CONVAL HOOP HERITAGE

Senior guard Paul Boule set four scoring records in helping the Cougars to a surprising second season in 1971-72 Sitting with three friends amidst a mob of people at Bow High School last night while watching the D3 semifinal between Kearsarge and Mascoma, one of the friends commented: “Sure is good to enjoy a game with no vested interest.” The longtime parent of a basketball playing family knew the opposite feeling. Tonight, Conval kids weren’t playing. We could relax. Still, we could all relate to the tournament environment, and the tension, and the people who drove a long way from home to support their team. In the chaos, someone asked how the Conval boys made out the other night, and we said they won, and it looked like they might be in this sort of environment, too, in a couple of weeks. Barely alive, but alive nonetheless. Where have we seen this before? And in a moment, there was a flashback to another Conval team that barely got into the playoffs, and the great story they told… ...

Undefeated Class B state champs... (front, from left): Harold Clukay, Milt Fontaine, Eddie Blanchette, Robert Barry and Ken McLeod. Back row: Coach John Clark, Carl Erhler, Donald Dupree, Charles Lindsay, Donald Mulstay, Robert Clukay and George Eastman . T he 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 pl...

F resh off their fourth state championship in six years, one of Conval’s predecessors—the Peterborough High Hilanders—geared up for a 1937 season that won’t soon be forgotten: It was the last year when a center jump didn’t take place after every basket!  Nothing like the old glory days, but we definitely like the “new” rule much better! The Hilanders were coached by the legendary John Clark (pictured far right). They won five championships from 1930 to 1941, and were state runners-up three times. Members of the ’37 team, which would fall in the first round of the invitational tournament at UNH, were the starting five (front, left to right): Charlie Lindsay, Brian Keenan, Donald Dupree, Bob Clukay and Bob Berry . Second row: Norm Davidson, Bob Dart, Gibby Carlson and Roland Myhaver. Back row: Arthur Mosher, Ervin Diamond and John Lindsay .

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...

T his 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 ...

Adam Adkins (left) and CJ Sullivan celebrate Cougars' stunning upset over Pembroke in 1989. A college basketball commentator said recently that the most dangerous team come tournament time is not the one with the best record but the one that is on fire.   The 35th anniversary of the Conval Cougars basketball team and their unlikely pursuit of   the Class I (D2) championship fit that description… and was the stuff of which makes basketball fans’ blood boil with excitement and wonder. Coach Frank Davidson ’s Cougars began the 1988-’89 season in relative obscurity, playing close to .500 ball in a gym that was half closed. Unbeaten Merrimack Valley with eventual New Hampshire basketball standout Scott Drapeau , and highly-ranked Pembroke with shooting sensation Matt Alosa , had captured everyone’s attention and were early season favorites to meet for the Class I title in three months. But a Christmas tournament at Bishop Guertin High in Nashua suddenly changed that focus. “Who is...