(Movie goers might recall the film "Hoosiers" of a few years ago, starring Gene Hackman. The film is said to be based on the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions, Milan High School, that overcame obstacles on its way to victory over the big schools in the Indiana state high school basketball tournament)
This year marks the 72nd anniversary of the remarkable triumph by Valley High. At the time, the school had an enrollment of 96. Valley High School is located in Menlo, west of Chehalis and east of Raymond on highway 6.
During the Depression, there weren't separate tournaments for big and little schools. The farm boys went to Seattle and upset Lewis & Clark of Spokane 43-39 and pre-tournament favorite Walla Walla 34-33. On Saturday morning, they slipped past another huge school, Everett, 32-31 to reach the title game.
The Seattle Times reported just before the championship game: "Mayor, call out the riot squads. Put up the fire ropes at the University of Washington Pavilion and bring in the serpentine ... for little Valley High School, that no one knew existed, is in the finals of the state high school basketball tournament tonight."
A standing-room-only crowd in what was later named Hec Edmundson Pavilion watched them beat Hoquiam 32-28 in overtime for the state title. With the Grizzlies leading 24 to 20 with four minutes left in the title game, Ray Kraus scored three successive shots to put his team in the lead. Hoquiam tied it at 26 all, sending the game into overtime. In the overtime Kraus and Tisdale scored shots to win the game for the Vikings. Low scores weren't unusual in those days, as basketball was much more of a defensive game than it is today.
Valley had done it; they were the state champs for all the schools in the state of Washington, big and small.
"We thought we'd play two games and go home," reminisced Joe Drazil. He is one of two surviving members of the team.
Drazil, a sophomore reserve, said his most vivid memory of the tournament was coming from behind against Everett.
"With about three minutes to go they were ahead by six or seven points," he said. "That was a lot in those days because there was a jump ball after every basket."
That was the last season of basketball for Drazil, now 90. His father became ill and Drazil dropped out of school and went to work in a sawmill to help support his family. He still lives on a farm outside Raymond.
The other surviving player is Don Evavold, 88, a retired rancher and Gonzaga Law School employee who recently moved from Whidbey Island to Sumner.
"We were called the giant killers and all that stuff by the news media," Evavold fondly recalled.
"After we won, we went wild and the town went wild," he said. "Those were the happiest moments of our lives."
The team photo is a copy taken from one currently in storage as the school undergoes a renovation in 2008.
The Valley starters were Elmer (Bud) Alexander, the center and tallest player at 6-3; Bob Tisdale, a forward and the star of the team at 6 feet also named the tournament's most valuable player; Russell Eyer, a 5-11 forward; Ray Kraus, a guard and the smallest player at 5-8 and hero of the championship game, who died eight years later as a Marine officer in World War II; Johnny Rosentangle, a 5-10 guard.
The other players were Carl Wiseman, Don Evavold, Joe Drazil, Al Belmont and Stanley Domin, who was killed on the battleship Arizona in the Pearl Harbor attack. The manager was Eddie Brigham. The coach was Tom Brim, who had worked at Valley since 1932 and whose use of a zone defense was considered innovative at the time. After the championship year he left to teach and coach at Kennewick High School. His replacement at Valley was Ed Tenoski.
The story continues that Gov. Clarence D. Martin came to town, took a look at the run-down school and said, "You need a better school." So, with Works Progress Administration funds, a new school and gym were built in 1937. ***
The dominant school building facade has been demolished. An attached drawing survives.
Artist is Linda E. Vermilye '92.
In a March 3, 1999 Seattle Post - Intelligencer article about the new $39 million renovation of the UW's Hec Edmundson Pavilion, the newspaper ranked the top five Hec Ed basketball games in its venerable history. They are:
1. 1949 NCAA championship game, Kentucky 46, Oklahoma State 36.
2. 1952 NCAA championship game, Kansas 80, St. John's 63.
3. 1975, UW 103, No. 2-ranked UCLA 81 (John Wooden's last game).
4. 1952, Seattle U. 84, Harlem Globetrotters 81 (Johnny O'Brien scored 43 points).
5. 1936 state high school championship game, Valley 32, Hoquiam 28.
Special thanks to school principle Rob Friese, who also is the football coach, for his interest and support of the cache idea. My deepest appreciation to FirefighterJ for the technical design of the webpage.
The address of the high school is 22 Viking Way, behind and west of the Pacific County Fairgrounds on the outskirts of Menlo. The new gym is easy to spot from the highway. The rest of the high school is obscured by the construction work.
*** Permission has been granted by the Seattle Times to use much of the article written in 2006.
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How to calculate the coordinates to reach the final.
The stated coordinates will lead you to "Bud" Alexander, the starting center for the Valley HS Vikings in 1936.
You will need the following information:
The last three digits of the birth year. Let that be ABC
The last three digits of the death year. Let that be DEF
XXX = Subtract 893 from ABC.
YYY = Subtract 213 from DEF
The latitude of the final is: N 46 38.XXX
The longitude of the final is W 123 39.YYY
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