The Spirit of '76

1976 Cowan

     The headline had to be a mistake, along the lines of the famous Truman-Dewey headline a New York paper had printed a couple of generations earlier. "Cowan Win Sectional By Beating Muncie Southside 56-54."

     Folks in Cowan, a tiny hamlet in southern Delaware county, had to look at the date, it had to be an April Fools Day almost a month early.  The Blackhawks had never even been in a sectional final game, much less won one.

     But it was true, the unthinkable had happened. Coach Steve Brunes and the boys had won the sectional. The Blackhawk had started the tourney by getting a break from the schedule-makers. Cowan was in the bye-bracket with a Burris team they had beaten earlier in the season, while all of the basketball powers in the county, Muncie Central, Muncie South, Muncie North, and Yorktown, were all in the long-bracket.

     Yorktown opened the tourney with a 57-51 upset win over the 18th ranked Titans of Muncie North.   South beat Central in the other opening round game.  The semi-final round saw the Blackhawks sneaking by Burris, 64-61, and South upset a strong Yorktown team, 50-48.   This put the Blackhawks in the final game for the first time ever.

     It must have been destiny, it had to be. Randy Mitchell, a 42% free throw shooter for the season, canned eight in a row for the Blackhawks in the fourth period and in the overtime period it took to decide the game. Senior Rick Manis canned a baseline jumper to send the game in overtime after the Rebels had missed several crucial late free throws. But, with Mike Miller and Mark Smith leading the way, Cowan outlasted South 56-54 to win their first and only sectional title.

     The team went home to a wild Cowan, complete with a bonfire, and more people than the gym could hold. Brunes said it was probably the first time there was a traffic jam in the small town, which had no stoplights.

     The Blackhawks made the short trip to New Castle the next week, and fell to state power Richmond, 73-51, in the opening round of the regional. The team fell apart after that. One member of the team transferred to Muncie North, another was killed in an auto accident. Brunes moved on to North Newton after that season, where he won that school's only sectional in 1978.  

     Cowan did not win another sectional game until 1995, and the trophy they won by beating the Rebels stands alone in the trophy case.  But, to the people of Cowan, the Spirit of '76 has a completely different meaning that it does for the rest of America.