Stewart: Milwaukee North state champions get moment in spotlight

For so long Milwaukee North basketball was great but never No. 1.

The Blue Devils’ record was nearly unmatched during a seven-year period from 1957-'64 when it reached the state tournament five times. North took three second-place trophies during that run and a consolation title in ’63.

The school made it back to state in 1974 only to be stonewalled again, this time time by their chief rival, Milwaukee Lincoln, which then lost the state final in overtime to Superior.

The 1979-'80 season was a different story, though. To say the year was magical wouldn’t be overstating the case.

“In all honesty, it really was,” North alum Douglas Larry said. “It was like ‘Wow, is this really happening?' ”

It really did. The Blue Devils knocked off defending state champion Milwaukee Tech and one of the City Conference's tri-champions, Washington, on the way to a Class A state berth. Once in Madison, they scored single-digit victories over Eau Claire Memorial, Sussex Hamilton and Janesville Craig.

The team will be honored at the North Hall of Fame Banquet Saturday at the HIlton Garden Inn at 11600 W. Park Place.

To be inducted as a team is a fitting tribute to a group that didn’t have any stars. Its top players were Lawrence Ingram and Larry, but no one on the team was an all-City selection that year.  Their cohesiveness made them great.

“We were a brotherhood,” said Elliott Torrence, a backup guard who was a senior that year. “We prayed before we played. That was our thing. We felt like we were ready to take on anybody.”

The school’s only boys basketball state championship-winning season unfolded the way a good movie does.

A state title that year was not only unexpected – the team finished tied for fourth in the City Conference – but it came during a time of upheaval in the district.

Busing as a means of desegregating schools was underway and there were plans to turn North’s sparkling new building into a City-wide specialty school rather than have it draw students from the surrounding neighborhood..

The thought of losing a school that had played such a large role in the African-American community wasn’t acceptable. The city had already lost its other historically black school when Lincoln was phased out in 1979.

Enough is enough. That was the slogan and it could be found on posters on the field house walls. That mentality manifested itself with a school-wide walk-out and march from the school on 10th and Center streets to the district office at 52nd and Vliet and it couldn’t help but manifest itself on the court.

“Many of us had aunts and uncles and parents who attend school in the older building,” Torrence said. "During their era, they were asking and hoping and wishing for that new school. So we finally got it and the thought of it being taken away from us was not going down without a fight.”

That fight carried over to basketball. North's tournament run included victories over defending state champion Milwaukee Tech and Washington, which along with Marshall and Madison, shared the City Conference title.

The Blue Devils won the sectional final, 61-52, over West Allis Central as Greg Melton (16 points), Ingram (12) and Mike Brown (11) scored in double digits. The team’s strengths were its play in the paint with players like the 6-5 Ingram and its competitiveness, which was embodied in guys like Brown, one of the team’s captains.

“He was almost that indestructible kind of player,” Torrence said. “That’s how we look at him. He was just a flat-out winner. Period. He spoke no other language.”

Neither did the rest of the Blue Devils down the stretch of that season.

Despite a 54-46 score, North had little problem with Eau Claire Memorial in the quarterfinals. It was much the same for North in a 60-54 victory over Sussex Hamilton in the semifinals when Ingram (21 points) and Larry (14) led the way.

North faced Janesville Craig in the final and won, 65-63, in a game that featured a hard-nosed style of play you would expect when 52 fouls are called. Louis Cavalier had the pleasure of sealing the win with two free throws with 22 seconds left.

“It was one of those things you read about in sports when there is just no doubt in their minds and there is no panic,” said Robert Kern, an assistant coach that season who later became the school’s head coach. “Whatever situation came up, it was like ‘Yeah, we’ve got this. … Everything will be fine.' ”

Coach Garmer Currie passed away. Percey Cox and Brown are no longer with us either, but Torrence expects most of his remaining teammates to be on hand this weekend when the arguably the school’s most important team gets its moment in the sun.

Did they make a difference? 

“I want to think that it did …” Larry said with a laugh. “We showed a resilience that we were not going to be denied and that was with us keeping our school and with us winning that state championship.”

Mark Stewart can be reached at mstewart@journalsentinel.com or on Twitter @MarkStewartMJS.

The Milwaukee North Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for Oct. 21 at the Hilton Garden Inn, 11600 West Park Place. Tickets are $50. For more information contact Elton Gillie at mrelg21@outlook.com, Geneva Atkins at gatkins@wi.rr.com or Brenda Cullin at tennisdiva2011@yahoo.com

Here is the rest of the Hall of Fame class: Barbara Johnson Burnett (1987 graduate), Richard Lee (1992), King David Lee (1977), Robert Luckett (1984), Larry Mathews (1971), Ned Morton (1966), Dwayne Perryman (1982), French Reasby (1967), Jerry Young (1976), Gene Leland, Jack Hughes (1949). The Legend Award winners are Sarah Grant and James Beckum.