by By Rich Winter
Well, it’s official, I’m getting fired up for high school basketball in South Dakota.
I was sitting around trying, without help from the internet, trying to figure out some of the top Native teams in South Dakota history. Where to start?
I know more about Todd County and St. Francis I suppose, because I lived in Mission for ten years. I know quite a bit about Red Cloud, Little Wound and Pine Ridge over the last ten years and in the mid to late 80’s but don’t know much from 1990-2004.
How to fill in the blanks?
So, with the help of the internet I ventured onto the 1959 CEB Braves team that won a state championship. I’m guessing this team would likely be in the top-10 of all-time Native basketball teams in South Dakota.
Dug up a little history on the CEB program this morning.
The 1940 Cheyenne team started the school’s boys’ basketball tradition, making it to the school’s first state tourney. Then came a 85-13 three-year run led by standout player Freddie Knife and coach Gus Kolb (a South Dakota State graduate from Leola). That run included a third-place State B finish in 1958 and a State B championship in 1959 — years when Cheyenne played its home games about 20 miles away in Gettysburg because of an inadequate gym that could not begin to hold its fan base, according to accounts in the American News archives.
At the end of the 1959 school year, the aging Cheyenne boarding school was moved into Eagle Butte due to flooding from the Oahe Reservoir, according to those newspaper accounts. One of the benefits was a spacious new gymnasium was being built in Eagle Butte. The American News reported that the Cheyenne and Eagle Butte schools would meld into Cheyenne-Eagle Butte.
Hmmmm, interesting!
Trying to find out some more information on great Native teams and players as we head into November and basketball season. Please feel free to contact me on twitter @panicgalore or via emial at richwinter85@gmail.com
Old photos would be killer.
Long-term goal, try to put together some kind of book or at least scribe some material on some of these great athletes and players.
the 1963 stephan chieftains/crow creek south dakota were champions also.
This team has always been an inspiration to me personally. My uncle Percy Phillips was a part of this team so it motivates me to want to coach a team to a state championship to say I won one just like my uncle & his teammates did. I never made it to a state tournament in high school so this also motivates me to coach. This whole entire group did something that hasn’t been matched at Cheyenne-Eagle Butte since and only came close once in 1986 making it to the semi-finals despite the unlimited amount of talent & potential that came and gone through the C-EB program. This team will always be looked at as one of the all-time greats at C-EB because they chose to play on a level of their own. My uncle Percy once told me, “All the teams that we faced that season, one or two of them may have had a college player or two on their team but we had a professional Freddie Knife”….
I am mentioning my father Melvin Bagola who was also one of the big factors on that 1959 state champ team and I’m very proud of him for all of his accomplishments and hard work love you dad.