Korby's Connections: Coach Pergol helped lift Cloquet basketball

Last month, when I was at the Carlton County Historical Center perusing old Cloquet skiing information for a story, director Carol Klitzke brought me a big box of files she asked me to review. They were scrapbooks from the 1950s, donated by legendary Cloquet coach Angelo Pergol and his wife, Blanche.

It was a perfect record of Pergol's team coaching heroics. There were newspaper clippings, congratulatory letters, telegrams - wow, telegrams - testimonials, birthday cards, speaking invitations, thank-yous and box scores. For someone who is keen on reading and researching Cloquet High School sports background and stories, I was in a historical nirvana.

Background research found that Angelo "Angie" Pergol was born in Chisholm in 1915. He went to Chisholm High School during the Great Depression. He was a spark as the Bluestreaks had a third-place finish at the 1933 Minnesota state high school basketball tournament. Chisholm was an Iron Range and Minnesota powerhouse, going to State three years in a row and winning the title in 1934. Pergol then went to Hibbing Community College and finally attended Gustavus Adolphus College to get his teaching and coaching degree. He played basketball at both colleges.

During World War II, Pergol was in the U.S. Coast Guard, stationed in San Francisco. He then worked two teaching jobs before relocating to Cloquet in 1950 to both teach and coach. His wife, Blanche, whom he married in 1941, was hired as an English teacher in Esko. Records show Pergol coaching primarily Cloquet basketball, but also football, summer baseball, and golf and tennis in the spring seasons.

Up to that point, Cloquet High School had never been to the boys basketball state tournament.

They belonged to District 26, which included teams in the Duluth area, North Shore and parts of the Iron Range, along with the Polar League squads from Carlton County. Cloquet had won the district two times in their history, twice in the 1920s, but then lost in the Region 7 playoffs and failed to notch a state tournament berth.

Esko went to the Minnesota state boys tournament in 1955 and Carlton was runner-up in 1959. There was only one class and one representative from each region.

With an excellent youth basketball program at the Cloquet Civic Center coached by Claire Hendrickson and Harry Newby, Pergol's Lumberjacks were developing some competitive clubs. A whole scrapbook was devoted to the 1956 squad - the team "nobody would forget." I'll have to be honest - I didn't know the story. I was also a Cloquet basketball alumni and letter winner but, alas, was only 2 at the time, so maybe not a surprise. I was curious to find more details of this 1956 Lumberjacks team.

The 1955 Cloquet team was somewhat "forgettable" from a historical perspective, with a record of five wins and 12 losses, but they lost only four seniors and one starter for next year's team. Led by co-captains Jay Bambery and Dave Holmes, the 1956 team finished the season, after a slow start, with a record of 18 wins and six losses. Cloquet entered the district tournament as an underdog, but then beat Two Harbors, Cotton and Cromwell. For the district crown, they upset Duluth East by 12 points. East had beaten Cloquet twice during the regular season by 13 and 25 points. It was only the third District 26 crown for Cloquet.

In the 1956 Region 7 tourney at the University of Minnesota Duluth gymnasium, the Lumberjacks defeated Greenway of Coleraine in the first game in a thriller, 51-48. One team stood between Cloquet and a state tournament berth: Aurora-Hoyt Lakes. The Blackhawks were led by 6-foot-8 ½-inch center Bill Wrage. In 1956 (or nearly any year), Wrage must have seemed a giant. Aurora won its region semifinal game by cruising to a 95-68 victory over Forest Lake.

The UMD gymnasium was packed, as an estimated 5,000 fans showed up for the Region 7 championship game on March 17, 1956. The game was tied several times in the back-and-forth contest and ended regulation play tied at 56. The overtime period was only three minutes long. Co-captain Dave Holmes made two free throws to put Cloquet up by two. Wrage tied it for Aurora with a big hook shot, two of his game-high 31 points. With 45 seconds left in overtime, Dick Thompson of Aurora sank a free throw to put his team up by one. Cloquet had the ball and had several shots and rebounds in the waning moments but couldn't get the ball to go through the hoop as the horn sounded. Final score: Aurora 59, Cloquet 58. Aurora would be going to the state tournament at Williams Arena.

Coach Pergol and all of the Cloquet boys basketball squad were lauded by the fans and newspaper writers for their tournament heroics. This is when they were dubbed "the Cloquet team nobody would forget."

After a very successful 1957 season, in 1958 Cloquet made its first appearance in the boys state tourney. Several members of the team were part of the 1956 team as sophomores (J. Mackei, B. Newby, B Hoppe, A. Coathup). They lost the first state game - to the team that would win the state tournament - by 2 points.

Coach Pergol had a decision to make after the 1958 season. He was offered the head basketball coaching job and a teaching position at Hibbing. It was his dream job and a return to the Iron Range. He took it, coached at Hibbing until 1965, and was eventually chosen for the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The latter part of his school career found Pergol becoming the athletic director at two St. Cloud high schools. He died in 1999 at age 84.

The Minnesota state basketball tournament was a special event in the 1950s and 1960s, because of the one-class system. It predated television, and most sports coverage was by newspaper and radio. It was mystical. Getting there was a goal of many and achieved by only a few. It was great learning about the 1956 Cloquet team that nobody would forget. Thanks to the Carlton County Historical Society.