Every year a team from the school year of 50 years ago is chosen and honored at the annual banquet in the category of Golden Anniversary Teams. The Hall of Fame founders recognized the team concept should not be overlooked in the Hall plans, understanding that being a part of a team is one of the great benefits of high school athletics.
Winners by Year
2022-Omaha Marian-1972
The first girls state volleyball tournament was held in Scottsbluff. The recognition of the four teams for the Golden Anniversary celebrate 50 years of volleyball in Nebraska.
2022- Waverly- 1972
The first girls state volleyball tournament was held in Scottsbluff. The recognition of the four teams for the Golden Anniversary celebrate 50 years of volleyball in Nebraska.
2022- Mitchell- 1972
The first girls state volleyball tournament was held in Scottsbluff. The recognition of the four teams for the Golden Anniversary celebrate 50 years of volleyball in Nebraska.
2022- Lebanon Beaver Valley- 1972
The first girls state volleyball tournament was held in Scottsbluff. The recognition of the four teams for the Golden Anniversary celebrate 50 years of volleyball in Nebraska.
2021- North Loup Scotia Football- 1971
Head Coach Keith Staehr 1971 Class C Champions 10-0 Repeated as the LHTC Conference Champions and had a 19 game winning streak after the 1971 season. Averaged 45.2 Points per game Gave up average of 8 Points per game All-Conference Players: Gordon Kriewald, Steve Rasmussen, Craig Wegner, Doug Cargill, Keith Severance, Rodney VanSlyke, and Garry […]
2021- David City Football- 1971
Head Coach Wayne Arnold 1971 Mythical Class C State Champions by the Omaha World Herald and Lincoln Journal Star with a 9-1 Record Won the West Division of the Central 10 Conference Averaged 27.1 Points Per Game Gave up 6.6 Points per Game Started as Preseason #1 and Finished Season #1 Strong Defense – Posted […]
2021- David City Basketball- 1971
Head Coach Dick Muma 1972 Class C State Champions 21-2 Record The 16 game schedule included 5 Class C schools and the rest were Class B Schools. All 5 starters averaged in double figures all season and each had at least one 20+ point game. All 5 starters placed in the Top 20 Scorers in […]
2020-Laurel Football-1970
Laurel’s 1970 football team, which included 2020 inductee Steve Erwin went 10-0, outscoring its opponents by an average score of 48-8
2020-Fairbury Basketball-1971
Fairbury’s 1971 boys basketball team, which won Class B with a 22-3 record, defeated Waverly, Aurora, and Cozad in the state tournament.
2019-Pawnee City Basketball-1969-1970
Led by Hall of Fame Coach Larry Ribble the Indians captured the Class C title
2017-Schuyler Boys Basketball
Schuyler’s “Jolly Green Giants” 1968 Class B Boys State Champions regarded by many as the all time best team in Class B. The Warriors featured two future Hall of Fame Inductees. Chuck Jura, Class of 1995, and Gene Harmon, Class of 2003.
2016-Football/Wrestling-Rushville
Golden Anniversary Team: Rushville football and wrestling. The Longhorns went 11-0 in football, scoring 44.5 points per game while giving up 4.9, and claimed the Class C wrestling title while crowning two individual champions.
2016- Basketball/Boys Golf, Holdrege
Golden Anniversary Team: Holdrege basketball and golf, 1967. The Dusters went 23-1 in basketball, losing only to Grand Island, one of eight Class A games on their schedule. They defeated Schuyler’s “Jolly Green Giants” 66-54 in the state final. In golf, the Dusters shot the lowest single-round Class B score (237) to date while winning […]
2015 – Track & Field: Omaha Central
Led by Booby Allen, Jim Hunter and Joe Orduna, Coach Frank Smagaczs Eagles repeated as Class A state champions, winning five events to outscore runner-up Omaha Tech 58-33.
