WESTBROOK – In the 1970s, Bill Folsom coached the Westbrook boys basketball team to state championships in 1972 and 1975, but his most famous team might be the one that didn’t win it all.

Folsom, who died on May 29 in North Fort Meyers, Fla. at the age of 83, was the coach of the Blazes’ 1969 team that lost the state championship thanks to “The Shot Heard ‘Round the State,” a 45-foot desperation heave by Caribou’s Mike Thurston that capped a late comeback for the Vikings, giving them a 65-63 victory on March 8, 1969 at the Mecca of Maine high school basketball, the Bangor Auditorium.

Folsom, a member of the Maine Sports Hall of Fame, coached Westbrook for 19 years, winning 273 games and two state championships between 1961 and 1980. He was the Westbrook athletic director from 1980 until he retired to Florida in 1987.

Don Douglas, who played for Folsom from 1967-1969, remembered Folsom as a coach that was always well prepared for a particular opponent, a remarkable trait in the days before extensive film and video scouting. “As a coach, he was marvelous in his preparation,” Douglas said. “(It was) based on his knowledge and instinct for the game.”

Douglas said he was always impressed with Folsom’s understanding of how the game was played and his ability to adjust to different situations as they arose. “He just knew the game so well,” Douglas said, adding that Folsom also knew when to allow his players the freedom to play their own game. “He had a system, but he was not a control freak.”

To this day, Douglas said he feels that Folsom’s Blazes should have won that 1969 championship and he still feels the loss when he sees the other state championship banners hanging in the Westbrook gym.

In a 2009 interview commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1969 team, Folsom recalled the circumstances that set up the wild final play.

Westbrook held an eight-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, but after a furious rally, Caribou tied the game on a three-point play with 10 seconds left. The Blazes had the ball with a chance to win.

“I knew they were going to press,” said Folsom. “We set up a press breaker and took it to the other end of the court in about four seconds.”

Douglas missed a shot on the Blazes’ end of the floor and the rebound bounced to the corner where Caribou’s Pete Curran snagged it and threw an outlet pass to Thurston, who was clapping for the ball with the final seconds ticking away. As soon as Thurston released the shot, the referee signaled that the shot was in the air before time expired. He didn’t consult with the clock operator before declaring the shot was good.

“I checked with the clock operator and he threw his hands in the air and said he didn’t know,” Folsom said. “Pandemonium took hold and the game was over.”

While the loss hurt at the time, the years have dulled the pain and Douglas remembers his coach as a man who cared about his team and took pride in their accomplishments, even if he didn’t always show it, adding that, to this day, he still watches games and looks for things that Folsom taught him. “He was a terrific role model,” he said. “He wasn’t a warm and fuzzy type, he kept a professional distance. But we all respected him because he let us play.”