By MATT OTTE
of The Gazette
A decade or more of frustration ended in a blaze of glory a half-century ago this month as P.J. Jacobs High School won the State WIAA basketball championship.
The Panthers of second-year Coach Bill Knapton cruised to three victories on the University of Wisconsin Field House floor on the way to the school's second title in the 39th renewal of the State Tournament.
Not since 1926 - 28 years earlier - had Stevens Point won the championship, although the Panthers of then-coach Johnny Erickson finished runner-up to South Milwaukee two years earlier in 1952. Point also reached the semi-finals in 1947 but had expected more because of its No. 1 State ranking at the end of the regular season.
Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s Stevens Point chalked up nothing but winning seasons except once (1947-48). And the P.J. Jacobs cagers also had Wisconsin Valley conference championships to show for their efforts in 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950 and 1952, besides 1954. But it usually was arch-rival Wisconsin Rapids which got the State Tournament trip - in 1945, 1946, 1948, 1949 and its State championship year of 1951.
That 1954 state title team also put the finishing touches on a gaudy five-year record (starting with 1949-50) of an even 100 wins and only 18 losses. It was 21-2 in '49-'50 followed by 17-4 in '50-'51, 22-4 in '51-'52, 16-6 in '52-'53 and 24-2 in '53-'54.
Bob Litzow, who also was a starter as a sophomore on the 1952 State runner-up, was the top player on the 1954 champions. The sharp-shooting senior, who could score from anywhere, tallied 547 points over the 26 games, an average of 21 per contest. Four times he scored 30 or more points, the last time in the State finals when his 32 tied the individual record at Madison.
But this was no one-man team 50 years ago. Eight other boys scored in double figures one or more times during the season. A clever guard, Jimmy Marko, only 5-foot-8, whose main job was bringing up the ball and making passes to Litzow, did the double 10 times, including all three State games as well as the pulsating Sectional final against Stratford.
Mel Schneeberg, who with Paul Schadewald gave Point two giants more than six feet tall, had 11 double digit games. Schadewald did it six times. The other starter, Ron "Babe" Sroda, only had two but, like Schadewald, did it at State both times. Besides, Sroda usually was the player appointed to defense the opponent's No. 1 threat.
Point didn't go to its double (Schneeberg-Schadewald) tall man lineup until the Regional finals with Rapids, the team which had thumped the Panthers, 61-50, in the regular-season finale a week earlier to force a Valley co-championship. The change came abruptly. One minute into the contest after Rapids opened with a 4-0 lead, Knapton made the surprise switch.
Litzow got 21 points that game and the Schneeberg (12)-Schadewald (10) duo added 22 as Point won the season rubber game, 57-49. Earlier Regional contests were much easier, Medford falling, 69-49, and Mosinee losing, 74-44. Litzow got 23 and 20, respectively, in those two games.
The Sectional opener against Manawa was also a one-sided win, 60-38. Then came the titanic struggle for the right to go to State against Stratford, the No. 1-ranked small school in Wisconsin that season.
Point, which had been ranked No. 2 among large schools late in the season before slipping to No. 5 after the Rapids setback, trailed the Marathon County school, 47-42, after three quarters. Litzow got 22 points that night to keep the Panthers in contention but Marko tallied seven of his 15 in the last quarter as Point pulled out a spectacular win in a game that was tied 17 times with 11 changes of the lead. Sroda's free throw gave Point a 61-59 lead in the final minute, and in the waning seconds Stratford missed a layup and two more shots before Marko hit a final free throw in the 62-59 battle.
By comparison, the State Tournament was easy. The Panthers used a 20-9 third-quarter advantage on the way to beating Beloit, 74?53, as Litzow scored 29 points. Marko added 10 to his great floor game while Sroda, Schneeberg and Schadewald all had eight apiece.
Oshkosh, which had upset No. 1 State-ranked Waukesha, 67-60, in the quarter-finals was next. Point won, 62-51, with Litzow getting 22, Schadewald 12, Marko 11, Sroda seven and Schneeberg five. The Panthers were never headed in this one after exploding to a 20-3 lead in the opening 5-1/2 minutes.
The championship game against Superior Central was really over halfway through the fourth quarter. Litzow, who scored a record-tying 32 points, had just tallied five of them within about a minute to give Point a 63-56 lead with 4:10 to play. The Panthers never took another shot. Knapton ordered a stall. Superior had to foul. Point rang up free throws for its final 70-65 margin. Marko had 15 points, Sroda 10, Schadewald seven and Schneeberg four. Sroda held Superior star Ron Schultz to one basket after he had a 20-plus game in the semifinals.
Litzow, who broke records with his 33 field goals and 83 points for three games as well as his 14 baskets in the finals, and Marko, who set an accuracy record of .647 (11 of 17) in field goal shooting, both were named all-State Tournament. Another significant feat was the 66,655 people - at least 2,000 each game from Stevens Point - who established a record for spectators at State.
Point's only regular-season loss, besides at Rapids, was at Antigo which won a December thriller, 68-66, on a disputed basket by Tom Olk at the end of the game. Litzow's other 30-plus games were 33 at Rhinelander and 30 points twice - at Wausau and in the return game with Antigo.
Litzow also scored the winning free throw on an excessive time out technical foul with 1 second left in a 59-58 game at Eau Claire. Point won its first game against Rapids, 51-49, using a 16-9 fourth period edge. Litzow had 24 in that game.
Other members of the tournament team were Fran Roman, Jimmy Turzinski, Al Bartkowiak, Greg Holthusen and Tony Kielpinski. Duane Donovan was the assistant coach. Knapton left his teaching duties in Stevens Point the following year and joined the staff at Marquette University before moving to Beloit College where he had a 30-plus year tenure as head coach. Litzow played three seasons at the University of Wisconsin in Madison following his illustrious P.J. Jacobs career. Twice (1955-56 and 1956-57) he led the Badgers in scoring. Marko was one of the standouts of Central State College's (now the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point) NAIA national tournament team (1956-57), which won its opening game in Kansas City.