Schools that have closed in North Dakota

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Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby NDSportsFan » Sat Mar 15, 2008 5:49 am

I'd like to get a topic going about High Schools that have closed in North Dakota. I read recently in the Fargo Forum that there have been almost 100 fewer teams competing in Class B boys basketball since 30 years ago. So I'd like to assemble a list of schools and approximate years that they closed. If anybody can add information that would be great, you can also include snippets of memories about things that events, or years that were memorable. If you don't want your name associated with something, in order to keep your anonymity, you can send it to me in a PM and I'll post it under my name, if you prefer. Or if you don't have an account, you can send it via email to ndsportsfan@northdakotapreps.com

I'll try to organize it better once we get some input.

Thanks everyone!
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby NDSportsFan » Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:04 am

These High Schools have closed near my hometown. Of course I could be wrong with a lot of my information, but I'm doing my best. Lets list them all, it doesn't matter how long ago it was.

Tolley Tigers - closed about 1985 I think. The gym only had fan seating on the ends, behind the baskets.

Donnybrook Hi-LIners - closed around 1986? School burned down a few years later I believe.

Carpio Cardinals - ? School still sits along highway 52

Lansford Cubs -?

Coteau Elks - (near Bowbells) closed about 1955 I think, not much of anything left there now, the building fell down, My dad and I walked around the grounds about 22 years ago and you could see where the gym and things were. That is where he graduated from. He was in fact "recruited" to go there by the principal who drove out to the field while he was combining and asked him to attend school there so they wouldn't have to close. His home town of Niobe didn't have a high school. His other option was Kenmare.

Karlsruhe Tigers - closed about 1986 A tiny town with a great basketball tradition, my cousin played in the girls State B twice in High School. The boys went to state a couple times too, I still have a VHS someplace of their tourney games in 1985. The school pretty much looks like it just sits empty. It's not in bad shape from the outside.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby Wild Wolves » Sat Mar 15, 2008 7:03 am

Reeder Rockets
Regent Rangers
New Liepzig Tigers
Rhame Pirates
Golva TIgers
Carson Chieftans
All SW ND
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby ndlionsfan » Sat Mar 15, 2008 7:48 am

Is Carson closed or just consolidated with Elgin? I thought they still had the elementary school there. Anyway, from up in my area....

Churchs Ferry Raiders - closed in 1987 I believe....gym portion of the school is still there but there is hardly anything left of the town after the govn't buyout back in 2000 or so.

Esmond Eagles - closed around 1992 or so....had an amazing run of 8 straight years in the girls state B with a title in 87....also had a great fball program....school is still standing just like it was in use.

Balta ?? - must have closed in the late 80's.

Bisbee-Egeland Panthers - will be closing after this school year. State champs in baseball and bball back in 89.

Sheyenne Phantoms - closed last year. Cooped with Mwkn for many year and then consolidated with New Rockford. The school was shut down a year later.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby Wild Wolves » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:42 pm

Carson, hasn't had their own program for sports, at that point they are just as good as closed.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby tellmeaboutit » Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:50 pm

From South East North Dakota:

These consolidated to form Sargent Central High School:
Cogswell Cogs
Havana Arrows
Rutland Roosters
Forman Phantoms


Stirum Greenwaves
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby mplsfan » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:18 pm

Bottineau County and area:
Maxbass Mustangs
Willow City Red Wings
Souris Blue Jays
Antler Orioles
Upham Orioles (McHenry County)
Kramer Bulldogs
Lansford Cubs
Gardena ????
Westhope and Newburg have co-oped their athletic teams and are the only schools left in the county outside of Bottineau.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby rep » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:25 pm

jud was the trojans i believe?
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby munson11 » Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:06 pm

Verona Cardinals - Last year was 2004-2005 I believe. Studens went to either Lisbon, Oakes, or LaMoure. I think 1 or 2 may have gone to Litchville, but a majority of them went to LaMoure and Oakes.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby Mandan » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:49 pm

Wild Wolves wrote:Reeder Rockets
Regent Rangers
New Liepzig Tigers
Rhame Pirates
Golva TIgers
Carson Chieftans
All SW ND


Other SW ND ones that have closed would be New England St Mary's, and Raleigh St Gertrudes.
I think St Mary's close up sometime in the 90's. St Gertrudes closed before St Mary's.

Stanton is pretty much closing up school-wise as well. I recently read an article about them closing their grade school. It was only a few years ago that they closed the high school.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby NDSportsFan » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:42 am

Here is an email I got from someone nice enough to share his memories on the topic.



