The 1964 Newport News High School State Championship Basketball Season Revisited

Its hard to believe that it has been 40 years since the Blue and Gold Typhoons of NNHS ran away with the 1964 Virginia Group 1A State Basketball Championship and completed a perfect 25 and 0 season. Its even harder to believe that this was the last state championship won by this basketball powerhouse before the school was closed after the 1971-72 school year. This piece is being written to refresh your memories, to shed light on some things of which you might not have been aware, but most of all to bring old friends closer together. You see, this championship, more than anything else that I can remember, represents the deep pride and tradition of NNHS, its students and its faculty.

The quest for the 1963-64 basketball championship actually began in earnest in March of 1963 when the Typhoons lost to the eventual state champion, Washington and Lee, in the semi-finals of the 1962-63 state tournament. The returning members of that team vowed to win it all in 1964. Led by returning starters, Rocky Gary. Jimmy Rama, Chris Ellis, Billy Taylor, and Kenny Henderson, and a strong supporting cast, made up of Richard Curtis, Johnny Montague, Joe Mooney, Richard Cantor, Garland Hudson, Ricky Billings, Jimmy Brandon, Charles Vellines, Wayne Stokes, and myself, Billy Turner, we spent hours in the gym honing our skills. To make matters worse, we were not only dealing with the pressure of wanting to win the state championship, but also a strong desire to extend the longest home court winning streak in the country to an unprecedented 88 games. The pressure was on, and we knew it.

Our coaches, Warren Mitchell and his assistant, Johnny Palmer,  were fine, intelligent men who cared for their players and truly believed that we could win it all. They pushed us to play summer ball and to work diligently in the weight room during pre-practice conditioning sessions, better known as last period gym. Of course, if they ever let down their guard, the coach of coaches, Julie Conn, would be in our face, sputtering and stammering like only he could do.  You see, Coach Conn was the first of a very short, successful list of varsity basketball coaches who graced the halls of NNHS. He started the winning tradition and he was determined to see it continued. Others personally chosen by him to continue the storied tradition were Bill Chambers, "Lefty" Driesell, Warren Mitchell and Charlie Woollum, who replaced Coach Mitchell at the end of this championship season. Other than Coach Conn, every head varsity basketball coach in the history of NNHS became a head coach at the college level. Need I say more about a tradition of coaching excellence?

As the basketball season neared, our team came face to face with several challenging distractions that could have wrecked our dreams of a state championship. First, practices were highly competitive and there was no backing down, whether you were a starter or a second team member. In fact, the second team would regularly whip up on the first team in full court competition. Tempers would often flare as team members tried to prove themselves worthy of playing time and recognition. On one occasion, our Co-Captains, Chris Ellis and Billy Taylor, went toe to toe in what could not be classified as a friendly, shoving match. Thank God, cooler heads prevailed and the team was not torn apart by that incident.

   Later, we had to overcome the distraction created by the death of our president, JFK , and as the season drew near, we had to deal with the opening of our new playing facility, which was being named after Coach Conn. Teams throughout the area were anxious to play us on our new home court. They figured anything was better than playing us in the dreaded "Pit" where we had won 75 games in a row, dating back to 1956.  NNHS eventually did lose a game at home, but not this team or even the next, and not until the streak eventually hit 100 games.

Once the season started, our opponents soon discovered that this team was for real. Pit or no pit, no one was going to beat us at home. In fact, no one would beat NNHS at all, at any level of basketball competition that year. Not only did the varsity go undefeated at 25 and 0, but Johnny Palmer’s JV team finished 18 and 0, and the boys 8^th and 9^th grade team finished 10 and 0. Our closest competitor at the district level was our archrival, the Hampton “Crabbers”.  We beat them twice during the regular season, in close hard fought games, 53 to 44 and 49 to 38, but we never thought that we would have to beat them twice more to win the coveted state championship.  As luck would have it, we faced them again in the Eastern District finals, winning 58 to 46, and again in Richmond in the State Championship game, which we won 66 to 54.  Do you realize how hard it is to beat the same team four times in a single season when both teams are so evenly matched? There can be no doubt that in this case the best team did win.

I’ll never forget running off that floor with the championship trophy in our grasp, but there were a lot of other things I would not forget about that year. I can still see our esteemed band director, Mr. Jim Wilson, who also served as our official score keeper and basketball statistician, with excitement in his eyes and tears streaming down his face. I can remember our teachers and administrators who showed up at every game and truly rooted us to victory. I can remember the excitement in the halls, and in the student body, when we gathered for our traditional pep rallies. I can remember our cheerleaders, Pam Smith, Connie Todd, Dianne Adams, Pauline Collins and others who sweated and worked every bit as hard at their job as we did at ours. I remember the Typhoon Marching Band, the fight songs and the flagtwirlers, especially Betsy Smith, Mary Lou Staton,  Nancy Horne, and Janice McCain, who performed at every pep rally. I remember the fun that was had by all in Richmond. I remember classmates smiling and laughing, away from home, perhaps for the first time in a un-chaperoned situation, and victorious over all. I remember the motel where the team stayed and the four R.P.I. nursing students, led by a former "Typhoon", who slipped into a room with four players after the semi final victory over George Washington of Danville, on the pretense of helping us "to get up for the championship game". I remember Julie Conn, Jim Wilson and Johnny Palmer roaming the halls of that motel making sure that each of us got a good, undisturbed night's sleep. I remember the difficulty we had in getting those nurses out of our room without them being seen.  Yes, I  remember a lot of things about that time in my life, but most of all I remember the relationships that were built, relationships that still stand the test of time. Many of you I have not seen since graduation, but I remember you. I might not recognize you, or you me, but I remember you. Those memories are special to me, I’ll take them to my grave. I hope each of you is blessed with your own special memories of life as a “Typhoon”, just as I am.