Chief Logan at East Juniata basketball, 1962

BOB SIEBER

East Juniata High School

Class of 1963

In late January or early February of 1962 near the end of the 1961-62 Tri-Valley League basketball season, East Juniata High School was scheduled to host Chief Logan at Cocolamus. For high school teams in Miffin County in the early ‘60’s, traveling to rural Juniata County was like going “out in the sticks.”

There was quite a buzz at EJ and around the McAlisterville-Thompsontown-Richfeld area since everyone was aware of Chief Logan’s exceptional records in football and basketball. The Mingoes were in the running for the Tri-Valley basketball crown.

Earlier in the season, EJ had lost to Chief Logan 6851 on the Mingo court. EJ was fnishing the schedule at about a .500 clip and was looking to play the role of spoiler.

Through the Sports Section of the Lewistown Sentinel, we were all aware of Chief Logan’s athletes such as Dick Gingrich, John Monsell and John Zarkavich. Plus, we may have seen them play in the basketball tournament held at Lewistown High School over the Christmas Holiday. Also, several fans and students traveled to Miffintown to see Juniata Joint host Chief Logan in football.

For my brother Chas and I, there are two additional links to Chief Logan High School. Our cousins in Yeagertown, Jack, Patty, Dennis and later Roger Ziegler, all attended Chief Logan. Plus, EJ’s Industrial Arts teacher for the ’61’62 school year was Gene Brown, a standout athlete from Chief Logan. Gene assisted in coaching the soccer team and was the junior varsity basketball coach. We often had spirited discussions on why “city” teams from Miffin County were frequently better than more rural teams from Juniata County.

The gym at EJ was packed and noisy. The place was juiced and pumped with EJ leading the JV game. About mid- way through the JV contest I noticed that Fran Fisher and John Waugaman from WKVA Radio were setting up their equipment for a remote broadcast.

Fisher was on his way to establishing a career broadcasting Penn State football games. Waugaman was a salesman at the station who enjoyed sitting in on sports broadcasts.

The varsity contest in the packed gym was fastpaced and relatively close during the frst half. However, Chief Logan came out strong in the second half and, like the game earlier in the season on its home court, won by 16 or 17 points.

However, the real story of the evening was when Gene Brown’s junior varsi- ty team decisively defeated Chief Logan 77-46.

As a junior non-starter who was on his way to scoring 69 points for the season, my memories of the event obviously have little to do with the actual game.

I fnally got in around the middle of the fourth quarter when the outcome had been decided. In the raucous environment, in front of a packed house and a WKVA broadcast, while trying to ft into our defense, I ran smack-dab into John Zarkovich. It was a collision on his blind side taking him totally by surprise.

I was not called for a foul since we were away from the action and the ball. My reaction was “uh-oh, now what?” After all, he was muscular and bigger than me. He stopped, turned toward me and said in a disgusted tone, “Gee!”

After high school I learned that John had married a girl from McAlisterville. I decided that if I ever see him around town or at the annual Fayette Community Carnival I will introduce myself, shake hands, and quickly tell him about that evening 61 years ago. I hope he will fnd the whole thing amusing.