A Bunch of White Boys from the Sticks

By Galen B. Conrardy

At the end of two weeks of strenuous practices, the coach convened a meeting with the senior players to discuss goals for the upcoming season. When asked, they unanimously answered: Win League and make it to State!

It wouldn't be easy. Leadership from the seniors and teamwork would be essential. And practice; lot

• Language: English
• Publisher: Conrardy-story Books
• Release date: Oct 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781087908496

Galen B. Conrardy

At the end of two weeks of strenuous practices, the coach convened a meeting with the senior players to discuss goals for the upcoming season. When asked, they unanimously answered: Win League and make it to State! It wouldn't be easy. Leadership from the seniors and teamwork would be essential. And practice; lots of dedicated practice. And above all, "We play one game at a time." ---===--- In 1976, a small high school in a rural Kansas town finally made it to the state basketball championships. And won.

Book preview

1

Oakley, Kansas, is the setting for the only Boys’ State Basketball Championship in the school’s history.  It's a farming and ranching community located in the northeast corner of Logan County in the northwestern part of the State.  Gove County is adjacent next door to the east and Thomas County sets on top to the north.  The State of Colorado is seventy miles to the west and Nebraska lies forty-five miles to the north.

Oakley is situated at the crossroads of the east/west US Highway 40 and the north/south US Highway 83.  Interstate 70 angles from one mile east of town to three miles north of the city and then heads west to Colorado.  The town lies roughly one mile south of the South Fork of the Saline River, and it rises 3,064 feet above sea level on the High Plains Region of the Great Plains in the middle of the country.

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The majority of the early homesteaders arrived in the area by taking a trip along the Smokey Hill Trail in the 1870’s.  The Smokey Hill Trail ran from Atchison, Kansas, located near the Missouri River west to Denver, Colorado.  It was primarily used as a commercial route and by gold seekers from 1855 to 1870.  Its name derived from the fact that it followed the Smokey Hill River much of the way.  The advent of the railroad soon ended the necessity of the Trail as a commercial route.

In 1884, two gentlemen, Judge Fredman and David D. Hoag, founded the community of Carlyle.  Within a year the name was changed to Cleveland.  However, in 1885 the name was changed permanently to Oakley in honor of David D. Hoag’s mother, Elizabeth Oakley Gardner Hoag.  Many visitors to Oakley, as well as some of its residents, believe that the town was named for the lady sharpshooter, Annie Oakley. 

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Annie was born with the name Phoebe Ann Moses in 1860 in rural Darke County, Ohio.  She was the fifth of seven children.  After her father died, she helped support the family by hunting the plentiful wild game in the area.  At the age of fifteen she entered a shooting contest to win some money to help with the family’s needs.  She defeated sharpshooter Frank E. Butler by not missing a single target.  They would later marry and tour with the Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show in this country and in England and Europe.  They were featured in the Show as the premiere sharpshooters of the day.  They dazzled the crowds by demonstrating their shooting skills.  Shortly after her marriage to Frank she changed her given name to her professional name of Annie Oakley in honor of a small town where she grew up in Ohio.  It is highly doubtful that she was ever in or near Oakley, Kansas.

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The Union Pacific Railroad was authorized by President Abraham Lincoln and was incorporated on July1, 1862.  A branch of the Union Pacific Railroad would later lay tracks through the area known as Carlyle (Oakley) in 1869.  In 1867 Buffalo Bill Cody was hired by the Kansas (Union) Pacific Railroad to hunt buffalo on the western plains of Kansas to help feed their work crews who were laying down the tracks.  Buffalo Bill claimed to have killed 4,280 buffalo in a stretch of seventeen months.  During this time, he had a shooting contest with William Comstock some ten miles west of Oakley.  Buffalo Bill won the eight-hour contest by killing sixty-nine buffalos.  Of course, the community does claim kinship to him.  A railroad depot was later built in Oakley in 1941 and is still in use today.

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Other areas of interest are the Chalk Pyramids and the Monument Rocks located some 25 - 30 miles south of town.  These structures were believed to have been formed some eighty million years ago.  The Fick Fossil and History Museum located in west Oakley proudly display a large dinosaur fossil fish, a dinosaur marine reptile, and several shark teeth.  Kansas was once covered by a shallow sea during the Cretaceous Period.  These marine fossils were uncovered in the Smokey Hill River basin.

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One of the first businesses established in Oakley was The State Bank of Oakley in 1889.  The first school district was organized in 1890.  A devastating fire in 1904 destroyed all of the businesses that were built of wood.  New brick and concrete buildings were soon established, and many of them are still standing and used today.

