CHASSELL – The feats of the Chassell High School basketball teams of more than a half-century ago are legendary.

The accomplishments of those Panthers can be found all over Michigan high school sports record books.

There were the three straight Class D state championships won between 1956 and 1958. Their record of 65 straight victories by those teams still stands 60 years later, giving the current North Central High School juggernaut something to shoot for.

And there was the game-winning rally staged by the Panthers to notch their first state title.

Don Mattson, then a sophomore guard at CHS, was the catalyst of the amazing comeback in ’56.

He’s been a resident in west Ishpeming for more than four decades as three of his children starred in athletics at Westwood High School, including oldest son, Troy, the current head coach of the Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team.

Now 76 years old, Don Mattson still has a clear memory of what took place at Jenison Fieldhouse in East Lansing on March 24, 1956, just over 60 years ago.

“We had played a tough game the night before (versus Whittemore). Our two big guys, Tom Peters and Terry Pokela, had to defend an all-state player who was about 6-foot-8,” Mattson recalled. “They were excellent players, but they both stood around 6-2.”

Then awaiting the Ed Helakoski-coached Panthers in the championship game at Jenison Fieldhouse was a talented Portland St. Patrick squad.

St. Patrick was located only 30 miles away from the site of the game, about 500 miles closer than the trip for the Chassell faithful. By the time of the tipoff, the crowd of 12,000 was comprised mostly of Portland fans.

“It was really more of a home game for them,” Pokela recalled a few years ago. “To say it was a St. Patrick crowd would have been a huge understatement.”

After an even first quarter, Chassell began to gradually lose ground to the downstate team.

Peters and Pokela both fouled out early in the final quarter and the deficit grew to 68-53 with just 3:47 remaining.

John Pyykkonen, a senior forward that season, said Helakoski called a timeout and ordered his team into a full-court press.

“Coach (Helakoski) knew we might have to use it some day,” Pyykkonen said. “So we practiced it over and over in practice.”

Now, full-court presses were relatively new in 1956. Helakoski had practiced the strategy in scrimmages against a powerful Houghton High School squad. HHS had won a state Class C title in 1955 under coach John Gaffney.

“We played Houghton in several practice games,” Mattson said. “They (the Gremlins) were always good, but we never played a regular-season game against them. Neither coach would do it.”

Portland St. Patrick had trouble getting the ball past halfcourt the rest of the way as the Panthers scored 18 straight points to pull out an improbable 71-68 victory.

Mattson, who would total 1,726 points in his career, netted 12 of the points in the great comeback as he finished with a record 25 points.

Inspired by the comeback effort, Pokela said most of the crowd began rooting for Chassell.

“The whole scenario was amazing,” he said. “Just a few minutes before, Zeke (Peters) and I were sitting on the bench talking about the upcoming baseball season. Now, we were holding the state championship trophy.”

Three Upper Peninsula teams – Stephenson, Crystal Falls and Chassell – brought home state titles that long ago season. Trout Creek also won the Class E, which was contested only in the U.P.

The Panthers were even better the next season, sweeping all its games to another state crown. Mattson, a great outside shooter, averaged 21 points a game. Pokela and Peters were good for 17 an outing.

But with only Mattson returning to the starting lineup in the 1957-58 season, the Panthers were tested several times.

The win streak nearly ended early that season when archrival J.A. Doelle took a 62-60 lead with under five seconds left.

Reserve Bob Belhumer rescued the Panthers by sinking two free throws with virtually no time left on the clock to deadlock it.

CHS won the game in overtime by a 72-66 score – the only OT game in the long streak.

After a narrow 64-63 win over Baraga later in the season, Chassell broke the state record of 60 wins with a 45-43 win over Marenisco in the district finals.

The Copper Country team continued to win on the tourney trail, extending the record to 65 straight with a 66-61 triumph over Owosso St. Paul in the finals.

Mattson was one of the very first U.P. players chosen as a high All-American after the season. He played briefly at Northern Michigan University before deciding that “college wasn’t for me.”

The Michigan High School Athletic Association recognized the comeback and winning streak by Chassell in its Legends of the Game program a few years ago.

“It’s something you never forget,” said Pokela, who later played baseball at the University of Michigan. “Whenever I told someone I was from Chassell … they would always bring up the 1956 game.”

Both Helakoski, who died in 1969, and Mattson were later inducted into the U.P. Sports Hall of Fame.