A GOLDEN SATURDAY

Fifty years after they turned in one of Freeman’s greatest athletic accomplishments of all time, those who were part of the 1975 State B Boys Basketball title assemble at the home of their coach

Ron Bennett pulled out the finest bottle of Champagne he could get his hands on, one even more special than a Louis Roederer Cristal or a Dom Pérignon, which sell northward of $300. This one, with gold trim at the top and a clean Piper label toward the bottom, was one of two gifted him by Irene Klesinasser 50 years ago after he coached the Freeman High School boys basketball team to the summit of high school athletics — the 1975 Class B championship.

The 87-year-old has been saving it all these years for this very occasion, a 50th anniversary gathering celebrating the accomplishment that remains etched in stone as one of this community’s finest athletic achievements.

It was inside the Ron and LeEtta Bennett home in Salem where they gathered on Saturday evening, Aug. 23 for the occasion a half-century in the making — seven players, their wives and two cheerleaders from that dream team that became the toast of the town after a late-game rally stunned Dell Rapids St. Mary 61-55 in that Class B final that came in front of 10,000 fans at the Sioux Falls Arena, putting a finishing touch on a 27-0 season that saw the Flyers ranked No. 1 from start to finish.

But before they drank, out came words, organic, heartfelt and emotional.

Ron began by naming those who were not there — assistant coach Burnell Glanzer, who was in Europe and could not make the trip, and another assistant coach, Wayne Knoll, who passed away. And then he mentioned others on the team who have been lost — Gary Goertz, Jon Dangel, Mike Waltner, Brad Wiens and Craig Krehbiel — and then asked for a moment of silence.

And then, after breaking the silence of the moment, Ron broke down and fell silent again for nearly 25 seconds, an eternity in a room that fell still with him.

The emotion was an obvious reaction to the tribute to those who have left this earthly life, but it was no doubt also rooted in the power of what took place 50 years ago and the joy that still lives with those who made it happen.

And the uproarious laughter that followed the deep and quiet emotion was contagious.

“I was a helluva coach once I got some ball players,” said Ron, reflecting on the 13 years that came before that state title run that did not elicit success, before finally tending to that bottle of champagne.

“We’ll see how this goes,” he said.

Ron slowly and carefully used his right hand to twist the brittle cork as those around him watched in anticipation. Would it come out clean? Would it make that signature pop when all that carbonation was released. And just how would the bubbly taste five decades after it was gifted to the legendary coach?

The cork broke in anticlimactic fashion as Ron pulled it out. The room exploded with laughter. Ron saved the day by using a corkscrew to cleanly pull out what was left in the neck of the bottle before pouring glasses and distributing them to the players.

“I would just like to say that it’s been an honor to know all you guys, and the memories that we have had keep coming up all the time,” said Bob Pidde, arguably the best player on the team who is credited for turning that championship game against Dell Rapids St. Mary in favor of the Flyers late. “One of the things that Mark (Gross) told me just a couple of weeks ago — he said, ‘You know, we were really good.’”

“In regard to that, Bob,” Ron responded, “we were. I believe we could have beaten most teams 10 years either way.”

“It was a life-changing event that we didn’t realize was happening at the time,” said big man Keith Massey, whose imposing presence on the post opened up the court for others. “We had no idea it would affect us for the rest of our lives.”

“I told you that when we were going to go out and play St. Mary,” Ron said. “I don’t know if any of you remember that, but I said that if we were successful tonight, it will mean something to you for the rest of your life.”

“It just goes on and on,” he continued. “From me to you, to you, to you, to you, to you.”

Ron talked about the difficult loss of Goertz in 1985 and Mike Waltner more recently, and recalled how Jon Dangle may have been the best individual basketball player he had ever seen, “but by God he couldn’t play with one other guy to save his life. He had moves, but it just never worked for him.”

More laughter. And then more words.

“We never really understood it at the time,” said Kerry Koller. “Now we’ve had 20, 30 years to look back at it and think about it and try to encapsulate just what was going on. And one thing I keep coming back to in that championship game is that, not one time did I ever remember seeing any panic on anybody’s face. We hadn’t lost all year and we’re down 11, 12 points in the third and fourth quarter, and I don’t remember anybody thinking we were going to lose.”

And then they drank “to the gentlemen who played basketball for Coach Ron Bennett and the Freeman Flyers.”

“Just like cough medicine,” said Kent Mueller, triggering another round of howls.

The socializing eventually moved out in the Bennett garage, where Ron had set out a collection of memorabilia, not just from the state championship season of 1974-75, but from subsequent years — programs from the 1987 and 1989 State A Basketball Tournaments that featured the Flyers, a host of coaching books and manuals, including one that outlined a pressure defense Bennett implemented that he believes won the state tournament. There was an old letterman’s jacket, dozens of newspaper clippings and booklets from the Freeman Classic that Bennett introduced in 1973 — one of the original basketball classics in South Dakota that drew some of the best teams around to the Sioux Falls Arena for most of its 25-year run.

And there was reel-to-reel film archiving the footage used by KELO to televise the entire 1975 state tournament — footage that will soon find its home in a display at Heritage Hall Museum & Archives to preserve the monumental event celebrated last week by some of those who made it happen.

As it should be.