Cat Tales: A record year
The 1934 Jasper Wildcats, who still hold the school’s best all-time record for boys’ basketball at 29-2, broke out of the gate fast with eight straight victories. However, in the Mitchell game, star Eddie Rottet fell and broke his collarbone after being clipped while shooting.
The Cats’ only regular season loss came in the next game, 26-24, to Evansville Reitz. Suffering from the absence of Rottet, Jasper also missed Bill Carnes with an infected knee, and Cyril Birge exited late with a leg cramp. Still, it took a long last-second shot for Reitz to win.
A high point of the season was winning twice over perennial power Washington, the 1930 state champion. Wildcat guard Marty Gosman told the late area sportswriter Jack Schneider in a 1987 interview how sweet one of those victories was. “Johnny Steffen was hitting the bucket really good from out, a great big arching shot (before that Washington game), scoring a lot of points,” remembered Gosman. “There was an article in the paper about how hot he was. Washington (Indiana Hall of Fame) coach Burl Friddle read that, then said in the paper to be sure to bring Steffen along when you come over to play us, we are going to show you how good Mr. Steffen is not. Well, Steffen hit his first three shots. Friddle was about to crawl the floor underneath the bench. At a timeout we just sat there and laughed.”
The Wildcats even won a rare out-of-state road game, at Louisville St. Xavier, 24-16.
Steffen and Birge were also interviewed by Schneider in 1987.
Steffen told Schneider, “We all felt that nobody could beat us. Cyril led the team in scoring. Eddie (Rottet) was the sparkplug. He had a fire in him, and had a good one-hand shot.”
Cyril’s scoring total would have been two points higher, except for an unusual incident at French Lick. Their basket was near the school’s stage, and as Cyril went in for a layup, the stage curtain fell down. The curtain fell between Cyril and all the officials, who wouldn’t count the basket because they hadn’t seen it go in.
Cyril was best friends with Rottet, who was unanimously named Jasper’s first All-State basketball player after the season. Cyril would often go to Rottet’s house before games, and would stay there afterward. Both are members of the Jasper High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Both were awarded scholarships to play at Purdue University, just two years after a 17-1 Boilermaker team was named mythical national basketball champions. Rottet also had a scholarship offer from Northwestern University.
Cyril recalled for Schneider, “Eddie was tremendous at stealing tips (there was a center jump ball after every basket). He was real quick, moving all the time, setting up plays. He’d be the one cutting mostly around me on the pivot. And he was a fighter and a leader. He was a good shot, one of the first to shoot a one-hand jump shot. On the floor, Eddie kind of took over. If things weren’t going right, he’d let you know about it. But he wasn’t a boss or anything like that. Gosman was a good ballhandler. What made us is that we were close-knit, we practically lived together. We were all for the other one to do their best. And Coach Rea got along with the kids. He’d build you up. He had a way of getting on you without cursing you. At one halftime he said, ‘You guys don’t need a coach, come out in three minutes.’”
Gosman also mentioned how often Jasper would steal the jump ball tips after a made basket. “When we lined up, we could tell which direction it was going to go. So we’d steal it. It was hell on wheels. That team was quicker than most.”
According to Gosman, a lot of the Cats’ scoring came off a fast break. Players enjoyed firing out a long lead pass after snaring a rebound. The first thing a rebounder did was look down the floor.
Gosman also talked to Schneider about the playing styles of Birge and Rottet. “Cyril was like he was wound up,” said Gosman. “When he would make up his mind to get the ball, he was a mad man, and fast. Eddie could do everything, one of the best athletes ever from Jasper.”
(The next book excerpt from “Cat Tales” will focus on the 1934 postseason tournament.)
Greg Eckerle can be contacted at gregeckerle@twc.com
