Does anyone remember the days of Freshmen Basketball at BU?

[capecod]

Hello from Cape Cod
I am a longtime reader of this site-first time poster.

I am not sure whether this old trivia stuff will play well on this site, but here goes:

I was wondering if anyone remembers the days of Freshmen basketball teams at Bradley? The Braves played a schedule of freshmen basketball games through the '50s, '60s and early '70s. Looking through a pile of old Bradley Basketball Media Guides recently bought back memories of those teams.

The last season for freshmen basketball was the the '71-72 season(Mark Dohner and Tom Les were on that last team). The next season the NCAA declared freshmen eligible to play on the varsity-and Freshmen teams were no more.

The Braves had 4 undefeated frosh teams in the '50s and '60s by my count:
1956-57 15-0 coached by Joe Stowell and led by Dan Smith and Mike Owens;
1958-59 15-0 again coached by Stowell, led by Chet Walker
1963-64 15-0, Coach Stowell, led by Tom Campbell and Alex McNutt
1970-71 15-0 Coach Harris, led by Seymour Reed and Mike Harrell

I remember what was at the time quite the build up to the final game of the 70-71 frosh season. The BU frosh were 14-0 and playing in the fieldhouse against a fine frosh team from Notre Dame. The ND frosh had future AA John Shumate and two local products that the Braves tried to recruit: Gary Novak (LaSalle-Peru) and Ken Wolbeck (Peoria Spalding)
The ND frosh had already beaten frosh teams from Michigan, Michigan St and Illinois-all on the road. The Illini lost to ND 99-78. The Irish also beat Marquette (and frosh guard Marcus Washington who had not lost a game while winning the Illinois State Championship the year before).

The result: Bradley Frosh 105 Notre Dame Frosh 79.

Oh yes, the Braves also had a number of one loss frosh teams:
1952-53 19-1 coached by Chuck Osborn, Jerry Hansen, Lee Utt leading players
1955-56 14-1 Osborn,players- BJ Mason, Gene Morse, Billy Joe McDade
1964-65 14-1 Stowell, w/ Joe Allen and Willie Betts
1965-66 14-1 Stowell, w LC Bowen, Cal Criddle and Al Smith

But the team I remember the most (probably because of the disappointment) was the 61-62 frosh team. The Braves were on a roll recruiting wise, Osborn/Stowell had brought in Chet Walker, followed by Tim Robinson and Mack Herndon, followed by Joe Strawder and Lavern Tart in the previous 3 years. In 61-62 they brought in a fourth straight great class led by 6-8 Van Ray Salter (a carbon copy of Strawder-also from Fla just like Joe- Orlando, Fla), 6'7 John Moore of Sterling and Ed Moore 6'2 from Chicago Hts Bloom.

The team started off great with Salter scoring 21 in the first game and 22 vs S. Illinois,John Moore scored 26 vs the Centralia JC in what would be his last game in a Bradley uniform. What happened? They all flunked out (Salter, both Moore's and another guard from Chicago named Ray Banks, a 6'5 F from Minn. named Dean Veenhof along with 2 others. SEVEN in total. Only football QB Bob Caress (left handed QB) came back the next season and finished his Bradley career. This frosh team finished 12-3 led by Rich Donley's 17 pts per game.

I always wondered how good Bradley could have been with both Strawder and Van Ray Salter (and both Moore's), not to mention IF Tim Robinson hadn't left after his soph season in 60-61. Add Lavern Tart and Mack Herndon. That could have been a fairly good team with all those guys on the 62-63 varsity!

The Braves had some good teams in those days-but I can't help but think that they could have been even better......

[wily coyote]

Your post brings back alot of good memories. I started following the Braves in the 56-57 season.I had a 6th grade teacher who had just graduated and was a cheerleader. She asked Barney Cable to our season ending banquet. I had my picture taken next to him and I was standing on a chair and he was still taller then me. Still have that picture. Got my first season tickets in the 67 68 season. Didn't miss a Freshmen game as they were played prior to the Varsity games.We sure had some great teams and great talent back then. Hope we can look forward to those kind of years in our furture. Gonna be a tough job but I think Geno can get er done.

[tornado]

yup - I regularly attended the BU freshmen games when I was there -- how many recall that the team nickname for the frosh team was NOT the Bradley Braves....
it was the Bradley Papooses......LOL!
The era up to the mid-1950's saw freshmen eligible to play varsity but schools still had freshmen teams. From the mid-50's thru 1972 freshmen could NOT play on varsity - thus all those records for guys like Chet Walker, LC Bowen, & Joe Allen are for 3 years only - soph, junior, & senior.

[capecod]

46-47 BU frosh team

I should have added that the '46-47 Bradley frosh team was also undefeated at 29-0. Their leading scorer-Joe Stowell

I don't know much about that frosh team (before I was born and I don't have a BU BB media guide from that year-I don't think one exists).

I do know that freshmen were eligible for the varsity in 46-47 and that the best Bradley Freshman was Paul Unruh-who led the varsity in scoring that year (leaving Stowell to star on the frosh squad).

[tornado]

I should have added that the '46-47 Bradley frosh team was also undefeated at 29-0. Their leading scorer-Joe Stowell

I don't know much about that frosh team (before I was born and I don't have a BU BB media guide from that year-I don't think one exists).

I do know that freshmen were eligible for the varsity in 46-47 and that the best Bradley Freshman was Paul Unruh-who led the varsity in scoring that year (leaving Stowell to star on the frosh squad).

Joe played on that undefeated frosh team with Squeaky's brother Deno Melchiorre

[Braves4Life]

Thanks for posting these great historical memories capecod! I remember attending games in the early 70's as a kid and watching a few of those last games played. Weren't they referred to as the JV team, or was that something different that started after the freshman teams ended?

