View from the cheap seats
A weekly perspective on sports
Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review
I had a great time listening to my father’s stories on Sunday about him playing on adult men’s basketball teams in the Edgar and Wausau city leagues in the 1970s.
His exciting basketball memories prompted me to research The Record-Review
archives on Monday. I delved into the 1975 newspaper and soon found a picture of my father, Jerry Krautkramer, on the Stanley’s Bar of Marathon basketball team that clinched the Edgar City basketball crown.
Other teammates of my dad’s were Glenn Krebsbach, Roger Rasmussen, Dave Martin, Randy Braatz, and Mark, Frank and Steve Seubert.
It was also interesting to hear my father tell me how intense the Edgar against Marathon high schools’ sports rivalry was in the late 1970s, especially while the Red Raiders’ boys basketball team won three straight Class C state championships.
A story in the 1976 The Record-Review reads, “Although the tournament belongs to the University Fieldhouse in Madison, the game belongs to Marathon.”
The article says people in the state doubted the Marathon 1976 boys basketball squad could defend the school’s state championship, because top players Randy Krautkramer, Larry Heindl and Dale Mroczenski on the 1975 state title team graduated.
Marathon’s 1975-76 state title team included seniors Claude Seubert, Wayne Sessions, Mike Lensmire, Bruce Koeller and Tom Hack.
Junior players on the Red Raiders’ 1975-76 state championship team were
Andy Berens, Gary Burish, Ken Hanke, Paul Seubert, Don Viegut
and Rod Seubert. Sophomore Leon Wilkoz rounded out the squad.
The heated rivalry between Edgar and Marathon high schools ensued in the 1976-77 boy’s basketball season. The visiting Wildcats beat the Red Raiders, 58-51 in overtime in early January of 1977 to halt Marathon’s 58-game winning streak. Paul Strong led Edgar with 18 points in the win and Jeff Reiche added 15 points.
Edgar ended up beating Marathon twice in the 1976-77 regular season to win the Marawood Conference championship. Marathon would end up avenging its two regular-season losses to Edgar by easily beating the Wildcats, 69-53, to win the WIAA Class C subregional tournament game in Athens. Ken Hanke led the Red Raiders with 19 points.
A headline in the 1977 The Record-Review says, “Oostburg, Prentice bow to the ‘Big Red Machine’” after Marathon beat both undefeated teams to win its third consecutive Class C state championship. Paul Seubert and Ken Hanke collected their fourth fouls early in the state title game, but Robert Kaldunski and Don Viegut did a solid job replacing them in the starting lineup.
