“We was robbed!”
— The familiar chorus of the vanquished in sporting events everywhere
Jack Steiner, the closest thing we have in these parts to a walking high school sports encyclopedia, is well aware of the saying.
As a long-time coach, sports enthusiast and now a barber, he’s heard it all before.
Unable, or unwilling, to accept whatever the scoreboard says, the losing team on occasion finds other, often nefarious, reasons for their defeat.
The ref was blind! Our coach is an idiot! Did you see how that team cheated?
So when the late John Foust, a long-time local attorney, would see Steiner on occasion he would tell him how Iola High’s 1916 basketball team was robbed of a state championship.
“Sure, John,” Steiner would reply, usually with a chuckle.
Fast forward to a few years back, when Steiner was taking in the Kansas state basketball tournament and bought a program commemorating the tournament’s 100th anniversary.
The 74-page booklet was chock-full of information about champions old and new and every state basketball game result over the previous century. (Side note: Iola has qualified for the state tournament 22 times in its history, but only once since 1983.)
That led to a discovery about the 1916 championship game between Iola and Newton which Iola seemingly won, 47-46, only to have a point taken away after the protestations of Newton’s principal once the game ended.
The game was sent to overtime, after a 45-minute delay, and Iola never recovered, scoring only once in the extra period.
Newton’s 51-48 victory marked the second straight defeat for Iola in the state championship game. Iola has not won or played for a basketball title since then. Newton has subsequently won the state crown 12 more times.
“Turns out ole John was right,” Steiner laughed as he recounted the story recently with a Register reporter. “Iola was robbed.”
GETTING sports established at school in the early days of the 20th century was an arduous task, and Iola High School was no different.
