Another SI article on BU BB-Joe Stowell's first season

[capecod]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1078090/index.htm

The link above is to an Sports Illustrated article 'The Hex Wrecks 'em in Peoria'

It is a mid-season piece on the 1965-66 Braves.

The Braves started 10-0 and were ranked #3 in the country at one point. This article was written a few games after this wonderful start to the season.

Since the article only goes through mid-season I thought I'd fill in the rest of that season below (for those interested in such things)

Chuck Orsborn moved up to AD and Freshmen Coach Joe Stowell replaced him for the 1965-66 BU season.

All five starters returned for the Braves-and all 5 had averaged in double figures for that NIT 18-9 NIT team:
Ernie Thompson(16.5), Eddie Jackson (17.6) Ron Martin (11.9) Alex McNutt (11.8 ) and Tom Campbell (13.1).

The Braves were just two years removed from an NIT Championship team and 4 members of Stowell's first squad remained from the NIT Champs team.

There were also 3 new players of promise up from the 14-1 Freshmen team (Frosh weren't eligible for the varsity until 1972)- Joe Allen 6-6, Parade AA Willie Betts 6-5 and guard Bob Swigris (from Spalding).

New head coach Joe Stowell had recruited everyone of the players listed above.

As mentioned the Braves streaked out of the gate to a 10-0 record and the #3 ranking in the polls. During that 10 game streak the Braves beat Creighton and Oklahoma on the road and very good Murray St., Butler teams and well as arch-rival St. Louis at home.

The 10th victory came against Div. II powerhouse North Dakota (who would go to the Div II final 4 for a second straight year that season) and their 6'9 'Little All American' forward Phil 'Wiley' Jackson(later of Bulls and Lakers coaching fame).

Game #11 was on New Years Eve night in Chicago vs Indiana. The Hoosiers were having an unusual poor year coming into the game at 3-4 (albeit they had just beaten Notre Dame).

I remember listening to a very unhappy Mort Cantor complain on the radio about the foul language coming from the Indiana bench as the Hoosiers ran away from the Braves in an upset 104-87 (Mort was a sore loser-me too).

The Braves won there next three, including a road win over Drake 64-52(this is where the SI article above leaves off).

Actually the Braves won 4 in a row since they beat the Polish Olympic team next (but the game didn't count and the BU Media Guides don't even include it anymore).

Then something strange happened. Five days after BU had beaten Drake on the road, the 13-1 Braves lost in a stunner 66-75 to the same Drake team at home.

Now 13-2, next up was Louisville at home vs already heralded soph center Wes Unseld. It would be the first of 6 meetings between Unseld and BU's Joe Allen. Allen got the best of Wes in this one 79-62. Record 14-2.

Next was the big road contest against #10 Cincinnati. The Braves lost 69-85.

Now 14-3, the Braves traveled to Louisville for the rematch with Unseld. Wes had a great game and the Cardinals won easily.

Around this time Parade AA Willie Betts flunked out of school.

The first 2 game losing streak wasn't a good thing with the Bearcats at Home up next. But Bradley pulled it out(as they always seem to do against the powerful Bearcats in Peoria) 67-56

Next the 15-4 Braves went on their traditional (and dreaded) 'Southern' swing vs N. Texas St, Tulsa and Wichita St. Bradley only beat NTS, losing on the road to both Wichita and Tulsa. 16-6

The Braves won the final 4 games of the season: beating Notre Dame in Chicago, NTS and Tulsa at home and then in a surprise-beating St. Louis at Kiel(that didn't happen too often).

Bradley finished 20-6, 9-5 for 2nd (as usual) in the Valley(tied w/ Wichita).

The Braves were invited to the NIT....BU Administration turned it down. Wichita and Louisville(who finished a game behind Bradley) went to the NIT instead.

If anyone is still reading this far down the page-who remembers why BU didn't go to the NIT?

Cincinnati won the Valley and was eliminated in the NCAA by eventual Champ UTEP.

POSTSCRIPT: Jackson, Martin and Thompson graduated after this season.Both Campbell and McNutt left school (albeit Campbell came back a few years later). Betts played the next season at Pasadena CC. Up from the Frosh team the next season came Al Smith and BU's second Parade AA LC Bowen + Cal Criddle from California.

[Da Coach]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...8090/index.htm
The link above is to an Sports Illustrated article 'The Hex Wrecks 'em in Peoria'

It is a mid-season piece on the 1965-66 Braves....

