No. 9-1A Ely at Chisholm
7:15 p.m., Friday, Feb. 21

Bob McDonald became the only Minnesota high school basketball coach with 1,000 career victories — and only 13th nationwide — when his Bluestreaks beat Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 61-55 on Dec. 26 in the opener of the Hibbing Holiday Tournament.

He started his coaching career in McGregor and Barnum before taking over in Chisholm in 1961 for his father, O.J. Belluzzo. McDonald has spent the past half century at the school, winning three state titles and forging the town’s claim as a true basketball hotbed on the otherwise hockey-crazed Iron Range.

Along the way, his six children: Mike (a 1975 Chisholm graduate), Paul (1976), Sue (1980), Tom (1982), Judy (1984) and Joel (1991) all earned All-State honors during their playing careers and all eventually went into coaching. Mike is currently the head boys’ coach at Cambridge-Isanti, Paul is at Vermillion Community College, the aforementioned Tom is at Ely and Joel is at Hibbing. Sue and Judy are both retired from coaching.

Not only is Bob McDonald’s final regular season game sure to be emotional, it could be a heck of a battle, as well.

Chisholm enters the final week with a 16-7 record, bringing McDonald’s career record to 1,010-427. The Bluestreaks are anchored by seniors Aaron Musburger, Mitch Rusten and Austin Campbell, a hard-working and hard-nosed trio that would fit in with any of McDonald’s teams over the past six decades. In fact, the whole team exudes that old-fashioned style by wearing knee-high, horizontal-striped athletic socks and shorts that don’t go past the knee.

Meanwhile, son Tom has his Ely squad toting a 23-1 record and a top-10 ranking in Class 1A. The Timberwolves are the favorites to get to the state tournament out of Section 7A behind their own senior-dominated lineup that includes high-scoring senior guard Matt Vanderbeek, playmaking senior guard Mark Heiman and post players Sean Jordan and Justin Poderzay.