1967 Selma

Selma Saved the Best For Last

                       Kneeling:Richard Rees-Asst. Coach, Mike Chamness-mgr, John Bright-head coach                     Standing:Randy Gibson, Cliff Dragoo, Jeff Jackson, R. Bousman, Curt Glore, Bart Thomas, Jim Sutton, Tim Marker, E. Smith, M. McGill, Gerald Dragoo, Mike Justice

     Both the coach and this school had a strong basketball tradition. Delaware county coaching legend Earl Snider led the Bluebirds to three straight Delaware County Tourney titles from 1944-46.  Snider added a couple more Delaware County tourney titles while coaching at Yorktown, and ended up his career coaching the Daleville Broncos.  Snider won 425 games, most of them coaching Delaware county schools, in a career that spanned almost 30 years.

     Portland basketball legend John Bright took over the coaching reigns at the school for the 1961-62 season after coaching stints at White Pigeon, MI, and Albany.  Bright, along with teammate Darrell  Brewster and Richard Bond, were known as the three Bs while playing for the Panthers.  Brewster was named an Indiana All-Star in 1948, and went on to an NFL career.  Bright was named to the All-Star team in 1949.

    It took Bright a couple of years, but in 1964, behind the play of such standouts as Greg Hudson, Steve Thomas, Mike Nau, Larry New.  and John Bartle, the Bluebirds put together an undefeated season, and won their last Delaware County tourney title. Bright took his teams to the finals of the county tourney in 1966, and they lost to eventual champion Desoto in 1967.

    Selma received a break in time for the 1967 state tourney, when they were moved to the Randolph County sectional, and out of the Muncie sectional. Center, the other Delaware county school in the Randolph county sectional field, had played in the Randolph county sectional since 1964.  No Delaware county school (save for the Muncie schools of Central, Burris, and South) had ever won a sectional title.

    The Bluebirds got off to a fast start for the season, compiling a 10-1 record by Delaware county tourney time, with their only defeat coming at the hands of a good Montpelier team.  They disposed of Cowan and Eaton in the first two rounds of the tourney before losing to Desoto, 59-58 in overtime in the semi-final round. Three weeks later, the spanked this same Desoto team by 30 points to gain a small measure of revenge.

     Selma won five of its last seven ballgames, and entered the sectional with a 17-4 season record. The Bluebirds were led by Curt Glore, Jim Sutton, Bob Thomas and Cliff Dragoo.

     In an ironic twist of fate, the opening round draw pitted Selma against the Center Spartans, the school that would merge with Selma to form Wapahani the following season. The Bluebirds struggled with the Spartans for most of the game and held off a late charge by Center to win, 58-54.   The Spartans closed their season and their school with a 2-17 record.  The next game matched the Bluebirds and Monroe Central, which had beaten Redkey, 57-53, in the opening game of the tourney. Selma, which had beaten the Bears by three points earlier in the season, doubled that and beat the Bears 75-69, and earned the right to face the defending champion and tourney favorite Union City Indians in the final game.

     Union City  came through the bottom bracket and had reached the final game by Union, then in the semi-final round, defeated Winchester in a wild affair, 91-86 in double overtime.  With Sutton scoring 17 points and Thomas 14, Selma claimed their first and only title, scoring late in the game to take a 56-54 decision from the Indians.

     The sectional win put the Bluebirds into the regional at New Castle, where Selma had the misfortune of drawing the host school, which was ranked #3 in the state. Selma hung tough most of the game with the bigger New Castle team, but New Castle put together a couple of big quarters and handed Selma their final basketball defeat ever, 71-53.

      Selma had only two seniors, Glore and Tim Marker on that 1967 team.  John Bright returned to coach the first Wapahani team, which had many members of his sectional championship team.  This team compiled a fine 14-5 regular season record, and once again, in 1968 returned to the final game of the Randolph county sectional. But, in spite of a game high 32 points from Bart Thomas, the Raiders fell to the Bears, 79-76, after trailing by 13 points heading into the final quarter.

Phil Eskew, head man at the IHSAA, congratulates Selma coach John Bright after Selma's first sectional championship ever.