Remembering 1963: River Valley honors historic boys basketball team

CALEDONIA — Sixty years later and it's still bounces around in their minds like the shot that ultimately beat them.

"The ball went up and it’s hard to believe. I can still see that. I still have dreams about that, nightmares," Bryan Neff said.

The 1962-63 River Valley boys basketball team was seconds away from possibly making a state tournament berth. Instead, the Vikings had to settle for a Class A regional runner-up trophy after losing 39-36 to powerful Jackson Center in Troy's rocking Hobart Arena.

"You’d think as old as we are — I’m 77 and these guys are 83 or something," Gary Tyo joked, "but you’d think you’d get by that and not think about it. I don’t think about things I did in junior high school, but this high school thing and my last game, I think about it and you guys probably do to. You hate it. If I’d just played a little bit better."

Nevertheless, that squad is remembered for two reasons. One, it remains the farthest a boys basketball team at River Valley has ever gone in the tournament. Two, it happened in the school's first year of existence.

On Tuesday night, River Valley welcomed back that squad to be honored during the senior night contest with Centerburg. Neff, Tyo, Harry Klingel and Dick Axline — four of the five starters — along with student manager Dean Chivington returned to be feted.

"I think it’s cool we went as far as we did, and no team has gone that far since. I’d be very happy for these (current) guys if they went further with it," Tyo said.

But he also relishes the fact that they are the lone group to go so far in school history.

"It’s selfish, but I’m being honest," he added..

It was indeed a special time for a special group.

"It was exciting, just exciting," Tyo remembered.

Claridon, Caledonia and Waldo consolidation

In 1962, Claridon and Waldo tied for the Marion County League championship with 7-1 records. Late in his junior season at Waldo, Axline, who led the team in scoring at 16.5 points per game as a forward, and everyone else learned they would be consolidating with Claridon and Caledonia for form a new school district — River Valley.

Ridgedale had already consolidated in 1957 from Morral and Meeker. At the same time RV was forming, Elgin was consolidating from Prospect, LaRue, Green Camp and New Bloomington.

"We were fortunate in that both Waldo and Claridon tied for the league title the year before," Axline said. "Quite a few of the Waldo kids knew quite a few of the Claridon kids because of going to the same churches and so forth. It made it a little easier. Our country personalities really blended together quickly and not just in athletics but in other things at the school."

Waldo's head coach John Stanley was picked to be the new boss at River Valley, and he had the enviable task of making a Marion County dream team of sorts, combining the best he had at Waldo along with returnees coming from an equal 16-win Claridon squad and winless Caledonia from 1962.

If there was any tension in turning rivals into teammates, none of them admit it.

"It was our first year together. Harry was from Waldo. Dick Axline is from Waldo. Bryan and I were from Claridon. Our first year as a basketball team we really didn’t know each other. We didn’t spend time together," Tyo said, a senior guard.

Combining the rosters from three programs into one was not political according to the players.

"I don’t know if we ever had a concern about this kid went to Waldo or whatever," Axline said. "Coach Stanley would have never done that, and Bus Augenstein wouldn’t have done that either as the football coach. You get the best of the best out there."

And once practice started, they were no longer Waldo, Claridon and Caledonia players. They were Vikings.

"We all tried to play as a team, and I think we all did pretty well in gelling," Tyo said.

Klingel, a senior point guard, agreed.

"I think it was right from the beginning myself. I think it was," Klingel said.

Team Building

Despite the abundance of talent put together for the first time, the Vikings were not an overnight success.

Klingel, Axline and Chuck Blanton were senior starters from Waldo, while Tyo was a senior from Claridon, and Neff was a junior center from Claridon. Maybe they got along on the court, in practice and in the locker room, but it took time to mesh as a team.

"To come together, it was tough to do, but by tournament time, we’re in," Neff said.

River Valley struggled to find its rhythm early on. The Vikings won their first two games, beating Johnsville and Marion Catholic handily, but they also lost to Pleasant, Ridgedale and Elgin early on.

Eleven games into the season, RV was just 6-5,

Following a 1-point loss to the Comets, the Vikings ended the regular season with a six-game winning streak, still finishing last in the Marion County League and tied for third in the first year of the North Central Conference.

"It took us a while to gel," Tyo said. "We lost some games during the year, but by the end of the year we had things together pretty well."

It showed come tournament time.

The Vikes opened Class A sectional play at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Marion with a 60-28 triumph over Cardington and followed it up with a 53-42 victory over Richwood. That setup a rematch with Radnor, a team RV handled 50-36 in mid-January.

"Dick Meyer knew he didn’t have a chance offensively, so he played a slowdown game," Axline said of the legendary coach at Radnor and later Buckeye Valley.

In the sectional championship at the coliseum in front of more than 1,500 fans, River Valley led 10-7 in the first quarter, but Radnor rallied to take a 17-14 lead at halftime, and that's when their opponent really became deliberate. Radnor tried stalling, but the Vikings came up with enough turnovers to flip the game and take a 22-19 lead into the fourth period.

Radnor continued to hold the ball for layups and free throws in the fourth period and it worked, eventually taking a 23-22 lead.

Blanton tied the game at 24-all with 1:54 left, and Tyo put them up with two foul shots, but Radnor sent the game into overtime. In OT, Tyo hit the shot that proved to be the game-winner with 2:14 left, and the Vikes were headed to the district tournament at the Ohio State Fairgrounds Coliseum in Columbus.

