Here 'tis for what it's worth. Maybe other '65ers will have memories, too...I'd love to hear them, especially from you, Rog, or Bob.

Hey Steve -

Thanks for the story on the '65 basketball team. It brought back a lot of memories of an amazing weekend so long ago, though it still seems like last week to me.

I did have a couple of observations. Walt said that the Westside game was "back and forth". Well, it sort of was, I guess. I'm doing this from memory, which you can take with as many grains of salt as you like, but I recall that the game was tied at the end of the first quarter, after which John Buller started scoring from everywhere and before you know it, we were down ten points at halftime, and a dozen just into the third quarter. I think Buller scored the last six points of the half, or something. I don't know what kind of adjustment coach Forch made, but whatever it was worked as we came all the way back and actually, as I recall, took a four-point lead late in the game, holding Westside to just 17 total points in the second half. As it turned out, 17 was almost enough. I remember somebody from Westside (Mark Jensen?) hit a free throw with about 10 seconds to go to give them a 50-49 lead. We were able to get the ball past midcourt but little more than that -- with about seven or eight seconds left, Bob or Ray or you (I can't recall who had the ball at that point) were trapped and the ball was about 35-40 feet from the basket.  I remember looking up at the big overhead scoreboard clock, showing us behind by a point and the last few seconds running out.

I know all of you on the team believed, the coaches believed, and all of us in school believed from the very start that this team was good enough to play for a state championship. And now it looked as if this great team, despite a classic comeback, wasn't going to get that chance, and I, for one, just couldn't bear to see it end that way. Westside had God knows how many thousand fans there (it seemed like it, anyway) and they were all putting up a tremendous roar as I watched the clock tick down..7-6-5-4-3-2....And then...the clock stopped at two seconds, the Westside crowd went dead silent, and everybody around me was screaming with joy and smashing me on the back. I looked back toward the floor just in time to see the official indicating a foul on Westside and Ray stepping up to the line. Damned if he didn't stand up there and drop both of them in. I remember Westside inbounding and throwing up about a 65-foot unanswered prayer at the buzzer, and McCook had won the most incredible game in its basketball history, before or since as far as I'm concerned.

And then, Boys Town the next night...so close, so, so close. So many images remain seared into my long-term memory. Roger hitting his first shot (his classic turnaround jumper that hit the left side of the rim, bounced high, and went in) to give us a 2-0 lead. We still led at the end of the quarter and it was tied at the half. As I recall, the game was still close near the end of the third quarter until Ron White started hitting form outside. Early in the fourth quarter, BT held a 41-33 lead but then we started yet another comeback. The score went to 41-35, then 41-37, then 41-39, then 43-39, then 43-41. Then came Rog's drive to the basket with just over a minute left that would've tied the game....but no. BT hit a couple of free throws with just a few seconds left and that was it.  We were so, so, so close, and we all were so proud of all of you guys, even though we lost. To me, it has never seemed like a loss...BT just scored a few more points is all.

Upon his retirement at East, I recall Coach Forch being quoted in the Lincoln newspaper as saying that the 1965 Boys Town team was the greatest collection of athletes on one team that he'd ever coached against in over 30 years as a head coach.  You know, I thought Westside was pretty salty, too. And McCook was right there with both of those great teams. I mean, I'll take 1-1 against Westside and Boys Town, on successive nights, in Omaha, any time.

I think it's worth mentioning, and Walt sort of alludes to this, that as best as I can remember, no team west of Hastings has played for the Class A state boys basketball championship since 1965. Granted there are only two Class A teams west of Hastings now, but Kearney, North Platte, Scottsbluff and even Alliance all had their chances in subsequent years and none ever made it past the Class A semis. Scottsbluff lost by margins in excess of 20 points in the semis against Creighton Prep (1969) and (1970), Kearney couldn't get past Northeast in either '67 or '73, North Platte fell short against Columbus (72) and at least one other time in the late '70's, and Alliance lost to, of all people, Paul Forch and his Lincoln East team in the opening round in '71. This just underscores, if it even needs to be undersocred, just how great that '65 team was. McCook will never see another like it, in any sport.

You know, whenever I play powerball, my numbers are always the home uniform numbers of the '64-5 starters..12-22-32-34-42 and the powerball number is 19, for 19 wins. Haven't won yet, but I'll stick with those numbers.

 Thanks again,

Larry Cain