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Apologies in advance for posting this very old stuff and cluttering this board. I'll stop, I promise.
But I do have one more post in me. I'm afraid it's kind of long.
The Bradley basketball season of 1961-62 changed everything (in my opinion). The Braves were a power in college basketball up to that point.
Here's what actually happened (and my version what could have happened).
WHAT HAPPENED:
I mentioned in an earlier post that seven (7) freshmen flunked out at mid-year. That certainly was bad for the future but not the worst thing that happened to Bradley BB that year.
Bradley finished in a tie for the Missouri Valley Championship with defending National Champion Cincinnati-both at 10-2.
A one game playoff was held on a neutral site (Evansville, Ind) to determine who would go to the NCAA tourney from the MVC.
Cincinnati won 61-46 and went on to win their second straight National Championship over Ohio St (with Jerry Lucas, John Havilcek and Bobby Knight). They also beat UCLA in the semi-finals.
But Bradley had played the Cincy playoff game without center Joe Strawder who had been kicked out of school after game 20. BU was 17-3 at the time and in first place in the Valley.
Strawder had played in the first game against Cincy and scored 21 points in a BU OT win. The only Valley loss that the Braves through 20 games was a 1 point loss to Wichita St at Wichita.
The Braves had actually gone 16-1 after losing 2 of their first three games of the season. The Braves had lost the opening at Bowling Green when Strawder in his first varsity game had to go against Nate Thurmond (later an NBA all-star who was once traded straight up for Wilt Chamberlain). The 2nd loss was at Home to Butler (yes, Butler gave teams a hard time back then too).
After a 1-2 start, the Braves went on that 16-1 tear, defeating defending NC Cincy in the process with Strawder getting his bearings.
Without Strawder for the final six games of the regular season, the Braves lost the rematch with Cincy at Cincinnati, allowing the Bearcats to tie BU for the conference title.
The Braves also lost the regular season final at home to Duquesne, and then lost the playoff to Cincy and then ironically played Duquesne again in their first NIT game (and lost again). Ended the season with 3 straight losses and Chet Walker's career for that matter.
BU lost 2 or the first 3 and their last 3. That was 5 of their 7 loses. They had to play Cincinnati twice without Strawder after beating them the only time Strawder played.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN:
Of course I'm going to speculate what could have happened if Strawder hadn't been kicked out. But who's to say, maybe the Braves still lose both game to Cincy.
However, besides Strawder there were 2 other players missing from that BU team:
1 Tim Robinson should have been a junior on that team. Instead he was playing with the Harlem Globletrotters having also been kicked out of school. The BU media guide from the year before said the following about Robinson: "some visiting sportswriters who saw him in action last year said that he was the greatest frosh prospect in the country."
2. Mack Herndon had flunked out of school. Mack came back the next year and led the Braves in scoring with 22+pts per game. Herndon had scored 26 pts in the championship game of the NIT as soph and 20 in the first NIT game, and should have won the MVP of the tourney (according to BU fans of course) over Lenny Wilkens of Providence. BU beat Providence like a drum to win the Championship that year.
Give me Strawder AND Robinson and Herndon to go with Chet Walker and Tart etc. and the Braves would have more than matched up with Cincinnati (Houge at center, Bonham and Wilson at Forwards and Yates and Thacker at guards). National Champs? Maybe.
Yes, a pipedream. The next year the same stuff continued for the Braves. Strawder was still ineligible for the first semester. And though Herndon came back and played all year, when Strawder became eligible LaVern Tart flunked off the team. Not to mention the very good frosh players from the year before who would have been Sophs that next season but weren't around.
Despite all this, Bradley would go on to win the '64 NIT championship the next season behind Seniors Strawder and Tart (the only year they both played the whole season together).
But the Braves could have been better.
I wonder if BU just had an academic advisor back in those days to help the players (would have helped with some of the non-academic suspensions but.......
OK I'll stop (other than to say what my late father (Bradley grad and big fan) said at the time. Nobody else (certainly not Cincinnati) ever lost even one player to grades during that period. Bradley lost tons of players each year. Bradley played with integrity and by the rules, the kids had to make their grades (is it possible everyone else wasn't playing by those rules or was Bradley just snakebitten?.........oh well
EDIT: By the way, what prompted this post was the ESPN list of 'the top 50 college basketball programs' that decided to start with the year 1962-63 (the year after all this happened-and totally disregard the great seasons prior to that) All ancient history, I know. So I thought it was worth remembering........
So nobody remembers BU Van Ray Salter 6'8 frosh Center in 61-62 from Orlando, Fla ??
