By MIKE BEACOM
of The Gazette
Dick Cable didn't have much of a Christmas vacation during the winter of 1951. Soon after returning home to Stevens Point from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, the freshman reserve was informed to head straight back to Madison to meet up with his Badger basketball teammates.
A sophomore named Harvey Kuehn (later the manager of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers team that went to the World Series) had accepted an offer from the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball and had dropped from the Badgers roster. Cable was called on to help Wisconsin continue its Big Ten season.
On the trip down to Madison, Cable's leisure reading was a collegiate basketball guide featuring many of the nation's All-American hopefuls. Ironically, a few days later in Champaign, Ill. he was matched up across from Illinois captain Rod Fletcher, one of the featured stars he'd been reading about.
From that game forward, Cable was a regular in the Badgers starting lineup and after four strong seasons, concluded his career as Wisconsin's all-time leading scorer.
If Portage County had to name a Mr. Basketball, few could argue with the selection of the 6' 1 1/2", 175-pound Cable. Columnist Tom Butler once said, "There may have been better scorers, more adept ball-handlers, superior rebounders, and more solid defensive performers. But nobody could do all of these essentials as well as the lanky Stevens Pointer." Butler also referred to the forward in his 1961 Wisconsin State Journal column as, "the best prep cager I ever saw."
Even at a young age, it was apparent to others that Cable was ahead of his peers when it came to the game of basketball. At Jefferson Elementary, Bob Bostad asked Cable (then in fourth grade) to join up with the school's fifth graders, the first formal team he played on.
"As a kid, basketball was the thing I liked best and was best at," said Cable.
One of his more memorable games was in eighth grade for Emerson junior high. Each year, four of the city's schools (Emerson, St. Peter's, St. Stephen's and Campus) played for the city championship.
Cable and classmates John and Jerry Kardach, Mickey Lodzinski and Jim Tork beat a talented St. Peter's group that year for the title.
"They really had a good team and it was the first time we ever had beaten them," said Cable.
Emerson's pairing of Cable and John Kardach would start a unity between the two men that would take them into early adulthood.
"John was really one heck of a basketball player," said Cable of his teammate and friend.
Cable's all-around play, matched with the considerable talent P.J. Jacobs had in the early '50s, amounted to some of the best teams the county has ever watched from the bleachers.
Coached by Nolan Gregory, the 1949-50 basketball team featured Cable, along with high-scoring teammate Kardach, defensive specialist Norbert "Nubbs" Miller, Carl Wiemann, Bill Speerstra and Fred Schadewald. By the end of the year, the Panthers were ranked No. 1 in the state with a 17-1 record and walked through their regional bracket.
In the opening round of the state sectionals, P.J. Jacob's met up with sixth-rated Eau Claire (15-3). Into the second half, Point held a 39-28 advantage, but Eau Claire battled back and, after Cable fouled out late in the game, the Old Abes knocked off the top-ranked Panthers.
"When we were done, I just couldn't believe we weren't going to the state tournament," said Cable. "That had a greater impact on me than any other game."
The following year, all that remained from P.J.'s '49-50 team were Cable and Kardach. The Valley's "awesome two-some" finished one-two in the conference in scoring (Kardach led).
The thorn in P.J.'s side in 1950-51 though was longtime foe Wisconsin Rapids, which eventually won the state tournament that year. The prior year, Point had defeated the Red Raiders all three times and the Panthers' 55-37 early-season win that year in Rapids broke the Red Raiders' 26-game Valley winning streak.
The highlight of that season for Cable was the teams' first meeting in Stevens Point. Down by 10 points going into the fourth quarter, Cable sparked a turnaround for Point. After Joe Sanks made two late free throws to push the game into overtime, the Panthers pulled off the upset.
Although Point suffered two of its losses to Rapids in their 17-4 season, Cable performed at a higher level in the teams' three meetings in '50-51, averaging nearly 26 points a contest.
Cable and Kardach capped off their senior basketball season with a second consecutive unanimous All-Conference selection for both men. Cable earned conference player-of-the-year honors.
Cable was also a standout for the Panthers in football and track. He earned three letters in each during his stay in high school and the Panthers' football and track teams were as well respected as their basketball squad.
"We really had a lot of athletes coming together in one place," said Cable of his P.J. Jacobs' peers. "We had really good teams in all three sports my junior and senior years."
As a junior, Cable was on the receiving end of six touchdown passes from quarterback and good friend Wiemann. That year, the Panthers won the Valley title with an 8-0-0 record.
The following year, P.J.'s was without many of its stars from 1949 (again, Cable and Kardach led the returnees). Cable, who started at offensive end and defense back, scored his only touchdown on the last play of the game in a 6-0 win at home over Antigo. The Panthers lost to state football powerhouse Wausau that season though, and in his last two years of football, Cable and his teammates were 13-1.
In track, Cable began his high school career as a distance runner, but quickly took to events that utilized his jumping ability.
As a senior, he made his second consecutive trip to the state meet and placed third in the high jump and high hurdles. He did not place at state in his only other event, the low hurdles, but took first in the event at the Valley meet. Panther track teams won the Valley meet all three years Cable participated.
After high school, Cable considered his options, but ultimately passed on other interested schools like Minnesota to attend Wisconsin.
"Athletically, it was the best decision I ever made," said Cable.
In the '50s, the Big Ten (then also referred to as the Western Conference) was as dominant a conference as it is today, but back then only one team from the conference moved on after a 22-game regular season. Usually during Cable's era, it was Indiana or Illinois.
His senior year, playing again with Kardach, it was Minnesota and Iowa fighting for the Big Ten crown.
One of Cable's fondest memories of his time at Madison came in the Badgers' last game of the year against Minnesota. In that game, Cable scored enough points to become Wisconsin's all-time leading scorer and helped to upset a Gopher squad, which featured conference MVP Charlie Mencel.
Mencel had played on the Eau Claire team that defeated Cable's Panthers in 1949 and later went on to play professionally for the Minneapolis Lakers (the two men are friends today and get together annually to help raise money for the YMCA foundation of Cable's current hometown, Eau Claire).
Another accomplishment Cable is proud of from his senior season at Wisconsin was being the recipient of the Big Ten medal, awarded to one athlete from each conference participant.
That year Cable (who also set a Badgers' single-season points record) received the honor, awarded for outstanding athletic, academic and leadership achievement in a class that featured Badgers' Heismann trophy winner and friend Alan Ameche.
"I cherish that as much as anything I've ever received athletically," said Cable.
After college, the Milwaukee Hawks of professional basketball selected Cable but without any regrets, he instead opted for a successful career with Northwestern Mutual Life.
Cable continued to play the game of basketball for years after college.
When he returned from Madison in 1955, he was selected to play on a collegiate all-star team against the Harlem Globetrotters.
Years later, he played for local teams and was on a Paul's Bar (now Mickey's) team that won a state amateur championship, beating a strong Milwaukee Mortars squad.
Something he is proud of is that throughout his career his mother Ethel followed his play, many times traveling with friends from Stevens Point to watch his collegiate games on weeknights in Madison.
"She was my biggest fan through the years," said Cable.
Although some of Cable's biggest records were for scoring, many who watched him remember his immeasurable abilities on the court.
John Erickson, Cable's coach at P.J.'s in 1950-51, once said, "I doubt if he had many peers. He could press, play the pivot, jump, shoot, handle the ball flawlessly, and his defense was perfect. There isn't a thing he lacked as a basketball player."
"He absolutely never quit," said one panelist. "And his all-around and team play set him apart from the average players during his high school and college days."