It wasn’t just the teams and games, of course, that were so captivating, it was the players, too. How cool it was to watch 6-7 New Prague center Ron Johnson set the tournament scoring record and then go on to become a Big Ten hero for the Gophers. There was Duluth Central’s 6-3 guard Terry Kunze who dazzled tourney crowds with his behind the back dribbling and long distance shooting, then did the same playing for the Gophers. Edina center Bob Zender was the man for the great Hornets title teams, scoring inside and blocking shots. He later shocked this town with his college choice, Kansas State.
There may never have been a better player in the tournament than man-child Mark Olberding who even before high school graduation was a physical load at about 6-8 with imposing muscles. He helped Melrose to the 1974 Class A title and overall tournament championship by defeating Class AA Bemidji in a playoff game.
It was in 1971 that the tournament first had two classes and Class AA Duluth Central defeated Class A Melrose. There would be four more such big school versus small playoffs after that.
The 1970s began a period of declining interest by the general public and media, developing toward the apathy of today. Participation made possible by four classes is a nice educational experience but no one should believe it’s not possible for small schools to offer feisty competition against the big boys.
Minnesota Transitions is this year’s Class 1A No. 1 seed, and prep basketball authority Ken Lien watched coach John Sherman’s team almost beat 4A Minnetonka earlier this season. “Minnesota Transitions could win an overall state tournament,” said Lien who chairs the Mr. Basketball program.
Lien looks favorably on the idea of combining 4A and 3A into one tournament, and 2A and 1A into another, then have the winners meet for an overall state championship. Neither of us believes that will happen, but boy would that put some juice back into the state tournament.
At least we have our memories.