The Shawnee
Mission North field house trophy case houses a small shrine to the 1953 boys
state champion basketball team. I found it one day after lunch when I was a
student there. The trophy cases for most North sports are kept in the small
foyer of the field house. There's an old box office window there, long since
papered over. It's quiet throughout the school day. The sun streamed in from the
parking lot that day and in the sudden gleam that occurred when a cloud moved
away, I saw five 50's era photos and the title "state champions".
North's glory days of championships ended when the district grew to the point
that it demanded more high schools. The talent pool was split in the late 50s
when Shawnee Mission East opened. West followed in the mid 60s but the football
team remained successful under coach Larry Taylor until Shawnee Mission
Northwest opened in the late 60s or early 70s. There have been other champions
since (1982 Baseball), but for the most part, the teams that lived on in high
school eternity were from before 1970. That 1957 North basketball team featured
players Gene Elstun and John Parker. Their small black and white photos sat next
to the ribbons and trophy that came with the championship. Identified by last
name only in the modest display, I didn't realize that they went on to greater
fame in college.
KU basketball fans may recall that Elstun and Parker were senior co-captains on
the 1957 KU basketball team that reached the final four. In one of the greatest
NCAA championship games ever, KU and North Carolina played three overtimes
before North Carolina emerged victorious. A strapping sophomore from
Philadelphia named Wilt Chamberlain was named tournament MVP. The Jayhawks
returned to Allen Field House for an appreciation rally that featured Louie
Armstrong. That's a fairly decent consolation. I think it's cool that one of the
greatest KU teams ever was led by two kids from Shawnee Mission North.
John Parker died this week. He was 70. But his basketball legacy endures and you
don't have to visit the North field house foyer. See John and Gene and Wilt in
action from the '57 season in a series of short films narrated by Max
Falkenstein and produced by Centron