfeit     by Patrick Macfee    Revised 5/2/2013

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Chapter 1: War Years 1941-1945     Chapter 2: Post-War Boom 1946-1951


                       1941   1942   1943   1944   1945 

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1945                                  Final Four Officials All Classes: Mike Oberhelman RANDOLPH, Ralph Winegarner WICHITA, Maurice Fager TOPEKA, Cecil Peterson TOPEKA

1945 CLASS AA State Tourney			Coach	League		Team	W-L
	Emporia - Civic Auditorium
32 CLASS AA Teams
			Earl Morrison	CKL	1	Salina	(21-3)
Final 4 Played in Emporia			Chet Davenport	INDEPENDENT	2	Topeka High	(17-7)
Wyandotte Sectional			Lee Casida	ARK VALLEY	SF	El Dorado	(7-16)
Hutchinson Sectional			Russ Davee	SEKL	SF	Columbus	(20-1)
						KC-Wyandotte
Topeka						Chanute
	Topeka High					Wellington
Wyandotte	30-27					Newton	(15-6)
		Columbus
Columbus		33-31
	Columbus		Salina
Chanute	42-29		51-40
		Salina
Salina
	Salina			Salina
Newton	39-38 *			45-43
		El Dorado
ElDorado		44-42
	El Dorado		Topeka High
Wellington	35-29		46-30
		Topeka High
Newton	Newton		Emporia Gazette
McPherson	30-27		ALL-STARS
Wellington	Wellington
Junction City	54-43		Gene Anderson	SALINA
Salina	Salina		Maurice Martin	TOPEKA
Arkansas City	41-24		Jack Lippoldt	SALINA
El Dorado	El Dorado		Aubrey Linville	SALINA
Hutchinson	29-27		Al Apitz	TOPEKA
Columbus	Columbus
Shawnee Mission	27-26		Officials	AA, A & B
Chanute	Chanute
Lawrence	36-28		Mike Oberhelman	RANDOLPH
Topeka High	Topeka High		Ralph Winegarner	WICHITA
Coffeyville	32-25		Maurice Fager	TOPEKA
Wyandotte	Wyandotte		Cecil Peterson	TOPEKA
Pittsburg	42-25

CLASS A State Tourney
	Emporia - White Auditorium
81 Teams	1945	K.A. Piper	SKL	1	Anthony	(23-1)
		B.J. Ertz	EKL	2	KC-Turner	(18-4)
Final Four played in Emporia		Harold Elliott	UNION PACIFIC	SF	Russell	(18-6)
		Dale Kessinger	TRI-VALLEY	SF	Eureka	(17-3)
					Topeka-HP
					Abilene
Highland Park					Fredonia
	Turner				Hoisington
Turner	40-21
		Turner-K.C.
Russell		43-40
	Russell
Abilene	44-36
			Anthony
Eureka			44-28
	Eureka
Fredonia	34-22
		Anthony
Anthony		49-37
	Anthony
Hoisington	56-37		ALL-TOURNEY
			1st Team
Highland Park	Highland Park		Chuck Truby		ANTHONY
KC-Washington			Bill Copenhaver		KC-TURNER
Turner	Turner		Ward Lee Clark		EUREKA
Seaman	44-19		Barney Menasco		ANTHONY
Abilene	Abilene		Bob Cather		ANTHONY
Colby	34-27
Russell	Russell
Minneapolis	46-29
Eureka	Eureka
Wichita-Cathedral	26-24
Fredonia	Fredonia
Altamont	30-27
Anthony	Anthony
Hillsboro	54-29
Hoisington	Hoisington
Garden City	39-32
Ottawa Sectional
Russell Sectional
Eureka Sectional
Hutchison Sectional

