Durham champs relive exciting year of basketball
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
The Durham Hornets basketball team went all the way in 1963, remaining undefeated all year and winning the state championship.
Seven of the team members and their spouses met Saturday with their coach, Dennis Brunner and his wife Faye at Main Street Café and Durham Community Center to reminisce about their magnificent season and greet long held fans from the community.
Brunner has a long history of success in basketball. He was a star player at Ramona High School, graduating in 1956.
He graduated in 1960 from McPherson College, where he was a four-year starter in basketball. He led the Bulldogs in scoring his senior season and was a unanimous All-Kansas Conference first team selection.
Brunner led a winning Roxbury team in his first year of coaching before going to Durham.
In a newly published book, "Title Towns! Class BB Boys Basketball Champions of Kansas, 1952-1968," author Steven Farley of McPherson profiled the coach and his winning ways.
Based on one-on-one interviews with team members, Farney said Coach Brunner won the respect of his players by instilling good sportsmanship and discipline. The team "dressed in similar clothes, arrived at the gyms together, and carried themselves with a quiet confidence," he wrote.
In his first season at Durham, a Class BB school (60 or less enrollment), Brunner's team finished 20-4. Nine of the top 10 players were juniors, and one was a senior.
In the book, Farney details the entire 26-0 year of the '63 Durham Hornets. During the regular season they defeated Hillsboro, Hope, Gypsum, Florence, Lehigh, Goessel, Tampa, and Solomon. Wins against Hillsboro and Solomon were especially sweet because they were Class B schools.
In the Dickinson-Marion County League Tournament at Solomon, Durham was top seed. They received a bye in the first round and defeated Solomon and Tampa in the final rounds to win the tourney.
In following regular season games against Hope, Roxbury, Goessel, Tampa, and Solomon, the Hornets continued to finish on top, compiling a record of 18-0.
Durham entered the Lehigh District Tournament as the number one seed. They defeated Lehigh and Galva to capture the championship.
The next step was the Rosalia Regional, where the Hornets defeated Dexter, Hamilton, and Cassoday.
They entered the state tournament at Dodge City and defeated Prairie View.
Fortunately for them, two other top-rated teams, Rozel and Melvern, were upset in the first round of the tournament. The Hornets went on to defeat Dwight and Corning to claim the championship.
The townspeople still remember that exciting year.
"About everybody from Durham went to Dodge City unless they couldn't walk," said Doreen Joy, whose husband Melvin coached grade school basketball.
Four returning starters finished the season with averages in double figures. Larry Wedel averaged 17.3 points per game, Larry Kerbs 13.6, Galen Frick 11.4, and Lauren Frantz 10.
Dwight Negley rounded out the top five. He is the only member of the team who is deceased.
Other top 10 players were Rick Riffel, Warren Weibert, Ken Pankratz, Lloyd Meier, and Bob Klein.
Coach Brunner spent the next two years at Meade High School before going on to Wichita North, where he coached for 30 years. His Wichita North teams won five Wichita City League championships and went to the state tournament six times, finishing in third place three years. He later served as athletic director for seven years.
Brunner received several honors during his years in coaching, culminating in his induction into the McPherson College Sports Hall of Fame in October 2005.
The '63 Durham team and their coach will be honored Aug. 1 and inducted into the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association (KCBA) Hall of Fame at a reception to be held in conjunction with the KCBA All-Star basketball games at Washburn University in Topeka.
A plaque honoring the team will be placed in the KCBA Hall of Fame display at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson.
