1927 Bowers Black Shirts     

     The Bowers Black Shirts won the 1927 Crawfordsville Sectional which was played at Wabash College in Crawfordsville. They became the first school other than Crawfordsville or Wingate to win the Crawfordsville Sectional Title.

     After they took a 14 to 8 lead at half, they defeated Wingate in the title game on Saturday March 5, 1927 by a score of 20 to 10. In their first tourney game they had defeated Ladoga by a 17 to 12 count and followed with a 34 to 16 victory over New Ross. The local paper said that it was a big upset when Bowers won the 27 Sectional Title. The paper didn't say who was supposed to win.
     Crawfordsville had ONLY a 10 and 10 season record. They lost to Waveland, who I think along with Wingate, were the picks of most Montgomery County fans, except for the Crawfordsville fans.
     The coach of the Bowers team was Chayce (or Chase) Cox and this was his 4th season as their coach. He coached five more seasons after this one. Bowers had finished as the runner-up to Crawfordsville in the 1926 sectional. Chances are that the 26 and 27 seasons were two of their best until the 43 and 50 seasons. In these two seasons they were knocked out early in the tourney by Crawfordsville in 43 who went on to win the title and in 50 by New Market who went on
to win the title.
     I have done a good bit of searching but NEVER found the season record of Bowers for either 26 or 27.
     After winning the Sectional, Bowers advanced to the Greencastle Regional. Greencastle won the first game over Attica by 30 to 28 in a game that went double overtime. In the second game Bowers defeated Montezuma by a 23 to 19 score. In the title game Greencastle won by a 24 to 15 count over Bowers.
     The starters for the Bowers team were Lee Wells and Willis Loveless at forward, Boyd Price at center, George Boots and Lawrence Deck at guards. The subs were; Waiter Tribbett, Maurice Clouser and Martin Campbell. From what little I have found, the stars of the Bowers team were Price and Wells.
     It is believed that Bowers started playing basketball in1917. Their last year was 1955 as they were consolidated into Darlington after this season.