The team that started Sullivan East Patriots basketball is returning home.
This season marks the 40th anniversary of the 1968-69 Patriots basketball team – the first squad in school history. Friday night, the group will be honored at Patriot Palace.
A reception will be held between the end of the Patriots’ girls game against Sullivan South, which begins at 6:30 p.m., and the start of East’s boys contest against the Rebels, which is slated to tip off at 8 p.m. The estimated time for the start of the reception is 7:45 p.m.
Former Patriots coach Bob Chambers and former East star shooter Mark “The Marksman” Mason are expected to attend the ceremony, while ex-Patriots players Jim “Mad Dog” Mahaffey, Gil Mason, Thad Perry, Steve Warden, Tony Blevins, Steve Elsea and Ike Fleenor will be honored, among others.
“To have alumni come back is an awesome thing,” said John Dyer, Sullivan East boys basketball coach and athletic director. “It means a lot for them to come back and support us.
And we support them, because we appreciate them. We appreciate all the guys who have played here. All that guys that sacrificed and put their heart and soul into everything.”
Dyer said the first few years of Patriots basketball were great ones, filled with excellent players and coaches.
Chambers led East to a 21-10 record during its inaugural season, and the Patriots were 26-6 in 1969-70.
Chambers said he still recalls the building of Patriot Palace. He remembers sitting on a collection of cinder blocks as the large, arena-like building that has now housed 40 years of Sullivan East basketball was erected.
“I remember the beautiful red, white and blue colors going in there, and said, ‘Hey, this is going to be something special.’ And it has been,” said Chambers, a 71-year-old resident of Elizabethton, Tenn., who later coached at Tennessee High and the University of Kentucky.
Both Chambers and Mark Mason were reluctant to talk about themselves, and instead sought to praise a collection of East teammates Mason called “outstanding.”
“I really enjoyed my time at East. We had players that were willing to just pull together and play together. And, of course, that goes back to the talent we had, as well as the leadership we had,” said Mason, 57, a Piney Flats, Tenn., resident who played college ball at East Tennessee State University and Carson-Newman, and now coaches boys basketball at Mary Hughes Middle School.
While Chambers and Mason deflected praise, Dyer was more than willing to offer it for the East team that started it all.
“We have a great community and our community has pride, and one of the things we have pride in is our basketball,” Dyer said. “All the way through, from 1968 to 2009, we have put competitive teams on the floor. And I’m thankful that these guys are coming back and I’m proud of them. Forty years: It’s a great thing.”
btsmith@bristolnews.com | (276)645-2569
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