1921

The Team

(Standing) - Guy Mabrey - Lonzo Clemons - Bill Clark - Delmer Ruff

(Seated) - Guy Cable - Glyn Hollabaugh

The Story

1921 Basketball Team

by Glyn Hollabaugh

I guess one reason our 1921 basketball team won state was because each player was in good shape physically. Five of the players lived one to two miles out of town and ran to and from school every day. I lived in town and had to jog one half block to school.

We had dreamed all year of going to Little Rock and winning the State Basketball Tournament but our dreams were nearly shattered because the M & NA railroad was having its first strike and no trains had run in months. I've often wondered if it was only luck or a miracle that the first train to come through about 4:00 p.m. was on our last day of grace to get to Little Rock, for Mrs. Irene Jones, head of our school, had said unless a train ran we would not go even though we had put out feelers for a car to take us. The first train through was manned by strike breakers carrying guns.

Mrs. Jones rode herd over us to Little Rock where she got us a couple of big rooms in a hotel and kept us locked in. I guess she knew what she was doing for there was a burlesque show just two blocks away. She showed us how to run the water for a bath, use the commode, etc., but she failed to show us how to use a telephone. So later when she called our room the boy who answered her question, "Who is this?" replied, "I don't know." Then she told him to turn around and ask someone in the room who he was and then tell her.

Oh, we learned a lot on that trip. I guess keeping us locked in helped but having some basketball ability and no coach helped also. Defeating the towns of Helena, Crossett, Texarkana and Little Rock was really a big upset then as the bigger towns had always won.

In our winning State Tournament so many small towns entered the next year that the state was forced to break up into athletic districts with playoffs. Little Rock could not handle the deluge of teams that came after our 1921 win. So many small towns said "If Leslie can do it, so can we."

Today, with so much basketball being played, our winning may not seem much. But to us country boys who had never seen a gym, had funny looking suits, and with no coach?it was a miracle. 

(Reprinted from Ozark Heritage Arts Center Museum)