Better than Hoosiers

[Mark Padgett]

This year marks (no pun intended) the 70th anniversary of the Bellfountain, Oregon state basketball championship. In 1937, tiny Bellfountain (a team with no mascot) won the Class B (small schools) championship. In those days, the top two Class B teams then played the two top Class A (large schools) teams in a tournament for the undisputed state title. Bellfountain had a total of 27 students, 13 of them boys. After they beat Class A Franklin of Portland (with 1879 students ) 39-13, they had to face Class A Lincoln of Portland, which had 1546 students. Bellfountain had eight players on their team, the tallest being 6'0". This is significant because it was still the rule then to have a jump ball after every score.

Bellfountain "jumped out" to a 5-0 lead. They led 18-8 at the half and 22-10 midway through the third quarter. But Lincoln came back and pulled to within 22-17. The "Bells", as the papers called them, went on a 9-0 run and won the game 35-21. They made 15 of 17 from the line, most of them underhanded.

The school closed in 1941. There's still one surviving member of that team. He's 89 year old Harry Wallace.

One of the funniest comparisons of the two schools appeared in The Oregonian the day before the game. It stated that Lincoln had more students guarding fire drills (45) than Bellfountain had students and teachers combined (29).

It was the only time in Oregon prep sports history that the Class B champ won the state title. For some reason, they received both the A and B trophies. I still can't figure that one out.

Oh yeah - if I had lived in Oregon at the time, I probably would have been at the game.