Win 'Em All: Little Laurel Wins Montana's Biggest Basketball Trophy

by Dennis Gaub

Overview

March 15, 1969: a dozen overachieving teenagers, none taller than 6-foot-2, made Montana high school history. The Laurel Locomotives toppled the larger (in terms of school enrollment and lineup size) Kalispell Braves, in overtime to finish 26-0 and capture their school’s first state basketball championship. The dramatic showdown drew the biggest crowd ever for a Treasure State basketball game. Nearly 11,000 spectators filled the Montana State University Fieldhouse in Bozeman almost to the rafters. A month later, school administrators ended what made it possible for Laurel and two other smaller schools to defeat larger rivals for the state crown three times in six years. The vote to end Big 32 classification ignored its Montana “Hoosiers”-like appeal to fans. But serious fans haven’t forgotten that period, capped by Laurel’s accomplishment. Now, painstaking research and interviews of former players shed new light on events a half-century ago. Hop on the train and watch the Locomotives Win ‘Em All.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940153097015
Publisher:	Dennis Gaub
Publication date:	06/23/2016
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Author Dennis Gaub was born in and grew up in in Montana. He left to receive a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and began a newspaper reporting career that took him to Colorado, Wyoming and Michigan. He returned home and worked 20 years as a sportswriter and City Hall reporter for the Treasure State’s largest newspaper, the Billings Gazette. He changed careers and has worked in the software industry more than a decade. As a high school senior, working part-time for the Gazette, he helped cover the dramatic climax of the story described here. He, his wife, Carolyn, and their son, Julian, a college sophomore, live in Belgrade, Montana – 20 minutes from where the Laurel Locomotives won the 1969 championship in unforgettable fashion.