2015 – Football: Bertrand
Undefeated (9-0), giving up only one touchdown in the last five games. Their average score was 38-4
2013 – Football: Lincoln Northeast
Lincoln Northeast Football 1963 Front: Assistant Coach Max Hester, Mark Holm, Chuck Turek, John Mayfield, Dick McConkey, Bob Scott,. Tom Harris, Doug Campbell, Jack Handa, Ralph Garcia, Head Coach Art Bauer. Middle: George Manske, Dan Cunningham, Roger Woods, Marlin Brodd, Jim Brox, Jerry Morford, Roger Galloway, Rich Bowker, Rod Dewey, Daryl Schuckmann, Dick Johnson-SM. Back: […]
2012 – Basketball: Omaha Tech
1963 Class A Champion Front L to R-George Swanson S.M., John Farmer, Bo Starks, Ron Boone, Harold Crowe, Lewis Garrison, Jerry Moser, Dan Swanson S.M. Back-Fred Longacre Ass’t. Coach, Fred Hare, Roger Sindelar, James White, Rich Lerdahl, Joe Williams, John Mackey, Neal Mosser Coach.
2011 – Football/Basketball: Polk
The Cubs of Polk High School put together a rare athletic featduring the 1961-62 school year, unbeaten seasons in both basketball and football. Bill Schnackenburg was the head football coach.Team Members: Regy Green (all-state), Lanny Ang (all-state), Darwin Hahn (all-state), Max Kroger, Alvin Kisler, Larry Klingsporn, Larry Coover, Dennis Van Housen, Calvin Crow, Elmer Gnauden, […]
2011 – Football: Omaha North
Unbeaten North High had great depth and a versatile backfield which gained a lot of notoriety for its productivity and nickname—the Four Norsemen, a moniker created by The World-Herald’s Don Lee. Bob Churchich, Ricky Davis, Rook Taylor and Dan Miller did gridiron mayhem through the Metro Conference during the Vikings’ 9-0 season. Guard Bert Hetrick […]
2010 – Football/Track & Field/Basketball: Fairfield
Football 8-0 Mythical State 8-Man Champions Basketball 20-1-0 Track Class “D” State Champions
2010 – Football: MCook
10-0 Big Ten Conference Champion. Averaged 32 points per game. Head Coach: Andy Loehr.
2009 – Basketball: Omaha South 1960
Record: 21-0 Coach: Cornie Collin, 1995 Hall of Fame inductee The 1960 Class A state championship basketball was the only unbeaten Class A team for the next 29 years. They won every laurel available that season–city champions, district champions, state tournament. Team selected in 2000 for the South High Hall of Fame. Starters: Charles Bruno, […]
2009 – Baseball: Central City 1960
The 1959-60 school year culminated a great five-year span of high school baseball at Central City High with a championship in the 1960 Class B state tournament. The state final was an 8-4 win over Lincoln Pius X. Coach: Bill Kennedy In five years Bison baseball lost only two games in district and state competition. […]
2008 – Basketball: Red Willow, 1958-59
Unbeaten in Football (9-0), State Champions in Basketball (27-1) and State Champions in Track & Field.
2008 – Basketball: Lincoln High, 1958-59
Won state championship and extending a winning streak that reached a Class A record the following year.
2007 – Football: Lexington
Undefeated (8-0) and The Associated Press Class A state champion, the Minutemen allowed only one touchdown all year. The team included three all-state starters – Dallas Dyer, Monte Kiffin and Mick Tingelhoff. By BARB BIERMAN BATIE, Lexington Clipper-Herald 09/21/2007 LEXINGTON — There was something special in the crisp fall air in 1957 — something […]
2007 – Basketball: Clatonia, 1958
The only undefeated team in the 1957-58 season, Clatonia went 27-0 to win Class D while scoring 71.6 points and allowing 39.6 points per game during the season. Starter Oren Miller is the father of Angie Miller, an all-stater on Wilber-Clatonia’s silver anniversary girls basketball team.
