They were small-town boys with big-time poise and basketball skills that began the season as one of nearly 500 MSHSL teams and compiled a 27-0 record, culminated by state tournament victories over Chisholm, Richfield, and Austin in cavernous Williams Arena. The team was guided by Rich Olson, a 23-year-old coach who less than two years earlier completed an all-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball career at Macalester College. Names of champions generally fade with time, archived in school trophy cases, newspaper files and family scrapbooks, but Edgerton's story has resonated into the Twenty-First Century. Basketball junkies remember not only the town's name, but nearly 50 years later can recite the names of Flying Dutchmen starters. "Whenever I mention that I'm from Edgerton, I simply just pause and wait for the response," Judy Kreun, high school sweetheart and wife of former Flying Dutchman guard Darrell Kreun, said.

That the legend resonated beyond 1960 is amazing in that it was a watershed year in Minnesota sports history. The 1960 hockey team, teeming with Minnesota talent, surprised the world by defeating the Soviet Union to claim the Olympic Gold. The University of Minnesota baseball team surprised the Sunbelt Set by winning its second College World Series title in four years. The Golden Gophers football team was the nation's No. 1 team and qualified for its first Rose Bowl trip in nearly 20 years. The NBA Minneapolis Lakers pulled stakes and headed west to become the Los Angeles Lakers, while it was announced that in 1961 the state would have two new major sports franchises - the Washington Senators to become the Minnesota Twins in Major League Baseball and the Minnesota Vikings to be part of National Football League expansion.

In "Gopher State Greatness," a 1984 book chronicling Minnesota high school basketball from 1952 through 1981, author Joe B. Krenz predicted that Edgerton had "left an imprint on the game that will endure as long as the game is played," and to date the legend's lasting power has validated his prediction. Hopkins won back-to-back titles and 65 consecutive games in the mid-fifties. Edina claimed an unprecedented three straight championships and forged a record 69-game winning streak in the mid-sixties. And undefeated Sherburn, population 1,212, only slightly larger than was Edgerton in 1960, was the final champion in the one-division format.

Yet, the Flying Dutchmen's story remains the MSHSL's classic tournament tale. To appreciate the magnitude of the Edgerton legend is to understand the history of Minnesota's one-class system from 1913 through 1970, an era when small-town teams won the state's collective heart, but teams from Minneapolis, St. Paul, the suburban Twin Cities, or larger out-state schools won the title. In the era's 58 state tournaments, only 21 champions represented schools from towns with a population of less than 10,000 while only eight champions emerged from communities with populations of 2,000 or less. Edgerton, population 1,019, was not only the smallest town to prevail in one-divisional competition, it was the lone hamlet in which the public school shared the town's talent pool with another school. In fact, Edgerton Public - among the smaller Tri-County Conference, District 8, and Region 2 schools - had fewer students than Southwest Christian, a Dutch reform school just down the block.

Enhancing the Edgerton legend was the relative ease in which the Flying Dutchmen swept through the 1959-60 season. They won all but three games by double-digit margins, the closest decision a three-point overtime victory over pre-tourney favorite Richfield in the state semifinals. In their nine-game post-season run, eight against schools from larger towns, they won by an average of 15 points, the most decisive a 29-point romp over two-time defending Region 2 champion Mankato, population 23,797. Edgerton, coming off its dramatic semifinal victory over Richfield, didn't miss a beat the next night in the championship game against Austin, population 27,908, seeking the school's second basketball title in three seasons and its fourth in 21 attempts. The Flying Dutchmen, accustomed to playing in front of hundreds, defeated Austin 72-61 before a record 19,018 in cavernous Williams Arena.

Despite an undefeated record entering the state tournament, the Flying Dutchmen's frail physical presence and rag-tag attire prompted an amused response and possibly a trace of pity before their opener against Chisholm. They were a scrawny group of teens dressed in waifish attire, frayed and faded uniforms, saggy socks, and worn sneakers. But though lacking a championship look, Coach Rich Olson's charges quickly claimed the respect of their opponents and the fans with their poise, discipline and unselfish play.

