Concrete High School hosts La Conner in re-do of 1952 gym opening

History stands to repeat itself in Concrete on Friday.

Just as was the case in 1952, when the Concrete High School gymnasium first opened, visiting La Conner hoop teams will take the floor Jan. 5 in a rivalry that precedes the Great Depression.

Members of the 1952 Concrete and La Conner teams will be honored as part of a “70-plus Years Anniversary” celebration at the iconic Concrete gym.

The night’s events will also include a brief historical presentation and introductions of all-time Skagit County scorers Gail Thulen and Andy Otis of La Conner and Tyler Clark of Concrete, a 10-minute session scheduled for halftime of the boys’ varsity contest.

The fun starts at 4:30 p.m. with a one-hour dinner served by the Concrete Booster Club. The girls’ varsity game follows at 5:45 p.m.

The boys’ varsity contest is set for 7:30 p.m. after a 20-minute program in which members of the 1952 La Conner and Concrete teams will be recognized as honorary coaches for the evening.

Dave Alvord, Sr., who was a sophomore member of the 1952 La Conner team, has committed to representing the Braves.

Concrete native Paul Bianchini, a star athlete at Mount Vernon High School, who in the 1970s played football for the University of Washington, has helped coordinate the anniversary festivities.

Bianchini has conducted exhaustive research of the Concrete Herald archives, gleaning information about the gym opening from reports penned by the legendary Charles Dwelley, who retired to Shelter Bay and wrote a regular column for the old Channel Town Press newspaper here.

Bianchini unearthed a Dwelley article that referred to the Jan. 4, 1952 Concrete gym opening as “an auspicious occasion.”

The large crowd, wrote Dwelley, numbered around 800 fans, each of whom “saw a building that seemed to meet the dreams of any sports enthusiast.”

Bianchini has found Concrete Herald accounts of the schools competing in basketball dating to 1927, a generation before the present Concrete gym was built. He said the anniversary event is an opportunity to celebrate not only the gymnasium but all student-athletes who have played there over the past seven-plus decades.