guys wearing the black and white referee shirts. We had an energy that only angry teenage lads who are in good condition can muster and sustain.
Coach Cochrane just basically sat there and watched and didn’t say a word. I don’t recall the refereeing being lopsided either way. Finally with about 2 1/2 minutes left, he pulled us starting five out and let the others play. The score at this point was 79-12, and at the close of the game it was 82-19.
Even though we felt very justified in doing what we had done while we were doing it, there was no great feeling of having revenged the injustice, no feeling of happiness, because it didn’t change what had happened. It didn’t affect the referees one way or the other, they couldn’t have cared less. It almost “rang” as a hollow victory. On the bus ride back to Milford, I know I, and I suspect the other Milford players, did some reflecting and soul searching as to exactly what other reactions we could have shown to those two referees, the Shipley players and parents and as far as that goes, to our own parents and fans concerning the bad deal out girls had received. And now, as then, I’m not sure there could have been another. Before the evening activities had taken place, I was confident we’d win by a score of 75-50 or something like that.
But, at least, there was a lesson to be learned in dealing with displaced anger. The Shipley boys’ basketball team had nothing to do with the bad refereeing and didn’t deserve to be the objects of our wrath. But such is the way of life and the human mind, and high school basketball.
During the two years I played sports for Coach Cochrane, this was once of only twice that I ever saw Coach Cochrane get angry and I thought he was very justified on both occasions. The other was playing against Roland in the sectional tournament at McCallsburg(?), a neutral floor. We were ahead of Roland by 6 points with only 3 minutes left and they put a serious full-court press on us and we collapsed; and they beat us by 4 or 6 points. Roland went on to the state tournament that year and the Roland coach was quoted in the Des Moines paper sports section when he referred to this game as a strong example of the fighting spirit of his Roland squad, and how they had a strong “not-give-up” team.
Playing basketball for Milford Township was a status that was almost taken for granted. When I was a freshman (1951-’52) there were only 13 fellows in grades 9-12. At the County tournament in Nevada, they permitted only 12 boys to “suit up” and so we three freshman boys (Dave Allen, Dale Carsrud, Dale Hughes) had to “draw straws” to see who wouldn’t suit up. I was lucky-I got to suit up. The coach appealed to the tournament directors to get a waiver for our thirteenth man, but no luck. That response annoyed everyone, but nothing could be done.
One of the most memorable games for me was the year I was a senior (1954-’55) and Coach Cochrane arranged a pick-up game against one of the biggest schools in Des Moines. When this event was first announced, it was to be almost like a regularly scheduled game with press, fans, parents, etc. It seems to me the game was on a Saturday morning. Over a period of a few days before the event, our opponent (I don’t recall which school it was.) gradually proclaimed there would be no press, then no fans, then no parents, no cheer leaders, and finally, no girls. I assume Coach Cochrane objected to each new exception because he en