York Daily Record/Sunday News reporter and resident sports historian Jim Seip emailed me this morning after seeing my front-page story for today's newspaper. Seip knows York County basketball and is sure the 1957-58 William Penn boys' basketball team had far fewer than 32 wins:
The 1958 basketball team has no where near 30 victories. They went 23-1. The team's record has been verified with 1958 microfilm from the Daily & Gazette.Back then only the Central Penn League champ entered the District 3 tournament, and when it did it entered the tourney with a bye -- starting play in the quarterfinals or semis. And back then the state tournament consisted of only district champions. The tournaments didn't have as many teams, the seasons were shorter.
There's no way the 1958 team could win 30 games -- they just didn't play as many games back then. Even the 1980 team (24-5) that reached the state semis didn't play 30 games.
That means this year's group of Bearcats hold the school record for wins by a comfortable margin. Under the current PIAA structure, teams would be unable to play more than 34 games in the season, so unless that changes, this record will be tough to break.
William Penn also set the school record for consecutive victories this season with 28, besting the mark of 27 straight set by the 1997-98 squad.
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