The Powerhouse 1962 Bradleyville Eagles Celebrate 60 years

Published: April. 8, 2022 in the Branson Tri Lakes News

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Members of the 1962 state Class S basketball champions are, front row: Bill Roberts and Jerry Combs; and back row: Coach Ray Gibson, Charles Horsey, James Wilkew kenneth Honevcut, Leon Boyd, Roy Combs, Darrell Paul, Eddie Hunsaker and Matt Wakeley. Courtesy of “The Hicks from the Sticks”

In the span of just one spring basketball season, five teenagers and a young coach freshly graduated from college transformed their rural high school’s basketball record of less than 10 wins in 10 years into a Missouri state winning streak record which still stands six decades later.

It was an accomplishment no one expected, partly because no one had heard of the small town of Bradleyville, located deep in the Ozark forest, and partly because there were only three returning players on the team when Coach Roy Gibson held his first practice in 1961.

Bradleyville wasn’t known for athletics before their basketball dynasty of the 1960s, and the school district of 141 students had only become a four year highschool in 1942. Many Bradleyville students worked outside of school: racoon hunting to sell the pelts or fishing to catch their family dinner. The district also only recently sponsored sports at school, and basketball players practiced without a coach on an outdoor dirt court.

In 1952, the community raised 1,200 dollars for a tile gym floor to be built inside the gymnasium. Those tiles became the training site for the humble “hicks from the sticks” team of 1962 who went on to win the small school a state championship.

The Bradleyville Eagles luck changed when the superintendent showed up on Coach Gibson’s front porch one afternoon in Blue Eye. The superintendent knew the young Gibson brothers would be an impactful inclusion for Bradleyville because they had success in their hometown.

Coach Gibson’s brother, Almer Gibson, was the principal at Blue Eye and was asked to become the new superintendent of Bradleyville and Roy Gibson was recruited to coach the Bradleyville team after coaching Blue Eye’s most accomplished basketball season at the time.

Coach Gibson was a student teacher for Blue Eye while finishing up his degree from Southwest Missouri State University. Before Coach Gibson came to Blue Eye, their boys varsity team had never won a tournament, and under his guidance they won 16.

Together, the brothers decided to leave their hometown and start their lives in Bradleyville.

“When I first started, Bradleyville only had two solid players, forwards Roy Combs and Leon Boyd,” Coach Gibson told Branson Tri-Lakes News. “We had lost the center and point guard and only three returning players with any basketball experience, so the school board president, Mr. Horner didn't expect a whole lot with new players and a new coach.”

Coach Gibson’s key to success was seeing the strengths in every player. With only 65 high school students, Gibson was able to smoothly talk two other boys who played basketball in junior high to try out for the team again. The final player in the starting five was known as “the kid.” Derrel Paul was a 14-year old freshman and as an eighth grader was a “dominant scorer and outside shooter,” Gibson said. “Derrel Paul had extreme range and could shoot like they do now.”

Even though Gibson couldn’t afford to lose any players, he prioritized building a strong team culture over winning games.

“I sat the kids down on the first day and told them my expectations,” Gibson said. “If you’re not going to give 100%, then don’t even come out.”

To any outsider, the team would have passed off for a couple of teenage hunters and fishers, but with their unity and work ethic, Gibson knew they were going to be good.

Gibson still remembers “his kids” as he calls the players like it just happened this season.

“I had two 6 foot kids and three 6 foot 2 kids,” Gibson said. “Back then, players didn’t have all the training and dribbling they do today, but Leon Boyd could go left as a right hand and dribble two balls.”

Roy Combs had the nicknames “iceman” and “sure shot Combs” because once he had possession of the ball, the other team couldn’t steal it.

The team's motto for the season was “respect everyone, fear no one,” and they reversed their reputation from having technical fouls to winning all the sportsmanship trophies for the year.

By March 1962, the Bradleyville Eagles had an undefeated season record 29-0 going into the small class state playoffs at the end of the month.

No one had expected the Eagles to make it that far, and the whole town caravanned to Columbia to watch the championship. Before the game, the opponents viewed the troves of Bradleyville residents traveling to the game in the beds of pickup trucks as a spectacle. Afterwards, the whole state heard about Bradleyville’s win and their close knit support system.

The Eagles played the championship game against North Harrison High School, and it was Roy “sure shot” Combs who made the winning basket for Bradleyville.

For such a historic moment, there wasn’t a big celebration for the Eagles. The humble team went home and got back on the court for next season.

“The Branson Kiwanis Club put on a banquet when we got home, but we didn’t do a whole lot of celebrating,” Gibson said. “We earned what we worked for.”

Coach Gibson left the following year to coach at Waynesville and earn his masters at the University of Arkansas, but Almer Gibson hired Coach Ellison to carry the momentum of the Bradleyville dynasty.

Bradleyville had seven strong years and won 64 consecutive games in their regular season. The small team was a mighty powerhouse, defeating schools 20 times their size. Bradleyville defeated schools with over 2,000 students at the time including Joplin and Parkview.

In 1988, the 1968 undefeated team was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

The state title put Bradleyville on the map and bonded the five boys for life. Coach Gibson and the 1962 players still meet several times a year to reconnect over lunch.

For more information, “The Hicks from the Sticks,” written by former player Leon Combs, is available for purchase on Amazon.