Urban Legend and the Wrong-Way Basket
As shocking an ending as it was, it was nothing like the urban legend that the story turned out to be, exaggerated over the years like a game of telephone. According to legend, the basket was “credited” to the wrong player, it occurred near the end of the season, and it cost Peterborough High a tournament berth.
Let the record show, however, that the player was “aggressive junior forward” Gary Vickery—now a reputable NHIAA basketball official—that the game took place in mid-December, and that PHS had a non-tournament-friendly record of 0-5 (and finished 6-14).
Urban legend, though, is more fun!
According to published reports, “the wrong-way shot originated from a [confusing] out-of-bounds play under the Appleton net. The Finns were also confused, and rather than press for the ball, the entire visiting quintet retreated to the opposite end of the floor to defend against the PHS hoop. Vickery received the ball, and in the confusion, looped it in to the Appleton basket.”
Coach Ed Lithgow said afterwards that in his coaching career, he had boys who shot into the wrong basket before, and the Transcript noted, “it happened this week in the pros, too.” (Still does! See video.)
However, nothing Coach Lithgow ever saw—or the fans, either—was as dramatic as the event on Friday, December 13, 1963.
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POSTSCRIPT... Many of our historical narratives were reported in the hometown paper at the time, The Peterborough Transcript. However, PHS alumni Larry Eggert was on the bench the night of Gary Vickery's wrong-way basket. Here's how he saw it...
I just read the story about Gary "wrong way" Vickery. I have a couple corrections to make. I was a sophomore mostly sitting on the varsity bench next to Coach Lithgow and occasionally playing JV basketball, coached by Ron Crowe.
With about 10 seconds left, we had the ball at half court on the side where the doors went into the hallway to the school. Coach Lithgow called time out to set up a play to get the ball inbounds. We were ahead by one point and Appleton was guarding us to try to get the ball back or foul. Either Steve Lowe or Jim Teates was assigned to throw the ball in. Our basket was on the stage end.
I believe the plan was to get Gary the ball because he was an excellent ball player, in fact, he had moved to Peterborough as a junior from Portsmouth, where he had started for their Class L team. Anyway, he circled around a group of players and broke loose. The inbounds pass led him directly toward the basket for an uncontested layup.
Unfortunately, it was the wrong basket. I don't remember if we called time out or if he received the ensuing inbounds pass, but he took a half court shot that bounced off the rim and would have won the game for us.
