By Mike Whaley
It’s the 55th anniversary of Farmington High School’s first state championship in basketball – the 1970 Class M boys crown. Their story is about as “Hoosiers”-esque as they come.
At the time, Farmington was a virtual basketball nobody. The Tigers had exactly one playoff win in their history (1957). They lost in the first round of the 1969 tournament to Inter-Lakes by a point. Despite their history, they did have a pretty good team in 1969-70. Their starting five had grown up playing basketball together: seniors Paul Moulton, Danny Reynolds, Alan Hagar, and Paul Bishop, and junior Tony Quinn. They were guided by third-year coach Art Parissi.
Farmington had a solid regular season, going 15-2 to earn the No. 3 seed in the tournament. Their losses had been to league rivals Newmarket and Oyster River. The talk of the tournament, however, centered around No. 1 and unbeaten Woodsville, coached by the volatile legend John Bagonzi. The Engineers had beaten all comers in winning the 1969 crown in similar and perfect fashion, including Class I champion Littleton. In fact, Woodsville capped the previous season with a record-setting 97-41 win over Pittsfield in the final at the University of New Hampshire – records for championship game points scored by the winning team and winning margin that still stands as overall tournament records.
The Engineers were just getting going in a span that would see them win five state titles in nine years.
The Tigers, led by 1,000-point scorers Moulton and Reynolds, drew a first-round bye and faced Conant in the quarterfinals at Bishop Brady High School in Concord. The Orioles hung with them into the second half before the Tigers pulled away to win 79-66. Moulton led a balanced attack with 24 points, followed by Reynolds (17), Hagar (16) and Quinn (13).
That set up a matchup at UNH against powerful Woodsville, whose winning streak now stretched to 40 games. David vs. Goliath. It looked like it was going to go like everyone thought it would as the Engineers darted out to a 10-1 lead to force a Farmington timeout. In the huddle, a slowdown approach was discussed and quickly discarded. Like Woodsville, the Tigers embraced a fast-paced style. “We wanted to play the only way we knew how,” said Moulton in 2020. The one change that coach Parissi made was to have his players dribble through the Engineers’ vaunted press versus using the pass, which just wasn’t working. The worm began to turn.
By halftime, Farmington had found its groove and was up 46-41. Woodsville was getting into foul trouble (three players fouled out). The Engineers pulled to within three at one point, but no closer. As time was winding down, Woodsville did something it had not done in two years – it pulled off its press.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Tigers had stunned the New Hampshire basketball world with one of the greatest upsets in state high school tournament history, 90-81. All five starters reached double figures: Moulton and Hagar with 23 apiece, Quinn notched 16, Reynolds had 15, and Bishop collected 13.
Standing in the way between Farmington and championship glory was another underdog – No. 10 Merrimack. The Tomahawks were in the final after three upset wins. It was a track meet, but it was anticlimactic after the Woodsville game. The Tigers led 49-40 at the half, and stayed in control to win by 12 – 95-83. To this day it remains the overall most points scored (178) in a state championship game in N.H. history. Again there was great scoring balance led by tournament MVP Moulton with 30, Reynolds with 28, and Hagar and Bishop with 15 each. All five starters made the Class M All-Tournament Team and averaged in double figures, led by Moulton (25.7 ppg). The other four starters averaged between 12 and 20 points per game. The Iron Five scored every single one of Farmington’s 264 tournament points.
“It was fun,” said Moulton in 2020. “We were the heroes of the town – for the next 50 years, I guess.”
Although some of the players – most notably Moulton, Hagar and Bishop – and coach Parissi have passed away, it is still hard to forget the 1970 champions. If you take a gander at this year’s Division III tournament program, the Tigers once again deserve a mention in the record section. And given how the game has slowed down, it could last, well, another 55 years.
Whaley can be reached at whaleym25@gmail.com