2006 – Football: Arcadia, 1956-57
50 Years Later & Still Talk of the Town Let’s see now, the Arcadia high school football team of 50 years ago didn’t have a Heisman trophy winner….Didn’t have bigtime college recruiters beating a path to their football field… Played in one of Nebraska’s smaller classes…..Had a lot of chores to do before and after […]
2005 – Football: Omaha Creighton Prep, 1955
Record: 8-0-1. The Junior Jays won 28 straight before playing to a 7-7 tie with Boys Town in the season finale. The team — led by all-staters Frank Zitka, Robert Springer and Leo Von Tersch and first-year coach Don Leahy – was named the state champion after completing its third season without a loss.
2005 – Basketball: Holstein, 1955-56
Completed a two-year sweep as Class E champions. Went 27-0 in 54-55, accumulating more than half of the team’s wins during a 50-game win streak; and the first of back-to-back the Class E state championships. The 1955-56 team won all of its 28 games but was forced to forfeit five games because of an NSAA […]
2004 – Basketball: Omaha Holy Name, 1954-55
Omaha Holy Name Boys basketball (23-0) of 1954-55, coach by Bob Gates.
2002 – Basketball: Chester, 1952-53
Class D undefeated state basketball champions, 1953: Larry Cook Allan Dueyn Don Fraley Jerry Fraley Richard Fraley Doyal Hartley Cecil Hayes Larry Houchin Gary Parsons Kenneth Ray Reuben Schleifer, Coach James Irwin, Ass’t. Coach Lavern Alloway, Student Manager
2001 – Basketball: Chadron Prep: 1949-50, 1951-52, 1954-55
1949-50 Class C Champions: 1951-52 Class C State Champs: 1954-55 Class C State Champions Chadron Prep Delegation at 2001 Honors Program: Picture courtesy Chadron State College Alumni Association
1999 – Football: Omaha Tech, 1949
The 1949-50 Omaha Tech school annual staff tried its best to review the football season and make it sound interesting. “It would be virtually impossible to pick out the one outstanding game of the season,” editors concluded. “Every one was thrill-packed.” Well. To put it a few other ways, every game also was a romp… […]
1999 – Basketball: Lincoln Northeast, 1949-50
The 1949-50 Lincoln Northeast basketball team, a veteran team that had won the Class A state championship the previous year, played a good one on their new coach. In Ed Johnson’s first game, they lost. Scottsbluff beat ‘em. At Northeast, no less. Apparently, no one pushed the panic button. The team did not lose another […]
1998 – Basketball: Seward, 1948 and 1949
Seward High School basketball, coached by Tom McLaughlin, made a name for itself in the era of 50 years ago, making it to the state championship game three consecutive years in 1947, 1948 and 1949. Only a handful of schools after the time when districts determined state tournament teams could boast of three-in-a-row trips to […]
1997 – Football/Basketball: Grand Island Senior High, 1947-48
Grand Island Senior High School’s post-World War II athletic surge produced state championships in both football and basketball in the 1947-48 school year, with the junior class that year being able to boast that their teams won two football championships and two basketball championships while they were in school. The basketball titles came in 1947 […]
1996 – Basketball: McCook Bison, 1946
In 1946, McCook High School utilized a blend of the speed from a state track championship team and the experience of a talented senior class to win the school’s first and only football state championship (written in 1996). The Bison went 9-0 and defeated Fremont, 7 to 0, in the Big 10 Conference playoff game […]
1996 – Basketball: Atkinson St. Joseph, 1946-47-48
Take away a three point loss opening the 1946-47 season to Class A Creighton Prep and Atkinson St. Joseph would have won 78 games in a row over a three-year period, a streak which nobody would have touched in Nebraska high school basketball until the 70’s. In those days, St. Joseph went looking for competition, […]
1995 – Football: 1945 Gothenburg Swedes
Unbeaten, untied, five shutouts and a 27-21 victory over Omaha Creighton Prep in the high school game of the year. Those were the Swedes of Gothenburg and Coach Dutch Zorn in 1945, the winner of the Hall of Fame’s first Golden Anniversary Team Award, announced at the 1995 Hall of Fame banquet. Gothenburg’s 10 wins […]
Winners by Sport
2019-Pawnee City Basketball-1969-1970
Led by Hall of Fame Coach Larry Ribble the Indians captured the Class C title
2020-Fairbury Basketball-1971
Fairbury’s 1971 boys basketball team, which won Class B with a 22-3 record, defeated Waverly, Aurora, and Cozad in the state tournament.