In 1974 there were more than eighty businesses in Oakley.  These businesses served and profited from the area farmers and ranchers.  There were farm implement dealers, banks, car dealerships, motels, repair shops, grocery stores, elevators, livestock auction companies, restaurants, department stores, gas stations, and several churches, to name a few.  The city was also home to a hospital, a library, a movie theater, a museum, and even a saddle shop.

The population of Oakley was approximately 1,850 residents.

The public schools were located in the very northern part of town:  elementary, middle school, and high school.  The Catholic Elementary School was situated in the northeast part of town.  There were 270 students enrolled in the high school.

2

The achievements by the Oakley Plainsmen athletes in the ’74 – ’75 school year set the tone and the anticipation for the upcoming ’75 –’76 school year.  

In the Fall of ’74 the football team finished second in the league with a 6 – 3 record.  Their two league losses were to Class 3A powerhouses Goodland (12 – 14) and Colby (0 – 7) in their stadiums.

The cross-country team also had a successful Fall campaign.   They placed first in Invitational Meets held at Goodland and at their home site, Oakley.  Their crowning achievement was winning first place in the League Meet at Goodland.  They finished the season with a third-place finish at Regional and a fourth-place finish at State.

The Plainsmen continued their winning ways in the winter of ’75.  The wrestling team boasted a 6 – 1 record in League dual meets.  They finished in second place at a strong Regional Tournament and garnered a third-place finish at State.  And their outstanding achievement was a third-place finish at Grand State which was held in Hays.  At the Grand State Meet the top three finishers in their weight classes from each State classification (5A - 1A) competed – Oakley was 2A.

A successful basketball season with a record of 16 – 7 was enjoyed by the Plainsmen team.  The season began in December ’74 and concluded in March ’75.  A strong third place finish in league play earned the Plainsmen a second seed at the qualifying tournament at Leoti.  Winning second place in a close contest there earned them a fourth seed at the Regional Tournament at Garden City.  Unfortunately, their season ended with a first-round loss to Hill City.

For the first time ever, the Oakley golf team took first place at the League Meet.  The two-man team finished third and the four-man team finished first.  At the Regional Meet the two-man team finished in second place.  And at the State Meet this two-man team finished a respectful third.

Finishing out the ’74 – ’75 athletic school year the track team finished first in the NWKL Meet.  And they finished with an eight-place finish at State in Wichita.

3

You could hear a pin drop in the somber locker room at Leoti High School in Leoti, Kansas.  The Oakley Plainsmen boys’ basketball team had just experienced a heart-breaking loss to Lakin at the buzzer, 54 – 56, in the 1975 Class 2A Western Regional Tournament. 

Head Coach Fred Teeter summoned the distraught team to set on facing locker room benches.  I want to thank you men for your hard work and dedication in making this a successful season.  Keep your heads up, after all, the second-place team in this tournament – which is us – will go to the Sub State tournament next week in Garden City as the fourth seed.

In their first Sub State appearance in years, the Oakley Plainsmen boys lost to the number one seeded team in the tournament, Hill City, by a score of 63 – 47 in Garden City.

After the game, Coach Teeter thanked the senior players for their leadership and accomplishments.  He then laid down the groundwork for the returning players:

Hone your skills by working on your shooting, dribbling, and passing.

Play competitively with each other as a team during the summer months as often as you can.

If some of you have the opportunity, try and attend a basketball camp.  There is a good one at Fort Hays State.

If at all possible, this Fall, participate in football or go out for Cross Country.

When we start basketball practice, I want you men to be in decent physical shape, and participation in one of the Fall sports will help you attain it.

And finally, avoid going to questionable parties and getting into trouble.  I really don’t want to be checking up on you.

Coach Teeter and his assistant coach, Galen Conrardy, then went around and talked to each player individually offering them encouragement and advice.

Junior John Dreiling, the tallest player on the team at 6’3 felt like he was hit by a double whammy.  Both coaches had the same message for him, Improve your shooting ability if you want to be an integral part of our team next season."

What do I need to work on?  he asked.

Get your shot off from above your head, and not from your waist area, they replied.

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The 74 – 75 team finished the year with a respectable 16 – 7 record.  In league play they finished in third place behind the perennial 3A teams, Goodland and Colby.  The highlight of the season was a stunning upset of the powerhouse Goodland Cowboy team at Oakley by a score