When Manitoba teams ruled the court

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/04/2021 (1976 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg teams dominated in the early years of the Dominion junior men’s basketball championship that was once held every April.

Stellars from the city’s North End won the Ebbie Bowering trophy in 1950 and defended it the following year. Winnipeg Light Infantry made it four in a row for our province with victories in 1952 and 1953.

The successful out-of-province run began on April 5, 1950, when Stellars captured the Western championship with a 54-46 victory over Vancouver YMCA. The best-of-five national final against Windsor AKO’s was played in Winnipeg at the University of Manitoba field house.

Led by Paul Granovsky with 21 points, Stellars took the opening game 47-41. Mitch Baryluk Jr. added 10 for Stellars. Close to 1,500 fans saw the home team win game two 43-41. Free throws by Rich Bevan and Granovsky were the difference. Any chance of a sweep ended when the visitors won the third game 50-45. The championship then came to the North End, when Stellars easily won game four, 46-30. Granovsky scored 15 while Charlie Brower and Borden Cerka each hooped nine.

In 1951 Stellars traveled to New Brunswick for the Dominion final against the hometown Saint John Jack’s Atlantics. The visitors won games one and two 65-58 and 56-51 and swept the series with an 80-54 victory in the third game. Future Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame honoured member Herb Olafsson led the way with 15 points and Granovsky added 13 in game three.

The Winnipeg squad demonstrated its sportsmanship when the Atlantics were down to fewer than five players in the fourth quarter due to injuries. Coach Martin Terry responded with the same number of Stellars on the floor. Over the two seasons, the group that evolved from playing Sunday School basketball at the Stella Mission won 67 games and lost only four.

Along with Granovsky, Baryluk Jr. and Bevan, captain Mike Swark, Ab Glowicki, Ted Kozak and Morley Rypp were team members both seasons.

In the team’s first championship season, Winnipeg Light Infantry was led by its captain and one of our province’s greatest basketball players, Fred Ingaldson. The 2000 Sport HOF inductee – who represented Canada at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome and the 1965 Olympics in Tokyo, as well as at the 1967 Pan-Am Games – scored 33 and 40 points when WLI beat Calgary Oil Kings two straight for the Western title.

The Dominion final, played at the Winnipeg Amphitheatre against Windsor, was a back-and-forth affair. The visitors took the opener 64-55 and the home team won game two, 71-70. The third game went to Windsor 60-41, but WLI forced a fifth game with a 52-46 victory; Sam Dolhun scored 15 and Ingaldson 13 in that game.

WLI won the title by beating Windsor 56-48 behind Ingaldson’s 23 points and Bob Neblouch’s 10.
With Ingaldson at Montana State and Dolhun overage, the 1953 team still had captain Neblouch, Bernie Fratkin, Bill Hutton, Bob Ketchen, Bob Kostiuk, Rudy Schilling and Ron White from the previous season. Coach Hal Mauthe added future Manitoba Basketball HOFer Grant Alfonso, Dick Herbertson, Doug Hill, George Klohn, and Jumbo Jimmy Doyle (much better known to the sports community as a golfer) to the roster.

After WLI beat the St. Vital Grads to win the province and won the West in three straight over the Port Alberni Chieftains, Winnipeg Free Press reporter Hal Sigurdson suggested that the 1953 squad was 15 points better than the 1952 champions.

Next up was a trip to Montreal for a matchup with the hometown Hi-Aces. The teams split the first four games with the Hi-Aces taking game one 55-52 and three 60-55. With Isaac Newton grad Klohn and Alfonso leading the way, WLI won 54-46 and then 60-55 in the fourth contest to force a deciding game for the Dominion crown. WLI prevailed 59-55 with Klohn scoring 21 points, Herbertson 15 and Ketchen 11.

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com