Best Basketball Team of all-time
There was an interesting discussion the other day on the HuskerlandPrep Rivals basketball page about best Nebraska team of all-time. Some teams that were mentioned:
- Omaha Tech of 1963 with Fred Hare and Ron Boone
- Boys Town of 1965 with future NFLer Ken Geddes
- Ed Johnson’s two greatest teams: 1970 with Maury Damkroeger and 1982 with Dana Jansen
- 1974/75 Omaha Central state champs. The last time the state’s largest high school asserted its superiority until the last two years.
- Wahoo of 1991, the last championship in ‘the streak’
- 1969 Schuyler teams with Chuck Jura, the Jolly Green Giant.
- 1979 Lyons team
- Jack Johnson’s 1972 Columbus team which one out-state’s only Class A crown between 1961 (Fremont under Al Bahe) and 1987 (Norfolk under Dave Oman)
- 1991 Bellevue West with Eric Strickland
- 1989’s perfect Millard South team. Coach Ribble’s finest team with future pro baseball player Scott Bream, son and D-I talent Dale Ribble and UNK star, 6′8″ Brian Nielson.
- Lincoln Northeast’s amazing run from 1995-1998 was probably highlighted by the 1995 squad.
I’d add some special mentions:
- 1981 Creighton Prep with Trotter and Lazzereti as juniors, part of the Prep tri-fecta of football, basketball and baseball titles. For me personally, that sealed Prep as the Yankees forever, a team you loved or hated, but weren’t neutral about.
- 1990 Omaha South which won in exciting style with hig-flying Terrance Badgett
- 1999 and 2003 Grand Island which made Dave Oman’s inclusion into the Nebraska High School Hall of Fame a lock. How does Norfolk feel about that now?
(Amazingly, I couldn’t find a picture of Northeast’s coaching legend Ed Johnson anywhere on the Internet to go with this post. Unbelievable! That’s Boys Town star Ken Geddes at the top instead.)
Go here for a list of all the Nebraska NSAA state champs if you want to go looking for the teams I’ve missed.
