Wednesday, February 1, 2017

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 32

Forty years ago today, two high school basketball teams took to the court. They dribbled, they shot, they rebounded, and they scored only once. That's rights, these two titans of the 10-foot tall hop battled to a 2-0 score to make history as the lowest scoring official game in history. Not only did it happen in my favorite year, it also happened in my very own backyard!

   The game was between the Hornets of Durham Hillside and the Person County High School team out of Roxboro. Other than the score and the participants, that's about all I can find out about this game. I can't even get a straight answer as to whether this game was played at Hillside or Person. But I did confirm that this game actually happened via the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) website.

Edited screenshot from the NCHSAA.
You would think that this record would ever be matched, but in 2015, two Alabama high school teams matched the 2-0 record set 38-years earlier.

One thing that I want to know is this- how bad were these teams? My sister used to play Pee-wee basketball and those games would at least end with a score of something like 10-7. Even the lowest scoring NBA game of all-time had both teams manage to score double digits and those were in the days of no shot clock or 3- pointers. (The Lakers beat the Pistons 19-18 in a 1950 game.)

Hillside High School,
possible site of the epic 2-0 game.
So we start February with an oddity. Even more odd is how all kinds of websites know about this weird game yet nobody seems to have further details. With this being the 40th anniversary of the game, I'll scour the Durham paper and update this entry if I learn anything new.

   Until tomorrow or more fun facts come to light...

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