HR 148 (LSB 6145HH (3) 84)

HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 148

BY  ARNOLD

A Resolution commemorating the 75th anniversary of a sports legend —— Melrose High School’s winning of the 1937 State Boys’ Basketball Championship.

   WHEREAS, on March 20, 1937, the Melrose High School Boys’ Basketball Team won the single-class State Boys’ Basketball Championship by defeating Marshalltown High School 35-17; and
   WHEREAS, with 66 students in the entire high school, Melrose is the smallest school to ever win an Iowa basketball championship; and
   WHEREAS, the Melrose team was the first team in Iowa to go undefeated throughout an entire basketball season, and its 33-0 record represents the most victories by an Iowa high school boys’ basketball team; and
   WHEREAS, Melrose used an innovative form of zone defense that was hard for other schools to handle; and
   WHEREAS, the Melrose team became known as the “iron men” after playing two games in the state tournament with no substitutions for the five starting players; and
   WHEREAS, two players from the team, Walter O’Connor and James Thynne, have been inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame; and
   WHEREAS, Melrose Coach Adolph Hlubek was inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2012; and
   WHEREAS, the Melrose team along with the 1933 Dunkerton team and the 1938 Diagonal team have been called the “giant killers” because they were small schools that defeated much larger schools in the single-class tournament to win a state basketball championship; and
   WHEREAS, even though Melrose High School has closed, its legacy continues to be celebrated at Albia High School, where a 1937 championship banner hangs in the gym; and
   WHEREAS, over the past 75 years, the members of the Melrose team have inspired people throughout Iowa by demonstrating that the Iowa values of teamwork, determination, perseverance, innovation, and hard work, when coupled with a little luck, can allow people to accomplish great deeds that others thought would be unattainable or impossible; NOW THEREFORE,

   BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, That the House of Representatives congratulates the 1937 Melrose High School Boys’ Basketball Team on the 75th anniversary of its state championship and encourages all Iowans to follow its example in striving to accomplish goals that seem impossible.