1953-54 Basketball Season

Front Row: Parsons; Stephens; Glenn; Greer; Gaines. Second Row: DuBose; French; Greenbaum; Grant; Owens; Morrison.

Basketball tradition at West End High School is big with State Championship teams in 1944, 1946, and 1948. But, those were Emmet Strickland teams and other than a surprise District championship in 1952 Coach Joe Shapiro had little to show for his efforts.

With only three experienced players the Blue Jays roared off to a surprising 8-0 start before losing by two points to Hillsboro during the Christmas break. As the new year began the Blue Jays reeled off five more victories. The lowest point of the season came as West lost to Father Ryan 54-38 and East 54-48 in the space of ten days. A one sided victory over Hume Fogg between those two losses did little to make people believe this team was a real contender for post season success. It was true they were undefeated at home with the narrow court and noisy crowd, but they had those three losses on the road. Did anyone really think after the trip back across the Cumberland River after the loss at East that West would not lose another game on their way to a fourth State Championship, the most of any school in the state?

The loss at East was followed by six more victories and a season record of 20-3. West was the top seeded team in the 18th District and had to face Cohn in their first game. Beating the same team three times in one year is supposed to be difficult, but the Blue Jays destroyed that myth by blasting Cohn 71-44 and Ryan 47-36.Going into the tournament finals they had to play MBA, another team they had already beaten twice. By this time the chanting of "All The Way For Doc" had become a staple of the cheering section as much as the playing of "Four Leaf Clover" . The Jays needed all the help they could get before edging MBA 38-36 in sudden death overtime. Little did anyone know that this propensity to hang on and win close games was to reach mythic proportions in the next two weeks.   

The Regional Tournament was also played at David Lipscomb and West was expected to make an early exit against a taller Donelson team. Again sudden death overtime resulted in "sudden victory" as West won 52-50. Maybe it was tiredness or overconfidence, but the "All The Way For Doc" train nearly came to a halt as McEwen proved to be a very tough opponent before falling 42-41. Now all that stood between West and a berth in the State Tournament at Vanderbilt Memorial Gymnasium was the heavily favored Woodlawn Bulldogs. In the most surprising game of the year West easily beat Woodlawn 62-45 and Joe Shapiro was taking his first basketball team to a State Tournament.

Winning the State Tournament requires you to beat four straight teams in a five day period. It helps if you play your worst game against the weakest team you'll face and the Blue Jays did just that as they "sputtered" past Petersburg 51-43 on the first night. A very good Lake City team required yet another overtime effort before falling 46-42 and when you thought you couldn't stand it the following night it took another overtime to defeat Memphis Treadwell 46-40.

Now only Lafollette stood in the way of West and their fourth State Championship. After falling behind early clutch baskets in the final minute led to a 42-40 victory, a State Championship trophy, and the climax to a most improbable season. They had indeed gone "All The Way For Doc".

Where are they now? You can read about a lot of the team members at http://www.tssaa.org/.

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