CHS: 1953 STATE BASKETBALL CHAMPIONS

1953 Clovis State Champs

by Richard Drake, Guest Writer

                Looking back over the years it can be said that the run to the 1953 State championship in basketball started back in grade school. We had no super stars and, for a basketball team, we were small.  We had only one player who was well over six feet.  As I recall, one of our centers was 6’4” tall.  Several of us could claim to be six feet tall by standing very straight.  A few were in the middle of a teenage growth and were on their way through this milestone.  So height was not a factor in our success. In grade school we played together, starting on the dirt courts in backyards.  If someone was fortunate to have a father erect a backboard and rim in their drive way or backyard, they became a good friend of everyone within walking distance.   Beginning in the ninth grade at Marshall junior high school we became team mates. We knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses.  Earlier in one of my memory flashbacks I wrote that the 1951 team showed us the way to a championship.  We played against them in practice and they did not treat us as sophomores.  They pushed us around and gave us the best that they had.  We took it and grew with it.  We were being trained by “State Champs”.  This experience helped us greatly.

                In our junior year, we began having visions of our team taking our place with them on the championship podium. Our dream came crashing down in the regional semifinals when all of the team, except one, came down with the flu.  Coach Stockton did his best rotating players into the game as fast as the rules allowed.  We came close and lost by a single point to Eunice in the last seconds.  The team was totally exhausted at the end, but proud of our effort.  It was another learning lesson.

                In my judgment, one of the most important contributors to our ultimately winning was our sophomore coach, Bob Manning.  He had played at the University of West Virginia where the style was to fast break from one end of the court to the other on offense.  On defense, teams played a full court man to man style pressing the opponent base line to base line.  He had a free hand with our team and taught us his style.  Coach Stockton did not like it but he was busy making the seniors into champions. We loved this style of play because it fit us.  We were not big but we could run.   Coach Stockton demanded that his team use a half court set pattern play style of offense.  His defense called for half court man to man coverage with players sagging into the middle when the ball was on the other side of the court.  The 1951 team was perfect for this style.  They had height and good ball handlers.

                During our senior season we kept trying to run.  It was natural to us.  Coach Stockton did not like it.  Late in the season, in one spirited practice, things got a little rough and we continued to run and press in spite of his instructions.  At one point he lost his composure, a rare occurrence, threw up his hands and left the practice court with the parting shout, “if you want to run --- run”.  And we did. In the first game after that we beat Fort Sumner 81 to 55. We would fast break down the court at every opportunity and, if no quick basket was made, we would immediately transition into one of the fixed plays – on the dead run.  This made the Coach’s system even more effective.  We also adopted a full court press defense with sinking to the middle in the half court.  We would also change to a zone defense and back to a man to man defense on the dead run which confused our opponents.

The players who made up the team that went to the 1953 state tourney were: Gerald Clancy and Richard Drake at center; Jim Asimos, Jerry Lott, Buddy Prince, and Phil Gore at the guard; and Pascal Wickard, Lloyd Norton and A.J. Mason at the forward position. Teams were limited to ten players for the tournament; however, Bert Ledbetter, Rodney Burns and Jack Powell were ready reserves.  Alvis Glidewell and A.J. Mason were elected co-captains early in the season.

 It is hard to single out one single player on the team but a few should be pointed out. First, Alvis Glidewell was a star if we had to name one.  He was as thin as a fence railing, but over the years of hard practice he had made himself as hard as a rock and had the stamina of two people.  Early on, the Harlem Globe Trotters came to Clovis for an exhibition game.  One of the high lights of their show was to give the ball to one of their small players and he would dribble around and through the other team.  No one could take the ball away from him because of his dribbling ability.  Alvis adopted and practiced this technique in every free minute and he became very, very good.  The team called on him and his dribbling in every game in which we had the lead in the last few minutes.

