It was 70 years ago this past spring that Boerne High’s John Canavan had a night that etched his name into the Greyhound record books.
Canavan and the rest of the Greyhounds were playing Northside, the only school in the Northside district at the time (now there are at least 12 high schools in NISD), before they changed the name from Northside to Marshall.
According to an article in the Feb. 10, 1955, issue of the Boerne Star, Canavan tallied 67 points against Northside.
It’s still a Greyhound record and is also a greater San Antonio area scoring record as far as anyone knows. It also seems to be a record that few people outside of Boerne know about.
I’ve talked to John about that 67-point game on a few different occasions, and one thing he said is that nobody made a big deal about it – at all.
He said nothing was even mentioned about it the next day over the PA system when they made the usual school announcements.
As far as the game itself, the 89-35 win over Northside gave Boerne a 10-0 district mark and its second consecutive district championship.
According to the article, Boerne was averaging 72 points per game in district, while only giving up 38 points per game.
The district standings are listed in the article, and Northside was winless in 28-A and fell to 0-10 in district after that loss to Boerne.
John said he remembers that Northside was struggling that year, so the conditions were ripe for him to have a big game.
John tallied 37 points by halftime and the article mentions that “this was the first time in District play that John was allowed to go the full game, and one of the very few all season.”
John concurred with that and said if Boerne had a big lead at halftime, he didn’t play much, if any, in the second half but added that this night was different.
John asked the coach if he could stay in the game and play the second half because he was feeling good. The coach agreed and John scored 30 more points in the second half to get his 67.
I think the 6-foot-7 Canavan was much taller than the tallest Marshall player, and he had his way in the paint.
He scored and grabbed missed shots and put them back up for buckets or was getting fouled and going to the line for free throws.
When the final buzzer sounded, John had tallied 67 points and made 26 field goals and 15 free throws in a 32-minute game before there was a 3-point line.
The team netted 89 that night, so there were still 22 points that the other Greyhounds scored in the game. According to the article, Carroll Kneupper had 8, Kermit Theis 4, Johnny Kirschke 2, Kermit Uecker 1, Joe Coryell 2, Jim Gourley 2 and Earl Dunning 3.
I don’t know how many free throws and shots John missed that night or even how many shots he passed up, but he was only a couple of misses away from having a 70-point night.
Regardless, John finished with 67 points that night and at one point near the end of the article, it stated, “This set a Boerne gym scoring record that will probably stand for a long time.”
And so far, the Boerne Star has been right.
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