Millinocket Hoopsters Stand Proud The ‘63 New England basketball tournament

by Charles Francis

Diehard Boston basketball fans of a certain generation still talk about the Maine team that took apart hometown favorite and favored Rindge Tech in the 1963 New England Basketball Tournament. The Maine team was the George Wentworth-coached Stearns High Minutemen of Millinocket.

In the decade before the 1963 tournament, teams from Connecticut had dominated this New England premier showcase for high school basketball. Connecticut had opted not to send teams to the tournament that year, and Rindge Tech, which had dominated Massachusetts high school round ball that season, was expected to continue its winning ways for the New England tourney. When Steams High School put an end to that scenario in the semifinals, it sent a shock wave across the Bay State. What added salt to the injury that Massachusetts sports fans felt was that the ‘63 final was all Maine. The Minutemen from Millinocket went on to defeat the one team that had already beaten them that year, the Shipbuilders from Bath’s Morse High.

The 1963 New England Basketball tournament was the stuff that legends are made of, and it still serves as an important part of the mystique that is Maine high school basketball, and that of Stearns and George Wentworth.

George Wentworth has gone down in Maine basketball lore as the state’s greatest coach. Part of the reason for this is that his Stearns teams always fared well. Beyond that is the fact that Wentworth instilled a certain ethic in his players — an ethic that stemmed from his own days as a student and an athlete, first at Eastern Maine Conference Seminary in Bucksport, and then at Notre Dame, where he played basketball in the early 1930s. For many, it was the 1963 New England Tournament that was the beginning of the modern era of Maine high school basketball.

In the tournament Stearns faced (cont. on page 32)

(cont. from page 31)

Rogers High of Rhode Island, and Rindge, before meeting Morse. Morse played Bishop Bradley of New Hampshire and Tolman High of Rhode Island. Both Maine teams played backto-back on Sunday, March 16th. Morse played first.

The outcome of the March 16th game between Morse and Bishop Bradley was never really in question, although there was a point in the third quarter when the score was tied. Then Morse proceeded to take its opponent apart and won 61 to 52. Stearns won its game over Rogers by a score of 69 to 61.

It was the Stearns-Rogers game that made Boston sportswriters first take notice of the team from northern Maine. While it could be expected that a Maine team could beat another from northern New England, the fact that a Maine team would defeat a southern New En- gland team was out of the question. In addition, Rogers’ players were taller, and therefore supposedly possessed an advantage.

The first half of the Stearns-Rogers game was low scoring. At halftime, it was only 26-21 with Stearns out in front. In the third quarter Dean Vaznis, the Stearns big man, scored six straight points to increase the lead to twelve. The game was never in question after that. Terry Carr had a total of twenty-six points and Jon MacDonald, twenty. Boston sportswriters reported that while Maine teams were quite capable of scoring, they had yet to prove themselves against a Massachusetts team. Morse never would.

The next series in the tournament took place the following weekend. Morse was the first of the Maine teams to play. Tolman of Rhode Island proved to be more of a victim than an opponent. Morse won handily, 60 to 45.

The attendance for the Stearns-Rindge game was over ten thousand. More Massachusetts fans were in attendance than those from Maine. Rindge fans and Massachusetts partisans were disappointed, however, as the Minutemen opened by scoring the first six points.

Rindge did close the gap to one point in the second period, but then Carr and MacDonald alternated baskets. The second half of the game was what Maine fans have come to know as a George Wentworth patent game. The Stearns team played slow, control ball. While Rindge did close the Maine lead to a single point, once again, the result was never in question, with Terry Carr scoring a total of twenty-eight points, setting the stage for an all-Maine final.

The New England final in Boston was a repeat of the Maine final in Bangor. Morse had won that one by a single point in double overtime, and for a time, it looked as if the Shipbuilders would again triumph over the Minutemen.

The first period ended with the score 15-13, Stearns. The half ended at 3025, Morse. The third period began with Stearns outscoring Morse 8-1 and ended with the Minutemen holding a 42-37 lead. Then, in the fourth quarter, Morse surged ahead. Altogether, the game was tied six times, but when the final buzzer sounded, it was Stearns by two points, 56 to 54.

Both Steams and Morse made excellent representatives from the State of Maine at the ‘63 New England Tournament. It is the Stearns-Rindge game and George Wentworth, however, that carry the sting of Maine basketball in the Bay State to this day. In much the same way, it is still Wentworth and Stearns that speak volumes on basketball in Maine.