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The Fifties: Tigers winning everywhere
The Fifties: Tigers winning everywhere
The 1950s were a golden age of Tiger sports. The 1954 state basketball champions represented the pinnacle of achievement to the community. It is no coincidence that team is recognized on the walls of HHS with a 15x10-foot photograph. Their state final win over Omaha Benson in a packed University of Nebraska Coliseum represented the end of a decades-long quest for Hastings in which the Tigers had come so close, so many times.
That magical season was just the brightest light in a decade of great achievements. The basketball program won five conference titles and four district championships in the decade with the help of four all-state players. The football squads, which produced another six all-state players, added five Mid East Conference championships and the program's first appearance in the prestigious Nebraska Big Ten championship game. The Tiger track teams won three conference titles and a district crown along with six individual state championships.
The school's most famous graduate, Tom Osborne, played a part in all three programs, garnering state honors in all three sports. Osborne was the first Tiger named Nebraska High School Athlete of the Year when he was honored by both the Omaha and Lincoln papers.
As the number of sports offered in Nebraska high schools expanded, so did Tiger excellence. The cross country team of hall of fame Coach Roy Bassett won two straight state championships in 1958 and 1959. The gymnasts, led by state all-around champions like Dale Anderson and Dennis Albers , won state titles in 1951 and 1959, and piled up no fewer than 23 individual state golds. The tennis program won back-to-back Big Ten titles and produced a state championship doubles pair in 1957. The swimmers were state runners-up in 1956 and won eight individual gold medals in the decade.
Winning was happening in all corners of the Hastings athletic department in 1950s. Bassett wasn't the only coaching legend roaming the Tiger sidelines. Ollie Smith led the football teams and became athletic director. Earl Applebee led the basketball team to the 1954 title, took over the football job late in the decade and won American Legion baseball championships in 1953 and 1958.
In the middle of the decade the community opened its new modern high school and vast campus. The athletic facitities were the best in the state with 1800-seat gymnasium, multiple football practice fields, modern track around underclass game football field, and swimming pool. The new HHS opened in the fall of 1955.
(Links to individual years are organized by calendar year, not school year, to avoid confusion about dates. Remember that the football season of 1955 is in the same school year as the basketball and track season of 1956.)
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