LOWELL — The last living member of the Elkins-Five, a talented team of rogue basketball players that missed its only chance at a state championship in 1944, said he never debates the “what-ifs” of his glory days cut short.
“No regrets,” said Jack Drake, 86, from his recliner in the living room of the home he shares with his wife, Zetta, in Lowell.
In Drake’s day during World War II, Elkins was a consolidated school district, taking in the communities of Maguire’s Town, Harris and Strain, for a total enrollment of 150 students.
Drake can’t recall now who dubbed them the Elkins-Five, but it was a moniker that stuck. The quintet - seniors Drake and Keith Robbins, and juniors Arlis Hoskins, Earl Logue and Jim Carter - played without a coach, leaning on one another for support, Drake said.
“It brought the team closer together,” he said.
“They relied on each other,” said Keith Robbins’ widow, Jackie Robbins, of Farmington. “It was like a family of brothers to him.”
The five starters ranged in height from 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-6, Drake said. A few more players rounded out the team and served as substitutes. Townsfolk donated money for the team’s uniforms that 1943-44 season, and Drake’s father, Bill Drake, transported the team and up to 30 fans to games in a 1 1/2-ton truck with sideboards that he used in his canning business. Passengers in the back of the truck had to stand.
At first, they challenged teams in towns of comparable size, such as Greenland, West Fork and Winslow. The games were played at the National Guard Armory, at that time just off the Fayetteville Square. There were two referees who volunteered their time simply because the games were so entertaining, Drake said.
The Elkins-Five then arranged to play Fayetteville on the Bulldogs’ home court and lost by one point.
Later in the 1943-44 season, in the finals of a regional tournament in Springdale, Elkins bested Fayetteville 43-25, said Drake. In fact, they won all their games in that tournament by 20 points or more, as mentioned in an undated newspaper article.
“I would say the crowd was for the underdog, and that was us,” Drake said. In addition, each of the Elkins-Five was named to the tournament’s All-Star team.
Their performance caught the attention of then-Arkansas Razorbacks head basketball coach Eugene Lambert, and he promised scholarships to the starters. As an added bonus, Lambert offered to let them scrimmage against the Razorbacks to prepare for the state tournament in Little Rock. The five “played an acceptable game against the Arkansas Razorbacks, losing 72-57,” according to an undated newspaper article.
Their dreams of taking the state title were dashed, however, when one of theirstrongest players, Logue, had to miss the trip.
“He could not go because his father had some crops he had to bring in,” Drake recalled.
Robbins would later tell his wife of his disappointment.
“I think he almost felt cheated ’til his dying day, because they really deserved to have it,” Jackie Robbins said.
After graduation, Drake and Robbins gave up their basketball scholarships and joined the military.
“At the time, everybody was going into the service, and that was more appealing to us than going to the university,” said Drake, who chose the Navy.
After World War II ended, most of the team returned home and back to the court. They played on an independent team against other independent teams back at the Fayetteville armory.
“Generally, it was all the same players we played in high school,” he said.
With help from the GI Bill, Drake briefly attended the University of Arkansas, though he didn’t play ball. He soon started as a lineman for Southwestern Bell and retired from the company more than 40 years later with a desk job in Little Rock.
He and Zetta had two daughters and a son, the latter of whom played basketball for Fayetteville High School. The couple recently put up a standing hoop at the top of their driveway for two grandchildren who play competitive ball.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/18/2013