Judy (Schade) Wendel, a Panthers forward for the 1959 and 1960 Gladbrook High School girls basketball teams, pictured this past July 8 alongside Glen Neubauer, son of Coach Chuck Neubauer, with her team’s championship trophies and pictures in the Gladbrook City Center display case. PHOTO COURTESY OF JEANNE PAUSTIAN

GLADBROOK – The Gladbrook Museum was fortunate to receive recently a little bit of memorabilia that harkens back to the heydays of the Gladbrook school community.

On July 8, Glen and Carol Neubauer of Westminster, Colo. set up an appointment to meet Gladbrook Museum volunteer Jeanne Paustian at the museum. Glen is the son of former Gladbrook High School girls’ basketball coach, the late Chuck Neubauer who passed away in 2002. Coach Neubauer began coaching in Gladbrook during the 1958-59 school year, leading the Panthers to two State Tournament Championships in 1959 and 1960. Glen was just four years old when his family moved to Gladbrook.

During his visit, Glen donated to the museum his dad’s scrapbook of the 1959 and 1960 seasons along with his dad’s trophy, clippings, framed pictures of the team, and a mirror.

A starting forward for Coach Neubauer’s team was Judy (Schade) Wendel, who, along with Gladbrook Mayor Trudi Scott, also met the Neubauers at the museum on July 8. Judy has kept in touch with the Neubauers throughout the years.

Glen, himself a retired boys basketball coach hailing from Hamburg, Iowa, and his wife Carol were extremely impressed with the beautiful trophy case located on the upper floor of Gladbrook’s City Centre that displays the two huge championship trophies, the large team pictures, and the Iowa Hall of Fame trophy presented to Pat (Gethmann) Schade in 1970.

The Gladbrook gym floor, donated by the Buskohl family, pictured on July 8 at the Gladbrook City Center. PHOTO COURTESY OF JEANNE PAUSTIAN

Accompanying the Neubauers during their visit was Tom and Gina Blomberg. Tom is a retired girls’ basketball coach also from Hamburg. The group enjoyed looking at all the other sports trophies dating as far back as the 1920s. The visitors were happy to see that a large section of the Gladbrook School gym floor with the black panther jumping through the ‘G’ has also been preserved in the City Centre.

The group was amazed at all of the school related items in the museum. Paustian pointed out the two championship uniforms and of course, the Panther!

The Neubauers reminisced about the road to the first championship including the dethroning of two-time consecutive state champs, highly favored West Central of Maynard team, 72-60. They also recalled the 700 or more Gladbrook fans who fought through the snowstorm to reach Des Moines and ended up staying in Vets Auditorium all night. Coach Neubauer’s comments to the team and community at the Homecoming in Gladbrook’s gym were, “We wear the crown now, we are the queens. To be a queen you must have dignity, you must be humble. You know, like anything else, you can lose a crown, and your reign is just as successful as how you wear it. Wear your crown with dignity – be humble!”

Following the 1960 championship game, the headline in the Northern newspaper read, “Pantherettes Keep Crown” defeating Eldora 67-52. This team had a 45-game winning streak.

Coach Neubauer left Gladbrook in 1961 to coach at West Des Moines Valley and later at Harlan. He coached several teams that made the state tournament but never had another State Championship.

Pictured (l-r) Jeanne Paustian, Gina Blomberg, Carol Neubauer, Glen Neubauer, Judy Wendel, and Tom Blomberg. PHOTO COURTESY OF JEANNE PAUSTIAN

Glen and Judy both shed tears on July 8 as they remembered the outstanding coach who led the Pantherettes to two state titles thereby notching a ticket into both the Iowa Girls Basketball history books and the Gladbrook community’s hearts forever.