First Hoop Photo...Ever?

-



This pic of the 1911 Peterborough High basketball team is believed to be one of the earliest basketball team photos ever published in Conval Nation.

Although area high schools had been playing for at least seven years, this week in 1913 saw one of the first reports of games in the local newspaper. Photos in early newspapers were rare, and text dominated the four-page Peterborough Transcript on February 13, 1913. The paper, however, did document the weather that week:

“Ten below zero Monday morning, and winter ever since. The slight, soft snow of Tuesday helped out the sleighing some, although it is thin over the hills. Ice has formed rapidly during the past few days, and it is being harvested in all directions at present, and is being hauled on sleds.”


Wow! 


As for one of the first-ever local “basket ball” news items, the Transcript reported:


“There will be two games at the town hall, Friday evening, Feb. 17, when the Wilton High and the Peterborough High will meet for the first time this season. Each of these teams have lost but one game this winter, and this game will be an interesting one. The second game will be between the Boy Pioneers and grammar school team. Gentlemen, 25 cents; ladies and children, 15 cents.


The Peterborough High team went to Antrim last Friday evening and won a hard fought game from the Antrim High by a score of 35-34. This was first game the Antrim team has been beaten on their own floor for the seven years they have been playing basket ball. There were a number of our people who went to Antrim and witnessed the game.”


In 1911, the team photo featured just six players, coached by Robert Paquet. Shown are (front, from left): Charles Garneau, Henry Nyland, Harold Bishop and Paul Liscord. Back: William Weeks, Coach Paquet and Victor Miller.


When asked why only six players, one of the players replied: “Because there were no more boys!”

Popular posts from this blog

Hail to the Chief

-
Image
Antrim High's Ed Coughlan, December 1965...more than a force on the court. P erhaps it’s a rural New Hampshire thing, but the nine towns that send students to Conval High—the Contoocook River bending its way around several of them—have long been interconnected. Each town is unique in its own way, and yet there is this sense that when you cross the town line from, say, New Boston to Francestown, you have entered Cougar Country as much as you’ve entered one of its nine towns. Last year’s boys’ basketball starting five, for example, represented five different towns. And when you explore our region’s hoop history, those interconnections keep popping up. In 1964, for example, when Antrim High was alive and well, little would Conval fans realize that Antrim’s long-time basketball coach, Chick Hamel, would one day become CV’s first assistant principal. (See “Paving the Way” ). And one of Chick’s star players in 1964 would one day become a legend in Hancock for many years. “You don’t have
Read more

50th Anniversary: When Conval Slayed a Giant

-
Image
Key to a shocking 1974 quarter-final win over Lebanon was Ray Abbott's (25) work on Raider big man Doug Murphy (21). Photo: Ernie Hebert, Keene Sentinel O ur Conval Hoop Heritage has had more than its share of highs and lows come tournament time, but in the history of the Regional, few tournament games will ever match the 50th anniversary drama of the 1974 Class I (D2) quarter-finals against Lebanon.   The 1973-’74 Cougars, coming off a 12-8 season in which the returning players felt “never gelled,” was loaded with speedy, athletic, good shooting veterans: Ray Abbott, John “JD” Davies, John Cuddihee, Ed Lennon, Paul Krulis, Joe Reilly, Mike Crowe and Marshall White . But small—very small. Among the starters, senior Ray Abbott was the tallest of the bunch at 6’2” and sharp-shooter John Davies was next at an even six feet. Newcomers to the team were Ted Davies, Mark Sizemore, Peter Jennson and Doug Smith . The task ahead against a brutal Class I schedule seemed formidable, but Coa
Read more

When Hardly Anybody Noticed

-
Image
I n the 1963-’64 season, the Peterborough High girls basketball team quietly compiled its second straight 7-2 season. A remarkable achievement that was so quiet, unlike today, hardly anyone noticed. Coach Barbara Rowe felt her team was “entitled to at least an athletic energy” for the performance. Yet, as the Peterborough Transcript reported, “the girls play to minuscule audiences, and have none of the fanfare, publicity or public attention that go to other sports and activities. There are no dramatic reverberations when the team takes off quietly for the away games, or when it is playing at home.” What happened? Unlike today, girls’ basketball up until 1970 hardly resembled the fast-paced five-on-five style exhibited by the boys. The girls’ game was six-on-six, with three forwards who could score on one half of the court while three defensive guards stayed on their own half of the court until the opposition crossed it. One player for each team was considered a rover and could travel
Read more