Fairbanks High School student Tanner Ufferman shows the basketball scoreboard from the old Watkins school building. The scoreboard was purchased years ago by Ufferman’s grandfather, Ron Ebright, and hangs in the Ufferman garage. (Photo submitted)
In a normal world, national championship teams would have recently been crowned on both the men’s and women’s side of college basketball.
The NBA would have wrapped up its regular season by now and teams would be entering into a long playoff process.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, college hoop junkies saw their dreams come crashing to an end a month ago.
Meanwhile, no one knows for sure when pro basketball will return to conclude the season.
With roundball enthusiasts still yearning for their sport, a former local resident is sharing a basketball memory.
Ron Ebright, 82, is currently a resident of Springfield, Tenn.
However, he played junior high basketball at the old school building in Watkins and graduated from Marysville High School in 1955.
He also later officiated basketball games in the Watkins building.
Ebright didn’t play hoops after becoming a Marysville High School student.
However, he did run track and field and was a member of the first Monarch baseball team in the early 1950s as an infielder and outfielder.
A number of years ago, he purchased an artifact from the time when the Watkins gymnasium was the scene of many winter hoop contests.
“I had already moved to Tennessee years earlier when the Watkins building was torn down,” he said during a recent telephone interview with the Journal-Tribune.
Ebright later made a return trip to the area to visit with family members.
One day, he decided to go to a farm sale that was being held in the area of Watkins-California Road.
“I was looking around and thought I saw something that looked very familiar,” said Ebright.
It turns out that when the Watkins building was torn down years ago, someone had taken the old scoreboard from the gymnasium.
“Nothing was really salvaged when the building was torn down,” said Ebright. “Somebody, though, wanted that scoreboard.”
Modern-day scoreboards have a lot of sizzle with paid advertisements and the ability to post pictures and run live action.
In comparison, the Watkins scoreboard of the 1930s to 1950s vintage was in no way flashy.
“It was a pretty primitive scoreboard,” remembered Ebright, “It didn’t have an electric timer, so game time was kept on a stop watch.
“The numbers were metal and had to be manually flipped when a team scored a basket.
“I remembered the scoreboard from when I played and officiated games there, so I decided to buy it,” said Ebright. “I paid $5 for it.”
Ebright took the scoreboard back home to Tennessee and kept it for many years.
However, the local basketball artifact is now back home in Union County.
“Last summer, I gave it to my daughter (Elisa Ufferman) and my son-in-law (Brent Ufferman),” he said. “I just wanted them to have it and I gave it to them.
“It’s hanging in their garage.”
Ironically, the Uffermans live on Cradler-Turner Road, west of Marysville.
They reside in the former home of John Merriman, who for many years was the principal at the old Watkins building when it was part of the Fairbanks school district.