1922 First Story Co HS Basketball Tournament
In the Nevada paper in Dec of 1924 the schedule for the Colo Basketball team was given and their first game that year was against Milford on the Colo court. No mention is made if it were a single varsity contest or if the JV played or perhaps there was a girl’s game. No Colo-Milford game is listed on the Milford Court and no results of the game(s) were found.
This very interesting article appeared in 19 Nov 1925 Roland paper announcing the beginning of the 1925-26 Roland season with a game against Milford. It seems as though there was only a varsity game and not a J.V. game as became the practice in the northern portion of Story County. Also a J.V. game was played when a north Story County team played a south Story County team. At this time the northern portion of the county did not have competitive girls’s competition but the southern half did.
Bear in mind that Milford did not have a senior class until the fall of 1926 and when the paper refers to the Milford team last year; they are referring to the team of 1924- ’25. Furthermore, the article mentions the Milford team “only lost one of their men by graduation” What does this mean? If Milford did not have a senior class how did this graduation occur? Does it mean that the Milford lad might be going as a senior to some other high school but yet came to Milford to participate in athletics? Or- does it mean the ‘24-’25 team only had lads through the 11th grade and one of them graduated into 12th and left Milford?
Friday evening the basket ball season will open again for the Roland High School, when they will meet the fast Milford High team on the local basket ball floor.
It will be quite interesting to watch the Roland boys play against their old coach, Mr Mickelson*. Mr Mickelson coached the Roland boys for two years and last year put out a team that won the county championship. The Milford team last year, was one of the top notchers in the county and they only lost one of their men by graduation. It is sure that they will come to Roland with a team fully as good, if not better, than last year’s team.
The Roland boys have been working hard after the corn husking vacation and are fast rounding into condition, under Coach Nelson. The championship team of last year, minus Sanford Shafland, will be the team that will, in all probability, start against Milford Friday night. (Here it lists the players for Roland)
Milford Twp lost this game, 23-8; although the Roland paper the following week states-Milford had fight in them until the last, but were no match to the fast Roland team, whose defense was very hard to break.
Only five players are listed for Milford Twp: Hansen, right forward; Gilbreath, left forward; Danielson, center; Allen, right guard; and Wilson, left guard. Four of the five-- George Allen, Ray Danielson, George Hansen, and Huber Wilson-- were part of the first graduating class from Milford Twp in 1927. The person listed as “Gilbreath” might be Marion Gilreath who graduated in 1929.
* Mr Mickelson remained the coach and Supt at Milford through the 1927-’28 school year.
Sorry about the imperfection on the image but this photo is probably the oldest of any photo obtained of an athletic team at Milford Twp. That is Principal Edith Meyers on the left.
It is the Milford Girls Basketball Club and Team probably taken in the fall of 1926 or spring of 1927. (However, this picture may be as late as spring of 1928.) The photo was obtained from the son of one of the ladies in the pix but he was unable to identify his Mom for certain so he chose not to select any; possibly his mother took the picture. His Mom left Milford in the spring of 1927 as a Sophomore.
Below: Vivian Kimble‘27, shown here at lower left, is the earliest Milford student to go on to play college basketball (and “Letter”) when she attended American Institute. (Later AIB) They were undefeated at the time of the photo which is undated but most likely 1928 or 1929. More Milford college players on page 204