Caterpillar Diesels-1951-52 AAU National Champs

[capecod]

for the few that like Historical basketball posts

from the '1953 Sport's Review Basketball' issue:

"Hail to the Champions"

'Last season the Caterpillar Diesels from Peoria embarked upon a four-point program that carried them to the National AAU title and the right to place five players on United States Olympic team."

by Fred J Tuerk

"We won't call the Caterpillar Tractor Co. basketball players professional politicians but as early as a year ago this month they were framing four planks in the their 1951-52 cage platform.

And, unlike many politicians, the Caterpillar Diesels made good by fulfilling three of the four promises, thereby pleasing the world-wide Caterpillar organization, the city of Peoria and nearby communities and, of course, themselves.

The Diesels, who will be known as the 'Cats' effective with the start of the 1952-53 season, established this philosophy a year ago and elected Coach Warren Womble as their official spokesman:

1. Win the National Industrial Basketball title
2. Win the Amateur Athletic Union Championship
3 Win a berth in the 1952 Olympic Games
4 Win the Olympic title

The Peoria club, one of 9 in the industrial league which is designed to provide wholesome entertainment for employees and the public by various companies, closed its books early in August with these findings:

1. Finished a poor fourth in the industrial loop with a record of 13 wins against 9 defeats.

2. Upset the perennial industrial league champs-the Phillips Oilers-to capture the AAU title in Denver

3. 'Cashed-in' on the Olympic playoffs by downing Phillips in the semi-finals and Kansas University in the finals.

4. Won the XV Olympiad in Helsinki as five Diesels combined efforts with seven Kansas University men and two Phillips representatives to brign the world's basketball championship to the United States.

By defeating the highly regarded Kansas club, headed by the fabulous Dr. FC 'Phog' Allen, the Caterpillar team rewarded its coach and spokesman with the top basketball assignment of the year-coaching the United States in the Olympics.

'There are no words to express how I feel' Womble said following the Caterpillar victory over Kansas in Madison Square Garden last April 1. 'This is the greatest thrill of my life. The kids were great, all of them,' he said, as he saw his dream come true.

And the slim two point two point margin, Caterpillar won the contest 62-60, came as a result of loafing on the part of one of the Diesels' fastest, most aggressive and headiest players.

He's Howie Williams, former Purdue U star who has played great ball for Caterpillar for the past two years. "Loafing with the score tied 60-60 with five seconds remaining' the writer asked?

'When Clyde Lovellette stole the ball in the final seconds and ran down for a layup' he said, 'I loafed under our own basket at a time I should have been racing down court. That left me in the open when Clyde missed and Ron Bontemps got the rebound. Guess I picked an opportune time to loaf.'

We had to agree. Bontemps flipped the ball to Williams who unleashed one of his deadly one-handers through the mesh for the winning bucket."

[capecod]

for the few that like Historical basketball posts

from the '1953 Sport's Review Basketball' issue:

"Hail to the Champions"

'Last season the Caterpillar Diesels from Peoria embarked upon a four-point program that carried them to the National AAU title and the right to place five players on United States Olympic team."

by Fred J Tuerk

"We won't call the Caterpillar Tractor Co. basketball players professional politicians but as early as a year ago this month they were framing four planks in the their 1951-52 cage platform.

And, unlike many politicians, the Caterpillar Diesels made good by fulfilling three of the four promises, thereby pleasing the world-wide Caterpillar organization, the city of Peoria and nearby communities and, of course, themselves.

The Diesels, who will be known as the 'Cats' effective with the start of the 1952-53 season, established this philosophy a year ago and elected Coach Warren Womble as their official spokesman:

1. Win the National Industrial Basketball title
2. Win the Amateur Athletic Union Championship
3 Win a berth in the 1952 Olympic Games
4 Win the Olympic title

The Peoria club, one of 9 in the industrial league which is designed to provide wholesome entertainment for employees and the public by various companies, closed its books early in August with these findings:

1. Finished a poor fourth in the industrial loop with a record of 13 wins against 9 defeats.

2. Upset the perennial industrial league champs-the Phillips Oilers-to capture the AAU title in Denver

3. 'Cashed-in' on the Olympic playoffs by downing Phillips in the semi-finals and Kansas University in the finals.

4. Won the XV Olympiad in Helsinki as five Diesels combined efforts with seven Kansas University men and two Phillips representatives to brign the world's basketball championship to the United States.

By defeating the highly regarded Kansas club, headed by the fabulous Dr. FC 'Phog' Allen, the Caterpillar team rewarded its coach and spokesman with the top basketball assignment of the year-coaching the United States in the Olympics.

'There are no words to express how I feel' Womble said following the Caterpillar victory over Kansas in Madison Square Garden last April 1. 'This is the greatest thrill of my life. The kids were great, all of them,' he said, as he saw his dream come true.

And the slim two point two point margin, Caterpillar won the contest 62-60, came as a result of loafing on the part of one of the Diesels' fastest, most aggressive and headiest players.

He's Howie Williams, former Purdue U star who has played great ball for Caterpillar for the past two years. "Loafing with the score tied 60-60 with five seconds remaining' the writer asked?

'When Clyde Lovellette stole the ball in the final seconds and ran down for a layup' he said, 'I loafed under our own basket at a time I should have been racing down court. That left me in the open when Clyde missed and Ron Bontemps got the rebound. Guess I picked an opportune time to loaf.'

