For you History buffs. Back when they played pure Basketball

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50 Years ago in West Sabine Basketball



http://toledochronicle.com/year-anniversary-of-west-sabine-basketball-championship-p8556-1.htm

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nothing there

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Works for me, but i have a subscription.  This will be long.
50 year anniversary of 1963 West Sabine Basketball Championship

by Ronald Barlow
Published• Thursday, March 07, 2013


Fifty years ago, on March 9, 1963, West Sabine defeated the Woodsboro Eagles in the UIL Class A State Basketball Championship game, by a score of 66-51, to win West Sabine High School’s first state championship in any team or individual event.

The Tiger team was coached by Coach Jack Whitton and consisted of Wayne Fults (6’4” Junior), Joe Pat Rhodes (5’10” Junior), Jack Sweeny (6’1” Sophomore), G.W. King (6’3” Senior), Kenneth Jones (5’10” Senior), Lloyd Landrum (6’3” Junior), Robert “PeeWee” Smith (5’10” Junior), Floyd Wright (6’0” Senior), Albert Welch (5’10” Senior) and Nelford Harvey (5’6” Senior).  Wes Warnock (5’8” Sophomore) was added to the roster during the playoffs, but never entered a varsity game.  Managers were Dick Sheridan and Weldon Bobbitt.

With a season record of 34 wins and 3 losses, the Tigers had outscored opponents 2320-1465 over the season for an average of 63-39 per game. 

The state title came in West Sabine ISD’s second year of existence, the district having been formed on April 1, 1961, when voters approved the consolidation of Bronson and Pineland schools.  On April 8, 1961, K.T. Franks, who had previously coached all sports at Pineland High School from 1946-1955, while serving as high school principal, was hired as West Sabine ISD’s first Superintendent.  One of his first official actions was recommending the hiring of James Harlon “Jack” Whitton as the boys coach for the new school district.

Jack Whitton, a graduate of Massey School in San Augustine County and a U.S. Army veteran (1945-1946), who had begun his coaching career at Brookeland (1951-1952) and Bronson (1952-1956), had won two state basketball titles at Huntington High School in 1959 and 1960.  After coaching at Seminole High School in far west Texas, for one year, Whitton was ready to come home to Deep East Texas.  Whitton’s Seminole Indians had advanced to the 1961 Class AAA Regional Tournament Finals before being eliminated by Dumas, coached by the legendary hall of famer Don Haskins.

When Whitton took over the Tiger basketball reins in the summer of 1961, he was told by Ney Sheridan, West Sabine’s high school principal, who had been Superintendent of Bronson ISD, that “when you put nothing and nothing together, you still have nothing,” in reference to the prospects for a successful basketball team, prior to the 1961-62 season.  After a 14-9 start before New Years Day, it appeared Mr. Sheridan might be right.  The 1961-1962 Tigers would lose only one more game that season, and it would be a one-point loss (48-49) to White Deer in the semi-final round of the State UIL Tournament in Austin.  The Tigers would come back the following day to defeat James Bowie 72-58 to claim the Third Place trophy in Texas Class A.

The 1962-63 team began the season with high expectations.  Returning with most of their key players, Whitton stepped up the competitive level, entering them in larger tournaments and scheduling games with some of the best teams in Texas.  The Tigers defeated teams from Houston and Dallas and played much larger schools in the East Texas area.  They got off to a 12-0 start by defeating Central, Houston Springbranch, Hudson, Mauriceville, Big Sandy, Woodville, Warren, Livingston, Center (twice), Joaquin and Dallas South Oak Cliff.  Their first loss was to Houston Springbranch, whom they had beaten earlier, in a tournament in Nacogdoches.
They then proceeded to beat Houston Milby, Lufkin, Jasper, Taylor, Carthage, and Kilgore before starting district play.  They went 12-0 in district, beating Hemphill, Joaquin, Timpson, Shelbyville, Garrison, and San Augustine twice each.  The closest district game score was a 57-45 win over Hemphill in the first round.  They defeated Hemphill 62-25 in their second district matchup, which was similar to the average margin of victory in their district games (71-32).

Their only other losses of the season were to Texarkana’s Texas High (49-53) and Beaumont French High (27-40) in “warm-up” games prior to the start of the playoffs. 

