1960 G.C.H.S. teammates remember their state championship

 

Last updated 2/28/2018 at 10:25am

The 1960 championship team, from left in the back row: Ken Hoke, Bill Trefry, Wayne Snyder, Bob Pachosa, Don Kurth, Coach Jim Savitz. In the front row: Ray Rice, Mark Rauch, Ben Flowers, Jim Green, Terry Mort.

"Welcome Home, Champs!" read the banner across Spokane Way as the team returned home. The Grand Coulee Tigers basketball team defeated the Ilwaco Fishermen for the 1960 Class B State Basketball Championship at the Spokane Coliseum, 56-54.

New coach that year was Jim Savitz, and team members were Don Kurth, Bob Pachosa, Wayne Snyder, Ken Hoke, Ben Flowers, Ray Rice, Terry Mort, Mark Rauch, Bill Trefry, and Jim Green.

"It was fantastic; there wasn't a soul left in town," Rice said recently about the championship. "We'd never even been to the state tournament before. We walked into the coliseum in Spokane, and it was amazing! We never played in anything that large in our careers. We'd play in courts where you'd shoot a long shot and hit the ceiling."

"We didn't play it in a nonchalant way," Hoke said. "We came out and really put it together. It was really special."

Snyder, who stands about 6 feet, 5 inches, spoke about playing in the game. "You get so wound up that people can yell or scream all they want, you didn't hear a thing. Your mind isn't thinking about that; you're thinking about the ball game."

Kurth was team captain for the Tigers. "He was smart and knew what he was doing, stayed on top of things," Hoke said about Kurth.

"Kurth right at the end there made a couple of critical free throws," Hoke said about the two-point victory. "He ended up with the ball at the end of the game, and he threw it straight up into the speakers and everything, and it was over!"

"It's exciting, but the biggest thing is the effect it had on the community and the rest of your life, getting a win like that in a team situation," Kurth said. "It's something that it seems like people never forget. When we came home that night after winning, there was a banner above Spokane Way saying, 'Welcome Home, Champs!'"

The Tiger victory ended a two-year, 38-game winning streak for Ilwaco.

"Ilwaco hadn't lost a game in two years, and we knocked them out," Snyder said. "After the end of the game, they were bawling and crying. They had already rented out a big hall in Spokane they were going to have this big party in. They didn't think we were worth a shit, but they got beat."

In the beginning of the season, Coach Savitz was trying out different combinations of players, and the Tigers lost their non-league games. But after the non-league games were finished, they didn't lose another contest for the entire rest of the season.

"It was a Cinderella situation all the way," Hoke said. "All of us really wanted it bad. We cared, and we were close. All of us were like brothers growing up together."

"We were just happy to get to go to state, we never did think we'd get that far," Snyder said. "And then we ended up winning each one. We didn't beat everybody by a lot."

Along the road to state, the Tigers had defeated league rivals, the Coulee Dam Beavers, 56-42. "The owner of the Gateway Tavern in Electric City bought the team and coaches dinner at the old Continental Hotel because he had won so much money betting," Kurth recalled.

Another important game was the 44-41 overtime victory against Ritzville that sent the Tigers to the championship. Ritzville was favored by 10 points in the game.

One of the factors that helped with the Tiger success that season, Hoke said, was Coach Savits having them play with a full-court, man-to-man press.

From left, Ken Hoke, Wayne Snyder and Don Kurth pose for a photo with the old trophy from the 1960 championship. - Jacob Wagner photo

"Back then, nobody did that," Hoke said about using the defensive technique against Brewster. "They could not get the ball in. They were frustrated!"

"The people on the team were very competitive with each other," Kurth noted of his old team. "Our practices were very intense, and our free-throw practices were very intense. We made a high percentage of our free throws."

Before the season started, Hoke asked Kurth for help improving his game and would go play at Kurth's house at night on his home court, which had a light.

"He really ended up being a real asset to the team," Kurth said about Hoke, "and he even got a lot better after high school. ... Kenny and (freshman) Trefry really complemented the rest of us."

Hoke hadn't made the basketball team until his senior year in 1960, when the Grand Coulee Tigers won the state basketball championship.

"It was really special," Hoke said.

 

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