From the Vaults: A Hoops Tradition

Artifact: In this special edition of From the Vaults, let’s step out of the  and visit —specifically office in the Lindbergh Center. An old basketball sits on the shelf. Several people have signed their names on the ball. Big, black letters on the front read, "Minnesota State High School Champions/1952.”

Back-story: Following a decade of strong seasons—including a run at the state championships for both the boys and girls teams this year—it can start to seem like Hopkins has an unbroken hoops tradition.

In reality, this 1952 championship and a repeat the following year were the highlights that got the community through a half-century drought in state basketball titles. The girls team didn’t even win its first basketball title until 2004.

The 1952 team’s success wasn’t a surprise. Hopkins ended the regular season with a 20-1 record. It then stomped Minneapolis Vocational 61-31 to win the regional tournament and pummeled Albany by an even larger 66-31 margin to head to the finals.

It was a historic season even before Hopkins won the championship. Hopkins center Bob Wagner became the first black all-state basketball player that year. 

But forward Dave Tschimperle was the star. Tschimperle, a junior in 1952, had already been selected to the all-tournament team the year before. He was destined to repeat that feat in 1952 and 1953 and was one of just 23 players chosen for the prestigious Chuck Taylor High School All-American Team. The 18 points he scored in the 1953 North-South High School All-Star Game were the second most for that year.

Tschimperle, Wagner and Co. were also led by legendary football and basketball coach Russell “Butzie” Maetzold—whose name graces . Maetzold racked up an impressive record in the 39 years he spent as a math teacher, coach and athletic director in Hopkins.

A Hopkins High School Athletic Hall of Fame plaque states that Maetzold won 47 consecutive games from 1951 to 1953, going undefeated in 1952. A 1953 Minneapolis Sunday Tribune article and the 1952 tournament program each record one loss for the team in 1952. However, the 1953 article also notes the 47-game win streak—then a state record—so the streak likely took place between 1952 and 1953. In either case, the coach, described in news articles as a “brainy,” had a solid record.

On a team that loaded with talent, perhaps it should be no surprise that the actual game was a blowout—with Hopkins toppling South St. Paul 42-29. The following year’s final was hardly better. Although Hibbing closed within four at one point, the final score was 58-47 Hopkins. Tschimperle, alone, scored 26 points.

That was the last basketball victory Hopkins had to savor until the boys team captured the 2002 title. This time, success would prove more lasting. The team followed that with championships in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2010 and is now ranked No. 1.

The girls followed their 2004 victory with another in 2006. That team has also been ranked No. 1 for most of 2011 season, although the effect of Thursday’s loss to Minnetonka is not yet clear. 

Yet Hopkins’ winning ways leave no doubt that the school has solidified its hoops tradition.

***

1952

1953