The Undefeated Season
The winter of 1935-36 was much like our current winter—bone-chilling cold, snowy and long. But unlike today, when there are so many options, and so many different sports, and so many distractions of every kind, there was just basketball for entertainment and hometown pride. Basketball, boys and girls, helped citizens get through the long winter—if you followed the teams from December until late February or early March, and many did, you made it through the worst of it.
And around these parts, you made it in style...
For a tiny New Hampshire town, Peterborough was among the kings of basketball. Its boys teams just knew how to win. From 1930 to 1941, they won five state championships—including a three-peat in 1930, 1931 and 1932—and played in the finals two other years. They took on schools of every size and won.
And the girls? There was no invitational state tournament like UNH had for the boys—so the Peterborough Boys Club, organized for the development and sponsorship of athletics, along with local businesses, the Rotary Club, and civic leaders organized a renowned annual girls’ state tournament that ran for five seasons and that invited the best tams from New Hampshire to play for gold at Peterborough High School and the Town House.
Center of the universe
Conval High’s prime predecessor was the center of attention in the ‘30s. Both boys’ and girls’ teams played to packed houses, and many followed the teams on the road (which was an achievement in the days of no modern highways). Photos of anything were rare in the local Peterborough Transcript, but the weekly newspaper was the main source of information for townspeople, and invariably, the fate of the basketball teams was Page One material.
For the boys, no year came close to supremacy like the 1935-36 team.
Without state sanctioned oversight, teams had much more leeway when it came to scheduling makeup games. During the first week of January 1936, for example, the boys’ game with St. Joseph’s Cathedral High of Manchester (now Trinity) was cancelled when their coach underwent an appendectomy. In its place, Coach John Clark scheduled a game “with an aggregation from Fitchburg, Mass., called the Patari Fuel Co. team. The visitors included former Fitchburg High stars who gave the local boys a hard game. Although the visitors were ahead several times, Peterborough managed to come out on top, 36-31.”
The boys continued their winning ways with rough and tumble victories over Hillsboro and Wilton. In the Hillsboro contest, won by Peterborough 38-12, “the intense rivalry between the two teams threatened to unloose tempers. The boys held their heads, however, and there was no outbreak, although play was intense most of the time.” The contest with Wilton, meanwhile, was played before a standing room only crowd that saw the school dedicate a new time clock won by a student in an essay contest for the manufacturer.
Close quarters
Playing in confined quarters, with the crowd and walls right on top of the actions, the boys received a scare on their return engagement with St. Joseph’s Cathedral High as center Harold Clukay was knocked unconscious for a short time when he crashed into a cement wall. He was taken to a local hospital but was later was able to return home.
“The crowd began to arrive soon after 6, and by 7, every seat in the hall was taken. The crowd was noisy and the supporters of both teams were in an uproar as first one team and then the other took the lead.”
The unbeaten boys played their most intense and exciting game of the season in early February when Keene High came to town. More than 500 fans packed the gym (which later became the cafeteria). “The crowd began to arrive soon after 6, and by 7, every seat in the hall was taken. The crowd was noisy and the supporters of both teams were in an uproar as first one team and then the other took the lead.” In the end, Peterborough commanded a safe lead until Keene scored late for a final of 25-21.
With the Monadnock League title on the line against Appleton Academy of New Ipswich, snow didn’t hamper fans from turning out to one of the few games in the state not cancelled by the week’s foot-and-a-half snowstorm. Another packed house at the high school saw the boys win the league championship, 27-24. Although the boys trailed by seven at halftime, they came out on fire in second half and outscored Appleton 12-0 in the third quarter.
Winners of 17 straight, the boys were again invited to the state tournament at UNH where they would face Goffstown in the first round. Unlike today, the boys stayed overnight at Dover to ease their travel plans.
Perfection completed
Peterborough had no trouble routing Goffstown in the first round, 53-31, but in the semifinals the next morning against Somersworth, the boys were flat and had to go to overtime to defeat the Toppers, 24-21. Five hours later, the boys showed no signs of a repeat performance against Appleton, applying a stifling defense to win the Class B championship, 36-12.
We undefeated.
“The Peterborough boys gave one of the best exhibitions of hard work he had ever seen in a school team.”
“After a five hour rest, the boys were back and thrilled the packed gymnasium by putting on as dazzling an exhibition as the team had shown all season. Several hundred people went to the tourney from Peterborough, some going early Friday and staying through the entire series….The entire Peterborough team played brilliantly in the final contest of the season. [Ken] McLeod, [Harold] Clukay and [Eddie] Blanchette in particular. The local defense was impregnable.”
Referee Percy Rogers of Exeter said afterwards that “the Peterborough boys gave one of the best exhibitions of hard work he had ever seen in a school team.”
Winter was almost over and hints of spring were in the air, and The Transcript concluded, “Peterborough will suffer severely from losses by graduation in June. Four of the five regulars—Eddie Blanchette, Harold Clukay, Milton Fontiane and Kenneth McLeod—are done.”
But that no-name 1936-37 team? They went back to the tournament anyway.
