Run4Fun2009 wrote:B Historian wrote:Haven't posted in awhile but still doing a great deal of research. Here's some new trivia questions:
1. Who coached for one season at a ND Class B school, was fired, and then went on to become the all-time coaching wins leader in another state?
2. Brian Buhr from Page graduated in 1987 with 2230 career points. However, he did not finish on top of the career scoring list among Class B players that graduated that year. Who was the player that did?
3. Name the player that scored all of his team's points in the second half of a state tournament game in an upset of a top-ranked opponent.
4. What year did the Class B state champ actually have a larger enrollment than the Class A state champ?
1. Larry Luitjens - Most wins in South Dakota history (733 wins is what comes to mind between De Smet & Custer)...coached one year at New England...I remember seeing this a couple years ago.
I have no idea on #3...going to guess this is well before my time of State Tourney stats.
Correct! Luitjens came to New England St. Mary's in the fall of 1971 after leading De Smet SD to three straight state championship game appearances and two titles. NE St. Mary's of course had tremendous tradition having appeared in two straight state title games prior to Luitjens arriving.
As the story goes, the priest running NE St. Mary's at the time did not like Luitjens' style of play, complaining that it was too wide open. They met during the season and Luitjens was told he could stay if he won a state title but if not he would be relieved of his duties.
St. Mary's was the top-ranked team in the state going into the District 32 tournament. The district was loaded that year, with New England Public and Scranton also both ranked in the state top ten to finish the year. St. Mary's defeated New England Public in the district semifinals but lost 55-54 to Scranton in the championship game, which ended the season since only the district champ reached the regional tournament at that time. The district championship game was on a Saturday night, Luitjens was relieved of his duties the following Monday.
After taking a year off from coaching, Luitjens ended up at Custer SD where he won five more state titles. As karma would have it, NE St. Mary's never participated in another Class B state tournament before closing in 1992.