Drexel Lawson, Bruce Perry from Bismarck, and Phil Ferris from Langdon at the St. Mary's Invitational Track Meet in Bismarck. Some fast MF'ers. Track and field in ND in the 70's was crazy.
I played football against Tim Lawson and Doug Hushka all four years of high school. My recollection was that they were about the same size, but Hushka was a beast. He was fast, tough, and mean. Lawson was fast but I got the impression that football was not his passion, it was something he did. Hushka on the other hand, I got the impression that he loved football and was just pissed off every time he hit the field. He played CB at NDSU, and I don't ever remember him playing defense in high school. As a running back, he was insane. When he got on a roll, you couldn't stop him.
Yah, I was assigned to guard him when I was a 5'9 sophomore, and he was a senior. I guess because he was handling the ball most of the time.
We had an excellent coach at the time, and he taught us a completely new concept. It was called, defense. I thought I was getting really good at it until the Lawson experience. My trying to guard him was ridiculous and absurd. Drexel would just explode off the floor on his jump shots. I had a 40 inch vertical at the time, but he was too quick, I couldn't even get a hand in his face. I could dunk soccer balls or under inflated basketballs, but my getting off the ground was a process, Lawson would just pop up 3 feet in a micro-second. And any of us trying to stay with him up and down the court was ludicrous, and one of my teammates was a sprinter himself. The motorcycle accident was a hideous tragedy.
You and I must be about the same age. Was it Alsen that had the half inch difference at half court? Played in some serious old school Hoosiers type gyms. I remember Drexel going over the top of me for a rebound, I was about at rim level and he was a good 6-8 inches above my hands and grabbed it like i wasn't even there.
Allow me to relate my story: In 1967, my HS played basketball against Dickey, ND High School. The walls at the ends of the court were the out of bounds barrier. To inbound the ball your back had to be against the wall. The free throw circle and the center jump circle intersected. The 10 second line was the free throw line extended on the other side of the court. Only good thing about the joint was that you never got winded.