Tournament Run

In the Class A district semifinals, RV defeated Newark Catholic 46-40 in the semifinals, and then they played arguably their best game of the season in knocking off Jonathan Alder 66-54 as Axline went for 19, Tyo 18, Blanton 10, Klingel nine and Neff seven.

"A big piece of it was down at Columbus. Those games down there were key," Neff said. "I remember coming back to the locker room after we won the district and they’re taking our pictures. Dick Porterfield is standing there, and I say, ‘What did we get?’ I really didn’t know. I didn’t realize it was the district tournament. We played it one game at a time. I really asked the guy, ‘Why are they taking our picture?’"

Why? River Valley became the first school from the county to win a district championship in basketball and advance to a regional berth.

Marion County was basketball crazy that early spring. Not only were the Vikings making history, but Marion Harding was on a similar run in Class AA, eventually bringing home a state runner-up trophy.

As for the Vikings, they had no idea how rare their experience was. They were good about staying in the moment.

"We really did play it one game at a time, and I had no idea what one game meant over another," Tyo said. "That’s how dumb I was, I guess."

Up next for River Valley was a regional semifinal game against the aptly named school of Seven Mile, a district that sat seven miles from Hamilton in Butler County in southwest Ohio.

And the Vikings would do it in front of the largest crowd they ever saw. More than 6,500 fans packed Troy's Hobart Arena on a Friday night.

"One thing I want to mention is our fans," Klingel said. "We had great crowds. We had a great following all the time. We certainly did. Our fans outnumbered their fans down in Columbus (in the district) probably three to one."

The Vikes gave them plenty to cheer about against Seven Mile, a team that lost eight of its first 11 games before turning around its season to win 12 games and make the Sweet 16.

"We hope only to play our own kind of relaxed basketball," Stanley told the Marion Star before the game. "They must be pretty good to have come this far."

It was 12-12 after the first quarter and RV led 23-22 at halftime. In the second half, the Vikings took a pair of seven-point leads and Seven Mile got no closer than three points down the stretch, as Axline had 13 points, Blanton and Tyo 12 apiece, Klingel nine and Neff six.

Stanley never played a substitute, and the Vikings took advantage of going to the foul line 32 times, making 24.

"It wasn't one of our better games, but it was adequate," Stanley said in the Star afterward.

The victory sent them to the regional championship the next night in Hobart Arena, facing highly touted Jackson Center of Shelby County. With a 21-3 record, Jackson Center upended 21-win Sabina 71-70 to make the finals.

The Tigers were a high-scoring outfit, averaging 70 points a game. They were led by a stout 6-foot-5 center in Don Ware, and he caused problems.

"They had a big guy, a 6-5 guy. He was this big (wide) as well," Neff said motioning with his hands wider than his shoulders. "That was big for the time. He was built, and he was hard to stop, so I fouled him. I sat out most of the third quarter with foul trouble."

RV jumped out to an 8-0 lead and held the advantage for most of the first three quarters.

"I was the leading scorer in the third quarter – one point," Tyo said. "We just didn’t get it together. It was one of my worst games. That’s why I feel bad."

Because of RV;s scoring drought, Jackson Center took the lead late in the third quarter and built the advantage to 33-27 with 3:12 left in the game.

Axline and Neff went to work, combining for 10 points in the fourth period with Neff's final basket tying the game at 36-36 with 17 seconds left.

However, just seconds later, the Tigers answered with a field goal. River Valley couldn't answer back and was forced to foul, eventually losing 39-36. Axline posted 13 points and Tyo had 11, but no one else scored more than four points for RV.

"We scored one point in the third quarter. That was our downfall," Klingel said. "I just listened to a tape of it a few days ago and we still got beat."

Memories

Sixty years later and the living team members are still a part of each others lives.

"It’s great. (Neff) and I get together often, and the rest of us get together occasionally. It makes us feel good to have this little bit of recognition," Tyo said.

And when they come together, stories of that first season together and the long postseason ride they enjoyed remain chief topics.

"We talk about things," Axline said. "Gary and I spent quite a bit of time getting people called (for the Tuesday reunion), and we talked about things we maybe could have done different in the last game that we lost that would have put us in the state tournament rather than going home."

Six decades later and the loss still stings.

"I think about the Jackson Center game quite often because to be that close and be ahead at halftime and lose by three, it makes you think about what we could have done different," Axline added.

Neff still has dreams about it, and Tyo can't shake it either. Nevertheless, they achieved something no other River Valley boys basketball team has accomplished and did so in the first year as a school. That means something to those who have shared that bond for going on 60 years.

"We love each other. We really do," Tyo said.

Not bad from a group of strangers who eventually gelled into a historic Marion County team.

rmccurdy@gannett.com

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1962-63 River Valley Vikings

• Head Coach: John Stanley.

• JV coach: Duane Kline.

• Managers: Rodney Fairchild, Dean Chivington.

• Seniors: Dick Axline, Chuck Blanton, Harry Klingel, Jay Miglore, Fred Temple, Gary Tyo.

• Juniors: Bryan Neff, Dan Penix, Dick Porterfield, Wayne Rapp, Dean Sauerwine.

• Record: 18-6, 4-2 North Central Conference, 1-5 Marion County League.

• Tournament: Class A Regional Runners-up.

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Remembering 1963: River Valley honors historic boys basketball team