Red Fox basketball team reunites after 50 years

Fifty years ago the 1959-60 Hartsville High School boys’ basketball team had an incredible season, and its senior members amassed the best career record of any class in the school’s history, a record which still stands today.

Hartsville High will honor this great team with a recognition ceremony during halftime of the Foxes’ game with Carolina Forest on Tuesday. Thirteen team members are having a reunion to celebrate their achievements.

Arguably the best team in school history, that Red Fox squad’s record of two Pee Dee Conference championships, a two-year record of 41-3 with an amazing average winning margin of 21 points per game and a resounding upset of the state’s undefeated No. 1 ranked team speaks for itself.

During this period, Hartsville High was not a member of the S.C. High School League but rather one of eight area schools that broke away in 1957 to form the independent Pee Dee Conference. This league was formed to escape the travel requirements imposed upon members in the statewide association.

While this preserved long-time local rivalries, these schools were ineligible for state playoffs. They could only contend for year-end honors within their own conference, depriving them of the recognition that came with state playoff competition and success. Therefore, in order to show case this outstanding team, Hartsville High scheduled regular season games against other highly ranked teams in the state.

The rise of the 1959-60 squad started two years earlier. During the 1957-58 campaign under Coach Tom Hendrix, a young Red Fox lineup including four sophomore starters struggled to a break-even record during the regular season. Suddenly, they showed their potential by sweeping through the conference tournament to win the school’s first Pee Dee Conference Championship.

Hendrix left and football Coach Billy Seigler took over the helm. Under his guidance, a still young squad rolled through the 1958-59 regular season undefeated, including a game in which they scored 101 points. After two tournament wins that extended their two-season win streak to 27, Hartsville met Lake City in defense of their conference tournament title.

Although they had beaten the Panthers twice during the regular season, Lake City was a big, talented, well-coached team. On a night when very little seemed to go right for the Foxes, Lake City pulled off the upset to capture the league tourney crown.

Hartsville entered the 1959-60 campaign with their starting lineup intact. Up front, seniors Manning Privette (6’8”) and Woody Morgan (6’7”) were not just big; their shooting, rebounding, and defensive skills made them a difficult matchup. The senior backcourt was comprised of 6’0” Jimmy Griffin, an outstanding shooter, and 5’9” Ronnie Holley, a playmaker and cat-quick defender. Senior Paul O’Neal (6’0”) and Jimmy Bell, a 5’11” junior, both excellent shooters, shared the final starting spot.

Supplying valuable depth were seniors Russell Watson and Johnny Davis; juniors Edie Weldon, Jimmy Menius, Charles Hughes and Larry Thompson; and sophomores Harry Frampton, Richard Privette and Sam Richey.

The talent on this team was evidenced by the fact that Privette, Morgan, Griffin, and Holley dominated the all-conference and all-tournament teams for three years. Privette was all state in 1960, and he and Morgan earned scholarships to Clemson University.

The 1959-60 schedule featured an early road contest against Winnsboro, the defending state class A champion. Led by all-state guard Ronnie Collins, the Wildcats were the state’s No. 1 ranked team regardless of classification.

In a close game, Morgan got into foul trouble and the talented Collins, considered the state’s top college prospect, took advantage to score 25 and lead his team to a seven-point victory.

The Red Foxes continued to dominate all but one of their Pee Dee Conference rivals. Only old nemesis Lake City was able to split their two regular season games, with the Hartsville loss coming in a game in which center Privette missed with an injury.

The anticipated rematch with Winnsboro had to be postponed due to an ice storm. With both teams facing conference tournaments, it seemed Hartsville would not get its chance for revenge.

After two tournament wins, Hartsville received word that it would indeed get another shot at Winnsboro. The Wildcats were coming off a dominating performance in their conference tournament in which Collins poured in 93 points in three games. The State newspaper noted that the rescheduled game would be Winnsboro’s “tune-up” for the state finals.

Coming in sporting a 36-game winning streak, the visitors never knew what hit them. Keyed by a smothering defense that limited the Wildcats to an amazing one field goal in the first half, the Red Foxes used complete backboard domination and a balanced attack to expand a 23-10 halftime lead into a final 57-33 decision. Winnsboro star Collins scored only eight points.

The Red Foxes next faced their final challenge of the season: a rematch in the conference tournament finals with Lake City, spoiler of their perfect record in the last game of the previous season.

This time it was different. The Panthers concentrated on Hartsville’s big men, but sharp shooter Jimmy Griffin lit them up from outside with 17 points to lead the way to a convincing 59-48 win.

By decisively avenging their only defeats in the past two years, the Red Foxes earned almost universal recognition that they were indeed the No. 1 team in the state regardless of size, classification, conference or any other measurement.

Blanding Clarkson Jr., a 1960 HHS graduate, covered the Red Foxes football games one year and basketball games two years for The Messenger, The State, Florence Morning News and the Newsreel, the school’s student newspaper. He was a basketball team member his sophomore and junior years. After graduating from the University of South Carolina and serving in the Air Force, he was USC’s first Assistant Sports Information Director for three years. He has lived in Rock Hill since 1971.