By Ralphine Major

It will soon be coming to a close. My long-running series on the 1965 Gibbs Eagles’ basketball team has gone on much longer than I had planned. Only a handful of feature stories remain to be written about the team and former Eagles’ Coach, Bob Dagley.

I once looked at the team picture and saw only a group of teenage boys and their coach. Working on the series has been an enlightening and inspirational journey into the lives of these former players, the coach, and their families.

Though I had never met most of them, I knew they had represented our small school in a remarkable way by achieving a 31-2 record, winning the District 6 Championship, and even being ranked No. 1 in the State at one time.

Not until writing this series did I fully understand the magnitude of the team’s success. They made history because there were no divisions in the sport at that time, and Gibbs played the much larger schools.

The late Steve Wilson was the last player featured in the series. His daughter, Carly, was only four months old when Steve passed away. She and her brother provided some great family photos and wonderful memories of Steve in the previous columns.

While Steve and his teammates may have played for the smallest school in the county, their influence has extended way beyond that small school they once represented.