But I do have one more post in me. I'm afraid it's kind of long.
The Bradley basketball season of 1961-62 changed everything (in my opinion). The Braves were a power in college basketball up to that point.
Here's what actually happened (and my version what could have happened).
WHAT HAPPENED:
I mentioned in an earlier post that seven (7) freshmen flunked out at mid-year. That certainly was bad for the future but not the worst thing that happened to Bradley BB that year.
Bradley finished in a tie for the Missouri Valley Championship with defending National Champion Cincinnati-both at 10-2.
A one game playoff was held on a neutral site (Evansville, Ind) to determine who would go to the NCAA tourney from the MVC.
Cincinnati won 61-46 and went on to win their second straight National Championship over Ohio St (with Jerry Lucas, John Havilcek and Bobby Knight). They also beat UCLA in the semi-finals.
But Bradley had played the Cincy playoff game without center Joe Strawder who had been kicked out of school after game 20. BU was 17-3 at the time and in first place in the Valley.
Strawder had played in the first game against Cincy and scored 21 points in a BU OT win. The only Valley loss that the Braves through 20 games was a 1 point loss to Wichita St at Wichita.
The Braves had actually gone 16-1 after losing 2 of their first three games of the season. The Braves had lost the opening at Bowling Green when Strawder in his first varsity game had to go against Nate Thurmond (later an NBA all-star who was once traded straight up for Wilt Chamberlain). The 2nd loss was at Home to Butler (yes, Butler gave teams a hard time back then too).
After a 1-2 start, the Braves went on that 16-1 tear, defeating defending NC Cincy in the process with Strawder getting his bearings.
Without Strawder for the final six games of the regular season, the Braves lost the rematch with Cincy at Cincinnati, allowing the Bearcats to tie BU for the conference title.
The Braves also lost the regular season final at home to Duquesne, and then lost the playoff to Cincy and then ironically played Duquesne again in their first NIT game (and lost again). Ended the season with 3 straight losses and Chet Walker's career for that matter.
BU lost 2 or the first 3 and their last 3. That was 5 of their 7 loses. They had to play Cincinnati twice without Strawder after beating them the only time Strawder played.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN:
Of course I'm going to speculate what could have happened if Strawder hadn't been kicked out. But who's to say, maybe the Braves still lose both game to Cincy.
However, besides Strawder there were 2 other players missing from that BU team:
1 Tim Robinson should have been a junior on that team. Instead he was playing with the Harlem Globletrotters having also been kicked out of school. The BU media guide from the year before said the following about Robinson: "some visiting sportswriters who saw him in action last year said that he was the greatest frosh prospect in the country."
2. Mack Herndon had flunked out of school. Mack came back the next year and led the Braves in scoring with 22+pts per game. Herndon had scored 26 pts in the championship game of the NIT as soph and 20 in the first NIT game, and should have won the MVP of the tourney (according to BU fans of course) over Lenny Wilkens of Providence. BU beat Providence like a drum to win the Championship that year.
Give me Strawder AND Robinson and Herndon to go with Chet Walker and Tart etc. and the Braves would have more than matched up with Cincinnati (Houge at center, Bonham and Wilson at Forwards and Yates and Thacker at guards). National Champs? Maybe.
Yes, a pipedream. The next year the same stuff continued for the Braves. Strawder was still ineligible for the first semester. And though Herndon came back and played all year, when Strawder became eligible LaVern Tart flunked off the team. Not to mention the very good frosh players from the year before who would have been Sophs that next season but weren't around.
Despite all this, Bradley would go on to win the '64 NIT championship the next season behind Seniors Strawder and Tart (the only year they both played the whole season together).
But the Braves could have been better.
I wonder if BU just had an academic advisor back in those days to help the players (would have helped with some of the non-academic suspensions but.......
OK I'll stop (other than to say what my late father (Bradley grad and big fan) said at the time. Nobody else (certainly not Cincinnati) ever lost even one player to grades during that period. Bradley lost tons of players each year. Bradley played with integrity and by the rules, the kids had to make their grades (is it possible everyone else wasn't playing by those rules or was Bradley just snakebitten?.........oh well
EDIT: By the way, what prompted this post was the ESPN list of 'the top 50 college basketball programs' that decided to start with the year 1962-63 (the year after all this happened-and totally disregard the great seasons prior to that) All ancient history, I know. So I thought it was worth remembering........
So nobody remembers BU Van Ray Salter 6'8 frosh Center in 61-62 from Orlando, Fla ??
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