One of the most enjoyable aspects of writing my Laurel basketball book has been the research. Specifically, doors have opened to meeting people willing to share quite interesting life stories . That experience occurred again about two weeks ago. I placed a call early one morning to Las Vegas for an interview with one of the Laurel cheerleaders from the…
Category: Prep basketball
Dream Season at a glance
Countdown to 26-0 Regular season play December 1968 No. 1 – Laurel 76, Lovell, Wyoming 57 Date – December 6, 1968; Location – Lovell, Wyoming. Guard Alan Campbell and forward Lee Perrigo combined for 44 points, powering the Locomotives to an easy season-opening win over Lovell. The non-conference game saw Laurel race to a 25-8 first-quarter lead and pad the…
Win ’em all – setting the stage
March 15, 1969. 8:30 p.m. The Barn, as many called the Montana State University Fieldhouse, dominated the south end of the Bozeman college’s campus. It had opened 11 years earlier with the distinction of being the largest clear span wooden structure in the world. Constructed as much to host college rodeos as basketball, the fieldhouse sported a dirt floor over…
Ink for Laurel “Dream Season” book in the Kalispell Daily Interlake
Just learned today that the Kalispell Daily Interlake picked up the article I wrote and that the Billings Gazette published on March 15, 2014, the 45th anniversary of Laurel’s Big 32 basketball championship. An Interlake sportswriter, Joe Terry, wrote a nice sidebar to go with my piece. Here are the links: My piece Joe’s piece
Laurel Big 32 championship-45th anniversary ink
Got some great ink in the Billings Gazette last Saturday. Stories by Ed West (the human encyclopedia of Montana prep sports) and myself. They’ve prompted a lot of wonderful feedback. I grabbed the only 10 or so print copies of the Gazette to be found in Belgrade Saturday morning and will be sending most of them to members of Don…
Blast from the past
Sitting here at MSU’s Brick Breeden Arena waiting for the State Class B boys championship to begin. Next to me is Jerry Bygren, a starter on Laurel’s 1969 Big 32 title team, the 26-0 squad that outlasted Kalispell in overtime. It’s a reunion of sorts although I didn’t know Jerry at the time. I was here on March15, 1969. as…