We had to agree. Bontemps flipped the ball to Willaims who unleashed one of his deadly one-handers through the mesh for the winning bucket."

continuing

"It was the same Williams who, with a painfully injured back, came off the bench three nights previous to spark the Deisels second half attack against the Tinker Field All Stars to win the first Olympic playoff game

'It was Williams who hurt us,' Capt Jim Fleener, the All Stars coach said. 'He's tough by just being out there.'

The great competitor, who stands 6'1, added 15 more two nights later when the Diesels topped their nemesis-the Phillips Oilers-for the second time in nigh days, 64-50.

But, as Coach Woble stated, 'the kids where great, all of them.'

And Williams would be the first to 'second' that motion. Men like Botemps, former Beloit star, Dan Pippin, ex-Missouri great, Frank McCabe, Marquette product, March Freiberger, Oklahoma big man-they're the men who formed Caterpiller's first team and represented the Company in the Olympics. They're the men who sparked the Diesels to the title "Kings of US Basketball'.

And they, along with the seven Kansas bous and Bob Kurland and Wayne Glasgow of Phillips, swept through eight straight opponents on its triumphant Olympic march and established a scoring record (103-55) against Chile in the fifth game.

The collegiate group included Kansans Bob Kenny, Clyde Lovellette, Bill Linehard, Charlie Hoag, Bill Hougland, John Keller and Dean Kelley."

quite a bit more to the article but I'll stop

EDIT
although I decided to add this from later in the article:

" National, not to mention international champions are as rare in Peoria as deep freezes in Alaska. Probably the first, and last, national championship won by a Peoria athletic team of any kind was the National Catholic basketball crown captured more than 25 years ago by Spalding Institute, a local high school."

written a few years before Bradley began to win National Championships at the NIT


The CAT players in the Olympics:

Marcus Freiberger 6-11 Oklahoma
Frank McCabe 6-8 Marquette
Ron Bontemps 6-3 Beloit
Dan Pippin 6-2 Missouri
Howie Williams 6-1 Purdue

[tornado]

Ron Bontemps still lives in Morton - his family took 8 mm film of all this plus their trip to Helsinki, Finland for the 1952 Olympics - which was won by the USA - a team that was a mix of Caterpillar players & University of Kansas players (the winners of the AAU & NCAA Championships)
Ron gave his film to ESPN and much of it was included in a special they did during the Atlanta Olympics several years ago.

[tornado]

Yet another of the members of that 1952 Helsinki USA Olympic basketball team has passed away...
Bob Kurland...who starred at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) but they were a MVC team back when Kurland played.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/OSU_basketball_star_Bob_Kurland_dies/20130930_234_0_Former267669

Long time Peoria Bert Born who had a lengthy Caterpillar career just died a few months ago...

http://articles.kwch.com/2013-02-04/jayhawks_36748867

[Chico]

Howie Williams was my coach in the Caterpillar kids baseball league. Taught me how to play the infield.

[TNel]

Great memories. Used to ride our bicycles over from the East Bluff to watch the games ... FREE. Didn't even have to lock our bikes back then. As I recall, they played a lot of Sunday afternoon games.

[tornado]

Warren Womble the coach & engineer of the great Caterpillar Diesels & Cats has passed away

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/durantdemocrat/obituary.aspx?pid=174489913

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150326/SPORTS/150329335/11130/SPORTS

[Da Coach]

...

The collegiate group included Kansans Bob Kenny, Clyde Lovellette, Bill Linehard, Charlie Hoag, Bill Hougland, John Keller and Dean Kelley."

Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Clyde Lovellette, who played high school basketball in Indiana, and lead Kansas University to the 1952 NCAA Championship, then played on the incredibly successful 1952 Caterpillar Diesel team that won a the National Industrial Basketball title and the National AAU Championship, then he joined several Caterpillar teammates and former Kansas U. teammates on the US Olympic team and won the basketball Gold Medal in Helsinki, Finland in 1952, has passed away-

http://www.tribstar.com/news/basketball-great-clyde-lovellette-dies-at/article_b1d8c444-e676-11e5-ba07-efe8b46bf325.html

[tornado]

Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Clyde Lovellette... has passed away-..

one of the very first true superstar big men along with George Mikan ....
He went on to play in the NBA and was, again along with Mikan, one of the first automatic double-double machines...
His first 8-9 years in the NBA ('53-'62) he put up 22-24 points & 10-14 rebounds every night.
And to show his agility - Clyde also regularly nailed 82-83% from the FT line

[tornado]

Ron Bontemps still lives in Morton - his family took 8 mm film of all this plus their trip to Helsinki, Finland for the 1952 Olympics - which was won by the USA - a team that was a mix of Caterpillar players & University of Kansas players (the winners of the AAU & NCAA Championships)
Ron gave his film to ESPN and much of it was included in a special they did during the Atlanta Olympics several years ago.

Sadly, Olympic GOLD MEDAL winner Ron Bontemps of Morton passed away Saturday...

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pjstar/obituary.aspx?n=ronald-bontemps&pid=185381405

His son Kevin Bontemps played basketball for Morton HS and the Illini

and one thing that Ron Bontemps said once, was that for almost 50 years, Peoria was the Olympic Basketball GOLD MEDAL "center" of the United States...
...not necessarily the geographical center, but since much of the entire 1952 GOLD MEDAL team were all Caterpillar players and employees (so were the coaches but they did not receive medals), that Peoria (or the Peoria area) had more Olympic basketball gold medals than any other city in the US.