JESSE O. ANDERS & THE 1930 JENA HIGH NATIONAL FINALIST BOYS 
BASKETBALL TEAM,   La Salle  Parish, LA
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Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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Contributed by Greggory E. Davies
120 Ted Price Lane
Winnfield, LA  71483
gedavies@iAmerica.net



The 1929 and 1930 Jena High School boys' basketball team made it to the 
National High School Basketball Championship Tournament in Chicago, 
Illinois.  The 1929 team bowed out early but the 1930 team played in the 
finals, losing to Athens, Texas High School by a score of 22-16.  


Retired Winn Parish Clerk of Court Jesse O. Anders, elected in 1964 and 
unopposed for the remainder of his political career, played on those great 
Jena teams.  Mr. Anders speaks of the excitement surrounding the Jena 
community in those glory days, and the fear that the team would not be 
able to afford to make the trip to faraway Chicago.  He said that the 
townspeople had to raise money to get the team's trip paid for as the 
Great Depression was in full swing.    Mr. Anders said he might have had 
two dollars to take on the trip, if that much.  

The Jena squad, led by All-American Sparky Wade won two games in the 
National Tournament in 1929 but were defeated in their third game, 
forcing them to come home and dream about the next season.  Mr. Anders 
said the state champion from each state got to represent their state in the 
yearly tournament.  The Jena team of 1930 had eight players, the tallest one 
being shorter than the shortest man on the Athens, Texas team.  And, 
Jena's star player was injured and unable to play in the championship game, 
possibly costing Jena a National Championship.  Mr. Anders played 
"stationery guard", a position which required him to remain on the defensive 
end of the court.  Not strange for the period, Jena, like many other north 
Louisiana rural schools, did not have a gymnasium and played their games 
outdoors.  

Sparky Wade, Jena's star, went on to a great career at L. S. U.  Other 
team members Ernest Doughty, played at Louisiana Normal, now 
Northwestern State, and Clyde Stalkup, played at Centenary.  Jena's 
coach was Bud Gaharan.

Mr. Anders came to Winn Parish in 1941 as Supervisor for the Federal 
Farm Loan Program.  After leaving that job, he went into the feed and 
seed business, then took a job with the State of Louisiana Department 
of Education.  He reentered private business, dry cleaning, and was 
elected to the Winnfield City Council.  Upon defeating the incumbent in 
the Clerk of Court race, he learned that his opponent was short of 
retirement.  In a rare form of political integrity, Mr. Anders hired his 
opponent in order to allow the defeated man a opportunity to earn 
retirement.  This does not come as a shock to those who know 
Jesse O. Anders.

(The above article was written by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, 
Louisiana, and originally published in The Winn Parish Enterprise.)