The 1965 Class L (B) boys champions from Winthrop High School and the 1975 Class C girls champions from Hall-Dale High School were inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame last Saturday, leading a large contingent from Maine into the Worcester, Massachusetts-based hall.
The Ramblers were coached by the late Roy Chipman, who went on to coach at the University of Pittsburgh 1980-86. They were undefeated during the 1963-64 season before losing to Ellsworth in the state final, 55-52.
“We had a good team,” he said. “At the time, it seemed like there were a lot of good teams.”
Winthrop got its elusive gold ball the following year, going 16-2 en route to a 71-61 win over Bucksport in the final.
Dennis Clark led the team with 22.5 points per game and went on to score more than 1,500 career points at Winthrop and Springfield College. Charlie Gordon, a 6-foot-3 forward, broke the school rebounding record.
“Dennis Clark was one of Maine’s finest,” said Gordon, who went on to play at the University of Southern Maine and lives in Brunswick. “He led the Ramblers. I don’t think anyone would dispute that.”
The Bulldogs won the inaugural Class C girls state title in 1975 with a thrilling 64-62 win over Katahdin in triple overtime. Carla Cyr scored 39 points in the game, which is still a record for the Class C game. Her 17 field goals in that game is still a record, too, regardless of class.
The Gold Ball-winning teams were among a long list of honorees from the state inducted on Saturday at the DCU Center in Worcester.
Maranacook’s Toby Martin was among the high school players inducted, along with Presque Isle’s Steve Condon and Kim Condon-Lane, Elwood Pinkham of Sumner and Rumford’s Tom Ziko.
The University of Maine at Farmington was well-represented in this year’s class. Former men’s coach Len MacPhee and current women’s coach Jamie Beadoin were inducted as coaches, while Anne Higgins-Currie and former Hall-Dale standout Cameron Brown were inducted for their playing careers.
Steve Clifford, who played for MacPhee at UMF, was inducted in the pathfinder category. He is head coach of the Charlotte Hornets.
Current UMF men’s coach Dick Meader was inducted as a Perry Award winner for achieving distinction in two or more categories in basketball. Meader starred at Solon High School, then went onto a coaching career that has spanned 40 years — 17 at Thomas College and the last 23 at UMF — amassing nearly 450 victories.
Former Mount View standout Adrienne Shibles also received induction as a Perry Award winner. Shibles went on to an outstanding career at Bates College, then went on to coach at Swarthmore and, for the last seven years, at Bowdoin, where Martin serves as one of her assistants. The late Rudy Keeling also earned the award for his stints coaching at Maine and Northeastern and as athletic director at Emerson.
Other high school coaches inducted were Allen Downer of Mount View, Gus Folsom of Lawrence and Bernard Parady of Mount Desert Island.
The rest of the class of 2015 players were former Colby star Matt Gaudet, Nick Browning, Kristi Royer and Lora Trenkle of Bowdoin and Bob Warner of Maine.
Gene DeLorenzo was inducted for his coaching career at Colby. Kissy Walker of Husson also went in as a coach.
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
Send questions/comments to the editors.
