In the 1920s, a 6-5 basketball player was like today’s 7-footer.
In the 1920s, few players impacted island “basketball” (by then it was one word) as did Steve, Mark and Pete Antoncich.
They were raised on a Wing Point farm that their folks bought for cash, plus the sales contract stipulated “300 quarts of milk.” Their folks also ran a store there. Good thing they did, with growing boys.
The sons attended Winslow High School (on the site of today’s Winslow Green), worked on the farm, milked dairy cows “Bertha” and “Mabel,” and delivered groceries by horse and wagon and, after 1924, by Model T Ford. Somehow, they made time for basketball.
Steve, the elder, led WHS to the Kitsap County championship in 1922. Then he became Seattle’s “Mr. Basketball” in the ‘20s and ‘30s playing semi-pro ball. In the 1930s, he twice took teams into high rounds of the National AAU tournament.
Mark and Pete looked up to their older, 6-foot-3-inch brother – for a while. Then Mark grew to be 6-foot-5, and Pete to 6-foot-5-1/2. That was like a 7-footer in those days.
They fastened barrel hoops to madrona trees for baskets. With few kids their age in the neighborhood, they grew up competing against one another. They developed Steve’s love and respect for the game.
WHS teams played in a hall at the north end of Cave Avenue. It was a half-mile from WHS and a mile from the boys’ home. There was a stage in the rectangular hall. One backboard was mounted above it. The other was nailed flush to the wall at the opposite end of the hall.
“There was no way to run beneath it,” Mark, now age 94, laments. “Players smashed against the wall constantly. Banged up noses were common. No mattress or padding offered protection.
One of the Bucklin boys learned to run and jump up off the wall to leap higher. Fouls were called at the slightest provocation. Four fouls and you were out, not five as today. It was a slower and milder game.”
It had to be: Facilities dictated it. The small hall was heated by wood stoves in opposite left corners. They were surrounded by solid pipe railings for protection
The late Setsuo Omoto recalled that players in that gym had to learn to dribble with their left hand. If they didn’t, they’d likely end up crushed by the railing or burnt by the wood stove. Spectators crowded the floor.
On one side of the hall only, a narrow, 6-foot wide area the length of the court was set aside for spectators. Above it, an equal-sized balcony offered more seating. An old galvanized water heater rarely made enough hot water for showers.
As Steve’s team had done in the early ‘20s, Mark and Pete led WHS to Kitsap league championships from ‘25 to ‘27.
A consolidated Bainbridge High School opened the next school year. WHS and Olympic High School closed.
Folks rejoiced in a modern gym right in the middle of the building. It had a full size court, a balcony running track, heat and hot water.
Spectators in the balcony took glee in stamping their feet to alter visitors’ shots on the basket rim. Mark and Pete “High Gear” Antoncich were offensive giants. BHS faced a tough Bremerton squad in a winner-to-State playoff.
“Bremerton was led by slim and wiry Hal Lee and his brother Clyde,” Mark recalls of the game played 79 years ago. “Hal was soon to be a UW All-Coast and All-American. We lost, 32-27.”
Competing on the court mirrored the classroom. Both Antonciches graduated in 1928, BHS’s first graduating class.
Mark was valedictorian: Pete, though a year younger and ill much of a year, made up two years and was salutatorian, right behind his brother.
Fresh out of BHS, the brothers moved to Seattle and joined Capitol Dye Works’ squad in the large, competitive City League.
The island lads surprised folks and a “super-varsity” University of Washington team to become “1929 City Champions” with their “five-man defense and one-man offense” – Pete Antoncich.
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Hoop memories
As the top-ranked Spartan boys basketball team continues its quest for a state title, island historian Jerry Elfendahl offers the second in a multi-part series on the history of Bainbridge basketball.
