JESSE O. ANDERS & THE 1930 JENA HIGH NATIONAL FINALIST BOYS BASKETBALL TEAM, Winn Parish, LA ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** TIPS FOR SEARCHING RECORDS ON THE INTERNET Netscape & Ms Explorer users: If you are searching for a particular surname, locality or date while going through the records in the archives or anywhere....try these few steps: 1. Go to the top of the report you are searching. 2. Click on EDIT at the top of your screen 3. Next click on FIND in the edit menu. 4. When the square pops up, enter what you are looking for in the FIND WHAT ___________blank. 5. Click on DIRECTION __DOWN. 6. And last click on FIND NEXT and continue to click on FIND NEXT until you reach the end of the report. This should highlight the item that you indicated in "find what" every place it appears in the report. You must continue to click on FIND NEXT till you reach the end of the report to see all of the locations of the item indicated. Contributed by Greggory E. Davies 120 Ted Price Lane Winnfield, LA 71483 The 1929 and 1930 Jena High School boys' basketball team made it to the National High School Basketball Championship Tournament in Chicago, Illinois. The 1929 team bowed out early but the 1930 team played in the finals, losing to Athens, Texas High School by a score of 22-16. Retired Winn Parish Clerk of Court Jesse O. Anders, elected in 1964 and unopposed for the remainder of his political career, played on those great Jena teams. Mr. Anders speaks of the excitement surrounding the Jena community in those glory days, and the fear that the team would not be able to afford to make the trip to faraway Chicago. He said that the townspeople had to raise money to get the team's trip paid for as the Great Depression was in full swing. Mr. Anders said he might have had two dollars to take on the trip, if that much. The Jena squad, led by All-American Sparky Wade won two games in the National Tournament in 1929 but were defeated in their third game, forcing them to come home and dream about the next season. Mr. Anders said the state champion from each state got to represent their state in the yearly tournament. The Jena team of 1930 had eight players, the tallest one being shorter than the shortest man on the Athens, Texas team. And, Jena's star player was injured and unable to play in the championship game, possibly costing Jena a National Championship. Mr. Anders played "stationery guard", a position which required him to remain on the defensive end of the court. Not strange for the period, Jena, like many other north Louisiana rural schools, did not have a gymnasium and played their games outdoors. Sparky Wade, Jena's star, went on to a great career at L. S. U. Other team members Ernest Doughty, played at Louisiana Normal, now Northwestern State, and Clyde Stalkup, played at Centenary. Jena's coach was Bud Gaharan. Mr. Anders came to Winn Parish in 1941 as Supervisor for the Federal Farm Loan Program. After leaving that job, he went into the feed and seed business, then took a job with the State of Louisiana Department of Education. He reentered private business, dry cleaning, and was elected to the Winnfield City Council. Upon defeating the incumbent in the Clerk of Court race, he learned that his opponent was short of retirement. In a rare form of political integrity, Mr. Anders hired his opponent in order to allow the defeated man a opportunity to earn retirement. This does not come as a shock to those who know Jesse O. Anders. (The above article was written by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, Louisiana, and originally published in The Winn Parish Enterprise.)