Vaster’s famed 1973 team reunites at Pine Bluff Country Club

James Evans, a member the 1973 Class B state champion Vaster High School boys basketball team, makes remarks to keynote speaker Sidney Moncrief (off camera) as emcee and dinner organizer David Beck laughs Friday at the Pine Bluff Country Center. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)
James Evans, a member the 1973 Class B state champion Vaster High School boys basketball team, makes remarks to keynote speaker Sidney Moncrief (off camera) as emcee and dinner organizer David Beck laughs Friday at the Pine Bluff Country Center. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)


Fifty years ago, the Samuel Vaster High School Pirates took small-school basketball in Arkansas by storm and won the Class B state championship, eventually earning the right to take on long-standing power Little Rock Central in the finals of the second overall state tournament the Arkansas Activities Association conducted.

Friday evening, after an ice storm that crippled Jefferson County, the boys from Moscow and surrounding communities came back to celebrate an important anniversary of their achievements.

Sure enough, their coach wouldn't have missed the occasion for anything.

"Very pleased, very much so," said Herbert Pryor, who led the Pirates during the last 14 years of the school's existence. "It's just hard to imagine this happening."

While the anniversary dinner at the Pine Bluff Country Club came to fruition, the idea of a team representing a rural school with 90 children competing with a then-15-time state champion from a historic school of about 2,000 students might have seemed far-fetched in 1973. But Vaster's win over Fountain Hill (since consolidated with the Hamburg School District) in the Class B final, along with victories over AA champion Morrilton and AAA titleholder Conway, led the Pirates to take on the storied Tigers at Little Rock's Barton Coliseum.

Vaster trailed Central 36-33 at halftime, fell behind by as many as 15 points and made a strong comeback effort, only to fall just short, 75-74. Still, the Pirates have been celebrated and remembered in ways similar to the fictional 1950s Hickory High that won Indiana's one-class state tournament in the 1986 film "Hoosiers," starring Gene Hackman.

"I think it helped to let small schools know they could compete at one time for another," Pryor said. "Maybe not every day or every night, but occasionally you'd have a team that was outstanding."

Whether there would be a 50-year reunion to bring back Vaster's victors of '73 was, at one time or another, doubtful.

"I never thought it would, but I know it was planned in the future there and so glad that it did come," said Sam Biley, a senior on the '73 Pirates.

Said classmate and teammate Rodney Ryce: "Never thought about it, totally shocked, but I'm grateful."

Biley, who coached the Southern Arkansas University women's team from 1995-2010, didn't think the Pirates were forgotten, either. He credited the people who helped organize the dinner, including White Hall businessman David Beck.

Beck passed by the old Vaster campus one day and asked alumnus Larry Turntine how he could do something for the school, which closed in 1984 as the Linwood School District merged with the Pine Bluff School District. The only problem was that Beck didn't know anyone who graduated from Vaster – until Turntine said he did.

"I looked up at Larry, and we said, 'OK, we're doing this,'" Beck said. "Without Larry, this doesn't happen."

Beck followed what he called "the voice of God" inside him and managed to get some of the players together to organize it. Turntine died last year, Beck said.

And for his efforts, the Pirates named Beck an honorary team member, even evoking a strong cheer of approval -- "Woo!" he yelled -- before he was even mentioned. The proverbial glass half-full was "overflowing" after the dinner, he said.

"I'm so honored to even be a part of this," he said. "The committee, coach and Homer [Jackson] and getting to know everyone ... the joy and happiness in this room is hard to explain to someone who isn't here."

The Pirates' championship run earned proclamations from Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington, Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson, University of Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek, U.S. Rep Bruce Westerman and Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman. Each of the players (or their relatives) received a copy of the letters from Yurachek and Westerman, as well as custom-made bowls with lines of purple and gold, Vaster's colors.

"As long as those bowls exist, the spirit of Vaster exists," Beck said.

Even Sidney Moncrief, a graduate of old Central rival Little Rock Hall and a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer, celebrated the Pirates by delivering the keynote address.

"The story needs to be told because it's a story of inspiration," said Moncrief, who emerged onto the national scene as a standout guard at Arkansas during its run to the 1978 NCAA Final Four. "I'm one of 400 people in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, and I'm from Little Rock, Arkansas, which is little compared to Dallas and New York. It shows that great things come from small places."

Moncrief said playing at Arkansas in the 1970s helped change the landscape of human interaction in the state from people not speaking to one another to talking about the Razorbacks.

Yet the seeds of success were planted at Vaster just before the decade began.

"It started in eighth grade playing ninth graders, and then in 10th grade, we played against the 11th and 12th graders, so we finally caught up and played our equals as seniors," Ryce said. "So we took our lumps before we became champions."

By 1972, he added, that small-school team from southeast Jefferson County was put on the map just getting to the state tournament, with the best yet to come.

"At that particular time, many found out that we were only juniors and they expected us to return," Ryce said. "It put the community at large on the map."

  photo  Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Sidney Moncrief, center, speaks with members of the 1972-73 Vaster High School boys basketball team, including Sam Biley (left), Charles Petty (right of Moncrief) and Rodney Ryce (far right). (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)
 
 
  photo  A large crowd inside the Pine Bluff Country Club ballroom gathers to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Vaster High School's 1973 Class B championship and overall runner-up finish. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)
 
 
  photo  A custom-made "Spirit of Vaster" bowl was presented to each player or his relative. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)
 
 
  photo  Members of the Vaster High School boys basketball team from 1973 present a letter to David Beck, holding the letter, naming him an honorary team member for organizing the reunion dinner. Also pictured is keynote speaker Sidney Moncrief. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)
 
 
  photo  A letter jacket and warm-up shooting top from Vaster High School is displayed outside the Pine Bluff Country Club ballroom. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)
 
 
  photo  Vaster High School's Class B championship trophy from 1973 is displayed. According to the engraving on the trophy, the Vaster Pirates finished the season 41-6. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)
 
 


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