Remember the great classic movie "Hoosiers"? The story of little Milan, Indiana High School, and the 1954 basketball team that won the Indiana State Basketball title? It's a great movie (I love Gene Hackman).

What could be better than that? A small town with just 1,150 residents beating the big guys?

How about a town with under a thousand fine folks beating the big guys? A rural community, sometimes referred to as a "cow-town" heading up to the big city and coming away champions? Wouldn't that be something? Well, it happened.

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In fact, it happened in my hometown. It happened to a small town only about an hour from Sioux Falls. It happened to the Edgerton, Minnesota Flying Dutchmen.

In the 49 years I've called South Dakota home, I've lived in pretty much all parts of our great state. Winner, Aberdeen, Volga, Brookings, Sturgis, Rapid City, Sioux Falls. And there are still times when I mention I went to high school in Edgerton, Minnesota I get a response something like "Isn't that the town with the basketball team...".

Yes. Yes, it is.

The 1960 Edgerton High School Flying Dutchmen Basketball team lives on in Minnesota Legend Land. This was back in the day when there were no High School sports classes in Minnesota. Everybody played everybody when in came to tournament time. Theoretically, the largest Twin Cities high school could meet the tiniest school in Minnesota for the state basketball title. And while it didn't happen exactly like that, it wasn't too far off.

Edgerton was undefeated through the regular season that year, playing mostly schools that were in towns similar to the size of Edgerton's 961 residents. Then it was tournament time, and it seemed like the farther the team went, the bigger the school's got.

There was another small town in that Minnesota State tournament, a team from Chisholm. Edgerton won and then defeated Richfield, a Twin Cities metro suburb. The championship pitted the Flying Dutchmen against Austin. And with that title tilt victory, Edgerton was launched into Minnesota sports legend land.

And they still reside there today. The team is in the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame and with classes now dividing the huge from the big, the medium from the small, the days of David vs. Goliath are over. But David still lives. You can read more about it from MPR News here.

And the short video below tells and shows the story of the most legendary basketball team in Minnesota history.

Yes, this farm boy is proud to be from the Edgerton area...proud for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons is because of the basketball team that continues to live on well over 60 years later.

 

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