Offensively, the Flying Dutchmen were led by 6-foot-5 center Dean Veenhof, but opponents couldn't ignore 6-foot-3 Dean Verdoes from the baseline and 5-foot-8 guard Darrell Kreun from the outside. They were unflappable against the press, guilty of scant turnovers, and to a man they were nearly flawless from the free-throw line. They played kinetic defense, despite a lack of depth. Man-to-man was Olson's defense of choice, but the players quickly responded to a teammate in need of assistance.

The Flying Dutchmen possessed no ego, only a collective pride and a love for the game. Each had a role and played it with precision. Veenhof was the marquee player, the media favorite who earned all-state status his final two seasons, but the school's all-time scoring leader is the first to emphasize the 1960 championship was strictly a team effort. Verdoes was recognized as the floor leader, baseline threat and the go-to man against pressure defense. Kreun was a brilliant outside shooter who most agree would have been greater with the three-point arc, but he frequently forfeited scoring opportunities to get the ball inside. Veenhof and Verdoes were the heart of the Edgerton defense, but the pesky Graphenteen was the soul. Wiarda was neither an offensive or defensive force, but deftly played a support role at both ends, earning him Olson's designation as the "unsung hero."

Daryl Stevens spent much of the championship season as Edgerton's seventh man, but enthusiastically embraced his playing time and when an injury sidelined Jim Roos near tournament time, Stevens stepped up and provided stellar reserve support. "You watch them standing on the floor and they don't look like much," Mountain Lake coach and former Gopher player Mack Nettleton told Minneapolis Tribune sports columnist Sid Hartman after Edgerton defeated the Lakers in the Region 2 final. "Once they start playing, they operate like they have been playing in the barnyard since they were able to handle the ball."

In reality, Verdoes, Veenhof, Kreun, and Graphenteen (Veenhof and Kreun are cousins) had been playing together since their grade-school days, playing outside in spring, summer, and fall and claiming whatever gym time they could in the winter. Wiarda, a farm boy, joined the group along the way as did Stevens a little later. Verdoes, Veenhof, Kreun, Wiarda, and Stevens played varsity ball in the 1958-59 season, while Graphenteen - less than 5-foot-two as a sophomore, led the "B" team. Ken Kielty coached the Flying Dutchmen varsity for three seasons, his 1959 team losing a heartbreaker in the District 8 final, but he left for Minneapolis after a salary dispute and E.H.S. superintendent Bill Fure launched a hasty search.

Fure interviewed Rich Olson in a bowling alley where Olson worked part-time while attending graduate school at the University of Minnesota. Olson, coveting a chance to coach at the college level, finally signed on with Edgerton where he guided the community's recreation program while waiting for school to start. Olson's first coaching assignment might have been different, but this was an innocent, uncomplicated period and he inherited a group of young athletes who had a passion for basketball, readily accepted authority, and instantly bought into his program. Olson, a long-time gym rat, had a profound understanding of the game - Dean Verdoes saying that he was 20 years ahead of his time -- and had the unique ability to balance a relationship of friend and coach to the team.

Blessed with the skills and conditioning from his all-conference days at Macalester, he was a pick-up basketball pal with his players that summer, but commanded their respect as a taskmaster when the season began. When all was said and won, the Flying Dutchmen waxed delight, but while a celebratory spirit raged in the locker room, one player, Daryl Stevens, left his teammates and made his way to the highest level in Williams Arena.

Once Stevens reached the summit, he sat down and gazed at the dimly-lit hardwood floor below, warmed by thoughts of the victory but saddened that the triumphant journey had come to an end. What Stevens didn't understand was that while every season has an end, the special seasons are carried from generation to generation. And in the case of Edgerton, the championship season was more than special - it was a legendary event, worthy of a book, even a movie. The 1952 Milan team that won the Indiana state title and inspired the hit movie, "Hoosiers," had nothing on the 1960 Flying Dutchmen. "Edgerton: A Basketball Legend" offers a comprehensive account of that season, enhanced by an overview of basketball history in southwest Minnesota and the state.