The Diagonal Reporter
Published in the Basketball Capitol of Iowa
Diagonal, Ringgold County Iowa
Thursday, March 17, 1938

WHAT Diagonal's big celebration for their State Championship Basketball Team.

WHERE Diagonal's Main Street

WHEN Wednesday, March 23, commencing at 2:00 with a barbeque and program

WHO WILL BE HERE Speakers were Gov. Nelson DRACHEL; George A. BROWN, secretary ofthe Iowa High School Athletic Assoc.; E. J. WATSON, Vera DICKENS, Ad HUIBECK, coach of Melfroe's 1937 champs. Marshall DAVENPORT to be presented the Iowa Broadcasting System Award as the most popular player in the tournament as determined by sports announcers; Andy WOOLFRIES, Ames radio announcer, as master of ceremonies. Music presented in mass concert by bands from Afton, Mount Ayr, Lorimor, Creston, and Chariton.

. . .[illegible]

All this week Diagonal has been preparing for the biggest event in its history - the celebration forour Iowa championship basketball team and coach O. C. VARNER. Committees are buring the midnight oil, neglecting thier businesses and devoting every minute to arrangements. No expense is being spared to make this even the most successful of its kind, ever held, and one to which Diagonal citizens can look back to with everlasting pride.

An invitation to this event is not necessary - everyone should feel free to attend and join in honoring our great town. If you would like to help - and we invite you - there are many ways. Donations of money are being received by Bernard DOLECHECK, Dick HERRINGTON and John VARNER. Country folk who can donate cream for coffee, also are asked to cooperate.

We've run down the rumor to earth and now we know that Tom BOWMAN did KISS Darby BROWN when the buzzer ended Saturday night's game with Rolfe. Unfortunately our staff photographer was in Des Moines, so we can't show you the proof. But Tom says he'll do it again under similar circumstances, so maybe we can catch him in the act next year.

Our thirteen "First Citizens" - Coach O. C. VARNER and the squad of twelve basketball players - were given the most tremendous oration accorded by the people of this community when they arrived in town about 5 o'clock Sunday afternoon after being met in Afton by a colorful motor caravan of hundreds of enthusiastic and happy fans. Shrieking auto horns, cheers, even a few scattering firecrackers greeted the team members which rode in individual cars bearing their names on large placards.

An informal program was hastily arranged after the return to Diagonal with Mayor BUNKER expressing the town's and community's pride in "their boys." Dr. E. J. WATSON told of his long acquaintance with the boys and how happy and proud he was that the had in several cases been present to "toss them in the first basket." When Pop [Coach VARNER] was asked to speak, he said, "It's the boys' victory, let them talk." Miss Vera DICKENS, county superintendent, also a graduate from Diagonal, expressed her pride and pleasure in the team's victory and the program concluded with Mr. M. I. ROBERTS, president of the First State Bank, telling of the happiness which engulfed the town's few stay-at-homes after the news had been announced on raido on Saturday night.

As the crowd dispersed, the town fell into the customary Monday afternoon response, but it will be many a long year before the memory of this day fades from memory. . . [rest of article missing]

Maybe that's what Coach VARNER and the Diagonal Maroons thought a few weeks back when over 800 cage teams started the long, long trail to the Iowa Championship Finals.

It wasn't easy. Fighting your heart out never is. Basketball or anything else, but when the last hard drive had been made, the last basket caged, the final buzzer sounded, it was the Diagonal team, the coach, and the fans who knew that this championship business is nice work. . . . "And you can get it if you try."

It took all the courage of a great Diagonal team, plus all the strategy Coach O. C. VARNER could summon to head off Rolfe's championship-bound sharp-shooters Saturday night at the Drake Fieldhouse in Des Moines, but Diagonal had a great team, a team which made the most couragious comeback and won the most impressive victory of any Diagonal had ever earned. In a spectacular finish to the final thrilling game the Maroons charged up from behind to overtake Rolfe in the last minutes of play, tied up the score 29-29, went out in front 31-29 on two free throws by Eugene PINE and kept that advantage for more than two minutes against Rolfe's last desperate attempt to win the state championship.

The Diagonal team and coach want to take this means of trying to thank the many friends and fans who sent congratulations by phone, letter, or telegram.

Probably about two hundred messages were received. They were eagerly read by the coach and team, also by numbering 'friends.' Under such circumstances many telegrams were misplaced or carried off by some as souvenirs which will make it impossible to answer all of them. We take this means of expressing our appreciation and feel that we will never be able to repay you for your loyalty and kindly interest in us.

