thewarrior: 2010

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Alamo Memorial Camp


The boys of summer get some instruction

Alamo baseball County Champs 1947

Alamo Post Office

This is the PO where Charlie Bowerman got all his college offers after graduation.

Whitey Reath

Whitey Reath and Joe Melvin in action at the County Tourney

Lawrence "Whitey" Reath holds the career scoring mark at Alamo with 1030 points in 54 games.

A short history of Warrior Basketball

Charlie Bowerman and Coach Bob Brock of Wabash College

When a graduate of the Golden Era of Montgomery County thinks of Alamo High School, two families come to mind. The first families of Alamo basketball were the Melvins and the Bowermans. Tom Bowerman starred for the Warriors in the early 30's graduating in 1932. He went up the road to Wabash College and majoried in History before returning to His Alma Mater, Alamo where he taught and coached for 22 years. He retired as the winningest coach in the history of Montgomery County basketball with 265 wins at Alamo and Waynetown.

Tom Bowerman joined the Bowerman family to the Melvin family when he married Hazel Melvin. The 1936 sectional program pictured nine players for the Warrior team. One third of them were Melvins. Howard Melvin, Leland (Bill) Melvin, and Fred Melvin formed 3/5 of the starting lineup that year. The Melvin family contributed many players to the Alamo legend over the years. Howard starred on the 1934 Warrior team that won the first County Tourney for Alamo and Bill led the way in 1937, 1938, and 1939. The Warriors won the County Tourney again in 1938 as Bill scored 320 points during the season. Howard contributed two sons to Warrior basketball and watched as both became prolific scorers for the Ripley Township crew. Joe Melvin played from 1957 to 1959 and ended up with 720 points for his two year career. Mike Melvin ended his four year career with 828 point including a 40 point outburst against Waveland his senior year. He ended his career third on the all-time scoring list behind Lawrence "Whitey" Reath and Charlie Bowerman.

Charlie Bowerman was the son of Tom and Hazel Bowerman who starred at Alamo from 1954 to 1959. He led the Warriors to a County Championship in 1957 and ended his career with 994 points in 44 games for an average of 22.4 per game. He holds the single season scoring mark with 553 points for an average of 25.3 per game. He also holds the single game mark with 45 against Richland Township in the 1956-57 season. After graduation, he followed his father to Wabash College and had an outstanding career playing for the legendary coach Bob Brock and the Little Giants. Charlie ended his career at Wabash with 1408 points which currently places him 9th on the all time list. Many of his baskets came from down-town before the days of the three-point rule. He still holds the single game mark with 63 points scored against U of I Chicago branch in 1961. He also scored 53 points against Butler in the famous five overtime game. The Little Giants defeated Butler 4 times in 6 games during Charlie's career. The Little Giants qualified for the NCAA College Tournament all three years that Charlie played and advanced to the final game of the NCAA Regional twice. After graduating from Wabash, Charlie went on to play for the Phillips 66ers of the nationwide Industrial League which was on a par with the NBA in the early days. He was honored as a member of the Silver Anniversary All-State Team in 1984 and was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995. The following is his bio in the Hall of Fame.

"Charlie Bowerman, Scoring Ace at Alamo and Wabash. Played 3 yrs with the Phillips 66ers AAU team...played on 1963 team in the World Games...named to AAU teams, toured Russia..Played 3 years at Alamo for father and Coach, Tom Bowerman. Avg. 12.9 as sophomore, 21.4 as junior and 26.3 as senior..twice county scoring leader, 45 point game was at the time the record in Montgomery County...Also class Salutatorian..continued career at Wabash College where he was 3-time MVP...had three seasons averaging ove 20 ppg..capped by school record 25.4 mark as senior...led Little Giants to NCAA college division regionals."

Another outstanding player for tiny Alamo, as the school was always labeled, was Lawrence "Whitey" Reath who graduated in 1959. "Whitey" ended his career as the all-time leading scorer for Alamo with 1030 points in 54 games for a 19.1 average. He was second only to Charlie Bowerman for the single season scoring record with 513 his senior and had a high game of 38 against Richland Twp. in his senior year. Mike Melvin ended his career in third place on the career list with 828 points and third on the single season list with 450 points. Others on the top ten list are Leland "Bill" Melvin with 750 points, Joe Melvin with 720, Steve Hallett with 688, Dave Huseman with 650, Wayne Denham with 616, B. Smith with 557, and Dean Weir with 540. Four Warriors blistered the nets with 40 point games as Bowerman had the school record 45 followed by Glen Williams with 43, Wayne Denham with 40 and Mike Melvin with 40.

Alamo won County Crowns in 1934, 1938, and 1946, and 1957 under Coach Tom Bowerman, but was one of only three County schools never to win a sectional. The others were Linden and Ladoga. Alamo did make it to the final game of the sectional in 1959 and Ladoga went to the final game 7 times at Crawfordsville and once at Greencastle only to come away empty every time. Linden was able to make it to the final game five times, but could never grab the big prize.