Paulette,
it has been fun watching your nephew Mark play for the Botno Braves
the past couple of years. He is already a good one and has two more
years to go.
Thanks for the nice words regarding the ’68 Wolford BB team and for
bringing back the story that John Ydstie had done on that team. John
still works for national public radio and has been all over the world
covering news stories for them.
Gary was correct in that I had graduated a year prior to that
team…we thought we had a pretty good team in ’67 but halfway through
the season Bowersox suffered a knee injury and after that could play
only a quarter or so a game. We lost that year to Belcourt in the
dist. title game in two overtimes…from our region Crary went to
state (we had beaten them during the season) and Ellendale won the
state title. Who knows how far we could have gone had Vance Bowersox
been healthy. He had surgery during the off season and came back
strong his senior year.

Wolford was the second or third school in the state to have a video
tape machine and during my freshman year in college (Forestry in
Botno) I attended all of the games of the ’68 team and would do the
play by play on the video for them. Guess that was the beginning of
my sports broadcasting career.

Wolford was back in the state tourney the following year..losing in
the semi’s to Fargo Oak Groove and taking 3rd place that year.

This week-end the state class B tournament will be held at the Dome in
Minot. Many folks may remember that fifty years ago Rolla won the
state B and that team will be honored and recognized between semi-
final games on Friday evening. It will be fun to see how many members
of that team will be in attendance. That Rolla team lost twice to
Botno during the regular season, lost to them in the dist. title game
(back then both went on to region) they met in the region title
game..Botno won (both went on to state) and they met in the state
championship game and Rolla turned the tide and won 69-50. Rolla had
four losses that year .all to Botno. In the state title game soph.
guard Rick Neameyer got hot from the top of the key and hit around
nine in row to lead the Bulldogs to the win. I think he ended up with
26 points. Other Rolla starters included Doug Foley, Barry Dunn,
Dwayne Ostenson and Leo Dionne. The first guy off the bench was Jim
Howson..he had a long and very successful coaching career at Hatton,
N.D.

I remember watching that game on our snowy black and white TV as if it
were a month ago. Where did those fifty years go?? For the past 35
years I have done the play by play for thousands of games…many
forgotton about a week or two later and some I remember as if they
took place yesterday.

One other thing I remember about that ’60 Rolla team..on their
traveling uniforms they had Bulldog printed on the waistbands.

Thanks Paulette and thank you Gary.

Les Halvorson