CLICK on gallery to enlarge and view at your own pace / Cover of 1953 Ohio vs. Kentucky High School All-Star Basketball program and Beemer soars in for a layup

By Bill Herr
Bluffton Icon columnist

It isn't often that I get to interview a sports legend. Beaverdam High School's last graduating class was in 1964. The next year Beaverdam consolidated with Bluffton Schools. Since then Beaverdam has provided good athletes in different sports that have helped Bluffton teams win championships. 

Before the consolidation, the Beaverdam Beavers had excellent basketball players. A few of those are as follows: Elvet Foulkes (played for the U.S. Army basketball team), Art Recker, Delbert Hall, Larry Michael (became head basketball coach at Ohio Northern University), Bud Beemer, Ralph Van Meter, Bernard Younkman (best man at my wedding), Bob Welch (Caity Matter's grandfather), Tom Stechschulte, and Dwain Holt (became head basketball and baseball coach at Bath High School).

My family attended Beaverdam Methodist Church so I had friends in Beaverdam and attended many basketball games in the Beaverdam gym (some folks in Bluffton called it the "Beaverdam Dome"). After the consolidation, Bluffton teams would sometimes play games there. I saw every one of those players listed in games. Elvet was older, but on Thursday nights I played in pickup games in the gym and he played. He was still good. Of all the great basketball players from Bluffton and Beaverdam, I consider one of them the greatest of all. He is Bud Beemer from Beaverdam.

Bud is alive and well at 91 years old. I interviewed him in his and his wife Roberta's beautiful home in Beaverdam. He's a proud Army veteran and outside are flags and a sign that says, "We stand for our Nation's Flag and Anthem."

As a boy of 10, Bud and his friends played basketball in a building in Beaverdam. They used a water bucket for a basket and a ball that was about volleyball size. Bud had rheumatic fever and developed a heart murmur when he was around 12. He believes basketball helped bring his strength back. When Bud was a freshman, the coach would play him in one quarter.

He was of small size. As a senior he stood 5 foot 7 and a half and weighed 130 lbs. Against Shawnee, the coach put him in with three minutes to go in the game. They didn't pay much attention to the young substitute, and Bud made 8 baskets in three minutes. That may have been the beginning of his legendary career.

In 1952-53, Bud's senior year, he played forward. A guard on that team, Ned Truex, is also alive and well. I interviewed Ned and he explained to me Bud's skills; he said, "Most teams couldn't handle Bud. He had an accurate jump shot and outside shot. He had quick hands and feet. He could get around the corner and make a lay-up. Other teams would double-team him and he would drive for the bucket and get to shoot a lot of foul shots."

Against Forest in a semifinal District tournament game at Celina, Bud scored 49 points: 18 baskets and 13 free throws. Ned said, "Bud had good timing on his breaks for the ball. He would run and always come to meet the ball when they double-teamed him. I always tried to get him the ball as often as I could. He kept running and would get his defenders tired. Bud played tough defense. He got a lot of steals, and fouled out in a number of games." In the Forest game, he fouled out with a minute and a half to go.

His 49 points scored were an Allen County one-game scoring record that stood for years. Bud was a team player. When he was double-teamed, it would often leave a teammate open, and if he didn't have his shot he would pass to the open man.

I asked Bud to show me his hands. His fingers are of normal length, but they are large for a person of his size. I told him that may have given him greater control of the basketball. He nodded. When I saw him play, he was a whirlwind on the floor, always moving. Large crowds filled the Beaverdam gym to see him play. Bud's sister kept all the sports write-ups of Beaverdam's games. Sportswriters began to refer to him as a "deadly shooter," or a "one-man scoring machine." Beaverdam got hot in the tournament. I didn't go to Celina to see the Forest game, but I listened to it on the radio. The announcer got excited and kept saying he was witnessing an incredible shooting display by the forward from Beaverdam.

The championship game in the tournament saw Delphos Jefferson defeat Beaverdam. Bud scored 37 points in that game. He scored 86 points against two teams that were the cream of the crop of teams in the county that year.

He set two other records besides the 49 against Forest. He scored 740 points in 25 games for a single season high. And his average of 29.6 points per game was a county record. Bud's teammates on the starting five were Ned Truex, Jim Palte, Dale Walters, and Bill Hughes. Players on the bench that saw action in every game were Marlin Burkholder, Bill LaRue and Roger Arnold. The team's final record was 11 wins and 14 losses. Ned said that in Bud's four years coach Paul Snyder's teams always won at least one trophy.

I saw great opposing players on the Beaverdam floor. Len Volbert, 6 foot 4 inches, had been county scoring champion the year before at 28.6. Volbert became an outstanding basketball coach at Perry and Lima Central Catholic.

I saw him play for Shawnee against Beaverdam in the "Dome." He was also an aggressive player.

After the season, the AP (Associated Press) placed Bud third team on the All-Ohio B Squad (in those days there were only two divisions, A and B). A school boy publication named The First and Ten Magazine had him second team on the B squad. He was selected to play in the sixth annual Ohio vs. Kentucky All-Star Game. Bud played in two quarters but didn't score, although he told me he hit one bucket but the referee called him for traveling.

Bud was invited to play for Bluffton College, Ohio Northern University and Bowling Green University. His coach, Paul Snyder, said Bud wasn't interested in going to college. Bud was invited to workouts to play on the Army team. The coach put a chair on the gym floor and told the candidates he wanted each of them to jump over the chair and go in for a lay-up. Bud said, "I wasn't about to break my back." He walked out of the tryout.

After our interview Bud invited me into his furnished basement where he has a lot of baseball, basketball, hunting and fishing paraphernalia. He pointed to a news column on the wall and said, "That's about the no-hitter I pitched against Elida." Bud loves baseball and was scouted by the Chicago Cubs.

He remains a bright, humble, friendly, interesting man. After his senior year he was acclaimed as the best basketball player in Allen County. I venture he may be the best ever. For a young basketball player who isn't very tall or big, Bud is proof that there is always a place for a smaller player that practices hard, plays hard and perfects skills on offense and defense.

That is why he is the greatest high school basketball player I ever saw.

I close with the 25 games he played in his senior year and the number of points he scored in each game: Vaughnsville (31), Ottawa Parochial (16), Spencerville (16), Delphos St. John's (17), Lafayette (30), Gomer (30), Elida (11), Shawnee (36), Harrod (29), Cory-Rawson (37), Pandora-Gilboa (29), Spencerville (29), McGuffey (33), Lafayette (38), Gomer (19), Elida (14), Continental (43), Harrod (41), Hardin-Northern (15), Alger (39).

Allen-County Tournament

Harrod (33), Lafayette (28), Elida (22)

District Tournament

Forest (49), Delphos Jefferson (37)