Throwback Thursday: Two years, two schools, two championships
When Robert Miller reflects on his glory days of high school basketball, it is simply not an older man waxing poetic on a time gone by.
The Lower Windsor Township resident has a lot to look back on with pride, especially when it comes to basketball.
Miller was an integral part of the Wrightsville High School team that won the 1955 York County Scholastic League regular season crown. The next year when Wrightsville combined with Hallam High School to form the Eastern York School District, Eastern won the 1956 league championship.
It made for the unique scenario of one team winning two titles at two different schools.
The now 76-year-old said there was no secret to the team's success, or even his individual achievements.
"The ones that played together (at Wrightsville) came back again. We played as a team, that's all. We played basketball all year long. ... They were the good old days," he said.
The 6-foot-2 Miller averaged 26 points per game as a senior, topping the 30-point mark several times, impressive numbers that came long before the 3-point arc existed.
"Stay as close to the basket as you can," he laughed when asked how he scored so many points.
Wrightsville graduated only 11 total students that final year. Still, the 1954-55 team won its division title.
Miller, who retired at age 70 from Donsco in Wrightsville, was a senior when Eastern opened the next season. He is quite proud to be on back-to-back championship teams, the second of which won a title before the school even graduated a class. Switching schools wasn't a problem since "I was only one year and out."
"Everything is a good memory. I loved winning those two championships," he said. "Our baseball team was pretty good (too)."
The pressure was on when the defending champs opened the 1955-56 season at YCSL Southern Division foe Red Lion. The back-and-forth game came down to the wire and Miller hit a game-winning free throw after the final buzzer.
The team got off to a 4-0 start before eventual Northern Division champ, West York, beat the Knights by 34 points.
But the wins kept coming after that game. Miller, Clyde Siltzer, Leroy Poff and Don Young led the way for Eastern, which went on to post a 12-3 mark, winning the Southern Division regular season by three games.
That also earned the team a rematch with the 13-1 Bulldogs in front of a packed house at what was then-York Junior College for the league title.
After losing 75-41 a few weeks earlier, Miller said West York fans let his team know who was favored.
"We were out shooting when everybody came in yelling, 'County champs. County champs,'" Miller recalled. "We beat them by 14 points."
Led by Miller's 19 points, Poff's 16 and Siltzer's 11, the Knights repeated as champs, 54-39.
Up next came a game against Hamburg in the PIAA District 3 Class B playoffs. Miller led the Knights with 20 points, as Eastern jumped out to a 17-9 lead in the game played in Lancaster, but Hamburg scored 29 straight points and went on to a 70-53 victory.
Miller ended his high school hoops career on a high note when he scored 21 points to lead the Southern Division to a 60-57 win over the Northern Division in the league all-star game.
Still, two titles in two years, with two different schools, was something to remember.
Reach Steve Navaroli at 771-2060.