Basketball boys – “On to Chicago”
Chastain is racing toward the
basket, takes the pass from Knips and scores!
Fans went into a frenzy. This was
the best game of the tournament and the Medford five had the Eugene boys back
on their heels and out of breath.
Up for grabs were the 1924 Oregon
high school state basketball championship and a chance to play for the national
championship in Chicago.
The Medford Tigers (they weren’t
the Black Tornado yet) could play a “phenomenally fast game,” but without a
shot clock to worry about, most of the contest was a cat and mouse game of
dribbling and passing, with an occasional burst of speed down court to the
basket.
Entering the fourth quarter,
trailing by seven, Eugene staged a desperate comeback try, but they had no
chance against “the fastest forwards in the tournament,” Mervin Chastain and
Gilbert Knips.
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| Medford, Oregon High School State Basketball Champions- 1924 |
In Medford’s 21-15 victory Chastain,
the ace, and Knips, the passer, had combined for 17 points and assured the team
of an invitation to the National Interscholastic High School Basketball
Tournament in Chicago.
Amos Alonzo Stagg, athletic
director and coach at the University of Chicago, organized the tournament in
1917, inviting state champions to participate if they could afford to make the
trip.
The “On to Chicago” fund organizers
in Medford had less than two weeks to raise $2500.
On the afternoon of March 25,
accompanied by the entire high school student body and music from the school
band, coach Prince “Prink” Callison and his eight-member team, marched down
Main St. to the Medford station and caught the 3:19 Southern Pacific train to Oakland,
Calif.
Of the 35 teams participating,
Medford had the dubious honor of traveling the farthest distance.
After a brief practice scrimmage at
the University of California in Berkeley, the boys boarded the train for their
3-day trip to the Windy City.
“We are having a good time on the
train,” said Albert Allen, the team’s captain, writing to the Mail Tribune, “playing
cards, looking at magazines and singing songs.”
Chastain was homesick, Fabrick’s
singing kept everyone awake, and “poor Demmer” had to sleep in the aisle. “The
berths were too short for him.”
The Mail Tribune would broadcast
results of the games over KFAY, the Valley’s first radio station.
Ironically, Medford’s first game in
the championship round was with Florence, Miss., the team that had traveled the
second longest distance to Chicago.
Trailing 18-10 at the half, Medford
opened the final period with a surge of “furious play,” and tied the score at
25. Then, with 25 seconds left in the game, Florence “wrinkled the net” with a
score and Medford’s hopes were dashed.
In the consolation round, the
Tigers first trounced Boise, 32-22, then, after leading with just three minutes
to go, lost to Birmingham, Ala. 27-21.
“We’re out of the running now,”
wrote Allen. “The fellows fought to the finish and gave all they had. Every one
of them had tears in their eyes when they left the floor.”
It would be a long train ride back,
but waiting to cheer their heroes home, was a “basketball crazy Medford.”
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| Medford, Oregon High School State Basketball Champions- 1924 |
THE MEDFORD CHAMPS ROAD TO CHICAGO
15 March 1924-Won State Championship - defeated Eugene High
School at Salem 21-15.
25 March 1924- Departed Medford for train trip to Chicago
via Oakland, Calif.
29 March 1924- Arrived in Chicago for the National
Interscholastic High School Basketball Tournament.
1 April 1924- Lost in
first round of Chicago Tournament to Florence, Miss. 27-25.
2 April 1924- Won 1st
consolation game defeating Boise, Idaho 32-22.
3 April 1924- Lost
and eliminated from tournament. Defeated by Birmingham, Ala. 27-21.
