THE YEAR THAT WAS…1967: A great surprise
By BRANDON HURLEY
Sports Editor
The winter of 1967 was historical in many ways for Greene County athletics. Not one, but two area basketball teams made their first trips to the state tournament in Des Moines – the Paton-Churdan girls and Jefferson High School achieved success that has withstood the test of time. We here at The Jefferson Herald are honoring the 50th anniversary of the accomplishments with a two-part series. This week, we celebrate Jefferson’s only trip to the boys’ basketball state tournament behind a magical, and surprising postseason run.
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They say history often repeats itself.
But in the case of Jefferson High School, there is only one team that reached the pinnacle – the state basketball tournament.
In 1967, the Ram boys’ basketball team embarked on a surprising and magical run to the school’s only state tourney berth.
Led by a ferocious, in-your-face defense and a run-and-gun offensive style engineered by first-year head coach Bill Speer, Jefferson put on one of the most unlikely postseason runs in the school’s history. March 16, the day of the Rams’ first round game, became a local holiday. Enthusiasm and support for the school’s first trip to a state tournament of any kind was bursting at the seams so much so that the Jefferson mayor at the time, Vern Marten, decreed March 16, 1967 as Jefferson Rams day, shutting down the city hall and many other businesses. A headline in the Jefferson Bee that week read “Basketball fever paralysis predicted here Thursday.”
That Jefferson basketball team included John Faaborg, the late Dave Bucklin, Chris Durlam, Mike Fagen, Jack Beddall, Gary Duke, Linn Orria, Bruce Smith, the late George (Jeff) Kundrat, and David Carlson. Bill Speer guided the Rams as the Jefferson head coach.
Many different factors played a role in that magical run, that to this day, many players remember vividly 50 years later. I caught up with a few of the starters to relive the glory days.
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The seeds for the state tournament team were planted on the basketball courts at Chautauqua Park and not inside a gymnasium.
As fate would have it, even before the boys hit the halls of the high school, Chris Durlam, one of the four senior starters on that historic team, remembers setting a not-so-yet-attainable back in the eighth grade, though he doesn’t recall who said it. The team began to slowly sprout with no coaches barking out orders, no fans hollering with excitement or even refs policing the game.
“Somebody had the idea that we would make it to state, so we played a lot of pick up basketball,” Durlam said, a 1967 graduate of Jefferson High School. “There was a game going on every night, and we played against a lot of older kids.”
That class was grooming their selves for a run at the history books, just around the time Larry Fie stepped in as the varsity head coach. Fie had an immediate impact on the program, all the way down to the incoming freshman class.
He took over just as the 1967 class arrived for their ninth grade year. Fie wasted no time getting to know the young Rams, swinging by some of those pick up games to introduce himself to the players.
While coach Bill Speer took the ’67 team to Des Moines and ultimately is credited with the historic feat, it was Fie who helped the players grow and prepared them for the magic that was to come.
John Faaborg and Durlam both credited their former coach with laying the foundation for their success. Faaborg saw Fie as a father figure, coming from a rocky relationship with his parents at home. The coach preached fundamentals – it’s where Faaborg believes he honed his sweet-shooting form.
“He was a super coach, the other coaches we had over the years were great too, but we had a guy that had played at Iowa State,” Faaborg said. “(We would) see him shooting shots before practice. It was neat, he taught us how to shoot a pretty jump shot.”
It’s a jump shot that Faaborg got compliments on throughout his career, helping push the Rams to the state tournament.
Durlam had tremendous respect for what Fie did with the program, calling back memories of isometrics and fundamentals.
“It really it was Larry’s team. He was there inspiring us and teaching us. His spirit and leadership got us there, not that Bill Speer wasn’t a great coach, too. We responded to Larry,” Durlam said. “Larry was all about pushing against an immovable force.”
Fie also implored interesting training techniques – Durlam first learned to jump rope as a freshman. The coach brought that 1967 class together. Along with their pickup work and their strong relationships on and off the court, it made for a special formula.
“We grew up together in that town, we played a lot of basketball together,” Faaborg said. “We had pretty good chemistry.”
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Durlam strongly believes the 1966 Jefferson squad was even better than the one to make state, one that fell two games short, against none other than Ames High. Success doesn’t always mean a team was better than another in high school. Sometimes a post season draw plays a big role.
“When I rode the bench my junior year, we really had a terrific team, probably better than the one that made it to state,” Durlam said. “There’s a lot of luck involved going to state, we graduated several really good players from that 1966 team.”
That squad beat a pair of undefeated teams in district play – they took down undefeated Madrid in districts then followed that with a 65-55 victory over 22-0 East Greene in the district seven final in Adel. The substate semifinal loss to Ames took place in Marshalltown, which turned into a 60-59 over time thriller. That particular Ames squad did not have Dick Gibbs, and wasn’t as big and quick as they were in 1967. Gibbs went on to play for the Iowa Hawkeyes and several years in the pros.
