Portage County has contributed plenty of memories and well-known figures to the sport of basketball over the years in Wisconsin. From the rag-tag outfits that represented the Stevens Point Normal School in the early 1900s, to Stevens Point High School’s 1954 WIAA state champion squad to Dick Bennett’s powerful Terry Porter led University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point teams of the 1980s, the county has never lacked in passion or aptitude for the game.
The sport’s beginnings in the area, however, were rather humble. The Stevens Point Athletic Club was one of the first organizations to begin experimenting with the new sport, which was developed by Dr. James Naismith in the year 1891. The Athletic Club organized a regular team in 1900, but had a struggle getting started when it reportedly had trouble “finding a proper rink to use.”
The game soon caught on, though, and was a staple of the sports curriculum on the high school, collegiate and city amateur levels in Stevens Point and surrounding communities.
The sport was not for the meek of heart, however, and accounts of the day often detailed the rough play and questionable sportsmanship of players, fans and officials. Visiting teams could expect a rough go from their hosts and the hometown fans.
One particularly heated rivalry of the early 1900s developed between the Stevens Point Athletic Club and the hated Fond du Lac Company E. team. A much anticipated showdown between the two heavyweight teams came in 1901, when the hometown boys struggled to a satisfying 11-7 win.
In perhaps a prelude to today’s punishing NBA playoffs, only 18 points were scored while a whopping 61 fouls were called.
The comments of an unnamed Fond du Lac center seemed to sum up many of the hardcourt battles of the day. The center “was warm under the collar,” over the hosts roughhouse antics, according to one account.
“The Stevens Point team didn’t know how to treat visitors square, the officials’ decisions were rotten and the players might know something about football, but not the first of the principles of basketball,” he said. Finally, he concluded his tormentors were “a bunch of sluggers.”
While still taking a backseat to baseball and football in the hearts of area sports fans, basketball still managed to attract enthusiastic, if somewhat uneducated, crowds. Newspaper reports of the games often centered more on the rowdiness of the crowd and its feelings toward the officials than they did on the actual action.
Most games were indifferently described as “interesting” or “spirited,” apparently owing to the fact that journalists probably knew as little about the game as the spectators.
By the 1930s, the game bad grown greatly in popularity and was being played on many different levels, including the Stevens Point “City Amateur League” - the equivalent of the first recreation league in the city.