Celebrating Our Past: March 12, 2025

1965 Wisconsin state champion Monroe Cheesemakers Sitting: Tom Mitchell, Bob Buchholtz. Standing: John Trumpy, mgr, Bill Norder, Keith Burrington, Dan Franklin, Dave Holling, Al Barnes, Mark Winzenreid, Terry Hayes, Jim Dearth, Wynn Grendahl, Richard Swiggum, Marshall Zwygart, mgr. Coaches: Lee Mitchell, Gary Ruge.

1965 Wisconsin state champion Monroe Cheesemakers Sitting: Tom Mitchell, Bob Buchholtz. Standing: John Trumpy, mgr, Bill Norder, Keith Burrington, Dan Franklin, Dave Holling, Al Barnes, Mark Winzenreid, Terry Hayes, Jim Dearth, Wynn Grendahl, Richard Swiggum, Marshall Zwygart, mgr. Coaches: Lee Mitchell, Gary Ruge.

60 years ago: March Madness 1965 Remembered

2025 marks 60 years since Monroe won the Wisconsin Division 1 state basketball championship. The team won every game that year, going 26-0 to win it all. The championship game was on March 20, 1965 at the Fieldhouse on the UW Madison campus.

In 1965, all Wisconsin public high schools played for a single title. The games were televised in black and white with no instant replays. Channel 15 television carried all the games, WEKZ provided radio coverage.

Traveling near and far, even to the present, many will ask where are you from, and they will say, OH the 1965 Basketball champions. It was a year that the whole town of Monroe were basketball fans and these young men made the town proud.

This photo is from the book “Never A Doubt” by Tom Mitchell and Larry Phillips. This complete book of the story in text and photos of the historic run of this team in 1965 is available from Tom Mitchell, Larry Phillips or at the Historical Society Museum. The book contains a DVD of the original championship game in its entirety.