2020-Laurel Football-1970
Laurel’s 1970 football team, which included 2020 inductee Steve Erwin went 10-0, outscoring its opponents by an average score of 48-8
2021- David City Basketball- 1971
Head Coach Dick Muma 1972 Class C State Champions 21-2 Record The 16 game schedule included 5 Class C schools and the rest were Class B Schools. All 5 starters averaged in double figures all season and each had at least one 20+ point game. All 5 starters placed in the Top 20 Scorers in […]
2021- David City Football- 1971
Head Coach Wayne Arnold 1971 Mythical Class C State Champions by the Omaha World Herald and Lincoln Journal Star with a 9-1 Record Won the West Division of the Central 10 Conference Averaged 27.1 Points Per Game Gave up 6.6 Points per Game Started as Preseason #1 and Finished Season #1 Strong Defense – Posted […]
2021- North Loup Scotia Football- 1971
Head Coach Keith Staehr 1971 Class C Champions 10-0 Repeated as the LHTC Conference Champions and had a 19 game winning streak after the 1971 season. Averaged 45.2 Points per game Gave up average of 8 Points per game All-Conference Players: Gordon Kriewald, Steve Rasmussen, Craig Wegner, Doug Cargill, Keith Severance, Rodney VanSlyke, and Garry […]
2022- Lebanon Beaver Valley- 1972
The first girls state volleyball tournament was held in Scottsbluff. The recognition of the four teams for the Golden Anniversary celebrate 50 years of volleyball in Nebraska.
2022- Mitchell- 1972
The first girls state volleyball tournament was held in Scottsbluff. The recognition of the four teams for the Golden Anniversary celebrate 50 years of volleyball in Nebraska.
2022- Waverly- 1972
The first girls state volleyball tournament was held in Scottsbluff. The recognition of the four teams for the Golden Anniversary celebrate 50 years of volleyball in Nebraska.
2022-Omaha Marian-1972
The first girls state volleyball tournament was held in Scottsbluff. The recognition of the four teams for the Golden Anniversary celebrate 50 years of volleyball in Nebraska.
Baseball – 2009: Central City 1960
The 1959-60 school year culminated a great five-year span of high school baseball at Central City High with a championship in the 1960 Class B state tournament. The state final was an 8-4 win over Lincoln Pius X. Coach: Bill Kennedy In five years Bison baseball lost only two games in district and state competition. […]
Basketball – 1996: Atkinson St. Joseph, 1946-47-48
Take away a three point loss opening the 1946-47 season to Class A Creighton Prep and Atkinson St. Joseph would have won 78 games in a row over a three-year period, a streak which nobody would have touched in Nebraska high school basketball until the 70’s. In those days, St. Joseph went looking for competition, […]
Basketball – 1998: Seward, 1948 and 1949
Seward High School basketball, coached by Tom McLaughlin, made a name for itself in the era of 50 years ago, making it to the state championship game three consecutive years in 1947, 1948 and 1949. Only a handful of schools after the time when districts determined state tournament teams could boast of three-in-a-row trips to […]
Basketball – 1999: Lincoln Northeast, 1949-50
The 1949-50 Lincoln Northeast basketball team, a veteran team that had won the Class A state championship the previous year, played a good one on their new coach. In Ed Johnson’s first game, they lost. Scottsbluff beat ‘em. At Northeast, no less. Apparently, no one pushed the panic button. The team did not lose another […]
Basketball – 2001: Chadron Prep: 1949-50, 1951-52, 1954-55
1949-50 Class C Champions: 1951-52 Class C State Champs: 1954-55 Class C State Champions Chadron Prep Delegation at 2001 Honors Program: Picture courtesy Chadron State College Alumni Association
Basketball – 2002: Chester, 1952-53
Class D undefeated state basketball champions, 1953: Larry Cook Allan Dueyn Don Fraley Jerry Fraley Richard Fraley Doyal Hartley Cecil Hayes Larry Houchin Gary Parsons Kenneth Ray Reuben Schleifer, Coach James Irwin, Ass’t. Coach Lavern Alloway, Student Manager
Basketball – 2004: Omaha Holy Name, 1954-55
Omaha Holy Name Boys basketball (23-0) of 1954-55, coach by Bob Gates.
