For the sports-minded, the most interesting extracurricular activity begun in the 1921-1922 school year with the organization of the first basketball team by Fremont Wirth, who aside from Manfred Deputy was the only male member of a faculty of 15. One the eve of the school’s first game on December 16, 1921, the Bemidji Pioneer wrote that Coach Wirth “had developed a formidable squad and indications are that the school will stand on its own against any school in this section of the state.” Bemidji won the game 51-11 over Kelliher High School, because according to the Pioneer the next day, “they had the advantage of weight and previous basketball experience.”

Bemidji played 18 games that first season, mostly against area high schools. However, they traveled as far as St. Cloud for a game against the teachers college, and to the Iron Range where they played Hibbing and Virginia junior colleges. Home games were played in the armory, a distance of about a mile from the school, and the slate included as one opponent the Bemidji Naval Militia.