The Pride of Hancock

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Members of the 13-1 Hancock High squad of 1951-52 (front, from left): Bud Adams, Dick Quinn and Bob Brooks. Second row: Coach Joe Courteau, Bill Stearns and Al Prime. Back row: Lee McMahon, Ed Dow, Forrest Weston, Gale Hennessey and Bob Kierstead. (Prime and McMahon were from Stoddard.)

In 1954, tiny Milan High School in Indiana shocked the high school basketball world by defeating Muncie Central High School—a school ten times its size—for the Indiana state championship. The stunning victory was the inspiration for the legendary basketball movie “Hoosiers.” 

Two years earlier, one can only wonder if tiny Hancock High School would have been the New Hampshire version of that famous movie...


Finishing the 1951-52 season with a 13-1 record, and with only about 50 students in the entire school. the Blue Devils earned the third seed in the state Class C (small school) state tournament, held that year in Claremont. Hancock’s only loss was to Troy, with the two teams tied atop the Southern N.H. League standings.


Coached by Joe Courteau, Hancock was paced by captain center and playmaker Dick Quinn and guard Art Rollins. All was looking hopeful for Hancock heading into the tournament, but injuries and illness at the worst possible time spelled an early exit from the tournament and a chance to bring home a state title to Hancock.


Rollins was out of action due to a lengthy illness, and one of the team’s top substitutes, Bill Stearns, was left at home with the measles. “This forced Coach Courteau to juggle his starting line-up, inserting forward Bud Adams (with a bad knee) at guard alongside Al Prime, and calling Bob Kierstead—a 13-year-old eighth grader—from the bench to pair up with Bob Brooks at the forward posts.”


The juggled line-up, at the worst possible time in the season, was no match for Woodsville in the first round of the state tournament. After Hancock gave it their all in the first quarter, Woodsville eventually pulled away for a 79-40 win.


But to this day, the people in tiny Hancock wonder, “what if?…”


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