The first four-peat–Minnehaha 1950-1953

What was the 1st Minnesota high school state championship 4-peat? OK, no suspense, because you don’t know. Almost nobody does. In the MSHSL, of course, it was Southwest Minnesota Christian in 1999-2002. You thought maybe Mpls. Patrick, er. Camden? Anyway, 2000-2003. No. Maybe a few of you thought DeLaSalle 1954-1957 in the old Catholic League. But, that’s not it either.

No, it was Minnehaha Academy in the old, old MPSL and then in the MISL (same entity, new name) in 1950-1953.

The MPSL was founded in 1946 and it consisted of Breck, Concordia, Minnehaha, Pillsbury, (in Owatonna) and Shattuck (Faribault). Pillsbury dropped out in 1951 while Blake and St. Paul Academy joined and the P was changed to an I. The MISL tournament was played annually until 1970, and in the 1960s other non-Catholic private schools were invited to play, well, not in the MISL conference but in the post-season tournament. Wessington Springs, SD, Academy was the 1st to make the finals in 1964 (lost to Minnehaha); Fergus Falls Hillcrest lost to Blake in 1965; Southwest Minnesota Christian beat Prinsburg Central Christian in the final 61-51 in 1967; and Mayer Lutheran lost in the final to Shattuck in 1968 and 1969.

From 1971 to 1974, the non-Catholic privates combined with the Catholic privates in one single tournament. None of the non-Catholics ever won that tournament. Shattuck lost in 1971, and Southwest Christian in 1973.

So, from 1946 to 1970, a period of 25 years, it was a pretty tight-knit little group of 6 or 8 teams, and it was dominated by Minnehaha and Shattuck. Minnehaha won 11 of the 25 titles, and lost 4 times in the finals, while Shattuck won 7 titles and lost in the finals 5 times. So, the 2 of them won 18 of 25 titles and occupied 27 of 50 spots in the finals. Minnehaha and Shattuck squared off in the finals 7 times, from the very 1st tournament in 1946 (Shattuck 41 Minnehaha 27) to the very last in 1970 (Shattuck 47 Minnehaha 30).

But Minnehaha was the dominant power through 1964, winning titles in 1948; 1950 through 1953 (the first 4-peat), followed by 3-peats from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1964. That’s 10 titles in 15 years from 1950 to 1964. Kicking it off of course was that 4-peat. Here are the vital statistics.

The 1950 team was not a powerhouse with its 41-35 margin in the conference, but it was a champion. They lost to Shattuck 42-41 in the regular season but, as you can see, returned the favor 43-40 in the final. They trailed 3rd-place Breck at the half in the tournament semi, but sophomore Mark Reinertson rallied them to the win. Charles Johnson scored 17 in the final vs. Shattuck.

But, seriously, Minnehaha was not in the same league, literally and figuratively, as the state’s best teams. Breck, who led Minnehaha at halftime in the tournament semis, lost to a non-conference game to St. Paul Washington 45-35. Washington lost to South St. Paul 61-28 in the Region 4 final, and South St. Paul lost lost its only 2 games in the state tournament. The worst teams in the MSHSL tournament would have beaten Minnehaha by 20, at least.

The 1951 team also was not a powerhouse, losing twice to Shattuck 37-33 and 44-41. But, as noted, 3rd-place Concordia upset Shattuck 46-43 and Minnehaha mandhandled Concordia 54-35. Wes Bodin’s 22 points in one game is the most that is reported in the school yearbooks across these 4 years. He was the tournament MVP. Minnehaha played 2 games against St. Paul Conference teams, beating Murray 52-33 and losing to Johnson 42-39. Those 2 went 9-9 in the conference and lost to Monroe by a total of 25 points in 2 games. Monroe went on to the state tournament where it lost to Mountain Lake by 1. Mountain Lake then lost to the eventual champion Gilbert by 2. So in this case, you could argue that Minnehaha belonged on the court with some good teams. It’s just that they lost 2 out of 3 to Shattuck, so I have Mountain Lake #5, Monroe #10 and Shattuck #9, and Minnehaha is not rated. You might prefer Minnehaha to Shattuck at #9 or #10.

The 1952 team was a powerhouse at 21-1, its only loss to Mpls. Roosevelt 58-48. They won 10 conference games by an average of 58-32. Breck and Concordia lost 4 games to St. Paul City teams by an average of 49-27, in other words by a similar margin as their losses to Minnehaha. And, these were basically .500 teams in St. Paul. By way of comparison, the St. Paul City champion lost by just one point in the Region 4 final to South St. Paul, who beat Appleton and Halstad to get to the MSHSL state final where they lost to Hopkins by 13. So Minnehaha was comparable to the St. Paul City champion that almost got to the MSHSL state tournament. I have Minnehaha rated #5 in the state that year.

Mark Reinertson was Minnehaha’s biggest star of the 4-peat era. He is one of 2 boys to start in 3 of the 4 seasons, and he scored 15 ppg in 1952. He made all-conference twice and was the tournament MVP in 1952. I do not have him among the top 5 players this year, however. The top 5 are Jim Akason, Halstad; Vern Bagenstoss, Albany; Maynard Meyers, Mountain Lake; Ervin Mickelson, Canby; and Dave Tschimperle, Hopkins. But, Reinertson did go on to play at St. Olaf, where he is still listed among the top 10 all-time in most free throw attempts in a single season with 173. He made Midwest Conference all-conference (St. Olaf played in the Midwest rather than in the MIAC at the time) in his senior season in 1956. Reinertson passed away in August 2023 due to Alzheimer’s. He served as a Navy aviator and attained the rank of Lt. Colonel. He then earned a degree in architecture at the University of Minnesota, and owned and operated his own construction firm. At the time of his death, he was remembered as a highly skilled basketball player.

The 1953 team was still a powerhouse though with the graduation of Reinertson, they were not as good as 1952. They were 22-2 with losses only to Mpls. Central and their own alumni, a loss that would not count on a team’s record today. Still, the state Catholic champion, St. Thomas, went 4-1 with an average score of 50-39 against the middle of the pack in the St. Paul City. Breck, Concordia and SPA, from the middle of the pack of the MISL, went 0-8, 36-52 against the same middle of the pack from St. Paul. Minnehaha went 10–0, 55-43 against the rest of the MISL, about what the run of the mill St. Paul team did. And the best teams in St. Paul didn’t even get a whiff of the state tournament that year. So despite their 22-2 record, Minnehaha is not among the state’s top 10 teams in my rankings.

The bottom line is that only the 1952 team was truly elite. Other than that, Minnehaha competed against a small circle of 5 to 7 private schools, most of whom would have finished at or near the bottom of the St. Paul City Conference most years. Minnehaha might have won a Minneapolis or a St. Paul City Conference title or 2, or maybe not–even their best teams lost to Mpls. Roosevelt and Mpls. Central, neither of whom was a city champion. And, this was at a time when Minneapolis and St. Paul teams did not scare the better teams in the state very much if at all. Mark Reinertson (1952) probably deserves to rate among the top 10 players of that year, but not the top 5.

Still, Minnehaha’s is unquestionably the 1st 4-peat in Minnesota state high school basketball. I have been curious to know more about it, and the availability of Minnehaha yearbooks from those years online made it possible for me to do so. And, in case you’re wondering why the St. Paul City Conference is a point of reference, it’s because of the conference’s beautiful historical archive at https://saintpaulsports.org/archives/archives1.html, which was created by John Vosiepka.