Welcome to Lincoln, Maine!

Every so often we are handed a glimpse of local sports history, and we love to share these with you! In the center of the photo above is Eugene (Bud) Whitney, who seldom missed an MA home basketball game. This photo was taken shortly before Bud passed away. He had a lifelong interest in local sports. Below is a note from Bud to Avern Danforth, followed by an article Bud sent to Avern in March of 2004. 

"Dear Avern,

As you know time is flying by very fast. I'm getting up there too fast. I have been going over some of my stuff and getting rid of it and I noticed your name on this one, so thought you might like a copy. I may be wrong but I believe this was the year that I took you fellows to Waterville for the playoffs. I'm possibly wrong but so be it.

Apparently you are doing well on the town council, I notice your name in the paper every once in a while.

Wishing you the best and good health.

A friend,

Bud W."

The Making of a Champion

The 1955-56 basketball season was the most outstanding season ever enjoyed by a Mattanawcook Academy basketball team. Their 21-1 winning record still stands as the best season in Mattanawcook history. They were Northern Penobscot League Champs, Group I, Division 2 Class "M" Regional Champs, undefeated Eastern Maine Class "M" Champs and were runners-up for the State Class "M" Championship.

The press was very complimentary of this team. Paul Dugas wrote, "With a revamped defense and four repeaters from the top six of last year, the Lynx of Mattanawcook Academy have become the scourge of Eastern Maine Class "M" basketball circles, and rank among the strongest quintets of all classes."

Owen Osborne wrote, "The Lynx have come up with a well-drilled, well balanced team that has the height, poise and ability to go just about as far as it really wants to go."

Stuart Haskell wrote, "Lincoln's tall and beautifully balanced basketball quintet displayed a tremendous power in turning back Lee 89-66 . . . with a starting line up that averaged six feet and possessed terrific speed . . ."

John McKernan wrote, "The impressive Lynx of Mattanawcook Academy had the poise, talent and discipline to emerge as the top "M" team in the Eastern half of the state."

Some common themes run through these descriptions of the championship team. The terms well drilled, beatifully balanced, well disciplined and poised refer to the results of good coaching.

Coach Fletcher started coaching this team in the 1952-53 season, the same season that co-captains Linwood Bowers and Avern Danforth started playing varsity ball as Freshmen. The "coach" was young, right out of college, and had been accustomed to a winning tradition while playing for Milo High School championship teams. He came into a school with a losing tradition that had won only 2 and 3 games in the previous two seasons and were generally considered the league "door mat". He had his work cut out for him.

The coach took the challenge and began to build the championship team. He was big on physical conditioning. He worked the team hard, enforced training rules and whipped them into a well conditioned unit that could run all game. He slowly began to change attitudes and to instill the desire to win into the team. This was one of his most significant accomplishments.

He taught that it was as easy to win, as it was to lose. When you get behind in the game instead of thinking "well, here we go again we are going to lose another one" he taught that you have to have confidence, believe you can do it and hang in there and win it. He prepared the team to do so.

The team won 5 games his first year which equaled the number won in the previous two years combined.

In Coach Fletcher's second year he really began to build his team. In addition to Bowers and Danforth, Dalton Jordan and Carroll Jones joined the varsity as sophomores and Elliot Potter made the team as a  Freshman. This would be the nucleus for the beginning of several winning seasons.

The coach drilled the team on fundamentals and taught a basic double post offense and a two-three zone defense. This served the team well as it had a very successful season winning 16 games, the Northern Penobscot League Championship, the Group I, Division 2 Regional Championship and went to the Eastern Maine tournament for the first time since 1939. They lost to a strong Orono team in the quarter finals. 

Coach Fletcher's 3rd team was another strong team who finished the season with an excellent 13-5 record. Only an overtime loss to Lee Academy in the Regional finals kept them from going to the tournament again. The "coach" had really succeeded in creating a winning attitude at MA. Three very good freshmen, Roger Holmes, Bobby Walcott, and Charlie Clair, joined Bowers, Danforth, Jordan, Jones and Potter as the championship team was being formed.

For his championship year the coach added two Juniors, George Albert and Wayne Danforth, and three more sophomores, Tim Ludden, Ray Coffin and David Gilpatrick to the above mentioned nucleus and the championship team was formed.

