Part 2
Coach Ozzie Osbourn’s basketball pedigree proceeded his arrival at Holy Rosary. In the 1950’s many small communities sponsored a “town” basketball team. Monroe City’s local entry, the Osbourn Steers was a good one, led by player-coach Ozzie Osbourn. The Steers didn’t lose often.
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| 1954 Gym Construction |
Osbourn hailed from the small Ozark Mountain town of Houston, MO, born in 1923. He came north to play basketball at Hannibal La Grange junior college and never left, marring a local girl. Prior to taking on the Holy Rosary job, Osbourn had been a very successful young coach on the collegiate level at his nearby alma mater, H-LG. Many were surprised he didn’t build a career by moving up the collegiate coaching ladder. He was a natural. Instead, he joined his wife's family cattle and grain ranch business. It became so profitable it took too much of his time to continue to head a successful collegiate level team. So, for a few years Ozzie didn’t coach.
But every morning he would view his hoops less world with the restless satisfaction of a man who has reached his goals too early in life. He was too young, still too full of vigor and a passion to share the beauty of the game with impressionable boys - almost men - to completely stay away. It didn’t take much of a sales pitch for local businessman and unofficial Holy Rosary Athletic Director Pete Ritter in the summer of 1956 to convince his friend to again air up his coaching whistle. No one seems to either know or remember if Ozzie even got paid for the Trojan gig, but most doubt he did.
Ozzie Osbourn’s reputation for his knowledge of the game of basketball immediately set him apart from his predecessors at Holy Rosary. “He was the first real coach we ever had,” recalls 1958 grad Chuck Kendrick. “And we hung on every word he said. Before we would have a dad, or some local who maybe had played in high school, volunteer to coach us and it just wasn’t working. When Ozzie came over, we knew immediately we had something special.”
Like a furnace, every time you open its door, a little of the fire escapes. Successful coaches are passionate about their job, but the smart ones learn to protect their passion. You can only give so much. A coach must know how to restoke the fire. Osbourn knew instinctively how to protect both his passion and those of his players without pushing too hard. He kept the game fun.
Tom Watson was too young to play for Osbourn, but his older brother, John Paul, was a star on Osbourn’s 1959 team. Later, Tom had many business dealings with Osbourn. Like a man stepping on stones to cross a shallow stream, throughout his life, says Watson, Ozzie went from one successful endeavor to another.
“He was passionate, but not in a way that would overwhelm you. He was excited about a project and that got you excited. People liked to do business, to buy from Ozzie because he kept things light, fun. People trusted him. He was also, (later) for the same reasons, a very good politician.”
Osbourn had a sharp tongue and a sarcastic humor, but what was more important was that he set a new tone, a winning tone for the team. He was not big on strategy, not too caught up in X's and O's. But according to VanMarter, Osbourn’s teams were always organized. But not so much as to complicate the game, overloading his players brains. Instead, he simply let them play - play hard. And VanMarter remembers his mentor knew how to pick his battles, certain things he would go to war over, sure. But others he just let run off his back. Ozzie never stalked the insignificant. “I always remembered that about him, learned that from him” Hoppy says today. “It is a lesson that has helped me throughout my life.”
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| Ozzie Osborn |
Coach Ozzie was a people person. A coach by trade, a promoter and salesman by inclination. He served, after ending his coaching career, multiple terms as a state representative for northeast Missouri. There is a similarity between good politics and good basketball—you can't do either one without a lot of early work, preparation. Osborn loved to campaign. Before entering politics, he for a short time sold cars.
Dick Aldrich is a long-time news and sports reporter from the Northeast Missouri area. "Ozzie Osbourn was a State Rep. from 1966 to 1985, serving ten terms. He passed away from cancer in 1985. His wife, Lois, then served out the remainder his term in the house," Aldrich states. Lois Osbourn, after her serving out her late husband term, was herself then re-elected. According to the veteran reporter, Osbourn was a perfect fit for his adopted hometown. "When I worked at KHMO Radio in Hannibal, I talked to Ozzie weekly during the legislative session. He was a great guy and a great representative for the area."
Osbourn died of leukemia less than six months after he was diagnosed. At the time of his diagnosis, he stated he intended to continue to serve in the state house of representatives. "The doctors assure me I can still talk as well as I always have," he said at the time. He was 61 years old when he passed away and was buried in Hannibal.
"Coach Osbourn coached a very physical game,” states VanMarter. “When you set a pick, you set a hard one. He taught us how to use our elbows, how to back your opponent off with a good elbow to the side of the head. Man, how the rules have changed, and I guarantee you Ozzie is turning over in his grave every time he looks down and sees a player today ejected for throwing an elbow. It was back in our day just another weapon and Ozzie taught his players how to use the elbow well. He never cussed, but I remember one saying he had, ‘when I see that ball on the floor loose, I better see a bunch of butts diving for it.”
And he loved to be in the gym. Osbourn had his new squad shoot enough jump shots that first summer their stroke became as natural as a politician's hand wave. And it would prove to be time well invested.
Osbourn was like the rare preachers who could use the same sermon for 40 years and never need to go looking for a new church. “A smile and a handshake," Ozzie would say, "go a longway in life." His positivity carried over to his team’s growing confidence. He never dwelled on mistakes. After a mistake, he would immediately inject, “Next play.” Chuck Kendrick says as a scorer, his coach taught him to have a short memory. “I hated to miss shots,” recalls the retired health department worker. “I remember him saying, 'next play, next play. Stay aggressive.' It gave me confidence.”
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| Holy Rosary |
“Everybody loved him,” VanMarter says today from his home in Columbia, MO. “He could be quirky, maybe a little stubborn at times. But the parents, the school nuns and especially us players, we just loved him, would have run through a brick wall if he asked us to. He just had this huge personality. He was a mentor to many of us. We all wanted to be just like him. That is why he was so successful in everything he ever did. Ozzie just took Holy Rosary basketball to a whole higher level.”
