Okay, so, I got curious about this whole “1964 Bishop DuBourg” thing. You know, I heard it was a big deal back in the day in Missouri high school basketball. So I thought, “Why not dig a little deeper and see what this is all about?” I mean, who were these guys? What did they do?
I started, like most of us do, by just hitting up the internet. I mean, I punched in “1964 Bishop DuBourg basketball” and a bunch of stuff popped up. The first thing that caught my eye was that this school, Bishop DuBourg High School, had some famous people who went there. Like, did you know that Jack Dorsey, the guy who started Twitter, he went to this school? Graduated in ’95, apparently. There’s also this guy named Rory Ellinger, a politician, who was in the class of ’59. Cool, right?
Anyway, back to the basketball team. It seemed like the big deal was that they won the Missouri state championship in 1964. There was this tournament, the 1963-1964 Class 3 Boys Basketball State Tournament, and they played against Central from Kansas City. I found some old brackets and stuff online, kind of cool to see how it all played out back then. They were part of the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA), you know, the guys that run all the high school sports in Missouri.
So I kept digging. I even found this yearbook from 1964, Bishop DuBourg High School. It had all these old pictures, you know, of the team and the school. It’s kind of crazy to think you can just find this stuff online now. I felt like a detective or something, piecing together this story from 60 years ago!
Finding More Details
Then, there was this guy, Rich Niemann. Turns out, he was a big part of this championship team. He’s a big deal. I found out just recently he got into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame for his basketball career. He was a senior on that 1964 team, and apparently, he averaged like 25 points a game! That’s huge, especially back then. He was good, I mean really good.
I found a post saying that some members of that 1964 team were going to be at a game recently. They called it “Pack the Hack.” It was probably some kind of reunion, you know, celebrating the old days. It’s cool that they still get together and remember that championship.
Wrapping It Up
It was neat to learn about this. It’s like, this small piece of history, this high school basketball team from St. Louis, made a big impact. You can still see it today, with people remembering them, honoring guys like Rich Niemann, and even selling reprints of their old yearbook. It just goes to show you, sometimes the things that seem small, like a high school basketball game, can be a pretty big deal for a lot of people. It’s a reminder that everyone has a story, and sometimes, those stories are worth checking out.
You know, this whole thing got me thinking, it would be fun to try and find more of these old high school sports stories. Who knows what else is out there, waiting to be discovered? Anyway, that’s my little adventure into the 1964 Bishop DuBourg basketball team. Hope you found it as interesting as I did!
