A trip from Klamath Falls to Keno, Ore., for a pair of basketball games turned out to be an ordeal of humiliation and survival for a group of boys in the winter of 1915.
Two teams from Klamath Falls made the trip to the small community only 10 miles southwest of town, but nearly 20 meandering miles by boat on the Klamath River, a customary route when winter roads were impassable.
One of the traveling squads was a second-string team of boys from the grammar school in Klamath Falls, and the other a third-string lineup from Klamath County High School.
The Evening Herald newspaper reported both teams from Klamath Falls were “badly walloped” by the Keno boys, with one Klamath player suffering a broken nose.
The boys’ hardships continued when the boat had engine trouble on the way home. The high school boys spent the night in a dance hall in Keno, while the grammar school boys made it a few miles upriver to Teeter’s Landing before their boat stalled in the middle of the night.
They built a fire to ward off the chill until daybreak, when they resumed their trip upstream to Klamath Falls.
Source: "Keno Trip Ends in Much Trouble." Evening Herald 13 Feb. 1915 [Klamath Falls, Ore.] : 1. Print.
