Cowboy Junky
Well-known member
Bob Hammond - Laramie Daily-Boomerang
Before head coach Ev Shelton, All-Americas Kenny Sailors and Milo Komenich, and the University of Wyoming 1943 NCAA national championship basketball team, there was coach Willard “Dutch” Witte, All-Americas Les Witte and John Kimball, and the 1934 UW NCAA championship basketball team.
UW recognizes the 1943 team as an NCAA titlist but not the 1934 team.
There’s no specific reason for that denial, but the most plausible reason may be that the 1943 Cowboys won the NCAA Tournament title while the 1934 Cowboys had the honor bestowed on it two years after the fact.
The NCAA Tournament didn’t come into existence until 1939, thus becoming the organization’s official vehicle in determining the National Champion.
Three years prior to the NCAA Tournament (1936), the Helms Athletic Foundation was founded by Paul Helms and Bill Schroeder in Los Angeles.
That organization put together a panel of experts to select National Champion teams and make All-America team selections in a number if sports, including football and basketball. The panel retroactively ranked football teams dating back to 1893 and basketball teams back to 1901.
The panel selected Wyoming as the NCAA Champion in 1934. That year the Cowboys compiled an overall record of 26-4. UW was 18-0 against fellow collegiate teams and 8-4 against AAU and military teams.
AAU basketball was big at that time, and rosters were filled with former college All-Americas. There was even a national AAU Tournament, which featured the “best amateur basketball players in the world,” according to newspaper reports at that time.
In 1934, there were 162 teams playing college basketball, including 63 independents and 99 other schools who were affiliated with 12 different conferences.
Wyoming was the champion of the Mountain States Conferencee after capturing the Eastern Division title and then winning three straight games from Western Division champ BYU in the conference playoffs.
Other conference champions that year included Kansas (Big Eight), Purdue (Big Ten), Texas Tech (Border), Pittsburgh (Eastern Intercollegiate), Penn (Ivy League), New York University (Metropolitan New York), Butler (Missouri Valley), Washington (Pac-10), Alabama (Southeastern), South Carolina (Southern) and TCU (Southwest).
There were some who argued that Kansas, which was 16-1 that year, should have been named the NCAA champion in 1934. The Jayhawks were 16-1 that season, losing only to Nebraska (24-21). KU later beat Nebraska (25-24). Wyoming also beat Nebraska (33-24), but in Lincoln.
The Kansas argument for being named the national champ was that Wyoming had lost to Tulsa (29-19), a college team that went only 6-8 that year.
In reality, the Tulsa team UW lost to was the Tulsa Diamond X Oilers in the National AAU Tournament championship game in Kansas City. The AAU Tournament was held after the completion of the college season in mid-March. The Cowboys, who were not expected to fare well in the AAU Tournament, turned out to be the events :surprise” team.
Wyoming won five consecutive games, beating the likes of the Belen (N.M.) Merchants, the Wichita (Kan.) Wilcox Oilers and the Ogden (Utah) Boosters in early contests. They then got the best of the Wichita Gridley Pontiac Chieftans in the quarterfinals and the Hutchinson (Kan.) Reno Creamery Renos in the semifinals.
The national AAU title dream ended with the loss in the championship game with the Tulsa Diamond X Oilers.
According to the April 5, 1934, edition of the Laramie Republican-Boomerang, the Cowboys returned to Laramie following the AAU meet “looking wan and drawn from their week of exausting play, were greeted by thousands of local fans who staged a riotous demonstration in the city streets in a long parade.”
Wyoming’s other three losses in addition to the Tulsa Oilers that year came at the hands of regional AAU power the Piggly Wiggly Pigs of Denver. Two of the three losses to the Denver Pigs came a week after the National AAU Tournament in a pair of charity exhibition games in Casper by a combined total of eight points.
The Denver team featured such colorful AAU greats as “Jumping” Jack McCracken and Ernie “One-Grand” Schmidt.
In addition to Witte and Kimball, the 1934 UW roster also included starters Art Haman, Ed McGinty and Haskell Leuty as well as reserves Willard “Buzz” West, Jack Bugas, Stan Christensen, Lloyd Dowler and Ken Rugg.
In 1935, Witte, Kimball, Haman and McGinty all became members of the AAU Denver Athletic Club team.
The 1934 UW basketball team has fallen through the cracks and has yet to be inducted into the Wyoming Athletics Hall of Fame, but probably will be some time in the near future.
The school should also think about recognizing the 1934 team as being NCAA Champions, even if it is with an asterik.
That would be deserving of a UW team that was labled by the media at the time as “second to the national AAU champion Tulsa Oilers as the greatest array of amateur hoopsters in the world in 1934.”
