1930's All-Decade Team Preview

Picking an All-Decade team for the 1930’s is challenging. But it’s not for a lack of qualified candidates. Rather, there are too many.

The early 30’s are characterized by several small school state tourney teams, including Athena’s back-to-back teams of 1932 and ‘33. The Athenians played into the state semifinals before losing to eventual champions Salem high school. High scoring Nehalem put the fear into Corvallis in a quarterfinal matchup in 1932 before losing by three. Four of Nehalem’s players were in the top-10 in scoring that year.



Columbia Prep and star center William O’Donnell made back-to-back trips in 1934 and 1935 and were the first private school to play in the state tournament.
Oakridge, led by future University of Oregon star Lauren “Laddie” Gale played into the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Astoria in 1935. In addition to Columbia Prep and Oakridge, Umapine, Mill City and Gardiner represented small schools at the 1935 tourney.

In 1936, the state association created the first “B” tournament in which the small schools had four teams bracketed together with the winner of the tournament entering into the Class “A” tournament. 1936 saw the rise of Bellfountain, the crack club from a “wide spot in the road in Benton County” put the state on notice by steamrolling to the state title in 1937 over Portland powers Franklin and Lincoln.
The final four years of the 1930’s featured four small school teams at each tournament.

Amity nearly pulled off another miracle for the small schools in 1938, playing for the championship against Baker. The “B” school champs put up a good fight but eventually lost by 9.

It all adds up to plenty of good teams and plenty of worthy choices for a 1930’s All-Decade team.

If you can think of anyone worthy of mention, please drop me an email or leave their name in the comments section.