On April 22, 1947, at the Boston Garden one of the most stunning basketball upsets of its time took place when the boys team from tiny Patten Academy upset Massachusetts powerhouse Boston Latin 35-32.

Members of the Patten Academy team will gather for a memorial service honoring the team’s coach, Willis Phair, next month in Fort Fairfield at Protestant Cemetery. Phair died in January in Florida.

The game between Patten Academy and Boston Latin pitted the states’ Class B champions against each other. The game was played as a preliminary to the New England Basketball Tournament championship game in which Leavenworth of Hartford, Conn., defeated Durfee of Fall River, Mass. Only the Class A title was contested at the New Englands.

Carroll Hatt of Brewer played on that team and scored seven points in the win over Boston Latin. He winters in Boynton Beach, Fla., where he was able to visit with Phair, who had retired to Boca Raton, Fla.

“He was a terrific man. I wish I could have guided my life in the same pattern as his because he was a great guy,” Hatt said.

Terrific but tough. The Eagles didn’t become a team that won the Class B state championship over Gould Academy of Bethel and then went on to pull off the upset of Massachusetts Class B champion Boston Latin with a coach who was laid back.

“He was a brutal coach,” Hatt said. “He’d line us up and throw the ball hard at us. If you didn’t catch the ball he’d send you away or make you go sit down somewhere.”

And Phair, who was also the principal and math teacher at the school, didn’t have that many boys to send away. There were only 27 in the school that had an enrollment of 88.

“He’d run us down the hall blowing that whistle,” Hatt remembers.

And Phair liked for his team to put on a show. Hatt said the team ran a figure eight drill that was considered snazzy at the time.

“We did that in the Boston Garden and everywhere we went. We warmed up with that,” Hatt said. “While the other team was shooting we were running the figure eight. It was showmanship but you had to pay attention or you’d get a ball right in the kisser.”

Patten’s starting five included Hatt, Gilman Rossignol, Lloyd Wilson, Ken McCourt and Thurston Townsend. Harley Dow, Lynn Vickery, Howard Cunningham and Hollis Bates rounded out the team. Jack Seely was the Eagles’ manager.

All of the team members are approaching their mid-70s and are spread around the country. Rossignol and Wilson live in Connecticut, McCourt is in Florida, Cunningham in New Jersey, Vickery is in Arkansas while Dow is in Maryland and Seely is in Nashville, Tenn. Townsend has remained in Patten and Bates lives in Lewiston.

Joyce Hall was a Patten Academy cheerleader. She had a favorite player on the team, Gilman Rossignol, whom she later married.

“I think he was the best player but I’m prejudiced,” Joyce Rossignol said with a laugh.

She remembers taking the train to Boston for the game and the greeting the team received at Boston Garden from the 13,909 fans in attendance.

The NEWS reported at the time that the Eagles were a decided underdog having “played opposition considered beneath the stature of Latin’s foes.” And why not? Boston Latin could boast of an enrollment of 1,800 – all boys. Latin had lost just once during the year and its victories included a 48-0 win over Brandeis of Boston.

“When we arrived at the game in the Boston Garden, the Boston Latin band was dressed in their formal clothes for their victory party. And, of course, we beat them,” Joyce Rossignol said.

Gil Rossignol, who was suffering from an upset stomach and was unable to eat anything the day of the game, scored 10 points.

The Eagles were feted upon their return to Maine at several train stops. The Bangor and Brewer high school bands and some 500 people met the team at Union Station in Bangor where the team was given a banquet hosted by the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad at the Penobscot Hotel.

Crowds in Lincoln and Sherman Station came out to greet them and they were given a heroes’ welcome when they arrived at home.

At the core of the team’s success was Phair, the taskmaster who made them believe they could win when the odds said no. He left Patten a few years later, working at a number of schools and also as a pharmaceutical salesman before retiring.

He died January 1, less than two months after his wife Donna died.

“I believe he stopped living when she passed,” Hatt said. “I can’t compare him to someone else. I only had one coach and it was him. I’m glad I was involved with him, championship or no championship.”

Eastern Maine has new teams

The much anticipated move to Eastern Maine for all sports by Edward Little of Auburn and Lewiston became official last Thursday when the Maine Principals’ Association voted to accept a report from its classification committee recommending the action.

Both schools were moved to Eastern Maine for football and hockey two years ago.

The schools will participate in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net