Pitchin with Pritch: Bit of SPVA, FVC history

Sometimes I feel my age when someone asks who or what happened in the early 1960s in some game or tournament. 

There are times when you must be considered the school historian. Really, I just feel pretty good when I can remember where I live and can get home in the evening. 

Sometime this past school year, I was asked how many teams had been in the SPVA at one time or what schools made up the old Frenchman Valley Conference. 

Those were not stable numbers as teams got in  the SPVA or the Frenchman Valley and later dropped out. 

I do remember that when I first arrived on the scene I was told that at one time the SPVA conference had two divisions. To be honest, there may have been two divisions when I came in the fall of 1964.

The numbers have bounced around a little through the years, but in packing boxes the past week or so, I did find a couple of basketball programs that listed the schools in each conference at the time. 

In 1967, the Frenchman Valley conference had the biggest conference of the two with 12 teams. 

The FVC was made up mostly of schools in the southwest part of the state. Grant was the far north school in the grouping. 

The others included the  Madrid Pirates, the Trenton Warriors, The Imperial Longhorns, the Benkelman Tigers, the Culbertson Bears, the Hayes Center Cardinals, the Palisade Panthers, the Curtis Aggies, the Wauneta Broncos, the Haigler Eagles, and the Stratton Bulldogs. 

The conference was pretty competitive. There were a number of strong basketball and football teams.

One of the unique things with the two conferences was that a number of the schools were in both conferences. 

In football, you could win two conference titles pretty easy by just playing a team once. 

In basketball, each conference had their own tournament and the SPVA had a regular season champion also. I can’t remember if the FVC had a regular season champion or not. 

We were not in that conference very long after I got here. I do know that we were in it in 1968 and that might have been the last year. I just remember that year was my first as head coach and we had an all Perkins County final as Grant and Madrid made it to the finals.

In 1967, the SPVA had nine teams. Those schools included Grant, Chappell, Oshkosh, Hershey, Wauneta, Lodgepole, Imperial, Paxton and Sutherland. 

The FVC eventually disbanded but the SPVA has been pretty solid through the years. 

I think the SPVA has had more ins and outs with schools and yet has had a pretty steady base of teams.

A few other schools have been in and then left but overall, the conference has been pretty solid and maybe has gotten a little stronger with Bridgeport and Kimball joining a couple of years ago.

I have always thought the SPVA was a little stronger conference but I also remember the FVC was pretty darn good too. 

It isn’t too difficult to take a look at all the schools and see how things have changed with schools consolidating. Still, some good football and basketball was played. 

Short Hiatus

This is probably my last attempt at being a part of the Grant Tribune for a while. 

We are getting pretty busy with the packing and probably will be moving to an apartment in Lincoln while the house gets finished. 

The Tribune has been very patient with me and we are going to try to continue to have a column this school year. 

I appreciate Russ and Sammi taking a chance on the long distance approach. 

Also, thanks to all the people who have mentioned that they read the column and enjoy it.