Politics and basketball

​On February 5, 1909, the Nevada Legislature authorized the creation of Clark County. On July 1, 1909, the new county was organized and began officially functioning. At this time, there were two elementary schools, one junior high school and one high school in Las Vegas. However, there were also one elementary school and one high school in both Moapa Valley and in Virgin Valley. The new county officials were not happy sending education money from the state to the schools in the valleys.

​The Bunkerville Education District was the first school district within the boundaries of Clark County. The Mesquite School District was divided from the Bunkerville School District and along with the school district in Moapa Valley had been in operation years before there was a school in Las Vegas. The State of Nevada and Lincoln County officials had refused to help the valley schools financially. As a result, the valley schools were funded by the people of the valleys themselves.

​As disagreements between the valley schools and Clark County officials over school spending grew, the problem was exasperated by, of all things, basketball.

The Babcock Trophy 

​The residents of Las Vegas wanted to establish a competition among the high schools of Clark County. They had a trophy made from silver mined in Virginia City, Nevada and called it the Babcock Cup. It was given each year to the team who won the County competition. When one of these teams won it threetimes, they were given the trophy to display permanently at their school. There were three schools at that time, Las Vegas High School, Virgin High School and ​Moapa Valley High School.  The silver Babcock Cup would be given to the team in Clark County who won four of six games in a tournament in Las Vegas. 

Virgin High School won the county championship three times, in the years 1913, 1914, and 1915. They had the Babcock Cup to prove it. 

​In 1916, Virgin High School beat Las Vegas High School in the fourth game, 26 – 19. They were presented with the ownership of the trophy in a large banquet that evening in Las Vegas. It was determined by the Bunkerville team that they were going for the Nevada State Championship title. 

To accomplish this, they had to beat their home district and beat all the winning teams in all the other districts.

State Tournament 

​In order to accomplish this, the schools had to pay the expenses for their team to travel to the other leagues games in cities throughout the state. This financial problem was met in a rather unique fashion. Their school principal, A.L.Kelly, loaned the money for their travel.

​After winning the Clark County division, the Virgin High School team left the valley by wagon to the Moapa Railroad station and traveled to Las Vegas and then north to Fallon, Nevada on the narrow-gauge railroad.

​The Virgin High School did not have a gymnasium and basketball games were played outside on a dirt field. Fallon had a actual gymnasium with wood flooring and a low ceiling. The gymnasium floor was very slick but Virgin High School won the game by three points. They then traveled to Reno, where the games were to be played in the gymnasium of the University of Nevada. This huge gym seemed to set the Virgin High team on fire, and they defeated the Reno team quite easily and became Nevada State Champions! 

​The citizens of northern Nevada were quite upset by being defeated by this unknown team and they challenged the VHS basketball team to repeat games in their hometowns. To enhance this offer, they agreed to pay $50.00 for each game played against the VHS team. 

​The VHS team played several northern Nevada teams and defeated them again, earning enough money to repay Principal’s Kelly’s loan and their expenses to travel home. The residents of Virgin Valley met them on the road into the valley as the new Nevada Champions.

​But that’s not the end of the story. The Virgin High School and Moapa Valley High School were rivals. Dixie Highschool, in St. George, Utah was also a big rival of Virgin High School and upon VHS’s return as State Champions, the Dixie High School Basketball team challenged the VHS Bulldogs to a basketball game to be held in St. George, Utah.  VHS accepted and the entire valley went to St. George to watch this game.  The gymnasium in St. George was filled beyond capacity. The Dixie Coach had agreed to have the gym floor mopped to take the slickness off so we would have a chance to make a good game of it. Then one of our home team, Marion Earl, arranged to borrow some gym shoes with suction cup soles to help us on that wooden floor and our coach had us soak our shoes in gasoline for a long time so they would hold to the floor. Then he had the boys use resin on their hands and soles of our shoes. The first half of the game was hard fought, and VHS was leading at the end of play. The Dixie coach must have been just a little intimidated by the VHS team as he arranged to have the gym floor sanded with corn meal to make the floor slick at the beginning of the second half of play. The VHS coach called a time out. He had sent someone out of the gym to get more floor resin. He had the VHS team carry handfuls of resin onto the floor and scatter it as they played. The resin didn’t take the slickness away and both teams were sliding into each other. The people watching the game were standing and screaming for each team and the rafters vibrated with the noise and stomping. Then, after a hard-fought battle, the VHS Bulldogs won the game by four points.

​However, that’s still not the end of the story. The county officials and residents of Las Vegas were still upset that VHS had won not only the Babcock Trophy four years in a row but were also State Champions. They demanded that any money the county had pledged to the valley schools be left unpaid and no more money allowed for the valley schools. They demanded that the high schools in the Virgin Valley and Moapa Valley be closed and the students from those two valleys be sent to Las Vegas to attend school at the Las Vegas High School. The people of the valleys rejected this demand and under the direction of A.L. Kelly, Principal of Virgin High School, and Clark County Educational District # 1 was formed, and state monies had to be sent to this school district instead of being doled out by Las Vegas.

​A.L. Kelly continued to serve as principal of Virgin High School, while also serving as Superintendent of Clark County Educational District # 1.