Out of the past 3/15/11

25 years ago: March 15, 1986

Playing before 2,500 frenzied fans in jammed Houck Field House, the Southeast Missouri State Indians handily down the California State-Hayward Pioneers 85-69, vaulting the Tribe into the Division II Final Four next weekend in Springfield, Mass.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The Notre Dame Bulldogs take advantage of their bench depth by overcoming a one-point halftime deficit to beat the Nixa Eagles 66-47, to claim their first state basketball championship.

50 years ago: March 15, 1961

Giving a modern touch to the ancient version of the Olympic torchbearers, 15 State College students start out to dribble a basketball all the way to Evansville, Ind., the site of the national basketball tournament in which the college team will compete.

R.B. Potashnick Construction Co. and D.L. Harrison Co. have been awarded the contract for construction of Interstate 55 through Cape Girardeau County, opening the way for the start of work within 30 to 60 days.

75 years ago: March 15, 1936

Two leaders among Southern Baptists speak at First Baptist Church at special services; William Hall Preston of Nashville, Tenn., who is associate secretary for the Baptist Student Union of the Southern Baptist denomination, speaks at the morning service, while the Rev. George A. Bowdler, a returning missionary from the Argentine Republic, speaks in the evening.

The Fruitland High School team took first honors yesterday in the annual debate tournament of the Ozark High School League, held at State College; the Fruitland team -- composed of Maxine Hansel, Drucille Davenport, and Robert and Glen Schreiner, brothers -- defeated teams from Delta, Oak Ridge, Randles, Perryville, Mo., and Advance, Mo.

100 years ago: March 15, 1911

William W. Summers, one of the oldest residents of Cape Girardeau, died last evening at the home of his son, Emmett, here; Summers was born April 19, 1829, on the old Summers farm two miles north of Jackson; he lived his entire life in this county, raising a large family of four sons and two daughters.

Carpenters are wrecking the old building on the west side of the public square in Jackson, owned by Bern Gockel Jr.; he plans to put up a modern building in its place; Vogelsang Bros. of Cape Girardeau has the contract.

-- Sharon K. Sanders