Tale Of The Tigers Former Stars Relive The Past On Eve Of Lc’s Return To State

Glenn Williams, Paul Mencke, Mike Homer and a dozen other coaches and players put the Lewis and Clark Tigers in the boys State AAA high school basketball tournament, but Bob Lobdell is leading them there.

The Tigers, coached for almost four decades by the legendary E.L. “Squinty” Hunter, were once the high school basketball power everyone tried duplicate and conquer. They are returning to the state tournament in Seattle for the first time since 1963.

Lobdell, a junior on that team that finished eighth and now a teacher at LC, has been waiting for this moment.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Lobdell said in one of the many telephone conversations he’s had since word of the Tigers’ trip has spread. “I’m just elated. I didn’t know until Sunday morning; I was refereeing in Missoula Saturday night. When I read it in the paper, it brought tears to my eyes.”

Lobdell was touched when he was one of the first faculty members at LC called to be part of the supervisory staff in Seattle and he hopes to drive the lead vehicle.

“I’m pulling out my lettersweater from ‘64,” he said. “I’ll probably wear it while I’m driving. I’ll probably wear it while I’m over there.”

Lobdell won’t know it until he reads the paper this morning, and you can bet he is devouring every word about the Tigers, but he has another job.

“Tell Lobdell he has to cheer for two,” said Dwight Damon, a Valley dentist and a player on the 1958 LC team that lost in the championship game.

Damon’s most vivid memory is a good omen for the 1996 Tigers, who are 18-9 and open with top-ranked and heavily favored Sehome (26-0) at 10:30 Wednesday morning.

“We were playing Roosevelt early in the morning the first day,” Damon said. “They had Charlie Sells, he went to Washington State. He was a great player. They had 6-7, 6-5, 6-3 across the front line. We were short. I was the tallest at 6-4.

“At the start of the game, after 3-1/2, 4 minutes, we were behind 11-2. Squinty called a timeout.”

As the crowd was roaring, he said, the players walked to the bench. Hunter was as calm as could be.

“‘We’ve got them,”’ Damon recalled Hunter saying. “He grabbed a piece of chalk and drew a play on the floor we had never run before.”

The Tigers went on to win, advancing to the championship game before losing to Richland.

“We had no business” beating Roosevelt, Damon said.

Those were the glory years.

Hunter started coaching in the 1923-24 season and in his 39 season (he missed one year to coach in college), the Tigers won 21 league titles, including one string of 12 straight, and won state titles in 1926, ‘42, ‘44 and ‘49.

After the 1963 trip to state, the tournament was cut from 16 teams to four regionals and a final four. LC made the final eight in ‘64, but didn’t make it to Seattle and Hunter retired.

LC also participated in the regional in 1965, ‘66 and ‘76, and those are now considered state appearances since the Tigers were in the final 16. The tournament returned to 16 teams in the late 1980s.

Lobdell, who played in the last 16-team tournament in 1963, officiated at state the first year it was expanded back to 16.

“I have to go to this,” Lobdell said. “I hope I’m alive in 32 years, but I hope it’s not that long (before LC returns).”

Glenn Williams is LC’s fifth coach since Hunter retired.

“A lot of the old Tiger pride has been there, now it’s starting to resurface,” Williams said. “It’s great to be part of that.”

Lobdell said, “We’ve had a couple of pretty good teams since then, but they got eliminated in that old regional concept. We haven’t had the run of great basketball kids. We’ve had great kids, great athletes, but the GSL is very tough … we haven’t been able to get over the hump.”

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