1945 CLASS B Tourney
	Emporia - White Auditorium
		Avy Masterson	MID-KANSAS	1	Halstead	(26-0)
136 Teams > Districts		George Norton	MID-KANSAS	2	Pretty Prairie	(23-5)
Emporia Final Four		Ray Stewart	INDEPENDENT	SF	Courtland	(24-1)
		John Parker	TRI-COUNTY	SF	DeSoto
					Lorraine
Sectionals					Attica
					Arma
Courtland					Edwardsville
	Courtland
Lorraine	43-29
		Halstead
Halstead		61-34
	Halstead
Attica	51-21
			Halstead
Pretty Prairie			44-30
	Pretty Prairie
Arma	67-39
		Pretty Prairie
DeSoto		61-39
	DeSoto
Edwardsville	24-18
Courtland	Courtland		ALL TOURNEY
Oakley	44-24		Emporia Gazette
Lorraine	Lorraine
Palco	36-34 *		Harold England		HALSTEAD
Halstead	Halstead		Junior Hess		PRETTY PRAIRIE
Kipp	49-34		Homer Turner		DE SOTO
Attica	Attica		Bill Jones		PRETTY PRAIRIE
Mullinville	46-27		Tex Smiley		HALSTEAD
Pretty Prairie	Pretty Prairie
Arma	Arma
DeSoto	DeSoto
Strawn
Edwardsville
Ottawa Sectional
Russell Sectional
Eureka Sectional
Hutchinson Sectional

EMPORIA - CIVIC AUDITORIUM 1945


     E.A. Thomas and the high school association awarded the final four tournaments to Emporia for 1945. This would be the last time this format would be followed. 

    Thomas visited the venue in early March with a special concern that the auditorium floor be ready for the competition. The memory of the slick spots in the early games of the 1941 AA Tourney was still a concern in 1945. Advance ticket sales were brisk despite the dominance of world events on the mind of the general public. A wave of vandalism by teenagers caused a few pre-tournament jitters for the local management. Damage was done to the bathroom facilities and remote spectator areas. Emporia law enforcement blamed it on unsupervised elementary school kids allowed in on free passes. Some of the bold acts of destruction were traced to teeenage delinquents from Topeka. Local authorities established law and order and the Topeka vandals were returned to their parents well in advance of the state event.

CLASS AA


  Coach Lindley brought his Newton team to the sectionals with what would turn out to be his final chance at a state championship. He was the man at Newton, except for one season, from the 1913-14 season until 1945. No one could match the record of Lindley in the State of Kansas during this period. Earl Morrison's Salina team presented another fast breaking challenge to the established style of the Railers. The two schools played a back and forth game that Salina appeared to have finally won with around five seconds left in the game. That was when Lester Haase caught a long pass off a missed free throw  and lofted a desperation shot a few steps past the half court line. His shot missed the mark but a hard foul knocked him to the floor. Coach Lindley called sucessive time outs to allow his player to regain his wind. With time expired Hasse sank both free throws sending the game to an overtime period. Salina's rebounding advantage won the game with a tip-in late in the extra period. Newton would not advance to the final four in Emporia.

  The battered Salina team prepared for  the surprise team of the  year  El Dorado. Writers had dubbed them the "children of destiny" due to the greatest late season turn-a-round in Kansas high school history. Coach Casida's boys were in the Ark Valley cellar when they defeated Hutchinson in the first round of the sectional. They then eliminated the Ark Valley champion Wellington who many thought was the favorite to win the state crown in Emporia. Wellington Coach Suran could only wonder why his team could not defeat the team they had so easily handled 66-29 and 43-20 during league play. "I don't know why things like this happen", Casida confessed to Suran as Wellington walked off the court with a 29-35 loss.

  El Dorado completed the unlikely run by defeating Salina in the Sectional final 44-42. The Wildcat players were inspired in building a big lead in the first half. Salina could only be effective with the running game intermittently - they did manage to come from far behind and tie the game at 24-24. That was when El Dorado went on another surge that allowed them to hang on. The Maroons wer gassed from the overtime game against Newton and suffered the effects of rough physical play from a Newton team fighting for survival. The knowledge that both teams would advance regardless of the outcome may have had a psychological effect on the Salina team down the stretch. They seemed to have less fire after clearing the hurdle over Newton.

  The eastern sectional at Wyandotte featured a semi-final contest between Topeka High and Wyandotte. The two had split a pair during the regular season. Wyandotte held a slight advantage on their home court until the last two minutes of the game. Topeka susbstitute Earl Hays sank a long set shot putting the Trojans ahead 28-27. Then Topeka stopped the Bulldogs and employed a stall. A defensive lapse by the Kansas City team allowed a lay-up that sealed the victory.

  Columbus continued an undefeated season with a 33-31 win over Topeka in the finals. The Titans relied on a zone defense and a versatile offense. They overcam stall tactics and fast breaking teams with equal ease. Their top scorer was Neil Ridley with Harry LaRue and Paul Churchill providing dominate rebounding.

to be continued