exquisite training for life
In the still of the locker room before the championship game of the 1952 Indiana high school basketball tournament, Preacher Purl inspired the underdog Hickory Huskers with a straight-to-the-point story of the greatest upset of them all.
“And David put his hand into the bag and took out a stone and slung it,” he told Coach Norman Dale and his team.
“And it struck the Philistine on the head, and he fell to the ground. Amen.
As everyone even vaguely familiar with the movie Hoosiers knows, the Huskers, who represented a country school with just 64 boys, went out before a packed house at the cavernous Butler University fieldhouse and dispatched South Bend Central, enrollment 2,800, when Jimmy Chitwood buried a jumper from the top of the key at the buzzer.
As many times as I’ve seen the film, I’ve never grown tired of that final sequence.
Maybe I have a thing for underdogs and overachievers.
Maybe I just like a good story where athletes create memories that will last a lifetime.
Whatever the case, it’s why I enjoyed seeing Cornell bury Wisconsin, St. Mary’s overpower Villanova, and Northern Iowa take down top-seed Kansas this past weekend and Butler whip Syracuse last night in the NCAA men’s hoops tournament.
As I watched those bracket busters from the comfort of my La-Z-Boy, I got to thinking about against-all-odds upsets in the long history of Collegiate athletics.
Three came immediately to mind.
There was the 1997 League of Independent Schools lacrosse championship when the Cougars defeated the heavy favorite, previously-unbeaten St. Anne’s-Belfield, in a 15-14 barnburner in Charlottesville.
Twice during the regular season, the Saints had reigned supreme.
On this late fall afternoon, however, Collegiate played an incredibly inspired game, and Virginia Lawson’s goal 22 seconds from the end provided the margin of victory.
“It was one of the most exciting championships I’ve ever been part of,” said coach Karen Doxey. “It was a total team effort, a case of ‘we’re stronger as a group than we are as individuals.’”
* * * * * *
With no starter taller than 6-3, Collegiate’s boys’ basketball team entered the 1985 Prep League tournament semifinal against Norfolk Academy at a decided disadvantage.
The Bulldogs, 28-2 at the time and dubbed the “Dream Team” in NA lore, went 6-5, 6-6, and 6-7 across the front line, and the 6-7 guy, Rice University-bound Glenn Youngkin, averaged 27.9 points and 15 rebounds per game.
The Cougars (11-10) were up to the challenge
Controlling the action throughout, they defeated Norfolk Academy 70-62 in as exciting a game as has ever been contested in the Jacobs Gym.
Three Collegiate players who would later join their alma mater’s faculty and coaching staff made huge contributions.
Senior guards Brian Justice (28 points) and Michael Brost adroitly handled the Bulldogs’ relentless pressure.
Trip Featherston, a sophomore averaging just 3 points a game, scored 15, many on assists from Justice and Brost.
And Featherston’s classmate Craig Scott, the tallest Cougar starter, held Youngkin to 12 points.
“Collegiate just played super,” said NA coach Dave Trickler in a Richmond News Leader interview.
“We made them play a great game, and they did.”
* * * * * *
Graduation took a heavy toll on the boys’ spring track team that won the 1982 state title.
As the 1983 Prep League meet approached, the Cougars, on paper anyway, projected no higher than third after dual-meet losses to St. Christopher’s (10 points) and Woodberry Forest (32).
On that beautiful May afternoon, though, Coach Jim Hickey’s crew brought its absolute best.
Athletes in each event group surpassed previous accomplishments, and with one race to go, the Cougars held a razor-thin half-point lead over host Woodberry.
Simply put, whichever of those teams finished ahead of the other in the 4x400 relay would claim the trophy.
Almost as the gun sounded, it became a two-team race.
Larry Smith led off for the Cougars and passed to David Muddiman who passed to Eric Towell, who, with a two-step lead, dealt the baton to Mason Chapman for that fateful last lap.
Earlier, Chapman placed third in the open 400 (52.4). John Cooper, Woodberry’s anchor, won in 50.4.
Chapman hit the first turn quickly and sprinted down the backstretch with his rival so close in pursuit that he could hear his footsteps and breathing.
“It was eerily quiet,” Chapman recalled. “I was too scared to let him pass me.
“After 200 meters or so, there were tons of Woodberry people yelling, ‘Go, John, go!’”
Chapman held off his rival as they rounded the turn for home, then blazed down the final 100 and blew through the finish a fraction of a second ahead.
The Cougars’ time was 3:31.0. The Tigers’ 3:31.9
“Still, to this day, what made the experience so special was that everyone performed his best; everyone made a contribution,” said Chapman.
“It’s a great memory. Absolutely.”
