Post Messenger Recorder -

Some who don't know how the Monticello Public Schools sports teams got their Monticello Ponies name tend to scoff at the "Ponies" name with comments like, "Ha, the school isn't big enough to be called the Stallions, Mustangs, or other equine related names," have nary a clue that the Ponies name is one given of respect for one of their former basketball coaches and much respected long-time teacher, John Ponyicsanyi.

What began as a simple request from Mark Olson, the current Monticello Ponies basketball coach, to Jack Ponyicsanyi, son of John, "Do you have any of your dad's old score books from his years of coaching, 1945 thru 1961," has become a history book on the Monticello basketball program.

Jack knew that he had the requested score books and the search was on, and on, and on. "I knew I had them somewhere and began looking. I spent a day looking for the books but was unable to find them. Then some months later I found them in a box in the basement, while looking for some floor tile, and that is where they were found, just as I remembered them, red cover tied together with string."

Returning to Monticello for a day, Jack and Olson began talking about basketball. This discussion took a turn with another question, how many 1,000 career point scorers did Monticello have? "I knew of nine players that had reached the 1,000-point mark but decided to look further."

That decision led to a rather monumental amount of research given that many of the old score books were no longer to be found. During his research, he found nine more 1,000-point scorers. Some of the intent was to ensure that each of Monticello's top scorers were placed on the commemorative wall holding the plaques honoring all Wisconsin high school's 1,000-point players, at the JustAgame Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells. It could have ended right there with the complete list of Monticello athletes names to be placed on the wall at the Dells, but it didn't. It only encouraged Jack to pondering box scores and articles about each game.

Over the next year, Jack estimates that he made 20-25 trips from his home in Orfordville to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin to look through their Wisconsin newspaper microfilm library. The records were found, but also caused numerous detours along the way. His trips to the State Historical Society archives led to one of the employees telling him as he departed for home, "see you again next Tuesday."

"I'd be looking at one article and see another article about other players and teams that piqued my interest and read those articles as well. My days at the historical society would begin at 8:00 a.m. and not end until 5:00 p.m." Each time he found an article relating to Monticello basketball, he saved them to a flash drive which he would take home to print out.

He said that former Monticello Messenger owner, editor/publisher, Clarence Wittenwyler, always put a lengthy article on the front page each week of the previous week's basketball games. He was amazed at the number of articles he found. His list of newspapers used in this research include the Albany Herald, Argyle Atlas, Beloit Daily News, Blanchardville Blade, Capital Times, Janesville Gazette, Monroe Evening Times, Monticello Messenger, New Glarus Post, Post Messenger, Post Messenger Recorder, and Wisconsin State Journal.

Ponyscsanyi writes, "As long as I was doing this research, I thought it would be interesting to have the game reports and individual scoring records for each year printed in a booklet. That led to the idea of adding box scores and write-ups of individual games so readers could get a feeling for a particular game and season."

This "booklet" has turned into a 100 page History of Monticello Boys Basketball, 1939-2014/2015 season. Also included in this book are the statistics for each of these years. As an added bonus, he also included several other articles related to basketball in the old State Line League. A friend, formerly from Albany and player on an earlier Albany basketball team, wrote a delightful article on the gyms that he played in as a young high school basketball player. Also included is a history of Karlen Hall in Monticello where the Monticello team played many of their early games.

Ponyicsanyi also included a, "What are the odds? Of having a male and female basketball player from the same school score 1,000 points in a career? AND of having each player reach the 1,000 point milestone in the same year, within one week of each other? AND of having them represent Monticello as the Homecoming King and Queen during that same year?"

We don't know what the odds were, but, Ben May and Alyssah Kubly did just that during the 2014-15 season.

For those wishing to purchase a copy of The History Of Monticello Boys' Basketball 1939-2015, Ponyicsayni will be at the February 16th Monticello game selling copies of the book, which retails for $10.00, with all proceeds going toward a trophy case for Monticello Ponies Basketball.