This team had a very experienced nucleus of players who had played under Coach Fletcher, so the coach's system was well established. Avern Danforth and Linwood Bowers, Co-Captains, were playing their 4th season. "Sam" Jordan, Carroll Jones and "Bean " Potter were in their third season, and Roger Holmes, Bobby Walcott and "Happy" Clair were in their 2nd season. With this experience the coach made a significant move. In addition to his double post offense which had a lot of set plays and variations from them, he instituted a man to man defense to go along with the 2-3 and 1-3-1 zone defense that the team had been playing. The team kept switching defenses throughout the games and the multiple defense strategy was very effective.

This team was made up of some very good students and the combination of intelligence and experience made the multiple defense work.

The terms height, speed and ability were comonly used to describe the talent of this team and this team was talented. It led all the "M" teams in eastern Maine in offense averaging 73-0 points a game and was ranked number three in defense giving up only 48.4 points per game. The winning average differential of 24.6 points was the biggest of all "M" or "L" teams in eastern Maine. It was an excellent shooting team with over 40% success from the floor.

The team was well balanced with height and speed as the starting five averaged 6 feet with four of the five starters at 6 feet or taller. It also had balanced scoring with six menbers scoring more than 100 points and four players scoring more than 200 points. The leading scorer was Sam Jordan who scored 407 points. Jordan scored on nearly 50% of his floor shots and standing six feet was also a good rebounder and a very steady player scoring in double digits in every game.

The second senior "Towser" Bowers pushed the rule to six feet, one and was generally the second man in the scoring parade, getting his 10 to 14 points a game. However, his main asset to the club was his rebounding work. Bowers was a 200 pounder who took up a lot of room under the boards and cleared them exceptionally well.

The third senior on the starting five, Avern Danforth, was starting for his 4th season and was the floor general of the team. Small in stature at 5'7", Danforth was a tricky playmaker with a good outside shot and ran the team like a capable quarterback, while getting his 10-12 points per game.

Two sophomores filled out the starting lineup for most of the year. At the pivot, six feet two inch Roger Holmes won the starting job from Elliot Potter although both played considerably during the year. Holmes was a good rebounder and fit into the group well.

"Bobby" Walcott stood six feet even and was the fourth member of the quintet who hit that figure. He was a good ball handler and worked smoothly in the backcourt.

The sixth member who scored more than 100 points was Elliot Potter. He was the tallest member of the squad and used his six feet three inches to clean the backboards effectively and had a jump shot that was about impossible to block. Elliot had a tremendous tournament. He faked, drove, jumped and moved exceptionally well and was a major factor in the team's success in the tournament.

Carroll Jones was the smallest team member at 5-6 and was the seventh man. Steady and reliable, he had a clever knack of stealing the ball.

The other squad members who played valuable roles in the winning streak of this team were Wayne Danforth and George Albert, juniors, and Charlie Clair, Tim Ludden, Ray Coffin and Dave Gilpatrick, sophomores.

The team's bench strength was a valuable assett as the reserves had an opportunity to see considerable action over the year.

A fitting conclusion to the season was the naming of four of the championship team players to the eastern Maine all-tournament teams selected by the competing coaches. Named to the class "M" first team were Dalton Jordan and Elliot Potter. Selected for the second team was Linwood Bowers and Avern Danforth.

Coaching, talent and experience combined to make a champion.

The 1965 Mattawamkeag High School boys' basketball team: #42 Randy Murphy, Dave Gordon, George Smith, Ed Madden, Steve Carr, #20 Lindy Wotton, #43 Wyman Russell, Clarence Thompson, Dennis Libbey, #24 Bob Leathers, #10 Steve Pine, Chuck Boutot, ?, Larry Wotton, Gerry Ogden, not sure on #32.

The 1932 MA boys' basketball team

The 1928 MA basketbnall team.

Here's the boys' basketball team from Howland Hight School, year unknown.

The 1964-65 Mattawamkeag High School Kats had a record of 14 wins and three losses.

The 1946-47 Winn High School basketball team: front row, left to right - Bill Fogg, Jimmie Davis, Capt. Herbert Haynes, Durward Gordon and Lyman Albert. Back row - Frank Dam, Woodrow Lee, Everett Fogg, Dick Fancy, Robert Wyman and Coach Wilkins.