St. Charles
Scenes from Holt at St. Charles, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, at St. Charles High School in St. Charles, Mo. / Michael Gulledge, Show-Me Hoops

St. Charles

The first thing you see walking into St. Charles for a basketball game is an old scoreboard hanging from the lobby ceiling.

The scoreboard commemorates the Pirates’ 1957 state championship win against North Kansas City in Class “L”.

On the back is the score from its 2015 state championship against Hillcrest.

The story of how the scoreboard ended up hung in the lobby today involves a mid-1990s fire at the school and a forward-thinking athletic director.

“When the renovations of ‘A’ building started in 1995, the ‘old’ gym was emptied,” said former athletic director Steve Jacob via current athletic director Ben Owens. “The scoreboard hanging in that gym was removed.”

That scoreboard was used during the 1957 championship. Jacob had it stored in the mid-floor of the press box.

While construction continued at the school, Jacob reached out to businessman Al Darting to fabricate the score on the scoreboard.

“Using his inventive ideas to keep the ‘look’ as authentic as possible, he designed the new face, fabricated it, and put it together,” Jacob said. “After the new gym was completed, I had the finished board placed in the hall outside the gym.”

Jacob left the backside blank in hopes of another championship, which came in 2015.

The gym holds 1,800 and opened with a pre-Thanksgiving rivalry game against St. Charles West on Nov. 26, 1997, according to a St. Charles Post story by Joe Lyons.

The Warriors topped the Pirates in girls basketball, 44-37, during the gym’s first game.

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