Moving on from Ridgeway HS football to basketball in honor of Ridgeway’s homecoming, I am going to take a moment for a little family pride as well. The Ridgeway Owls basketball team of 1946-47 was probably one of the best Ridgeway ever had. My father-in-law, Marvin Scott, played on this team as guard during his senior year. The Owls had a great article written in the St. Joseph Gazette, published Feb. 26, 1947, at which time they had won 24 games without a single loss. Miller Brown coached the team. The article mentioned that Darryl “Doc” Dale, Jim Whistler and Frank Anderson all played offense, George Tuggle played center and guard and Bill Clayton played guard as well as Marvin. Other members of the team included Roy Lee Brown, Roland Rucker, Kenneth Pierson, Curtis Follette, Kenneth Wise, Kenneth Ingham, Everett Hammack, Dean Pierce, Marvin Williams and Clair Poynter as student manager.
Coach Brown didn’t want to name any stars on the team but talked about how they all played together to make a winning team. They did work well together; the opposition teams only averaged 25-30 points per game. The Owls won 31 games that season and four tournaments before losing their only game in the postseason play. Over 100 fans traveled to see the Owls play their game in St. Joseph. (Ridgeway: Then and Now, Vol. II, page 120)
