1907-2007 Indian Trail Centennial
Indian Trail Centennial Book — Indian Trail: The First 100 Years
Excerpt from Indian Trail: The First 100 Years
The 1926 Indian Trail Basketball Team
The late twenties were characterized by optimism, exploration and a ?can do? spirit. In May of 1926 Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett flew their controversial flight over the North Pole and in 1927 Lindberg made his historical trans-Atlantic flight.
Against this backdrop a group of lads from the small farming community of Indian Trail flew high and challenge for the state basketball championship for non-accredited schools on March 11, 1926.
Principal W. Q. Grigg coached Mark Lemmond, Ray Yandel, Sam Crowell, Mat Harkey, Arnold Killough, Lewis Killough, Allen Hargett, James Kinley, Oscar Deese, William Betty and Wiley Conder into a fine tuned team. The team had an excellent season and earned the right to play in the state tournament.
The quarter finals and finals were played in Chapel Hill. The quarter finals matched Indian Trail and Germanton in the Western State Final and Linden vs. Everett in the Eastern Final Game.
The Indian Trail team went into the tournament with confidence. They were supported by a sizable group of supporters from Indian Trail. Misses Poston, Jumper, Thormburg, and Whiteside were Indian Trail teachers who made the journey to support the team.
The Indian Trail team found the Germanton team to be worthy opponents and were down 13 to 10 with three minutes to go. The Indian Trail men shut down Germanton in the final three minutes with an overpowering defense and managed to score nine points to pull out the game 19 to 13.
The Eastern championship was won by Linden over Everett. This produced the marquee championship game between Indian Trail, the Western Champions and Linden, the Eastern Champions.
Indian Trail?s young team took the opportunity to take in the local sights during their time off. The young men toured the University of North Carolina, Duke University, State College, the state capitol and state museum during their free time.
Indian Trail went in the State Championship game a heavy favorite based upon their strong defensive show in the win over Germanton. We do not know if the team became overconfident by all the press or simply wore themselves out with all the planned activities. When the championship buzzer sounded ?Lady Luck? turned her back on our fine lads. Possession after possession the Indian Trail boys worked the ball with precision only to see a well planned shot go in the basket and mysteriously bounce out. The boys from Linden were the better team on this championship day.
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