Before head coach Ev Shelton, All-Americas Kenny Sailors and Milo Komenich, and the University of Wyoming 1943 NCAA national championship basketball team, there was coach Willard “Dutch” Witte, All-Americas Les Witte and John Kimball, and the 1934 UW NCAA championship basketball team.
UW recognizes the 1943 team as an NCAA titlist but not the 1934 team.
There’s no specific reason for that denial, but the most plausible reason may be that the 1943 Cowboys won the NCAA Tournament title while the 1934 Cowboys had the honor bestowed on it two years after the fact.
The NCAA Tournament didn’t come into existence until 1939, thus becoming the organization’s official vehicle in determining the National Champion.
Three years prior to the NCAA Tournament (1936), the Helms Athletic Foundation was founded by Paul Helms and Bill Schroeder in Los Angeles.
That organization put together a panel of experts to select National Champion teams and make All-America team selections in a number if sports, including football and basketball. The panel retroactively ranked football teams dating back to 1893 and basketball teams back to 1901.
The panel selected Wyoming as the NCAA Champion in 1934. That year the Cowboys compiled an overall record of 26-4. UW was 18-0 against fellow collegiate teams and 8-4 against AAU and military teams.
AAU basketball was big at that time, and rosters were filled with former college All-Americas. There was even a national AAU Tournament, which featured the “best amateur basketball players in the world,” according to newspaper reports at that time.
In 1934, there were 162 teams playing college basketball, including 63 independents and 99 other schools who were affiliated with 12 different conferences.
Wyoming was the champion of the Mountain States Conferencee after capturing the Eastern Division title and then winning three straight games from Western Division champ BYU in the conference playoffs.
Other conference champions that year included Kansas (Big Eight), Purdue (Big Ten), Texas Tech (Border), Pittsburgh (Eastern Intercollegiate), Penn (Ivy League), New York University (Metropolitan New York), Butler (Missouri Valley), Washington (Pac-10), Alabama (Southeastern), South Carolina (Southern) and TCU (Southwest).
There were some who argued that Kansas, which was 16-1 that year, should have been named the NCAA champion in 1934. The Jayhawks were 16-1 that season, losing only to Nebraska (24-21). KU later beat Nebraska (25-24). Wyoming also beat Nebraska (33-24), but in Lincoln.
The Kansas argument for being named the national champ was that Wyoming had lost to Tulsa (29-19), a college team that went only 6-8 that year.
In reality, the Tulsa team UW lost to was the Tulsa Diamond X Oilers in the National AAU Tournament championship game in Kansas City. The AAU Tournament was held after the completion of the college season in mid-March. The Cowboys, who were not expected to fare well in the AAU Tournament, turned out to be the events :surprise” team.
Wyoming won five consecutive games, beating the likes of the Belen (N.M.) Merchants, the Wichita (Kan.) Wilcox Oilers and the Ogden (Utah) Boosters in early contests. They then got the best of the Wichita Gridley Pontiac Chieftans in the quarterfinals and the Hutchinson (Kan.) Reno Creamery Renos in the semifinals.
The national AAU title dream ended with the loss in the championship game with the Tulsa Diamond X Oilers.
According to the April 5, 1934, edition of the Laramie Republican-Boomerang, the Cowboys returned to Laramie following the AAU meet “looking wan and drawn from their week of exausting play, were greeted by thousands of local fans who staged a riotous demonstration in the city streets in a long parade.”
Wyoming’s other three losses in addition to the Tulsa Oilers that year came at the hands of regional AAU power the Piggly Wiggly Pigs of Denver. Two of the three losses to the Denver Pigs came a week after the National AAU Tournament in a pair of charity exhibition games in Casper by a combined total of eight points.
The Denver team featured such colorful AAU greats as “Jumping” Jack McCracken and Ernie “One-Grand” Schmidt.
In addition to Witte and Kimball, the 1934 UW roster also included starters Art Haman, Ed McGinty and Haskell Leuty as well as reserves Willard “Buzz” West, Jack Bugas, Stan Christensen, Lloyd Dowler and Ken Rugg.
In 1935, Witte, Kimball, Haman and McGinty all became members of the AAU Denver Athletic Club team.
The 1934 UW basketball team has fallen through the cracks and has yet to be inducted into the Wyoming Athletics Hall of Fame, but probably will be some time in the near future.
The school should also think about recognizing the 1934 team as being NCAA Champions, even if it is with an asterik.
That would be deserving of a UW team that was labled by the media at the time as “second to the national AAU champion Tulsa Oilers as the greatest array of amateur hoopsters in the world in 1934.”
