Pictured:  Bruce Timmer and his wife Anne

By Mike Drooger –

If ever you have spent any time in Edgerton, it’s likely you’ve realized it’s a pretty neat place. Not quite perfect but still pretty neat. Some people that move away from Edgerton leave a part of their heart the fair city and have forever-fond memories of the little Dutch community in southwestern Minnesota. Such is the case for Ron Talsma who left Edgerton for California years ago, but remains one of Edgerton’s biggest supporters and promoters.

As Ron read the Edgerton Enterprise and the stories about past great sports accomplishments by Edgerton Public and Southwest Christian, it triggered in him a memory of a 52-point scoring performance in a high school basketball game in 1960. Ron called the Enterprise office with the idea a story could be written about sophomore sensation Bruce Timmer from Southwestern (as it was called then) who erupted for 52 points vs. Dakota Christian of New Holland, South Dakota.
Timmer, 6-foot guard, had moved to Edgerton in 1954 when his stepdad accepted the call to pastor the First Christian Reformed Church. Timmer’s mom Ada married Gareth Kok and the size of the household immediately doubled. You’ve heard of the Brady Bunch.

Well the Kok/Timmer bunch outdid Mike and Carol Brady by four children. The Brady family suddenly had six children under one roof, but the Gareth and Ada Kok house had 10 children—five from each side—calling the First CRC parsonage home. Bruce was the 8th of the ten children.

As mentioned earlier, Timmer was a sophomore during the 1959-’60 season when he scored 52 of his team’s 118 points against Dakota Christian. His 52 points was five more than the South Dakota school’s total. Lost in the excitement of the scoring outburst was the fact Timmer also had 26 of his team’s 64 rebounds, which is phenomenal considering he manned a guard position. He made 22 field goals and eight free throws in the game.

Norman Prins was also a sophomore that year. “It was unusual for sophomores to start back then,” Prins said from his home in Bloomington, Minnesota, “and we had three!” Timmer, Prins, and Leon “Todd” Fey were the trio of tenth graders that started for coach Bernie De Wit’s Eagles. The other two starters were senior Dave Schelhaas and junior Ken Vos.

“There was a lot of basketball talent in Edgerton then as you know the public school went on to win the state championship that year. Had our family not moved, I think Southwestern would have had some awesome basketball teams the next couple of years
with those three sophomores, plus my younger brother Doug joining us for our junior and senior years!” Timmer relayed via email.

For the complete article, please see the May 6th edition of the Edgerton Enterprise. If you do not currently subscribe to the Enterprise, CLICK HERE for information on how to subscribe. You can also see our online edition for FREE during the COVID crisis by CLICKING HERE.