Chalk on the Blackboard, Buffalo, ND
Greetings from the Historic 1916 Buffalo High School located at 303 Pearl Street in Buffalo, North Dakota, just three miles north of I-94 at exit 314. The school closed in 1978 and in 2001 became the property of the Buffalo Historical Society, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Properties. Our historic school is a viable and important part of our community once again.
March is an exciting time for basketball fans, especially in North Dakota. We are very proud of all the outstanding teams who made the journey through the tournaments, and we congratulate them on a job well done. The Buffalo School History book reveals many early accounts and stories about the popular sport of basketball in our area.
The 1911 BHS graduating class of only four women, Stella Miller, Mable Mohr, Florence Nachtsheim, and Edith Titus, had a memorable adventure as seniors on January 13, 1911. The following is a quote from their class history “When returning home from Tower City after the basketball game, some of the bunch became lost on the road and arrived home about 2 am after having traveled over many miles of ungraded and graded roads, through fields, over straw-stacks, and through pastures, in a buckboard built for four”.
During the next few years Buffalo High School had no basketball team, either boys or girls. In 1916 the addition of the large twostory brick high school to the 1902 Buffalo Public School provided an area for basketball in the large assembly room on the upper level. The Class of 1916 started a boys’ team with their first game against Erie on a cold winter night. The team drove to Erie in two open surreys, stayed all night at the small hotel and returned home after losing 60-10. The girls again organized their own team.
During the years of the great depression a gymnasium was added to the north side of the high school through the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) in 1936. It allowed Buffalo to host the first ND State
High School Girls’ Basketball Tournament for Consolidated Schools in 1938. In 1948 the Buffalo team qualified for the Girls’ State Tournament in Carrington, winning third place, but unfortunately by 1955 girls’ basketball had been dropped. The boys’ team continued strong and went on to play in the state tournament in 1959 in Jamestown. During the school year 1972-73, the boys’ basketball team tied for second in the conference while girls’ basketball was again becoming popular.
Buffalo High School closed in 1978 but boys’ and girls’ basketball continues an active schedule at Maple Valley School in Tower City much to the delight of the students and the fans. To learn more about the Historic 1916 Buffalo High School and its history, please call me at 701-4124485, like us on Facebook, or visit www.buffalond.com.