By MATT OTTE
Special to The Gazette
Could it happen again --- two years in a row?
One of the best high school basketball teams in Wisconsin ambushed once more on its way to the State Tournament?
Well, it did happen again! It happened 50 years ago this month to P.J. Jacobs basketeers. It hardly could be called an ambush in 1951 - not like in 1950 when Eau Claire surprised Stevens Point's No. 1 state-rated team in the sectionals.
After all, Wisconsin Rapids had a great quintet, too. The Red Raiders, who were hosting the regionals, only a week earlier in the same mammoth Lincoln fieldhouse had defeated the then No. 1 state rated Panthers. That battle gave Rapids the Wisconsin Valley championship as well as avenged a mid-season overtime loss to Point.
Rapids never stopped after beating Point, 78-68, in the regional until it had won the state championship. The Raiders defeated Madison West, 64-55, in the title game.
Ironically, Point started its 1950-51 season with a loss to that same Madison team. Thus, the Panthers began their schedule by losing to the state tournament runners-up and ended it losing to the state tournament champions. The regular season ended with Rapids ranked No. 1 in the state, Madison West No. 2 and Point No. 3. The Panthers' only other loss on a 17-4 record was to Rhinelander, which finished ranked No. 5 in the state and lost to Rapids in the sectional.
Perhaps the most heart-breaking dimension of the 1951 experience was that two players who undoubtedly would make everybody's all-time Stevens Point high school team - Dick Cable and Johnny Kardach - never got to play in the state tournament at Madison. They concluded their illustrious varsity careers by helping Point post a 38-6 record covering the 1949-50 and 1950-51 seasons. That's a winning percentage of .864. Together, the two scored over 1,500 points in those two seasons. Kardach averaged 18 points and Cable, who liked to pass for baskets more than he liked to score them, hit about 17 a game.
A new coach, Johnny Erickson, was in charge for that 1950-51 season. Succeeding Nolan Gregory, Erickson had 60 boys at his first practice. But only Cable and Kardach had extensive varsity experience. Jerry Miller and Neil McCarthy were other returnees. But Miller switched to wrestling halfway through the season.
Erickson's offense was built around the fast break. The scores showed it. The Panthers tallied more than 70 points 11 times, twice hitting in the 90s and once reaching an even 100. Except for Rapids and Rhinelander, Valley opponents were dispatched by huge margins - an average difference of 32 point and an average score of 79-37.
Kardach surpassed 20 points in a game 10 times, the most, 35, in a one-sided non-conference win over Shorewood.
Cable also went over 20 on 10 occasions, his best an even 30 in the regular season loss to Rapids. He had 23 in Point's overtime win over the Raiders, and he scored 24 in the tournament loss to the Panthers' biggest rival.
The win over Rapids was a season highlight. Point trailed 51-39 early in the final period before scoring 20 points down the stretch to earn a tie. Joe Sanks knotted the score with a free throw three seconds before the end. Kardach had two baskets in the overtime of that 65-60 victory.
In the tournament loss at Rapids, Point ran out of steam in the second half. The Panthers led, 48-41, in the third quarter and were still in front, 53-50, late in the period. But the Raiders got the last eight points of that period for a 58-53 edge with eight minutes to play. They stretched it to a 10-point margin at game's end. Rapids had its own stars that year, including Doug "Boola" Gill, Jimmy Ritchay and Charley Gurtler, each of th em capable of scoring 20-plus points any night.
The supporting cast of Point players in 1950-51 included Sanks, Erv Redding, Jim Witkowski, Don Woelffer, Jack Sether, Roy Hall, McCarthy and Dave Hurlbut. Cable and Kardach, of course, were first team all-conference choices (second year in a row for both) while Witkowski was named to the second team and Sanks and Redding got honorable mention.
Other than Cable and Kardach, all of the 1950-51 team were juniors. A year later Sanks, Redding, Witkowski, Woelffer and Sether - along with Bob Litzow, Dick Tuszka and George Roman - finally would get Stevens Point to Madison again - even all the way to the championship game. And one of the Panthers' biggest fans at the state tournament would be Cable who would have just completed the first of his four seasons as an outstanding Badger basketball player.