HUMBOLDT — The two men, at an age when many aren’t too nimble, trotted onto the court in Humboldt High’s old gym and sent basketballs flying toward a goal.
Some went in, some didn’t, but with each shot the chances improved for Burmy Snart and Jim Morelan, who wore the black and orange for HHS 55 years ago.
They arrived Tuesday — Snart from Mills City, N.C., and Morelan from San Jose, Calif. — for tonight’s Old Grads Reunion. Still with a keen sense of competitiveness, they mean for the class of 1956 to give a good account of itself in a basketball shoot-out this afternoon.
“Don’t count us out,” said Snart. “We’ve been practicing.”
THE TWO fast friends recall their years at Humboldt High and growing up in what they remember as a town compatible with anything Norman Rockwell could conjure up as the “best of times,” they said in a spate of reminiscing Wednesday.
Both were Eagle Scouts, “maybe the first ones ever in Humboldt,” said Morelan, 73, and both played sports when HHS was at the top of the heap in football and basketball.
The Cubs, with Morelan as captain, tied with Fredonia and Neodesha for first in the Tri-Valley League in football in 1955, after the basketball team went to state in the spring of that year, when Snart, also 73, and Morelan were juniors.
Snart’s recollection of the state tournament is vivid. Humboldt lost to Russell, ranked No. 1 in the state, by 10 points in the opening round and then watched Russell win the championship game by 20 points.
Morelan wasn’t a basketball starter that year.
“I was a better football player,” he said.
“We had exceptional teachers and coaches,” Snart said, recalling Frank Hemphill, Harry Merriman and Pauline Flynn. “Even the ones you didn’t like helped us out a lot.”
“I never felt inferior” in college or later, said Morelan. “We had good preparation for life. A great foundation.”
“After the war, the late ’40s and 1950s, life just kept getting better,” Snart said.
“We had experiences in all aspects of growing up in Humboldt,” Morelan added. In addition to academics and athletics, he played saxophone and trumpet in band, served in student government and was editor of the yearbook, which fit well with his interest in art.
Snart had similar roles as a student.
