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CATHY WURZER: The Minnesota boys' state basketball tournament is celebrating its 100th anniversary this week with games that start today. One of the most memorable wins in that long history came 42 years ago this evening. The team from tiny Sherburn in southwestern Minnesota-- population not quite 1,200, knocked off metro powerhouse South St. Paul for the championship. Mark Steil has this look back.

MARK STEIL: More than 18,000 fans packed Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus for the championship game showdown in 1970.

[NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYING]

[CHEERS]

As play began, WTCN television announcer Frank Beutel offered this concise analysis of the game.

FRANK BEUTEL: Both teams with big men-- and muscle.

MARK STEIL: The Sherburn Raiders had three players in the 6' 5" range. Guard John Tirevold, now a banker, says the team was also agile and known for its ability to run.

JOHN TIREVOLD: People liked the way we played the speed of the game. And it was entertaining for the audience.

ANNOUNCER: 4 to 3, Sherburn has its first lead.

MARK STEIL: Sherburn came into the game undefeated, but South St. Paul was the favorite because of its tougher metro area schedule. Sherburn's size and muscle produced a high scoring offense. But team member Jeff McCarron says the Raiders also had an unlikely secret weapon, the town outcast, 67-year-old George Packard.

JEFF MCCARRON: He didn't have a lot of money. He worked for farmers once in a while. He trapped animals. He scared us as kids. We were sort of afraid of him. Dogs would bark at him when he walked by. And he was kind of this mysterious person around town.

MARK STEIL: But George Packard loved sports. The previous fall, Packard drove to an out-of-town Sherburn football game in a car with no headlights. So he spent the night in the car and drove home the next day. Packard's dedication to the hometown teams impressed the high school coaches.

When the basketball season started, McCarron says they let Packard ride in the safety of the team bus, where members of the undefeated team would ask for his take on their next opponent.

JEFF MCCARRON: We'd ask him how he thought we would do that night. And he'd always tell us about their best player or two, how good they were. And that got us off our high horse a little bit thinking, OK, well, we better not take this for granted.

MARK STEIL: Packard loved to play up Sherburn's underdog status by calling them, "the hicks from the sticks." By the time the team reached the championship game, a tight bond had formed, the small town basketball team, underdogs in the state tournament, and George Packard, underdog in life. In the championship game, Sherburn's Tom Mulso also scored early and often.

ANNOUNCER: Mulso, run and jump. 14-8. Sherburn is burning them up, hitting everything here.

MARK STEIL: Sherburn opened a 13-point lead in the first half. South St. Paul guard, Todd Mettler remembers Sherburn's discipline on the court and how that focus was on display even during a pre-game meal for the competing teams.

TODD METTLER: We were messing around, right? Having a good time and relaxing. And they sat down there at the other end and didn't say a word the whole time.

MARK STEIL: During the second half of the game, Sherburn snuffed out a South St. Paul comeback and pulled away to win by a lopsided 16 points. This was the call of the final moments of the game by WCCO Radio's Ray Christensen.

RAY CHRISTENSEN: They started up full court, throw it to the length of the court, and the ball game is over. And Sherburn is the unbeaten Minnesota state high school basketball champion.

MARK STEIL: Sherburn's win ended a storied phase in the boys tournament. It was the last featuring schools of every size in a single field. In the 1960s, three other teams from small southwestern Minnesota towns won the championship. But in 1971, the field was split into big and small school divisions.

Sherburn's victory brought the town lasting fame. And Jeff McCarron says a good share of it rubbed off on the original hick from the sticks, George Packard.

JEFF MCCARRON: People in the community, when he was younger growing up, had made fun of him. That whole experience of the tournament really elevated him. Plus he became sort of a celebrity. And so that really changed his life, I think.

MARK STEIL: Packard died in 1983, but his memory is captured in a photo of Sherburn's five starting players crouching around their trophy. Packard is right behind them, arm outstretched, his hand signing, "We're number 1." Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio News, Sherburn.

CATHY WURZER: It's 42 years later and teams in this year's tournament will play on the same court that Tiny Sherburn won on, Williams Arena, and at the Target Center.