On Wednesday, October 17, 1956, the Ozzy Osbourne era began with a road game at Center. Preseason projections were for the Center squad to be salty. They had handled the Trojans the year before with ease. Ozzie told his players before they boarded the bus for the 30-minute ride, “If you do not have every expectation to go down there tonight and win, don’t get on my bus.” Since the essence of conviction is to convince, he then reminded them of the manta he had driven home since their first summer meeting five months previous, “Boys, I don’t lose.”
Joe Campbell scored 26 points and Holy Rosary crushed a surprise Center squad 68 to 47.
The next week the Trojans tasted defeat for the first time, once again on the road, losing to a solid Shelbina team by a score of 52 to 46. They were not there yet, but the players were starting to believe, starting to feel the confidence grow within. Area fans began to note the upturn.
The week before the Monroe City tournament, in late November, Holy Rosary picked up another confidence building win, 68 to 59 over Philadelphia. Philadelphia had been seeded ahead of the Trojans in the upcoming tournament. Jerry Campbell led the home team in scoring with 21 points and Jerry Campbell and Chuck Kendrick kicked in 17 each. Only five players scored. This was not a deep team and Coach Osborn would only go to his bench when foul trouble dictated the move.
A highlight of the season was capturing first place in the Mark Twain Holiday tournament, played over the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, and hosted by McCooey Catholic of Hannibal. Incredibly, Holy Rosary had never in the history of the school won a boys' basketball first-place tournament trophy. When the two rival Catholic schools, HR and McCooey would meet, the testosterone was high and the game near always a barnburner, and this one was no exception.
The score was tied four times in the first quarter alone. In the second quarter the lead changed hands 10 more times with Holy Rosary holding a slim 33 to 32 halftime lead. The third quarter saw the score continue to pinball back and forth on the ancient Hannibal Armory scoreboard. The game was tied three more times. McCooey went into the final quarter ahead 50 to 47.
McCooey immediately stretched the lead to five points which would prove to be the widest margin either team would lead by. With two minutes remaining, Holy Rosary tied the score at 54 to 54. With just under a minute remaining, two free throws by Jerry Campbell gave Holy Rosary a 60 to 59 lead. The Irish successfully connected on two free throws of their own to take the lead back, 61 to 60. With 30 seconds left in regulation, Jerry Campbell again tied the score at 61 with a single free throw. After a missed McCooey field goal attempt, Joe Campbell hit a field goal to put Holy Rosary ahead to stay, 63 to 61. After another McCooey turnover the Trojans tried to run out the clock, but the Irish stole the ball with five seconds remaining. After an ensuing foul that almost but Coach Ozzie in an early grave, McCooey missed two free throws, the second intentionally, and the Trojans celebrated a long-awaited tournament championship.
Chuck Kendrick led the scoring with 21 points.
Coach Dan Mudd was a decorated athlete and then a very successful coach of the Trojans from 1959 until the school’s closing in 1966. He told me that every time the Trojans would meet McCooey, something would always go against the favor of Holy Rosary. It was almost uncanny he said, if it could go wrong, it almost always did.
The Holy Rosary Trojans desperately needed a win over McCooey. The “rivalry” had become too one sided. And they got it and under the sweetest of circumstances; accepting on the home floor of their nemeses host a long-sought championship trophy; the first in the long history of the school. Quite a night!
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| Monroe City RR Tracks |
The Trojans won their first three games after the Christmas break before losing in the semifinal round of the Shelbina Tournament. Osborne’s squad defeated Higbee 60 to 48 in the first round and Atlanta 66 to 49 in the second. The Trojans would fall in the semi-finals to Paris, 70-51; before rebounding to defeat LaGrange for third place, 72-63.
A mid-February rematch at home with McCooey would prove to be the low point of a very rewarding season. The home squad led throughout the game and entered the fourth stanza with what appeared to be an insurmountable 55-37 lead. Ozzie would have converted to the Republican party before accepting his boys blowing an 18-point 4th quarter lead, none the less, at the Holy Dome. But incredibly, that is what happened. The Irish roared back on a 23-5 4th quarter run to tie the game at 60-60, then claimed the overtime win, 62-61. Considering the bitterness of the rivalry between the two neighboring Catholic high schools, it was a very disheartening loss for a team whose confidence had been steadily building throughout the course of the long season.
But Ozzie would not allow the malaise to last. "Next play, next play."
One week later Holy Rosary entered the class S regional with a record of 17-9 and a number three seed. They knocked off Center in the first round 71 to 49, then Philadelphia in the semifinals 52 to 37, to set up a regional championship tilt with a strong Winfield team.
Holy Rosary trailed throughout the game, 16 to 14 after the first period and 32 to 25 at the half. Winfield stretch the lead to 61 to 45 entering the fourth. Joe Campbell led the team in scoring with 23 points as the Trojans came up on the short end of a 78 to 65 score to complete a 19 and 10 turnaround year.
Ozzie's opening act had produced too gallant of a season to be too crushed by a regional final loss. The Trojan had a new strut about them. The 1958 season bore great potential.
Two weeks later, the MC Panthers closed out their record setting year with their only loss in 34 games, but it came early in the post season, in the state round of 16. Coach's Kirby's first Panther team had expected to play deep into state, maybe even winning the top prize - not to fizzle out in the opening round and limp home to answer questions of, "what happened?"
However, a year later, by March 1958, a Panther team who was early in the season a major rebuilding project, had come together as a unit and was playing its best basketball of the year. There were whispers around town that this March there could be two caravans of local fans "headed for state."
TO BE CONTINUE
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