Chaffee Mustangs-closed in 1994, now part of Central Cass. I was a
freshman when Chaffee closed and there were 6 of us. It was quite a
difference being a sophomore in Central Cass when there 60+ of us!

Chaffee was quite competitive in the mid to late 80's, but for some
reason once we reached the District 2 semi-finals we fell apart. (Back
when if you lost that game meant "Have fun playing for 3rd, you're
done")

1985: 16-7, 2nd in the district to Kindred, lost to Hankinson in the
first round of Region 1

1986: 18-4, 4th in the district.

1987: 15-5, 3rd in the district. We were the #1 seed for the first
time in school history. Lost to Enderlin 47-44 in 2 OT in the semi's.

1988: 13-8, 3rd in the district. Lost in the semi's to Enderlin. We
lost 5 games during the regular season by 1 point and 1 game by 2
points. Over half of the team missed games during the regular season
due to an outbreak of chicken pox.

1989: 14-8, 2nd in the district. We were the #1seed again and lost to
(Guess Who?) Enderlin 47-46, lost to Marion 69-66 in 2 OT in the first
round of Region 1. We played in a tournament over the holidays and beat
both Harvey and Carrington (Both very recently Class A) by more than 20
points and then played Mayville-Portland (Ben Jacobsen) and lost by 6 or
so I think.

You have to take into consideration that during this period, Chaffee
never had more than 25 students in 9-12.



Sheldon Shadows-high school closed in 1996, elementary school closed a
few years ago.

Sheldon-Chaffee had a co-op for boy's basketball 92-94.
1992: 16-9, 2nd in the district; 4th in the region.

My most memorable moment in sports history: In the District 2
semi-finals we played Lamoure who had only lost once and were rated
highly in the state poll. They were beating us by about 15 or so in the
3rd quarter and then junior Rob Dooley stole the ball at half-court and
went up for the dunk and broke the backboard. It took over 70 minutes
to replace the backboard and clean up the floor. It was kind of fun
during the delay doing the wave in the Fargo Civic Center. At the start
of the 4th quarter Lamoure was ahead 52-38. With 4 minutes to go
Lamoure was ahead 60-49. With about 30 seconds to go Lamoure was ahead
60-59, but we forced a turn over when they tried to hold the ball. Our
point guard junior Jason Schatzke held the ball for the last shot (we
were out of time outs) and was fouled while shooting with 3 seconds
left. He made them both and we won 61-60.

1993: 23-2, 1st in the district, 3rd in the region. We lost to Oakes
57-55 in the semi's but beat Lisbon (who were the big bad guys) 54-51
for 3rd.

Though not recognized state wide, I think this team would have given
M-P-C-G from 95-97 a run for their money. The regular season loss
(Hope-Page by 6) was due to 3 starters out for injuries/illness and the
loss to Oakes was ??? shock from playing from behind/over confidence? I
personally think this is one of the better teams in Class B history.

1994: 17-6, 2nd in the district. Lost in the first round of the region
to Richland. The district championship was against Central Cass that
year and they one 67-65. Their point guard made a half court shot at
the end of the 3rd quarter, but the clock didn't start running with 5
seconds to go. Many Sheldon-Chaffee fans feel this robbed them of the
game because it tied it up and really gave Central Cass momentum. The
game seemed bigger than it was because Central Cass was highly ranked in
state, Chaffee was closing and consolidating with them at the end of the
year, and every other team in the district and region was their to
support us.

information for other schools that closed too.

Leonard Panthers-closed in 1994

Wheatland Wildcats and Amenia ???-closed in the late 60's and now are
part of Central Cass

Ayr Rifles-closed in the late 60's. One of the most dominate teams in
Class C girls basketball history.

Page Panthers-school still open but now the F-S-H-P Spartans. Everybody
should know about Brian Buhr.

Eire, Arthur, Hunter, Aurgusville, and Gardner-All were schools that
each had their own team until the 70's, all now part of Northern Cass.

Colfax, Walcott, and Abercrombie-All were schools that each had their
own team until the late 60's, all now part of Richland.

Cardinal Meunch Seminary Cardinals-The last time they had a team was
1990.

Mapleton Falcons-still has elementary school. In the 70's the high
school kids started going to West Fargo or Central Cass.

Davenport ???-had teams in the 60's but for the life of me can't find
out what their mascot was. If you happen to know, I am very
intersested!!

Buffalo Bison, Tower City Clams, Fingal Broncos, and Oriska Flickers-now
Maple Valley. Buffalo and Tower City joined in the mid 70's. Buffalo
always had good sports teams, Tower City not so much. Fingal Joined
them in the late 70's. I know they had decent teams in the mid to late
70's with a few district championships and runners up. Oriska joined in
the 90's.

