February 2024 By: Bennett Kubischta
For over 100 years basketballs have been put up in the air in hopes of going through the hoops in gymnasiums in our Red Trail towns. This season, the Glen Ullin Hebron boys are the top team along the Red Trail. And they recently defeated both teams that were on the Yellowstone Trail. The Bearcats are a strong squad with the potential to get to and do well at the State Tournament.
In 1924 there was one class of basketball in North Dakota. The state was divided into 8 Districts and each District had a tournament to see who would advance to State. New Salem was one of the top teams in District 3. Eddie Keller, one of the top players on that team, was participating in a football scrimmage on the school grounds about a week before the District tournament was to begin. He broke his leg during that scrimmage and was out for the rest of the season. Without Keller, New Salem went into the tournament as an underdog. But, the beat Linton, then Wilton, and advanced to the championship game where they were defeated by Mandan.
Moving ahead twelve years to 1936, here are summaries of contests between schools along the Red Trail. The January 18th Bismarck Tribune reported that “New Salem’s high-scoring basketball team ran up a 29 – 10 against the Almont prep five…” And over in Glen Ullin “Paced by Fischer, center, and Hermes, guard, the Glen Ullin prep quint trounced Richardton 32 – 16.”
On February 11th of ’36, in a game played at Almont, Hebron defeated the locals 19 – 14.
Hebron was one of the top teams in the Missouri Slope Conference at that time. The Mandan Pioneer’s game report stated that “Almont displayed unexpected strength and under the lead of Atkinson held the margin up to the third quarter. A Hebron rally led by Mann stowed away enough points for a Hebron victory.
On February 20, 1936 the Taylor independents defeated the Gladstone independents 38 to 23 at the gym in Taylor. Leading scorer for Taylor, with 13 points was guard J. Teie. Forward P. Degel led the way for Gladstone with 9 points.
North Dakota high schools had girls were playing basketball in the 1920s. Their games were played as preliminary games before the boys played and few game reports were published in newspapers I have reviewed. As part of a well-advertised doubleheader the Glen Ullin girls played the Mandan girls on March 1, 1924 in the Mandan High School gymnasium. The other game was a boy’s game between Mandan and Jamestown. Mandan won both games. Their boys beat Jamestown 14 – 10 and beat our Glen Ullin girls 17 – 9.
After the game, the Mandan Pioneer reported that the Jamestown boys and the Glen Ullin girls were guests in a party in the gym. There was dancing and a lunch was served at midnight. I wonder what the Glen Ullin boys thought about their girls dancing with boys from Jamestown and Mandan?
Goodbye for now. Remember, promoting the Old Red Old Ten promotes our towns, and always take time to talk to the cows.
Bennett Kubischta is the President Old Red Old Ten Scenic Byway Committee.