LINDEN — North Montgomery High School will honor the 1970-71 Linden High School basketball team during Tuesday’s boys’ varsity basketball game against West Lafayette.
Bulldog coach Tom Speaker and several of the players from the championship team will be present.
The Bulldogs won the last Montgomery County Tourney in 1971. The team was led by Montgomery County’s all-time leading scorer Daryl Warren who will be in attendance. Warren finished his stellar high school career with 2,083 points.
Speaker went on to coach the Charger’s junior varsity for five seasons beginning in the fall of 1971 after the consolidation of the North Montgomery small schools.
Linden’s final season is best remembered for two tournament battles with rival Darlington. The Bulldogs defeated Darlington, the dominate local team the last few years before consolidation, in both the 4-Way Tourney and the 40th and final Montgomery County Tourney. The four-way tourney included the four North Montgomery School Corporation teams of Coal Creek Central, Darlington, Linden and Wayentown. The championship game between the Bulldogs and Indians was played in front of 2,000 fans packed inside the 1,500 seat Waynetown gym. Linden also won the county tourney highlighted by what some consider as the best county tourney game of all-time in the semi-final against Darlington.
D.L. White will be present Monday as he was on the Bulldog coaching staff. White co-penned a book with Speaker detailing the 1970-71 Bulldog basketball season entitled “The Last County Championship”.
Taking part in the halftime ceremony will be Fred Johnson and Jared McMurry who are members of the newly formed Montgomery County Basketball Hall of Fame. Johnson is a Linden graduate and coached against the Linden team while head coach at Waynetown High School.
The game at North Montgomery is scheduled to tipoff following the 6 p.m. junior varsity game.
