PORT ANGELES — Bob Klock wanted to make something clear, just in case there was any confusion.
The former Port Angeles High School boys basketball coach had many good teams when he led the Roughriders in parts of the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
But none of them, not even his 1965, ’68 or ’84 squads that visited state, was as “complete” as the 1966 Riders.
“There were other teams that did some things better, but they were a complete team,” the now 77-year-old retiree said while talking over the phone from his Bullhead City, Ariz., home last week.
“They could do it all.”
Surely few, if any, who witnessed the ’66 team’s memorable run to the AA state championship game would argue with that.
When the team reunites 45 years later at tonight’s Sequim-Port Angeles varsity doubleheader in Port Angeles, it will do so as the highest-placing basketball team in school history.
For three months during the winter of 1965-66, those Riders captured the attention of an entire town on the way to a 24-2 record and runner-up finish at state.
Port Angeles’ gymnasium was routinely packed to the rafters for games, with a record 3,000 cramming into the stands for the team’s showdown with rival East Bremerton.
“The whole town was excited,” said starting shooting guard Mike Clayton, the team’s leading scorer at 15.5 points per game.
“I could hardly wait just for practices. I’d get up to the locker room and be fumbling with my sneakers, trying to get them laced up because I couldn’t wait to get out on the floor.”
Armed with an array of deadly shooters, an inside presence that commanded double teams and scrappy athletes willing to do the dirty work, the ’66 Riders had few holes.
Five players went on to play basketball at the collegiate level (Clayton, Lee Sinnes, Greg Kushman, Mike Peregin and Bernie Fryer), with two eventually going pro.
And the one who made it all the way to the NBA — Fryer — wasn’t even one of the team’s top four scorers.
Of course, the way that team shared the ball, according to Kushman, the leading scorer could be a different guy every night.
“We had three or four guys who probably could have averaged 20 points a game,” the starting point guard said.
“But that didn’t happen because of the unselfishness and us playing as a team. Whoever is open gets the ball.”
That philosophy was one nurtured by Klock.
A little more than a decade removed from his own playing days at Washington State at the time, the fourth-year coach had little trouble relating to his players.
“Everybody needs somebody that you just do not want to let down, and coach Klock was one of those people to me,” Kushman said.
“I’m sure the feeling was pretty much consistent throughout the team.”
Early start
Klock set the tone for the ’66 team’s core group a year earlier by installing a slow down, team-oriented half-court game after early-season injuries to seniors Bruce Shamp and Denny Patterson robbed the 1964-65 Riders of their two scorers.
Playing a deliberate style, the junior-led squad won an Olympic League title before bowing out in the AA state regionals.
With several players from that team returning the next winter as seniors, the Riders had a base of experience and patience that allowed them to thrive no matter the situation.
“I think it was the foundation of being a team that became unselfish and knew that we could play together and what it took to get shots in the half-court,” Sinnes said of the 64-65 season.
“All of us had played enough that we wanted to get out and run [as seniors], but when we had to play in the half court we could do that because of that foundation.”
It also didn’t hurt that they were loaded with talent.
Clayton was a 6-foot-2 left-handed shooting guard with speed, leaping ability and a cerebral understanding of the game.
Sinnes, the team captain, was arguably the team’s best pure shooter as a 6-foot-5 post, according to Klock.
Yet the team often leaned on Sinnes’ ability to rebound and defend other big posts at the expense of his scoring (13.6 ppg).
Kushman got the team into its offense at the point while giving it another offensive threat (10.7 ppg).
Six-foot-2 Wiley Duckett was another capable scorer down low (7.1 ppg), and Bob Ruddell and Clarence Coleman filled in the blanks.
Meanwhile, Fryer was just getting his feet wet as a 6-foot-2 sophomore small forward who averaged 6.7 points and started every game.
“It was a group of guys who grew up together with some underclassmen who really understood what it took to get to where we were,” Sinnes said.
“We had kids that could score, could play defense, that could handle pressure. We were kind of interchangeable parts to some degree.
“When [opposing teams] clamped in on me, we had outside shooters that could score and they could take it to the hoop. They couldn’t really take one element of our team way.”
Outside of their three games with East Bremerton, the Riders were rarely tested during the 65-66 season.
Alternating between a fastbreak and half-court game, they outscored opponents by an average of 65.6 to 51.0
Port Angeles reached as high as No. 2 in the state rankings after a 10-0 start to the season.
Its only loss during of the regular season came in a 52-48 road game at East Bremerton.
The Riders avenged that defeat a few weeks later with a 78-70 victory in front of 3,000 in Port Angeles, many of whom were in their seats before the junior varsity game even started.
Fryer showed a glimpse of things to come in the two teams’ rubber match for the district title, knocking down a short jumper off an offensive rebound in the final seconds of a dramatic 48-47 win that sent the Riders to regionals.
“We were very fortunate,” Klock said. “We deserved to win just as well as [East Bremerton] did, but they deserved to win, too.”
Port Angeles got past Columbia River and Lincoln at regionals, then knocked off Burlington-Edison 68-65 in the AA semifinals thanks in large part to Clayton’s 21 points.
Unfortunately for the Riders, things didn’t go so smoothly for Clayton against Renton in the finals the next night at Seattle Coliseum.
A scrum for the ball in the second quarter gashed his lip severely, forcing him to exit the game.
Renton began to pull away as a doctor stitched up his mouth the rest of the quarter.
The stitches busted loose within minutes of him re-entering the game in the third, forcing him out for good.
His absence was simply too much for the Riders to overcome, as they lost 62-46.
Even 45 years later, it’s a loss that is tough to get over for those involved.
“Was I disappointed? Absolutely I was disheartened that we couldn’t get it done,” Klock said. “I think a lot of it was just the fact that we lost Mike.
“If there was anybody we were going to lose, he wasn’t the one we would choose. That was just a bitter pill we had to swallow, and that’s what we did.”
Added Sinnes, who later coached the Port Angeles boys himself, “Over the years, all those kids who played on Renton’s team they became coaches or athletic directors around the state.
“I’d run into them and I’d always kid them, ‘I’d love to play you guys again under different circumstances,’ and they said, ‘Yeah, I think you probably would.”