Did BU ever really have a played named Robert McGuire?

[capecod]

Chet Walker wrote about a Bradley BB player named Robert McGuire in his autobiography 'Long Time Coming'

from the book:

" When I (Chet) was a junior at Bradley, we had a guy come in from Washington DC, with a real rep preceding him. At 6'4, he was a forward who had been all city, and Osborn gave him a scholarship on the basis of press clippings and reports. The fact was that in practice this kid, Robert McGuire, just didn't seem that good. He was slow off the ball......He was so personable in fact that, while still a freshman, he had his own radio program...But on the court-nothing. He vexed us all."

Chet concluded by stating that Robert McGuire was a con-man who left town...'leaving big bills at local stores and no trail.....Bradley was plenty embarrassed to find out that its zeal to sign a top recruit it had really been taken."


The thing is that I have the roster of BU frosh from Walker's junior year-I even have the program of the Varsity-Frosh game. No McGuire. No one from Washington DC either

There is no 'McGuire' on any frosh team during the years Chet Walker attended Bradley- or a player from Washington DC

Did Walker just change the name of this 'imposter' in his book(and his hometown too)?

Did this player really exist?(note there were only a few players from out of State in those day-most of them well know like Floridians Lavern Tart and Joe Strawder(both frosh when Chet was a junior)

Maybe McGuire's stay was so short that he had left before the season started(and the Media Guide and game program, sans McGuire, had been printed)...still, according to Walker, this McGuire was around long enough to get his own radio show on campus......

Or did Chet make up the story for the book?

Just wondering if anyone knows the real story....

[Da Coach]

The Bradley database does not show any previous Bradley player with that name.
The database only includes players who played on the varsity team.

However, I have every old media guide from that era, and like you say, they list the freshman players as well, and no freshman team during Chet's time at Bradley shows anyone named McGuire. There is also nobody from Washington D.C., or anyone who comes close to Chet's description.

Yes, it's possible he could have shown up on campus, practiced with the team, then left before the basketball season got started, and before the media guide was put together, but I suspect it is all fiction. But if anyone knows anything more about this mysterious Robert McGuire, let us know.

[tornado]

in many books, names are changed to avoid lawsuits...perhaps that what was done here...

For example - How many know this...of all the names of all the people from her family members to Mr. Edwards to their townspeople - Laura Ingalls Wilder used the real names of everyone she knew when writing all her books (The Little House on the Prairie series)

...except - she knew that one character would end up being reviled by readers so she made up the name Nellie Oleson
But - there really was a character that Oleson was based on - just that the name was changed to avoid lawsuits..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Oleson