What Are Incorrect Team Records Worth?

Posted by Dan Jensen

Someone sent me a copy of the program for the 37th annual Clear Creek basketball tournament of 1969.  Boy, this will be fun reading, I thought.  It had the Wildcat roster.  Paul Trcka and Buddy Carlisle were seniors on that team.  What good players they were.  Hank Bauerschlag was on the varsity as a freshman.  What a good player he became.

Then there were Clear Creek team records from the beginning of the glory years (1953-54) through the 1968-69 season.  I anticipated more fun.  But, a plumb puzzlement quickly pounced upon me.  One of my favorite teams was the one in 1956.  My brother Pat was a senior on that team and I thought sure we went to the state tournament with a perfect 32-0 record.  Well, I guess I thought wrong because the team record is listed as 30-4.

On another thread, Pat claimed that this was the best Clear Creek team of all time, hands down.  Others in that starting lineup, Garvis Hadley, Paul Blanchard, Robert Brown and James Davis may claim the same thing.  How could they do that after losing so many games?  Those rascals would probably also claim they won their first 32 games that year and broke the school record.  Are they all a bunch of liars? 

I know that bunch well and always thought they were such nice children, so maybe I better check this out.  Hey, I wrote a bunch of that stuff down for several years.  Where did I put that book?  Here it is!  Let me dust it off and see if maybe someone needs dusting off.

Yep, that 1956 team finished 33-1 and I solemnly promise that is absolutely correct.  Yeah, we split two games at the state tournament, so we did win our first 32 games that year.  I thought so, but it's good to be sure about such important things.  Accuracy is absolutely vital in such matters.

Well, anyone can slip up now and then.  Ain't nobody perfect.  Wait a minute!  It's hard to believe, but the record of the team right before it is wrong too!  Unbelievable!  The 1955 team is listed at 26-5 but it was really 22-8.  Somebody missed that as badly as the other one.

As I look further, my plumb puzzlement turns to plumb scorn and outrage.  The 1957 record is wrong too!  It should be 33-3 instead of 32-3.  Close enough, you say?  We are not pitching horseshoes here, we are talking about season records.  Well, the 1958 record is listed correctly.  Hallelujah!  Hold the shouting please, because the 1959 and 1962 records are wrong too.

I switch to a list of the records in district play.  The first three are wrong.  I cannot stand any more of this.  I can go no further. 

What is the meaning of this!!  Who is responsible for this!!  I want his name!!

Comments

[Dan Jensen]

There's a good two part feature recently in the Galveston News that will be plumb loverly reading for all Carlisle family fans.

That website address has been shared on another thread but I will repeat it here too: http://galvestondailynews.com/sports.lasso

Some of the facts and figures are wrong but it's good reading. The most glaring error is that we were 99-1 in district play during the Carlisle reign. Not so, it was actually a lowly 92-3.

Alvin beat us to break our 28 game winning streak in 1954 then won again the next year and we lost to LaPorte in the last district game that year when Boonie Wilkening was out with a sprained ankle.

I have posted this elsewhere also but this 99-1 nonsense needs to stop! Nobody is that good, not even old Clear Creek.

[Dan Jensen]

I remain quite unhappy that all these incorrect season records have been allowed to remain in Clear Creek legend for so long. So, I would like to imbed in stone forevermore the correct records for Coach's glory years:

1954 31-2
1955 22-8 NOT 26-5
1956 33-1 NOT 30-4
1957 33-3 NOT 32-3
1958 33-4
1959 27-14 NOT 26-11
1960 39-3
1961 36-2
1962 34-5 NOT 34-4

In district play:
1954 7-1 NOT 9-1
1955 6-2 NOT 10-0
1956 8-0 NOT 10-0

All the above errors are inexcusable but most of all is the 1956 season record. How can anyone NOT remember that we took an undefeated record to the state tournament? 30-4? How can a team lose four games in a state tournament? Try 33-1, the best record of any of Coach's teams.