NOTE: Article was stats from the Dike, Cedar Rapids, Ames, and Rolfe games. My copy was illegible - SRB

State Champs Drake Fieldhouse	State Champs Ready for Parade	Parade in font of Diagonal Bowling Alley
Parade Route taken from water tower	Parade Crowd	Coach O. C. VARNER

Des Moines Tribune
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa, ca. 1979

DIAGONAL, IA. - It happens less and less now with the passing of the years, but it still is possible for Bud Beymer to ignite a spark of recognition when he says he's from Diagonal.

"Say, isn't that the little town that won the state basketball tournament ....?" is the question that links Beymer to a magic moment of 41 years ago.

And, it still happens that occasionally a motorist will drive the seven miles of Iowa Highway 66 north from Iowa Highway 2 to get some gas at Beymer's and ask about the Diagonal story. The Diagonal story won't happen again because the powers that rule high school athletics now have arranged a basketball tournament in which three champions are named.

In 1938, Diagonal, a village of 500 in Ringgold County without a paved road closer than seven miles away, won the state basketball title at a time when the tournament matched big and small schools in one showdown for one championship.

"I can just about figure out a person's age if they ask me that question abut Diagonal," said Beymer. "They have to be about 50 years old or older to know about that."

Beymer, 55, is the owner of the Diagonal Oil Co. He was a sophomore on that championship team.

In 1938 eight small schools (they were called Class B) were matched in a field against eight large school (Class A)

In that type tournament it almost always happened that one of the little schools defeated a larger school and became the crowd favorite. "Tournament Darlings," they called such a team. If ever there was a tournament darling it was Diagonal.

The team had 12 players but just 10 were dressed for the tournament in Des Moines because the school only had 10 uniforms with the name Diagonal across the front

In the state tournament Diagonal defeated Dike, Cedar Rapids Franklin, Ames and Rolfe.

Diagonal's coach was O. C. "Pop" Varner, who taught mathematics and history, and was a strict disciplinarian.

."Pop didn't want us to use catsup because he thought it cut you wind," said Beymer. "He kicked two guys off the team early in that season because they were caught smoking. As a matter of fact that was why I made the squad that year.

"When I was a senior Pop suspended me for two weeks because someone told him I was out walking my girl after 10 p.m. Pop thought everyone ought to be in bed by 9 p.m."

Once, Beymer recalled, Varner required his team to wear long sweatpants in a game against Blockton. "The gym had several pot-bellied stoves and Pop was afraid we would bump into them and get burned," said Beymer.

Another time, returning from a game at Villisca, Beymer said Varner discovered that the Diagonal players had swiped some Christmas lights from a display. "We were back there about midnight standing on each other's shoulders, screwing those bulbs back in," said Beymer.

You could argue with Varner's theories, but not his record. He won the title in 1938, got second in 1939 and seven other teams in the state tournament in a 16-year career at Diagonal.

Chartering buses in Diagonal in 1938 was unheard of so the locals found other transportation to Des Moines.

Mildred Turnbull, wife of Harold Turnbull, now the retired editor and publisher of the Diagonal Reporter, recalls she made the trip, along with others, in the back of a truck with a canvas over the top to ward off the chilly March air.

When Diagonal's champions returned home on Sunday they were met by a caravan of cars at Afton and the parade route had to be re-routed in order to mis a funeral procession.

A week later Iowa Gov. Nelson Kraschel came to town to make an official presentation of the trophy and a crowd estimated at 3,000 turned out.

Harold Turnbull recalls it as Diagonal's biggest day."We didn't have enough uniforms the year we won the championship but after that we were in the blue and we had plenty of suits," Beymer chuckled.

Three of the five starters on the 1938 championship team are still living - Marshall Davenport in Waterloo, Max Ives in Des Moines and Clair Brown in Cameron, Mo.

Basketball still is important in Diagonal. Not too many years ago the school district voters popped for a new gym at a time when other districts were turning down bond issues regularly. But whatever success Diagonal has in the future will never get it the attention of the 1938 team because now the little school always will be matched against another little school in a tournament.

Fame is a flimsy product, even in Diagonal. "Just the other day my grandson told me he had an argument with one of his friends who said he didn't believe his grandfather was on the state championship team," said Beymer.

"He took him up to the school and showed him the trophy."

Diagonal is an even smaller town today than it was the day the team returned with a state title.

"I think we have 300 now," said Mildred Turnbull. "Sometimes at night when I can't sleep I lie in bed and count off each name in my mind."

Biography of Coach Omer Clay "Pop" VARNER

SOURCES:
Diagonal Reporter Diagonal, Ringgold County, Iowa. March 17, 1934.
Diagonal, Iowa: Centennial History Pp. 195-97. 1998.

Compilation by Sharon R. Becker, April of 2010; updated May of 2017