View from the cheap seats

A local reader named LaVerne called our newspaper office on Monday to tell my editor he believes Dennis Cramer of Marathon is the all-time best boys basketball player in Red Raiders history, despite that he’s second on the alltime scoring list to Cody Hanke.

LaVerne, who didn’t provide his last name, said Cramer is the best boys basketball player in Marathon school history because teams competed in fewer games during Cramer’s 1963-1967 playing career.

I researched the earliest The Record-Review newspaper we have in our offi ce’s archives, which is from 1970, not realizing then the newspaper only covered Athens and Edgar. I couldn’t find a Marathon-Stratford Journal from back when Cramer was playing high school basketball.

It did seem in the 1970 The Record-Review the Athens and Edgar basketball teams played fewer games. I also researched the Marathon 2010-11 state championship team in which Hanke was a senior player on the team. The Red Raiders played 21 regular-season games in the 2010-11 season and seven playoff games for a total of 28 games.

There’s no way anyone would know for sure who was the most talented boys basketball player between Cramer and Hanke, because they played in completely different eras.

The only thing I know for sure is it was much tougher during Cramer’s boys basketball playing career for his Marathon squads to advance to the state tournament, because there was only one division back then compared to five divisions today.

I researched the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association webpage to find out which high school boys basketball team won the 1966-67 state championship, which is when Cramer was a senior in high school.

During my research, I discovered Miwaukee Lincoln beat the Wausau Lumberjacks in the 1967 state championship game to win its second straight state title and fifth state championship in nine years.

There was only one Wausau High School back then. The Wausau Lumberjacks won the Big Rivers Conference in the 1966-67 season.

Appleton took third place at the 1967 state championships after beating Platteville in the playoff contest.

Green Bay West won the consolation championship against Whitefish Bay at the state championships.

I do know Marathon senior Allison Wokatsch became the fourth girl in Marathon High School history on Monday to obtain 1,000 career points. She joins her classmate, Red Raiders senior boys basketball palyer Jaden Koeller, in achieving 1,000 career points this season. Now I want to find out who the other three Marathon girls basketball players are who obtained 1,000 career points in the past.

Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review