By MATT OTTE
Special to The Gazette
Which was the best Stevens Point high school basketball team ever? You could give your opinion but that's all it would be. How can you possibly compare players who have performed over a 100-year period? Five times Point prep teams have reached the state finals - a good indicator of "best team ever." Three of them - 1925-26, 1953-54 and 1993-94 - won championships. The 1994 titlists didn't lose once in 26 games. No other Point team can claim that distinction. In fact, only 31 other teams at 26 other Wisconsin public high schools share that accomplishment since 1916. The 1954 Panthers were 24-2, and Stevens Point in 1926 had 14-2 mark.
The two state runners-up's records were great, too. It was 24-1 in 1981-82, meaning that team didn't lose until the championship game at Madison. Point's No. 2 finalist in 1951-52 compiled 22 wins in 26 games.
Ten other times in the 84-year history of Wisconsin tournament competition (not counting the Lawrence College Invitational meet begun in 1905) Stevens Point has sent its representatives to the "big show." Many of them, obviously, were outstanding, too.
To pick the best of all these teams simply can't be done. There's no way to measure talents of a 1994 player against one from 1926 or, for that matter, either of them against one from 1954. Besides that, rules have changed and so have coaching styles not to mention floors, balls and backboards.
It might be a little easier - although again not foolproof - to pick the best Stevens Point high school basketball team ever NOT to get to the State Tournament. Sports fans who remember 50 years ago this winter likely would nominate that 1949-50 edition of P.J. Jacobs High School. And many of them might tell you that team - as well as the following year's 1950-51 Panthers who also didn't get to state - was as good as any in the school's history, including any which got all the way to the state finals.
That 49-50 team coached by Nolan Gregory finished the regular season ranked No. 1 among Wisconsin high schools, something no other Panther team ever has done. It won the Wisconsin Valley conference with a 12-0 mark. Two of the wins came over longtime (even then) rival Wisconsin Rapids. The game at Rapids in front of 4,800 fans was won by 55-37, and it broke the Red Raiders' string of 26 Valley victories in a row.
The only loss in the 18-game regular season came at Waukesha in a 38-36 battle. Fifteen of the 17 wins came by double-digit margins. Two were by 54 and 47 points, two others in the 30s. Rapids, which not only was runner-up in the Valley but also rated No. 3 in the state, was beaten first by 18, then by 15 points.
The incomparable and complete player, Dick Cable, and the fast-breaking shooting sensation, Johnny Kardach, were the brightest stars on that 1949-50 team. Kardach scored 78 points in the last three games to finish with 215 and Valley scoring honors. Cable missed much of the last two games with an injury and because of fouls but still was second in conference points with 178.
Cable and Kardach, who had been regulars as sophomores in 1948-49, got lots of support from other veterans Carl Wiemann, Nubbs Miller, Bill Speerstra and Fred Schadewald in 1949-50. The rest of the team during the second half of the season consisted of Jack Meleski, Willis Zick, Jerry
Miller and Neil McCarthy who had replaced the injured Bob Bostad shortly before the 10-man tournament team was picked.
So, what happened to this great Panther team good enough to be No. 1 in the state's "Big 16" ranking?
The tournament schedule started without incident. Nekoosa - twice beaten in the Valley campaign - fell by 67-31 in the regional opener in the P.J. Jacobs gym. Cable didn't play because of illness but Speerstra had his only really big night of the season with 27 points. Victim in the semifinals was Waupaca, 71-55. Kardach's 29 and Cable's 13 led the way. And Rapids lost to the Panthers for the third time time, 53-38, in the championship contest as Cable and Kardach got 17 each.
It was on to the sectional at giant Lincoln Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Rapids. Once again 4,800 spectators were on hand. The opponent in the opener was a strange one, Eau Claire, which throughout the 30-plus year history of the tournament program had been channeled by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association through the west-central, not the central, part of the state. The WIAA in 1950 juggled geography a little bit because it did not want any school to play on its own floor at the sectional level.
In 1949, for example, Eau Claire was in a sectional with the likes of Menomonie, Osseo and Glenwood City while Rhinelander came this way with Wisconsin Rapids, Shawano and Port Edwards. But the 1950 assignments sent Rhinelander to the far northwest with Superior Central among others while Eau Claire came this way. Incidentally, the 1951 program reverted to 1949, Rhinelander coming this way again and Eau Claire back in the west-central area - with no concern about a team playing on its home floor.
Eau Claire with its 15-3 record was rated sixth in the "Big 16" that year. The Old Abes had a lot of height and some good shooters. One of them was Chuck Mencel who in the years to come would be a standout with the University of Minnesota. The Abes were a deserving team, and an opponent to be feared. Yet, Stevens Point was clearly the favorite with its better record and No. 1 ranking.
The rank and the record, however, were not enough on this particular night even though for most of the game it looked sufficient. "Kardach could hardly miss in the first half," said the Stevens Point Daily Journal the next day. Point built a 33-26 intermission edge. Early in the second half the difference had expanded to 39-28.
Eau Claire fought back and five-and-a half minutes into the third quarter had whittled the difference to 40-35. Adding to the Panther woes were the four fouls on Cable who, according to the Journal, was turning in a "terrific defensive job." With Cable sidelined much of the rest of the way, the Panther fast break couldn't get ignited. Point fell behind early in the fourth period, got back to a 50-50 tie, then faded in the final two minutes as not only Cable but also Speerstra and Schadewald left on fouls.
Kardach finished with 23 points, Cable with 16. But the quest for a trip to Madison also was finished. The season officially ended the next night with an 86-52 consolation victory over Tigerton as Kardach and Cable connected for 28 and 27 points.
And what about Eau Claire? The Old Abes beat Westfield in the sectional finals and went to state. There they nudged Rhinelander in the quarterfinals by three points and Beloit in the semifinals by one. Then they lost to Paul Morrow and his little St. Croix Falls teammates in the championship. It didn't seem right that Rhinelander got to state and Point didn't. The Hodags were 6-6 in the Valley that year and lost by 21 to the Panthers in their only meeting. But, as they say, that's the luck of the draw.
Cable and Morrow a couple years later would become teammates at the University of Wisconsin. Cable would finish a four-year career in 1955 as the all-time leading Badger scorer. Before that, though, he and Kardach and a different bunch of Panthers would have to endure yet another heart-breaking end to the 1950-51 season.
But that's a story about 50 years ago for next year!
(Matt Otte, who retired from the WIAA staff in 1992, was sports editor of the Stevens Point Journal from late 1951 to mid-1957. He authored the book "More Than A Game," a history of the WIAA from 1896 to 1996.)