[capecod]

Good memory Braves4Life

The Junior Varsity games started the year after the freshmen games ended.

The JV teams only lasted a few years.

The big star of the 72-73 JV team was Greg Smith who averaged 25.8 pts playing in 5 JV games. He then moved on to the varsity.

Tom Les also played on the 72-73 JV after playing the year before on the very last Frosh team

The next year Larry Bentley averaged 17.7 for the JV team, while Wayne McClain averaged 10.2

EDIT: I should add that the difference between a freshmen team and a JV team was that in the latter, upperclassmen were allowed to play on the team.
In the years of Freshmen basketball the players were all in their freshman year.
The Bradley JV teams were made up mostly of frosh and sophs-but a few junior bench players also played JV.
Players like G Jim Caruthers a frosh in 72-73 went straight to the varsity, while others, like C/F Greg Smith, played JV ball before being 'promoted' to the varsity.

[doug shank's crossover]

Nostalgic post of the year! Bringing back some of the obscure names that were so special to me as a youth attending games at the fieldhouse. Remembering these names brings back some obscure memories of my own: does anyone remember Greg Smith's free throw shooting ritual? How about the coaches screaming at Mark Dohner to "SET THE POST, MARK!! (with echo around the sparsley populated Field House). How about Seymor Reed's bankshooting ability...the second best bank shooter in BU history IMO (behind Jimmy Carruthers). Ahhh the memories!

[Braves4Life]

Nostalgic post of the year! How about Seymor Reed's bankshooting ability...the second best bank shooter in BU history IMO (behind Jimmy Carruthers). Ahhh the memories!

Don't forget about Hassan Houston's bank shot.

[doug shank's crossover]

Don't forget about Hassan Houston's bank shot.

Ahhh...I forgot about Hassan.....also Sam Simmons comes to mind as having a masterful bank shot.

[capecod]

Ahhh...I forgot about Hassan.....also Sam Simmons comes to mind as having a masterful bank shot.

Bobby Joe Mason- hands down best bank shot that I ever saw (but I never saw the guys from the late 40s/early 50s play-a much more common shot back then).

Speaking of obscure names, I seem to remember Buford 'Booty' Heidenreich on the 62-63 team had a nice bank shot (that and a hook were his only two shots). Then again, maybe I just like to remember the name

Ron Patterson of the same era (started the NIT championship game in 64) had a nice bank shot that he taught to his players when he coached Peoria Spalding to a 2nd and 4th place finish in the State Tourney a few years later.

[tornado]

capecod - I bet you remember Cal Criddle who played during the era when dunking was not allowed, but since he shot so poorly, when he did attempt a shot, he leaped so high that his entire arms were over the rims, his eyes were at the rim, and he reached over and dropped the ball thru the hoop carefully avoiding any contact with the iron which would have been a technical.
His "soft dunks" were very entertaining....





BTW - Cal Criddle holds one unique spot in Bradley basketball history-
Cal owns the ONLY Triple Double in the history of Bradley basketball...
as a senior, on Feb. 28, 1970, he had 12 pts, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in an 82-74 win over Saint Louis in
the old Robinson Memorial Fieldhouse....

[doug shank's crossover]

[QUOTE=tornado;261599]capecod - I bet you remember Cal Criddle who played during the era when dunking was not allowed, but since he shot so poorly, when he did attempt a shot, he leaped so high that his entire arms were over the rims, his eyes were at the rim, and he reached over and dropped the ball thru the hoop carefully avoiding any contact with the iron which would have been a technical.
His "soft dunks" were very entertaining....


Who had the better vertical jump, Cal Criddle, Willie Betts or Robert Jenkins??

[capecod]

Cal Criddle

sure, tornado, I remember Cal Criddle-could leap out of the building (other than Willie Betts and Randy Crady(sp?) had the best 'hops' of any Brave player from that era)

But what I remember most about Cal Criddle was wondering how Bradley was able to recruit him all the way from famed McClymond High in Oakland, Cal.

Criddle was all-city 3 times and all-state twice at a school that also produced Bill Russell and a few fairly good baseball players: Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Curt Flood.

Criddle was a big name recruit but at 6'3 he had to play in the front court because not only couldn't he shoot from more than 5 feet away from the basket (as you point out) but he couldn't handle the ball either. Teammates passed him the ball and if he was close to the basket, he shot, otherwise he passed the ball back(he wasn't going to try to dribble).

EDIT: MORE TRIVIA-unless I'm missing someone more recent, Willie Betts and LC Bowen are the only two Bradley players that were Parade AAs in High School

[tornado]

Betts could have been possibly an NBA caliber player had he stayed on course with grades and out of trouble......but once out of school, he had a short workout for the failing Minnesota Pipers of the old ABA and then was gone....there were few recourses back then - no D-League & limited overseas options...



PS -- answer to twitter trivia question...about Bowling Great EARL ANTHONY...
All Time great HOF Bowler Earl Anthony - who passed away more than a decade ago -- who was as famous and legendary in bowling as Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig were in baseball.......
he married the secretary of the Sports Information Director in the Athletic Department at Bradley University...
PJ Star bowling writer Johnny Campos wrote about her a little while back...
in his article about Earl Anthony being voted the #1 bowler of all time...
"(Anthony) ..died in 2001 at the age of 63 .. had a couple of ties to Peoria.
He won two of his titles at Landmark Lanes.
His widow, the former Susie Shelley, is a Bradley graduate who worked in the
BU sports information department for the late Jim Dynan."

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x1589173985/CAMPOS-Picking-PBA-s-best-not-as-easy-as-1-2-3

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x1589173985/CAMPOS-Picking-PBA-s-best-not-as-easy-as-1-2-3?zc_p=1