BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP STORY FROM 1964

(Editor’s Note: We received this wonderful email from Dick Weaver and wanted to share it with you)

I opened the site and read the full article about the Badgers winning their first State tournament in 60 years. Hard to believe that any Limon program could go 60 years without a title.

I had high interest in that story because I was the starting forward on the 1964 state bball championship team. At that time we played the playoff games in the Denver Coliseum before a full house.

One highlight of our tourney was the double overtime one point victory over the team from Ignacio in the semi-finals. We won with a buzzer-beater layup and defeated the Ignacio team.

They were a team from the western Colorado Ignacio Indian reservation and the Denver Post did a big article on them as the trip to Denver was the first time any of the team had been to Denver and some their first time off of their reservation.

Needless to say, the boys from Ignacio were the Denver crowd favorite and when we won the game the booing was deafening.

Limon had such strong teams in all sports during the 60s (including defeating many much larger Denver high schools in Bball and football) that the fans in Denver were really cheering for a long overdue Badger defeat. We disappointed them.

If you look back in your library of old editions in March 1964, you can read of the long ago nail-biter with Ignacio crew. It was such a memorable game it seems like yesterday that their guards Henry Jim and Calvin Joe hit so many long shots that if the 3-point rule had been in effect, they would have upset us to the crowd’s delight.

Thank you, Dick Weaver

(See the photos and stories from 1964 below)

(!964 Limon Leader carried these stories.)

In spite of giving their backers many anxious moments, the Limon Badgers came up with the right solution to all their problems during the State Class B basketball tournament in Denver last week and brought home their fourth championship in the past six years. This is more championships than any other team can claim in this division.

The Badgers went storming into the throne room Saturday night on the impetus of an emphatic 78-62 victory game over Roaring Fork.

Previously Limon had captured an overtime "cliffhanger" from Ignacio, 76-75, on the strength of a last second basket by Jim Richardson, and had defeated Center in the opening round, 70-53.

The Badgers played good basketball for three quarters of each of the first two games. In the Center game they had a lapse in the third quarter which gave their supporters cold chills, as they recalled the Hotchkiss game of a year ago in that same Aurora gym. Limon came back in the last quarter and swept the Vikings from the ranks of the contenders with a blistering attack.

Friday evening at the Denver Coliseum the Badgers encountered the Ignacio Bobcats who were riding the crest of a 20-game winning streak. This one started out just like another game, with Limon retaining a commanding lead all the way. In the last quarter the bottom dropped out of the Limon attack and, urged on by the wildly partisan crowd, Ignacio tied the game in the last second to send it into overtime.

Limon was fortunate to haul this one out of the fire, but took advantage of a lapse upon the part of Calvin Joe, Ignacio star, to win the game.

The Roaring Fork game, altho close the first half, did not remain that way long in the second half, as the Badgers went on a scoring spree to take the result out of the realm of doubt early in the contest.

The Badgers were followed to Denver by their usual huge corps of supporters and had the support of a large part of the crowd Saturday night.