The 1966-67 squad, with Speer at the helm, played a faster pace and often wore teams out thanks to Speer’s new style. The Rams averaged a staggering 76 points per game and rolled out a constant full-court pressure defense.
When postseason play began in 1967, it was quite the reach to peg the Jefferson Ram basketball team as one who would become the most successful in the school’s history.
The intense defensive pressure didn’t produce wins right away. Hell, the Rams struggled to stay above .500 as they adjusted to their new coach’s philosophy. Jefferson finished the regular season 8-8 overall and 8-6 in the Midwest Conference. Not bad, but certainly nothing to write home about.
“Some nights the press wouldn’t work and we lost to some teams shouldn’t have lost to,” Faaborg said. “The new system took a little bit of time to learn.”
For the players though, and especially the seniors, a deep postseason run was on the cusp, as the 1967 class earned their stripes and tasted a bit of success the previous postseason.
What set that Ram team apart was the addition of a super sophomore, 6’7” center Bruce Smith, who now goes by Bruce Bannister. Faaborg had been Jefferson’s center up to that point, often overpowered by many opponents as the then senior stood 6’2”.
Jeff Kundrat was Jefferson’s best pure scorer, holding the school’s career scoring record until Adam Jones broke it in 1998. What he lacked in size, Faaborg definitely made up for in quickness on the glass. He overcame his shortcomings to pull down nearly 16 rebounds a game in his final season as a Ram. He had a second instinct when Kundrat was about to shoot and became Jefferson’s best rebounder.
“I was a super rebounder. That’s because Jeff was our highest scorer, I could sense where the ball was going,” Faaborg. “When he shot it, I knew where it was going.”
Jack Beddall was honored with the 1967 Ram of the Year award, thanks to his prowess in track, baseball, football, and of course, basketball. Bucklin was the Ram starting quarterback and valedictorian – a notion his good friend Faaborg is still a bit bitter about today.
Durlam remembers Faaborg having issue with an unpleasant grade during his senior year, missing out on the distinction by just a hair.
“We had the two smartest kids (in the school), on our team,” Durlam said. “Pretty much everyone was a good student.
Fagen was a junior and was perhaps the rowdiest of the bunch. A 30 year anniversary celebration brought the team back to town several years ago, and Durlam remembers him believing they could beat the current Jefferson team.
Speer’s style change really caught many programs off guard as did the size of Smith. The Rams could shake it up now and either run teams out of the gym or force irritating turnovers.
“(Smith) made a difference, we figured out the way to do it, we got hot,” Faaborg said. “Some of it was just a matter of time. It was a fun system to play in. You knew if a shot went up, we were getting the rebound and running.”
That winter was the first year Iowa went to a two-class system for the state tournament, and Jefferson was placed in the bigger class (2A), battling against some of the larger schools in the region and state. They counter-balanced that with their speed and pressure.
“They couldn’t quite keep up, some of these games we’d get down and take the press off, but put it on again,” Faaborg said. “They were a little bit tired at that point and they’d get rattled.”
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Every game leading up to the trip to downtown Des Moines was a battle.
The Rams opened 2017 tournament play with a quiet win over Audubon after having split the season series. That’s when things really started to heat up. Jefferson beat Denison, 71-66 in an overtime thriller. Kundrat scored 32 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and made 14-of-17 free throws in a game dominated by the Rams. The Monarchs stuck around to force overtime, charging back from a 10-point third quarter deficit.
Faaborg hauled in 16 rebounds to go with nine points in the win.
The Rams earned sweet revenge in the third round of district play, as Jefferson dismantled Kuemper Catholic 84-75 in a game not as close as the final score. Jefferson built a 21-point fourth quarter lead thanks to the scoring prowess of Kundrat (27 points) and Faaborg (22 points). The Rams had four players in double-figures, avenging their prior loss to the Knights in the season’s final game,
An epic substate final ensued in Carroll, as Jefferson took on Shenandoah. The Rams pulled off a 12-point comeback for a 75-73 victory, punching the elusive ticket to the state tournament. It was an upset not many people outside of Jefferson saw coming. The Mustangs were loaded with talented, multi-sport athletes. The Rams, on paper, didn’t stand a chance.
“They figured Shenandoah was going to walk right over us,” Faaborg said. “They had two Division I football players and one that went on to play quarterback at Nebraska.”
Jefferson fell behind by double-digits midway through the second quarter but closed the deficit to just two by the halftime break, 40-38.
Shenandoah sliced right through the Jefferson full-court press in the opening half. The big, bad boys from out west were proving the experts right. It was time for a change.
“They had no trouble with (the press) whatsoever,” Durlam said. “Coach Speer was smart enough to go away from it but then put it back on.”
