Eagle Grove had a Junior College in 1959, and they had a men’s basketball team. Bob Van Houten was the coach. He recruited players from the North Central Iowa area. There was a lot of junior colleges in Iowa at the time, and they all played each other.
The players who came to town for this team stayed in rooming houses maintained by local residents. Four of the players came from North Central Iowa, and lived here in the rooming houses during the season. One of those was a three-story house located on the corner Southeast of the high school gym. The hoom provided a room, meals and use of the house.
The team went 16-4 in 1959, and won the state championship. They won the five-state regional and qualified to play in the Junior College National Tournament, which had 24 regional champions from across the United States. Region XI was played here in Eagle Grove. Saturday night’s game was between Eagle Grove and a team from Fairbury, Nebraska. Eagle Grove won, and left the next morning for Hutchinson, Kansas where the next tournament game was played.
There was not even standing room in the Eagle Grove gym that night. Five of the players were from Eagle Grove, one from Goldfield, one from Clarion and four from other towns. Members of the team were: Dwight Collicott, Dennis Haefner, Gary Kubik, Charles Lackore, Craig Niemeyer, Mike Rawson, Melbourne Sampson, Bob Van Sickle, Gary Stearns, Thomas Stevenson and Larry TerHark. Carl E. Thorson was Dean of the college.
