On Saturday, February 17, 1979, my whole life changed.
I was an eighth grader at Highland Park Junior High School in St. Paul. It was a cold winter Saturday in St. Paul, and as I enjoyed breakfast my father, Kwame McDonald, asked me a question he posed to me every Tuesday and Friday night.
“You want to come with me to the [St. Paul] Central basketball game?” I responded with the same answer given since the season began.
After every game, my father would come home and my mother, Mary McDonald, would ask him the same question. “Who won?” she would ask.
“Central won,” he would respond.
It was an answer my father repeated 19 consecutive times, which was identical to the Minutemen’s 19-0 record up to that point.
During my father’s attempts to convince me to go with him, it soon became apparent that this was no ordinary game. This game was special. It was the Twin City game, the contest in which the St. Paul City Conference champion would take on the Minneapolis City Conference champion.
St. Paul champ Central, coached by Dan Brink, featured Stacy Robinson, Ricky Suggs, Jeff Conley, Billy Jo Watts, John Williams, Farron Henderson, Davey Givens and Brian Dungey. They would take on Minneapolis champ North, led by Coach Tony Queen, featuring Ben Coleman, Mike Esaw, Pat Burston and Damond Dickson.
My father also made it clear that the game would be played at Macalester College, not a high school gym. “I’m going to support Central,” he said. “I also want to see Big Ben [Coleman],” he said, referring to North’s 6’9” center and Minneapolis City Conference Player of the Year.
My curiosity got the best of me and I decided to go to the game. We walked into a packed house of 2,500 fans, and to my amazement both teams were all Black. This wasn’t something you often saw in Minnesota in those days. It seemed as if St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood showed up, as did Minneapolis’ North Side.
The game itself was something to remember. Suggs’ 19 points, along with 12 from Williams, led Central to a 65-55 victory.
Coleman, one of the state’s top prospects at the time, led North with 15 points. Esaw added 12, Burston 11, and Dickson 10.
Afterwards I was hooked, as this was the first high school basketball game I ever attended. From then on, we followed Central all the way to their runner-up finish in the Class AA state boys basketball tournament. North was knocked out of the Region 5AA playoffs.
What was unknown at the time was that this was the beginning of a rivalry that would last until 1988 during a period in which both programs enjoyed a decade of success.
Central would win conference titles from 1980-’82 and ’84-’88, with third-place Class AA state finishes in ’81, ’84 and ’86.
North would do likewise from 1980-’82, and ’84-’88, with a Class AA state title in ’80 and runner-up finishes in ’84 and ’85.
Also unknown at the time was the impact that game had on me. After earning a journalism degree from Central State University (Ohio) in 1987, I came back home and have been covering high school sports ever since.
My life changed forever.
Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald welcomes reader comments to mcdeezy05@gmail.com.