Basketball – 2005: Holstein, 1955-56
Completed a two-year sweep as Class E champions. Went 27-0 in 54-55, accumulating more than half of the team’s wins during a 50-game win streak; and the first of back-to-back the Class E state championships. The 1955-56 team won all of its 28 games but was forced to forfeit five games because of an NSAA […]
Basketball – 2007: Clatonia, 1958
The only undefeated team in the 1957-58 season, Clatonia went 27-0 to win Class D while scoring 71.6 points and allowing 39.6 points per game during the season. Starter Oren Miller is the father of Angie Miller, an all-stater on Wilber-Clatonia’s silver anniversary girls basketball team.
Basketball – 2008: Lincoln High, 1958-59
Won state championship and extending a winning streak that reached a Class A record the following year.
Basketball – 2008: Red Willow, 1958-59
Unbeaten in Football (9-0), State Champions in Basketball (27-1) and State Champions in Track & Field.
Basketball – 2009: Omaha South 1960
Record: 21-0 Coach: Cornie Collin, 1995 Hall of Fame inductee The 1960 Class A state championship basketball was the only unbeaten Class A team for the next 29 years. They won every laurel available that season–city champions, district champions, state tournament. Team selected in 2000 for the South High Hall of Fame. Starters: Charles Bruno, […]
Basketball – 2012: Omaha Tech
1963 Class A Champion Front L to R-George Swanson S.M., John Farmer, Bo Starks, Ron Boone, Harold Crowe, Lewis Garrison, Jerry Mosser, Dan Swanson S.M. Back-Fred Longacre Ass’t. Coach, Fred Hare, Roger Sindelar, James White, Rich Lerdahl, Joe Williams, John Mackey, Neal Mosser Coach.
Basketball-2017-Schuyler Boys-1968
Schuyler’s “Jolly Green Giants” 1968 Class B Boys State Champions regarded by many as the all time best team in Class B. The Warriors […]
Basketball/Boys Golf-Holdrege, 1966-67
Golden Anniversary Team: Holdrege basketball and golf, 1967. The Dusters went 23-1 in basketball, losing only to Grand Island, one of eight Class A games on their schedule. They defeated Schuyler’s “Jolly Green Giants” 66-54 in the state final. In golf, the Dusters shot the lowest single-round Class B score (237) to date while winning […]
Football – 1995: 1945 Gothenburg Swedes
Unbeaten, untied, five shutouts and a 27-21 victory over Omaha Creighton Prep in the high school game of the year. Those were the Swedes of Gothenburg and Coach Dutch Zorn in 1945, the winner of the Hall of Fame’s first Golden Anniversary Team Award, announced at the 1995 Hall of Fame banquet. Gothenburg’s 10 wins […]
Football – 1996: McCook Bison, 1946
In 1946, McCook High School utilized a blend of the speed from a state track championship team and the experience of a talented senior class to win the school’s first and only football state championship (written in 1996). The Bison went 9-0 and defeated Fremont, 7 to 0, in the Big 10 Conference playoff game […]
Football – 1999: Omaha Tech, 1949
The 1949-50 Omaha Tech school annual staff tried its best to review the football season and make it sound interesting. “It would be virtually impossible to pick out the one outstanding game of the season,” editors concluded. “Every one was thrill-packed.” Well. To put it a few other ways, every game also was a romp… […]
Football – 2005: Omaha Creighton Prep, 1955
Record: 8-0-1. The Junior Jays won 28 straight before playing to a 7-7 tie with Boys Town in the season finale. The team — led by all-staters Frank Zitka, Robert Springer and Leo Von Tersch and first-year coach Don Leahy – was named the state champion after completing its third season without a loss.
