Great Moments in Sports

MARCH MADNESS-1951

   The Bulldogs of Alexander Graham Junior High were on a roll! AG’s coach, George “The Wizzard” Powel had devised a formidable zone defense that none of their opponents had been able to penetrate all year. The big game with Piedmont was coming up and the odds in Las Vegas were overwhelmingly in AGs favor.

   The teams were fairly evenly matched personell wise; AG’s Greg “The Glove” Laneve, Warren “Big Bird” Sparrow, Gene “The King” Lookabill and Tommy “The Enforcer” Hurt graced the Charlotte sports pages almost daily.

Equally talented were the Panthers’ Ed “Skyhook” Berryhill, Carson “The machine” McClain, Jack “The Mailman” Campbell and Alton “Kid Dynamite” Widenhouse. But everyone agreed that coach Irv “The Surprise” Edelman’s team was in for a long afternoon!

   Piedmont took an early 2 point lead……….and stopped at mid court….just dribbling and passing….daring the AG team to come out of their zone and get them. Otherwise……the panthers were going to dribble and pass the game away….and win by 2 points. A brilliant and almost unheard of strategy at the time; reminiscent of another legendary coach, George “No Man Line” Sparger.

AG’s coach was adament that Piedmont had an obligation to try and penetrate his team’s zone. Coach Edelman’s attitude was simply…..”If your team wants to score any more points….come and get the ball.”

That’s exactly what Coach Powel did. He came and got the ball and took it …and his team home.

Final score: Piedmont 2, AG 0. 

 -Ed

Major contributors to this story were: Warren Sparrow, Kay and Tommy Hurt and their very talented son in law David Martinson who is married to their daughter Wrenn.