Kathryn Bobcats-had there own varsity team until at least 1989. They
used Fingal's gym for varsity games. Kathryn's gym was very, very
small.

Pillsbury ???-I know they had teams in the 60's because my dad told me
they always got made fun of-the DOUGHBOYS.

Nome ???-had teams up until the mid 60's.

So here you have around 20 less teams playing now versus 30 or so years
ago, just between Valley City and Fargo north and south for about 30
miles or so.


Not far away from these schools listed are: BCN (Sanborn, Rogers,
Dazey, Wimbledon, Courtenay-all had teams) Hannaford (with Griggs
County now) and Midkota (Glenfield, Sutton, McHenry, Binford, Grace
City-each had individual teams) I am sure others know more info about
these ones.

Also added: Nome-Wildcats; Amenia-Trojans; and Pillsbury-Knights.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby ndlionsfan » Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:09 am

That's the stuff that I really enjoy reading about. I knew Sheldon and Chaffee used to have schools, but I never knew they were that successful in basketball. I love it when small schools like that can beat the much larger rivals. I hope some more people can share stories like that about schools and teams that no longer exist.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby tellmeaboutit » Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:00 pm

To: NDSportsfan

Great post. I'm going to talk to my Dad and see if I can find out more about schools that have closed down. I'm pretty sure he is as knowledgable as you. Thanks again for a great read.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby ndfan » Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:40 pm

Crary
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby lbird33 » Wed Apr 02, 2008 10:06 pm

In the southwest corner, Halliday, Golden Valley, Dodge, Gladstone, Lefor, Taylor, Belfield, South Heart and Hebron all used to have their own sports programs, along with several others that have already been mentioned. Some of these towns co-op with other schools, and some of them have closed their doors.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby Ginsbach » Sat Apr 05, 2008 1:53 am

There's one in the far southeast corner.

Hankinson St. Francis Frankies.

It was a private Catholic school that closed down in 1969 - my grandfather, uncle, and father all went to that school. My father's class was in the last graduating class there. The building that housed St. Francis is connected to the convent in town, and was used as the Hankinson elementary until this year when the elementary students moved into the new building attached to the high school.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby justbrowsing » Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:26 pm

Jud Trojans
Lehr Leopards
Dickey Central (Cougars?) - great little gym in Monango, not sure if that's still used for old man rec anymore
Braddock Bobcats
Rhame
Arthur
Oriska?
Sheyenne just recently
All of those former schools in the Dakota Prairie coop (Aneta, McVille, Petersburg, Michigan, etc)
Pettibone
Streeter
Neche?
Portland, Clifford, and Galesburg
Sykeston
Bowdon


It's amazing to think that it wasn't too long ago that the state had 32 districts - four districts per region tourney, only the top two of each advancing to a regional tourney. That was when literally entire towns would show up for a first round district game...and stay until the last horn of the last game. Things change quickly...
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby old lineman » Mon May 12, 2008 9:08 pm

Portland Pirates
Clifford Galesburg Twins
Riverdale Knights
Oriska Flickers
Gardena Bandits
Hope Hustlers
Page Panthers
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby baseball » Mon May 12, 2008 11:17 pm

Are u sure McVille closed? i know they played baseball games there last year and thought thats where they play basketball game??
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby ndlionsfan » Tue May 13, 2008 10:39 am

McVille hasn't closed, but its now Dakota Prairie with 5 other towns.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby ndsportsnut » Thu May 22, 2008 11:39 am

Central N.D. has lost it's share of schools also:

Mercer Bison
Riverdale Knights
Butte Spartans
McClusky Dragons/Goodrich Panthers= (Sheridan County Coyotes)
Stanton Souix
Anamoose Royals/Drake Trojans= (Tri-County Raiders)
Fessenden Orioles
Bowden Bears

It's sad to see them all go. Seems like everybody is a co-op nowadays.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby ndlionsfan » Thu May 22, 2008 1:21 pm

Fessenden and Bowndon are now one school and called the Wells Co Bears.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby point/center » Sat May 24, 2008 8:48 am

Bisbee is now closed
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby Steve R » Sat Jun 07, 2008 7:14 am

Lawton, Whitman, Fairdale, Lankin, Pisek, Nekoma, Clyde, Mountain, Sarles, Southam, Brocket.
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Re: Schools that have closed in North Dakota

Postby Lights Out2 » Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:52 pm

North Border Bandits(Neche, Pembina)
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