Football – 2006: Arcadia, 1956-57
50 Years Later & Still Talk of the Town Let’s see now, the Arcadia high school football team of 50 years ago didn’t have a Heisman trophy winner….Didn’t have bigtime college recruiters beating a path to their football field… Played in one of Nebraska’s smaller classes…..Had a lot of chores to do before and after […]
Football – 2007: Lexington
Undefeated (8-0) and The Associated Press Class A state champion, the Minutemen allowed only one touchdown all year. The team included three all-state starters – Dallas Dyer, Monte Kiffin and Mick Tingelhoff. By BARB BIERMAN BATIE, Lexington Clipper-Herald 09/21/2007 LEXINGTON — There was something special in the crisp fall air in 1957 — something […]
Football – 2010: MCook
10-0 Big Ten Conference Champion. Averaged 32 points per game. Head Coach: Andy Loehr.
Football – 2011: Omaha North
Unbeaten North High had great depth and a versatile backfield which gained a lot of notoriety for its productivity and nickname—the Four Norsemen, a moniker created by The World-Herald’s Don Lee. Bob Churchich, Ricky Davis, Rook Taylor and Dan Miller did gridiron mayhem through the Metro Conference during the Vikings’ 9-0 season. Guard Bert Hetrick […]
Football – 2013: Lincoln Northeast
Lincoln Northeast Football 1963 Front: Assistant Coach Max Hester, Mark Holm, Chuck Turek, John Mayfield, Dick McConkey, Bob Scott,. Tom Harris, Doug Campbell, Jack Handa, Ralph Garcia, Head Coach Art Bauer. Middle: George Manske, Dan Cunningham, Roger Woods, Marlin Brodd, Jim Brox, Jerry Morford, Roger Galloway, Rich Bowker, Rod Dewey, Daryl Schuckmann, Dick Johnson-SM. Back: […]
Football – 2015: Bertrand
Undefeated (9-0), giving up only one touchdown in the last five games. Their average score was 38-4
Football/Basketball – 1997: Grand Island Senior High, 1947-48
Grand Island Senior High School’s post-World War II athletic surge produced state championships in both football and basketball in the 1947-48 school year, with the junior class that year being able to boast that their teams won two football championships and two basketball championships while they were in school. The basketball titles came in 1947 […]
Football/Basketball – 2011: Polk
In 1946, McCook High School utilized a blend of the speed from a state track championship team and the experience of a talented senior class to win the school’s first and only football state championship (written in 1996). The Bison went 9-0 and defeated Fremont, 7 to 0, in the Big 10 Conference playoff game […]
Football/Track & Field/Basketball – 2010: Fairfield
Football 8-0 Mythical State 8-Man Champions Basketball 20-1-0 Track Class “D” State Champions
Football/Wrestling-2016; Rushville, 1966-67
Golden Anniversary Team: Rushville football and wrestling. The Longhorns went 11-0 in football, scoring 44.5 points per game while giving up 4.9, and claimed the Class C wrestling title while crowning two individual champions.
Scottsbluff State Championship teams-1967-1968
Football, Cross Country, Wrestling, Track and Field […]
Track & Field – 2015: Omaha Central
Led by Booby Allen, Jim Hunter and Joe Orduna, Coach Frank Smagaczs Eagles repeated as Class A state champions, winning five events to outscore runner-up Omaha Tech 58-33.