In 1987 it was announced that Ev Cochrane, Milford Twp Coach for three school years from the fall of 1953 through the spring of 1956, had been inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Hall of Fame
.Paraphrasing from an article of the time-- Ev Cochrane is one of those individuals who could probably qualify for the Hall of Fame either as a coach or player. He was an outstanding all-around athlete at Des Moines Tech; his senior year he was selected on the first All State Football Team the fall of 1946 and the first All State Basketball Team in the spring of 1947.
Ev Cochrane began his collegiate career at Drake University. Freshmen were eligible for varsity competition at that time and Ev played both football and basketball for the Bulldogs of Drake. After transferring to the University of Iowa, Ev played three years of varsity basketball, including participation on a 19-3 club his senior season as an Iowa letterman.
Ev's coaching career began at Milford Township in the fall of 1953 and, as would be expected for that time, he guided all the athletic programs, both Jr and Sr High boys and girls in his three years at the school. The girls, who had posted very few wins the previous five seasons, became league title contenders and finished third in the county tournament and second in the sectional tournament in 1954. In his three years his boys squads posted a 58-14 (most of the loses to neighboring and highly ranked Roland). The 1956 boys won the Story County Basketball Tournament by defeating the hot state contender Roland Rockets.
Ev Cochrane went to Marshalltown to coach starting in the fall of 1956. Marshalltown knew a good coach when they saw one. Ev had arranged a post season scrimmage game with the State Champs, the Marshalltown Bobcats, and our Milford Twp lads were reputed to have beaten them after Marshalltown had just won the 1956 State Tournament and Milford Bulldogs had just won the Story County Crown.
During the seven seasons for the Bobcats, his teams were 134-32 with four Central Iowa Conference titles and two State Championships 1960 & 1961. Mr Cochrane's ten year record of coaching at Iowa High Schools was 189-46 for a success rate of .804.
Ev left Marshalltown to coach at the collegiate level for three years at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Ill.
In 1982, Ev Cochrane was inducted into the Iowa AAU Hall of Fame at Marshalltown. In 1985 Ev was inducted into the Hall of Basketball Fame for the B'NAI B'RITH of Des Moines.
In 1968 he moved to Ames where he excelled in the insurance business and then entered real estate busi- ness and built 850 units of student housing near the ISU campus. Ev was a generous person, who with his family, wife Marge, son Evy and daughter Michelle, have donated substantially to the Hospice site in Ames and the Iowa Hall of Pride in Des Moines. Also page 210.
Footnote: The math in the article doesn't add up, he actually posted a 192-46 winning margin plus winning many pick up games. (That statistic does not include girls' athletic statistics. He only coached girls athletics at Milford 1953-1956 and he started girls softball there.)
The Basketball squads at Milford School sponsored a "box social" in Oct of 1940 with the intent of raising money for the purchase of some new uniforms made with red and white sateen and red knee-guards. No record of the evening's proceeds was found but the uniforms are on display on pages 138 and 139.
Ol' Milford farmer think "A day without sunshine probably called `night'"