West Sabine defeated Hawkins 67-42 in the Bi-District playoff game in Nacogdoches to advance to the Regional Tournament at Texas A&M University.  In this tournament, held in G.Rollie White Coliseum at A&M, they beat Quitman, 62-46, and then Hudson, 46-38, to advance to the state tournament in Austin.

The UIL State Basketball Tournament brings the winners of the four regional tournaments to the campus of the University of Texas to settle the matter of annual bragging rights of who is the best team in the state.  In the semi-final game, the Tigers outscored Millsap, 64-48.  The Tigers led 20-4 after the 1st quarter of the semi-final and cruised to victory with better shooting (48% to 43%) and rebounding (42-25). 

In the final game, they defeated Woodsboro, 66-51.  West Sabine and Woodsboro both shot 44% but the Tigers outscored the Eagles in the 4th quarter, 20-13.  The Tigers were led in the final by Fults with 17 points and 12 rebounds; Rhodes with 17 points; Sweeny with 16 points and 6 rebounds; King with 13 points and 9 rebounds and Jones with 3 points.  Gerald Steindorf led Woodsboro with 19 points and 7 rebounds.

The 1963 All State Tournament Team included Wayne Fults and Joe Pat Rhodes of West Sabine; Gerald Steindorf and Charles Longmire of Woodsboro; and Leo Ames of Millsap. Fults was named 1st team all-state in 1963 & 1964 (at 22.1 ppg).  Jack Sweeny and Joe Pat Rhodes were all-state in 1964.

The point spreads left no argument for poor officiating, luck, or any other likely excuse.  West Sabine was the state champion, the best basketball team in Texas of similar sized schools, and better than most of the larger schools.

Wayne Fults, a junior, had led in scoring (433 points), rebounds (277), and scoring average (11.8 points per game).  He was followed closely by another junior, Joe Pat Rhodes (427 points) and sophomore Jack Cook Sweeny (421 points).  G.W. King scored 323 points and Kenneth Jones scored 261 points.  Other scoring contributors were Lloyd Landrum (122), PeeWee Smith (82), Floyd Wright (43), Albert Welch (39) and Nelford Harvey (39). 

G.W. King was the most accurate shooter, with a field goal percentage of 56.6%, making 127 shots of 224 attempts.  Kenneth Jones also made over half of his shots, making 123 of 224 shots for 54.9% accuracy.

Jack Sweeny led free-throw shooters, making 71 of 90 free throws, for 78.8% from the line.  G.W. King made 69 of 105 free shots for 65.7% accuracy.

G.W. King was named to the Texas High School Coaches Association All Star Team in 1963.  Wayne Fults (1964) and Jack Sweeny (1965) earned spots on the All Star Team following their respective senior seasons.

West Sabine conducted practices and played their home games in the old Pineland High School gymnasium built in 1939 and demolished in 1991, which was located at the north end of the old school on FM 1, north of Pineland.  The “new” gym on FM 83 would not be built until after the 1965 basketball season, by which time West Sabine already had a second state championship trophy, earned in 1965, to display. 

Tiger fans packed the gym for home games and followed the team in caravans to “away” games. 
From 1961 to 1971, Coach Whitton’s West Sabine Tiger basketball teams achieved goals almost beyond imagination for a small sawmill town school, full of awestruck young country and farm boys, who lived the dream and played on the biggest stages available beyond “The Pine Curtain”…and beyond.

Many of these boys would go on to equally unimaginable successes after high school, and most, if not all, will agree that Jack Whitton played a big part in making those dreams seem possible.

The Pineland Service Club will be recognizing the team at their monthly meeting to be held on Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 7:00 pm in the West Sabine High School Cafeteria.  Fans, friends and family are invited to attend.

[deep east texas]

Great story....what were the mascots and colors for pineland and bronson?

[j_dog]

I had the privilege to watch them one game in the Jasper tournament.  Awesome is all I can say.  They demolished that team.

Can someone remember this; although I did not see it in the article.  After one of the seasons, I think in 63-64 for their warm up game after district they played Panola Junior College; AND BEAT THEM!

Thank you for the article.  Brought back some good memories.