THE CLOVIS WILDCATS- 1951 STATE BASKETBALL CHAMPS

by Richard Drake, Guest Writer

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UNACCLAIMED HEROES: THE TEAM MANAGERS

Unacclaimed  Heroes of the 1951 Clovis Basketball State Championship

Everyone who has ever gone to Clovis High School remembers the 1951 State Champions.  The team was very good but I don’t remember early on that anyone expected them to go all of the way.  This group of boys just came together as a team at the end of the season.  My friends and I were sophomores but we felt strongly about the team.  We were used as cannon fodder in practice and were convinced that the team center perfected his very tough defensive skills and hard rebounding technique by beating us up each day in practice.  All of the seniors really did work us over and I believe the result toughen us for our own run to the title two years later. In 1951, only one of our age group had developed the skills to be selected for the twelve members to go to the tournament. 

            No names are used in this story to protect the guilty.

One of the team managers and I were good friends.  I wanted to go to Albuquerque along with everyone else in high school.  So he and I developed a plan for me to help load all of the team equipment onto the Wildcat bus and would hide on the back seat with the gear.  I had told my Mother that the coach wanted me to go as extra depth on the bench in case it was needed. Compared with my desire to go to the tournament, I reasoned a small white lie was justified.

 A minor problem arose just before the bus pulled out.  I looked out of a window and was face to face with the Clovis News Journal sports writer.  He stared at me with a quizzical look. I feared that he would write in the newspaper that I had been hiding on the bus. Mother would find out that I had not been honest with her.  At that time there was no greater fear in a young man than that of his Mother’s anger when she learned of a “lie”.

            The hero story began in Albuquerque when a group of the team members and fans decided to go ice skating.  Remember, in 1951 few people in eastern New Mexico had ever been on ice skates and that included most of the starting five.  Again, I will not include names to protect the guilty, but one of the best players turned his ankle while attempting to learn to skate.  It was feared that, if and when, the coach found out he would probable kill at least one of us. The team managers took charge and got the injured player back to the hotel where they kept ice on the ankle all night. Before the game they applied heat and then taped the ankle so tight that there was some worry that maybe the circulation would be cut off.  The treatment worked and while the ankle was very sore, he had an all star night.

            At the same time, another one of the starters came down with a very sore throat and could hardly talk.  He was in pain. The coach told the managers to go to a drug store and find some medication for the throat problem.  With everything going on, time ran out and there was no medicine.  Remember during the fifties, the team had only two set of uniforms for three back to back to back games.  They had to do laundry, go to the cleaners, take care of minor injuries, and tape up ankles and other numerous other duties. Our managers, always thinking, decided that “Tough Skin” would be the perfect solution to the problem. We all used it on our ankles to help the tape to stick when they were wrapped before each game.

 The managers read the label and decided that since it was had a high alcohol content, it would not hurt anything and probably be good for the sore throat.  They diluted some with water and gave it to the ailing player.  When he gargled with it, you could hear him yell several doors away.  Fortunately, coach was not around.  After the initial pain eased, the throat was cured and never did bother him anymore.  Again, he was one of our best players and played like the All Star that he was.  Clovis won the game and we were the state champions for the first time since 1929. That is why I believe the team managers were the unknown and unrecognized heroes of that team.

For me, everything was great but I still had to face my mother.  I did not enjoy the celebration on the ride back to Clovis.  Since we lived on Calhoun Street, only a block off of Seventh Street, the driver let me off at the corner and I walked the “very long” block home.  I practiced my story at least a dozen times but nothing was going to work.  I walked in the house expecting my Mother to meet me with a very stern look but she was very happy.  The reporter had assumed the coach had included me on the roster as insurance and wrote it in his article. The 1951 Clovis Wildcat victory had a happy ending for everyone, even me.

Heroes are often found in the background, making things work and leaving the glory to others.

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For Mil's Place
By Richard Drake
CHS Class of '53