For me, it brought back memories of the 1971 Lincoln East - Papillion Class A State Championship game, which I was fortunate enough to attend. After the game winning basket it was utterly silent a second as people were in disbelief. Then, an explosion of sound. No video, this is the best I can do
In Class A, nobody will ever, ever forget Lincoln East's Scott Copple and his 20 foot shot at the buzzer to lift the Spartans to a 74-72 over Papillion and 6-10 center Mike Heck. I thought the building was going to explode at the NU Coliseum that day. It was like a bolt of lightening hit the place. What a match between East's Kent Rekeway and Papio's big Mike Heck. It was Coach Dennis Hanson's Monarchs, the kings of the 4th quarter comebacks in 1970-71, that staged a furious 2nd half rally after trailing by 13 at the break. Papio actually drianed the clock down from 41 seconds to 11 ticks before calling a time out and mapping out a play to get the ball to the 6-10 giant, Heck. As time ticked away, Monarch guard Steve Fleming had the ball in the deep corner, but as he turned along the baseline, he stepped on the on the end line and turned the ball over to Lincoln East with 2 seconds left.
Here is how the next 2 seconds played out. East's Jack Ball took it out underneath the Papillion basket. He heaved the ball the length of the court but was off target and the pass was headed out of bounds. Had it not been touched, it would have been Papillion's ball. But......East's sophomore center, Rick Samuelson leaped from inbounds into what seemed like the 3rd row to me, and flicked the ball blindly back into play. Copple came from nowhere on an all out, dead run, scooped the ball up after one bounce and in one fluid, frozen in time motion, let it fly. The ball sailed through the hoop like it had been suctioned through by a reverse tornado. BANG! History!
I can still see the shot today. How blessed was I, and all who were in attendance, to witness that. I'm relatively certain Papillion wasn't too thrilled.