The Braves were invited to the NIT....BU Administration turned it down. Wichita and Louisville(who finished a game behind Bradley) went to the NIT instead.

If anyone is still reading this far down the page-who remembers why BU didn't go to the NIT?

This was a little before my time on the BU campus, so I can't answer this mystery. I checked the next season's media guide- 1966-67 (the media guides through the 1960's were little more than small pamphlets with very little information in them) and there is not even a mention of the previous season.
I can't find any other source that explains why Bradley didn't choose to play in the NIT that season. They had played in the NIT the previous 2 years, and 7 out of the previous 9 years, winning the NIT in 1957, 1960, and 1964.
Does anyone else know?

I intend to ask a friend who was a student at Bradley then and was working for the BU athletic department. He might know.

[capecod]

This was a little before my time on the BU campus, so I can't answer this mystery. I checked the next season's media guide- 1966-67 (the media guides through the 1960's were little more than small pamphlets with very little information in them) and there is not even a mention of the previous season.
I can't find any other source that explains why Bradley didn't choose to play in the NIT that season. They had played in the NIT the previous 2 years, and 7 out of the previous 9 years, winning the NIT in 1957, 1960, and 1964.
Does anyone else know?

I intend to ask a friend who was a student at Bradley then and was working for the BU athletic department. He might know.

Sorry, I really didn't mean to leave anyone who read this hanging-but I'm hesitant to relay the following on the chance that I got this story wrong.

Here is the story as I know it
.
First a disclaimer: this is from my memory and I was 12 years old at the time. So please check with BU grads from that era for confirmation or different versions of what happened.

Joe Allen had been arrested related to a girlfriend who convinced a lawyer to trump up some charge against him. Allen got out of jail and the issue was quickly forgotten. But Bradley chose not to play in the NIT because of it.

Well, that's the story as I remember it.
Another disclaimer-their are many versions of why another BU great Joe Strawder was kicked out of Bradley a few years earlier(one version is in Chet Walker's book-one I'd never heard before). Hence there maybe many versions of the above story too.

All I know is that the late Joe Allen was a wonderful person and in no way should anyone think this 'story' changed the character of the man.

[Da Coach]

I just heard a similar story from someone who was with the 1965-66 team. It was related to the issue with Joe Allen, and Bradley felt they did not want the publicity that playing in the NIT would have brought. Bradley had a great team and would have been the favorite to win the NIT.

[64NIT]

Joe Allen had been arrested related to a girlfriend who convinced a lawyer to trump up some charge against him. Allen got out of jail and the issue was quickly forgotten. But Bradley chose not to play in the NIT because of it.

I was also about 12 y/o at the time, so my memory of the incident may be a little blurred, but, I seem to remember JA being arrested for not paying child support for twins he allegedly had with a girlfriend. I believe he was cleared but BU turned down the NIT invite so as not to draw attention to the incident.

I remember the 10-0 start and listening to the IU/BU game on New Year's Eve. I think JA scored all of about six points because the Hoosiers had scouted him well.

[capecod]

Wichita vs Bradley

The only mystery of the above linked SI article was the description of Bradley's victory over Wichita St.

Wichita St had won the Valley the previous season and made it all the way to the NCAA Final 4 (where NCAA Champ UCLA beat them).

From the SI article:

"Wichita is the defending league champ but Bradley picked the team apart like a zoologist dissecting a frog'

The article goes on to state that Coach Stowell started to substitute when the lead reached 19 points...and

"The 91-65 final score did not truly indicate the measure of Bradley's superiority."

The mystery: the actual final score was BU 91 WSU 86.

Although it probably was just a typo in the article-I wonder if the writer actually witnessed the game.......

[johncooper44691]

I was a freshman at Bradley during the '65-'66 season. The story that I heard about why the Board of Trustees voted to turn down the NIT bid also had to do with Joe Allen. Either child support or alimony.

But it didn't end there. When word spread that the team wasn't going, someone created a stuffed dummy, hung a "Board of Trustees" sign on it, and burned it in effigy in the quad. There was a huge crowd, and we began marching downtown in protest.

The Journal-Star had a big photo of the event in the next day's paper. I believe it was on the front page. I'm right there in it, front row, among what were probably hundreds of upset students. The team was robbed, they deserved the chance to play.

That was a heck of a team, and certainly would have been one of the favorites to win the NIT. Campbell, McNutt, Jackson, Thompson, Allen. Plus a decent bench. Terrific freshmen team, too, let by Bowen, Criddle, and Smith.