Photo Credit: Jim Brey
Ships pride was on full display Friday night at a packed JFK Fieldhouse.
Members of the Manitowoc Lincoln 1968 State championship team were honored during halftime of the varsity game with Notre Dame.
Ed Fleener was the head coach of that undefeated Shipbuilders squad that beat Beloit Memorial in the title game at the UW-Fieldhouse.
“We had some good players, but not great, but we had a great team. They were a very close-knit group of people,” he recalled. “Whether is was the 13th man or the 1st man on the team, they all worked together nicely, and they complimented each other…It was probably the personification of teamwork that I have ever seen in my career.”
Tom “Stretch” Haag was one of the former players who returned to the JFK on Friday.
“It’s always good to get back together and see the guys,” he said. “The thing I really think about is when we were 26-0 down in Madison. We also got the sportsmanship trophy, which I don’t believe a lot of other ball teams down in Madison had two trophies that same year.”
His teammate Mike Muchowski told us it was fantastic to get together and reminisce about good memories.
“And to have Coach (Steve) Contardi being here, both he and Coach Fleener, because Coach getting up in age, with Contardi being involved in tennis as much as he is, all of us getting together is pretty much out of the picture for him,” Muchowski said. “But to see him now, and to see everybody here, it’s just phenomenal.”
Following the Ships 72-55 victory over the Tritons, members of the ’68 team got their picture taken with the current Lincoln players.
