Last week’s column emphasized how far basketball seasons now stretch into the calendar year, particularly at the professional level. Scoring has likewise inflated compared to tallies registered back when the 1929 Black Diamond High School basketball team played. That year the Diamond boys won the league cup edging Vashon Island, 15 to 10 following a spirited game. A late January thriller against Meridian saw Black Diamond extend its 6-3 half-time lead, to a 16-14 squeaker. The league cup final against Meridian a month later, found the Diamond team victorious by an overwhelming 29-10 margin.
While most players on the 1929 squad are known, their names were not written on the back of this photo, except for Maxwell Page, second from the right in back row. The other on that year’s team were Tom Babchanik, Joe Paglia, Meg Pierotti, John Richter, Glen Rocky, Walter Sigmund, Lloyd Windbeckler, and Coach Bowen with white hair and glasses. This photo, taken in front of Black Diamond High School, was provided by Colin Page, father of Max Page. It comes courtesy of JoAnne Matsumura, an Issaquah historian and frequent contributor to When Coal Was King. Next week, a look at a later generation of 1953 Black Diamond basketball players.
