Russell, Hanson, 1975 Foxcroft Academy boys team welcomed into Maine Basketball Hall of Fame

BANGOR — Former Piscatauqis Community High School boys coach Jamie Russell, former Foxcroft Academy boys coach Arthur “Skip” Hanson, and his 1975 Class B champion Pony team are among the newest honorees in the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame.

The annual induction ceremony was held Sunday, Aug. 20 with 17 individuals, six “Legends of the Game”, and the two iconic teams welcomed into the Class of 2023.

In his 38th year of coaching both girls and boys, Russell has 422 wins at Piscataquis Community HS, Penobscot Valley High School, and Central High School. He is also a noted historian on the game of basketball in the state of Maine. He has authored two books that detailed every current school in the state’s year-by-year basketball history since the 1961 expansion from three to four classes, and most recently the expansion to a fifth division. 

A “Legend of the Game”, following a tremendous playing career at Aroostook State Teachers College, Hanson began his coaching career at Higgins Classical Institute in Charleston before returning to his alma mater — leading the Foxcroft Academy Ponies to an undefeated season in 1975 and capturing the Class B state title. Hanson’s teams won 107 games before he transitioned to administration, serving on multiple MPA Basketball Committees as an athletic director, principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent before retiring in 2011. 

In 1975 the Ponies brought the gold ball to Dover-Foxcroft during an undefeated season, finishing the year with a perfect 22-0 record. The team ran through the eastern region at the old Bangor Auditorium defeating Limestone, Van Buren, and Orono. A week later, in front of a packed house at the Augusta Civic Center, Foxcroft defeated Medomak Valley 56-53 for the school’s only Class B basketball championship.