Shenandoah pushed their lead back to eight in the third before the Rams ripped off a scoring run to grab a 57-55 advantage entering the fourth. The two-point advantage was their first lead since the first quarter.
The rocky pace of the game threw off the Mustangs and Jefferson was able to wear down their substate opponent, pulling off the historic victory.
Kundrat poured in a game-high 28 points while Faaborg added 26. Elation ensued and word quickly spread back to Jefferson.
“It was fun. That night, they took us into the gym to honor us, none of the kids were there, the parents were there,” Faaborg said. “All the kids were at the truck stop, it was jammed full of people.”
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If the young high schoolers didn’t feel the importance of their state tournament leading up to their trek to the state capital, they sure realized it when they arrived. The school district paid for rooms at the Fort Des Moines hotel for the entire week, even though the Rams lost their first game, by a substantial margin. The Rams were treated like kings once they arrived.
“We were out of school all week. We watched all the games,” Durlam said. “We raised hell in the hotel. And even though we lost our first game, and I thought everyone would mope around the rest of the week, we enjoyed ourselves. It was a great experience.”
Faaborg remembers feeling a bit misled when he stepped out on to the Veteran’s Auditorium court for practice a day before their first round game.
“It was pretty neat. The day before, we went when there were no seats, so the baskets looked like they were eight feet high. We got used to that,” Faaborg said.
That comfort came back to bite the Rams in their game against Ames as the stands filled up and the pressure rose. Ames was big, but their quickness was what really threw Jefferson off.
The Rams ran into buzz saw against Ames. The Little Cyclones were a different team from the previous winter and ran the Rams out of the gym to the tune of 72-40. Faaborg led the Rams in scoring with 19 while Jeff Kundrat added 11, both well below their season averages.
It was the dominance of big man Dick Gibbs, who came over from nearby Nevada over the offseason in a move that Durlam is still leery about today, that proved the difference.
“Ames was a lot bigger school than us, there were only two classes and 120 schools in our class,” Faaborg said. The Rams struggled with the tough Ames defense and only managed to get off five first quarter shots as they found themselves down 16-8 after the opening stanza.
Faaborg was a little familiar with Gibbs having played against him over the summer, but the Rams were in for a rude awakening.
“They put a press on us, they were so quick and big we got hammered,” Faaborg said. “I don’t remember him overpowering us, but it was more of just getting so far behind and not being able to come back.”
Ames led 36-18 at the break and cruised to victory. Bucklin dished out five assists. Faaborg connected on eight of his 13 shot attempts in the loss.
Ames went on to lose to Cedar Rapids Jefferson in the state title game.
Entering the state tournament, Jefferson struggled to earn respect from the big boys in Des Moines. Even when they were announced prior to their game with Ames, they were labeled as “Jefferson, not to be confused with the powerful Cedar Rapids Jefferson.”
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Faaborg went off to play freshman basketball at Iowa State while Kundrat played for Drake University in Des Moines. The two actually had a chance to face each other that next winter.
Despite the historic success on the Jefferson basketball team, (Smith) Bannister quit basketball after his junior year and moved to Spain
to become a classical guitarist a few years later. He went on to create a company that sold guitars and brought him great success.
“Guitars were his life and it took him all over the world,” Durlam.
Durlam ran Durlam Electric for many years in Jefferson. Fagen now lives in Perry. Kundrat’s passion later in life was to try and break the world record for consecutive free throws. He got up to 100 in a row at one point. Even 15 years ago, during a recent class reunion, Durlam remembers heading back to their old stomping grounds at the city park. Kundrat impressively knocked down 50 straight free throws.
Durlam, though extremely proud of his team’s accomplishment, hopes 50 years will finally put that state run to bed. It’s time for his alma mater to make another state tournament – it’s hard to fathom that his ’67 squad still, to this day, is the only one to do it in school history.
“I sure hope that we don’t go on as the only team to make it to state. We need to forget about that and get somebody else down there. Good gracious, it’s been too long,” Durlam said. “It was certainly great fun. What great support we had. You can’t believe the excitement. I remember reading all the headlines.”
Bucklin passed away from cancer last year while Kundrat also passed a few years prior. Faggen lives in Perry now while Beddall and Bannister still reside in the area. Durlam and Faaborg get together a few times a year.
Faaborg’s passion for basketball never wavered, even as he sailed into retirement. The former University of Missouri professor hits the court weekly. He now lives in Colombia, Missouri and spent a majority of his career in the science department at the University of Missouri.
“I still play three days a week, i never dreamed it could still be fun,” Faaborg said.
For Faaborg, perhaps he’s reminiscing, reliving a dream winter each time he steps on the court.
“The funny thing is, 50 years, it doesn’t feel that long,” he said.
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