Lloyd Norton was probably the best all around athlete on the team.  A serious injury in the first game of the football season ended his football career early but he returned for the basketball season.  A broken hand kept him out of the early games but he became a force as the season progressed.  Lloyd was the only teammate to letter in basketball in our sophomore year and was a member of the 1951 team.  Jim Asimos, Pascal Wickard and Alvis were selected to the 1953 All State tournament team for their play.  A. J Mason and Alvis were selected to play in the North-South All Star game. 

                The 1952-1953 team  got off to a good start. Only a loss to the West Texas powerhouse, Pampa, was a blemish on the early record.  Fifteen straight games were won against New Mexico teams before running into a downturn late in the season. It must be remembered that the previous eight state champions had come from eastern New Mexico. So the competition was tough in every game. We lost to Dexter in the regular season and also in the semi-finals of the Roswell Tournament. We split regular season games with our nearby rivals, Portales.  We won the district over them, but they got the better of us in the Regional finals. However, we did beat Dexter in the semi-finals. As result of all of the effort, the team went to the state tournament in Albuquerque with an overall record of 27 wins and five losses.

                As chances would have it, we had to open the tournament against Our Lady of Sorrows from Bernalillo, which, as I recall, was undefeated at the time.  That game went into overtime when their best player missed two free shots after time expired.  Those two missed shots pumped adrenalin into our systems and we “knew” that we would win and did by a score of 58 to 52.

 The semi-final game was against Hurley High School which probably had the tallest team that we played that year.  Their guards were about 6’3” tall. Their center was 6’8” tall had scored 28 points in the opening round.  Fortunately, Coach Manning had taught us how to muscle the big men and to play in front of them to deny them the basketball.  As he used to say “they can’t score if they don’t have the ball”.  Their center made only four points against us.  However, the thing that won the game was our full court pressing defense. Hurley only had five players and we had ten.  Coach Stockton substituted freely every time the clock stopped so we had fresh legs on the court at all times. Jim Asimos broke the game open with a dramatic steal in the third quarter.  He was a very physical player and one play after he literally run over one of their guards in an attempt to steal the ball.  He always denied it but the grin on his face told us that he had meant to deliver a message and he did.   We won by 16 points, 69 to 53.

                The final game against Raton was almost anticlimactic.  The highlight of the game was the last few minutes.  As usual, when we got ahead, Alvis would dribble down the court and would continue to do so until he was fouled.  He was very accurate from the free throw line.  In the last minutes, as Alvis proceeded down the court by himself, the rest of the team sat down on the end line and watched.  Coach Stockton leaped off the bench with a look of astonishment until he realized what was happening.  He, then, just stood there and smiled until Alvis was fouled.  During a brief time out, he told us that we had delivered the message and it was not appropriate for us to rub it in.  We won 63 to 46.

                I can’t complete this story without saying a few words about the Clovis High School band.  That year they started coming to the games and would play our fight song and other numbers at each time out.  It was more than encouraging.   It was inspiring.  It started a trend in the state that later had to be curtailed because other schools copied the practice and the gyms across the state became filled with competing fight songs.  It is a great memory along with all of the others.  Every few years the class of 1953 has a reunion and, at some point during these gatherings, the state championship always comes up.  What is interesting is that it is usually brought up by a classmate other than a team mate.  It had that kind of impact on all of the students.  We all remember that wonderful year. The season ended with 30 wins and only five loses. 

The Sutter Trophy for the Outstanding Player was awarded to the entire team as it was done in 1951. Fifty years later the New Mexico state tournament honored the 1953 Wildcats team at state tournament  in Albuquerque.  It was a great reunion.

The class of 1953 will never forget.

Standing L-R:  Jerry Lott, Phil Gore, Gerald Clancy, Alvis Glidenell, Pascal Wickard

Kneeling L-R:   Buddy Prince, Jim Asimos, Lloyd Norton, A.J. Mason, Richard Drake

Richard Drake, Class of '53

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