| 1937 Melrose Shamrocks: The Championship Season | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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There were other interesting stories and facts about the Melrose team. Not all of the stories of that team dealt with how they won each game. Some of the best stories have nothing to do with what happened on the court. Of course, some did. City
Slicker – Greasy Hair:
Many of the
players on the Melrose basketball team wanted to fit in with the “big
city” crowd of Des Moines. In
the fashion of the day, they slicked back their hair with Rose Hair Oil.
Rose Hair Oil was inexpensive (“about 15 cents per gallon,”
according to Walt O’Connor), so they apparently used lots of it.
The oil also had a nice smell to it. Home Court – The Opera House: Unlike many of the large high schools, Melrose did not have its own gym. Instead, the team had to use the town Opera House for most practices and games. The term most big city newspapers used to describe the Opera House was a “cracker box.”
When basketball first started in Melrose in 1923, the School Board refused to consider the Opera House for the team because of the rent. This meant that the boys did drills on the cement floor of an old garage. Then, in 1925, the team took over the Opera House. The
Opera House had a basketball floor that was 40 to 45 feet long and 30
feet wide. In contrast, the
Drake Fieldhouse had a basketball floor that was 94 feet long and 50
feet wide. More than three
Melrose basketball floors could fit into the Drake Fieldhouse floor.
The short Melrose floor meant that the free throw circles
overlapped the circle at center court.
As Walt O’Connor observed, on the small court, it was sometimes
difficult to work up a sweat during practices. Besides
the unique size, the Opera House had many other unique features.
One of the baskets was mounted on the stage of the Opera House.
The other basket was connected to a projection booth.
A stove that provided the only heat for the building cut off a
corner of the floor. A
guardrail protected the players from the hot stove and was considered
out of bounds. During
practices, the guardrail served as a bench. The
Opera House had no bleachers. Instead,
two by twelve foot planks attached to wooden kegs provided limited
seating. Team benches were
made the same way. In
addition, 15 to 20 school kids sat on the stage to watch games.
The Opera House had no running water.
It also had only one locker room that both teams shared. After
the 1937 championship, the town of Melrose built a new community center.
When it was finished in September of 1939, it became the new home
court for the Shamrocks. The
Opera House was no longer needed, and was torn down for the lumber in
October of 1940. Although
Melrose had a unique basketball facility, some of their opponents had
their own interesting facilities. Bussey,
for instance, had a gym with a very low ceiling with pipes hanging down. This arrangement made it hard to throw long shots or passes.
Hiteman played in an old, converted church that had a metal grate
in the middle of the floor. According to Walt O’Connor, players had to bounce the ball
hard on the grate to get it back up to dribbling level. Russell had a nice gym and let Melrose hold some practices on
their floor before the State Tournament. Traveling
in a Black Mariah:
Melrose did
not have a bus for the team to use when traveling to its away games.
However, they found another vehicle in town that could hold all
the players – a “Black Mariah.”
A Black Mariah was a black Chevy panel van used to transport the
dearly departed. In other
words, the team went to some of its away games in the back of the town
hearse. However, for the
State Tournament, they traveled in two cars. Shamrock Shorts: The following are other miscellaneous, interesting facts about the 1937 Melrose team and its fans:.
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