Blast from the Past: 1951 Beckley basketball state championship sparks Golden Era for the "City of Champions"

Willie Bergines scores 26 points to lead Beckley past Charleston and "Hot Rod" Hundley

Writer's note: All information courtesy of the Raleigh Register archives and Bob Willis, Sports Editor

New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio retired and Mickey Mantle hit his first career home run.

New York Giant outfielder Bobby Thomson hit "the shot heard round the world" and the first NBA All-Star game was played in the Boston Garden.

The year was 1951 and Beckley had yet to earn the nickname, "City of Champions."

That was about to change.

A pair of junior standouts, Bob Davis and Willie Bergines, and the guidance of the "Gray Eagle" jump-started a four-year run as state champions, establishing the Beckley program as one of the best in the state.

Legendary Flying Eagles head coach Jerome Van Meter entered his 19th season as the Beckley leader with a 331-123 record.

Over the previous 22 years, Beckley had made 15 trips to the state basketball tournament with two runner-up crowns (1940, 1944) and one state title in 1946.

A state championship run did not exactly look promising early on that year.

The Flying Eagles started the 1950-51 season 3-3 with the losses coming by a combined margin of seven points.

However, Beckley proceeded to catch fire running off 10-straight wins before losing three out of the final four games of the regular season (14-6).

Despite the momentum killing finish, the Flying Eagles opened the postseason as a sectional and regional favorite.

Beckley handled Hinton (62-41) to open sectional play, advancing to the title game against Stoco.

After beating the Indians by 13 points to open the season, the Flying Eagles were expected to cruise to the sectional title.

Stoco had other ideas.

For three and a half quarters, the smaller Indians out-worked, outfought and out-rebounded Beckley, only to see it slip away late.

The tide finally turned for Van Meter's boys after four Stoco starters fouled out in the final quarter.

The upset-minded Indians outscored the Flying Eagles 32-28 from the floor, but Beckley hit 15 of their 34 charity tosses, while Stoco made just 10 of its 26 free throws.

Beckley had no trouble with Montgomery and Richwood to grab the Class A Region 5 title and advance to the state tournament in Morgantown.

The three-game journey to the title started with a 63-53 win over Grafton, but the margin of victory was deceiving.

Struggling to stop Bearcats standout Don Willis, Van Meter turned to young Bobby Crews who turned in a huge defensive performance.

After Willis had scored 25 points over the first three quarters, Crews held him to just two points in the final stanza.

Crews proceeded to became a huge factor in the championship run.

Clarksburg Victory was up next in the semifinals led by guard Frank Giaquinta who blistered Warwood in the quarterfinals.

Crews smothered Giaquinta, holding him to just two points in a 67-42 Beckley win.

Waiting in the championship tilt was Charleston led by Rod Hundley who had beat the Flying Eagles early in the regular season.

Many observers believed that "Hot Rod" and the Mountain Lions up-tempo, fast break style of play would be too much for Beckley, but it did not play out that way.

Although the Flying Eagles proved the naysayers wrong in the end, it did not look good for the Beckley boys in the early moments of the contest.

Hundley started on fire scoring 13 of Charleston's 15 points in the first four minutes of play placing the Flying Eagles in a 15-3 hole.

Beckley refused to panic, however, and rallied to trail 21-16 after the first period.

After pulling within a basket by halftime, the Flying Eagles then outscored the Mountain Lions, 30-20 in the second half for the second state title in school history.

While leading scorer Bergines was stellar with 26 points, it was a pair of unsung heroes that were huge for Beckley.

Crews was once again a defensive difference maker.

Tasked with guarding Charleston's fast break leader, Eddie Knowles, Crews held the Mountain Lion motor man to one field goal and Charleston scored zero fast break points.

Knowles had scored 25 points in the opener against Huntington and notched double digits against Morgantown in the semifinals.

While Crews was doing work on defense, 6-foot-5 substitute Lee Estep was doing his damage on the offensive side.

Estep entered the game in the second quarter for Julius Caldwell who picked up his fourth foul and proceeded to shred the Mountain Lions tight zone.

Scoring eight points in the second quarter, Estep expanded the Mountain Lions zone giving Bergines space to work inside close to the basket.

Hundley scored 30 points in his sophomore appearance at the state tournament, but could not offset the well-balanced Flying Eagles.

Bergines tallied 26 points and had a tournament record, at the time, of 82 points over the three game stretch. His 32-point performance in the win over Victory was the first 30-point state tournament performance in program history.

Davis and Bergines returned for their senior season in 1952 to lead Beckley to back-to-back titles. The dynamic duo was flanked by junior Bill Collier and standout sophomore Dwayne Wingler.

Wingler proceeded to guide Beckley to two more titles in an unprecedented four year title run for the Flying Eagles.