Hide Article Text (OCR)
THE WESCOLITEThis 1948-49 Bulldog team pictured left to right are (standing) Dick Jacobron, Ed Mattix, John McMahon, Cliff Leimbeck, Jack Rector and Coach Straugh; seated are Ray Callahan, Ben Harrison,Dale Tash, Walt Anderson and Allen Weeks. Coach Straugh rated this team as one of the most talented WMC clubs in the past quarter century.Coach Honored(Continued from Page 1)son to remember that first season.“We ran into early problems with some of our older players,” he recalls, “so I dropped them and fielded a starting five of I I four freshmen and a soph.”With a trio of Beaverhead I | County High School graduates— I John Cheek, Ernie Good and Allan Bradley — plus the Ait'ken brothers, George and Dave, this fuzzy-cheeked five dominated the small college conference, winning 14 of 15. Highlighting | that fabulous season was a dramatic 46-39 victory over the MSC Bobcats in a non-league thriller which caught the fancy of all Montana fans.Advancing to the NAIA finals at Kansas City, Straugh’s youngsters were matched against the eventual tourney champs and dropped the opening contest bjr five points, after leading by that margin at halftime.“The tallest player we had was only 6-2,” Straugh reminisces, “but' they possessed a style of teamplay seldom seen in those days. They lost a one-pointer to Rocky Mountain, four-time champs of the league, and then beat the Bears twice on the Billings floor. This was typical of their great season.“Most of these boys were call-ant commander, USNR.Returning to Western after this three-year leave, Straugh completed work on a master’s degree in education at Montana State University in 1946 and resumed the athletic directorship at Western.The trophies began to accumulate immediately.From 1947 through 1954 his track teams rolled to eight consecutive MCC crowns, marred only by a co-championship in 1951. During that same span, Straugh directed his gridder to a pair of titles, bringing Western I its first conference football championship in 1947 and repeating in 1949.From 1955 through 1961, the veteran Bulldog boss missed basketball titles only in 1957 while racking up four straight during the 1958-61 span.Sentimentally, though, his heart was always with that 1940-41 club, and he still considers it one of his best. “They were just a bunch of young kids but they loved the game and refused to be awed by their more-experienced opposition. I’ll always wonder just how far they might have gone, had not the war in-terruped their collegiate careers.”Who was his best individual performer during that quarter-century?Pasco, Wash. Tash (now Dr. Tash) has been a member of the WMC faculty since 1951.Ironically, the majority of Straugh’s super-stars were re- I cruited from Montana’s Class C ; high schools. Opposing coaches were ever-amazed by this fact and attributed Western’s perennial success to Straugh’s unerr-i ing eye for the potential of an often-overlooked eager.One long-time friend recently remarked that “Bill always had the good shooters and ball-hand-lers. Kids who were not rated tall enough or skilled enough for the larger colleges or universities were recruited by Bill and developed into truly outstanding players. There were any number of them which many Montana collegiate coaches later wondered how they missed spotting.”Straugh imparted more than sportsmanship and basketball know-how, however, to that 25-year roll of athletics. Insiders have long been aware that during those lean years when scholarships were unavailable, Bill often dug into his own pocket to help a deserving ballplayer buy clothes, books and other necessities. Many a Montana coach today recalls that “without Bill,I would never have had a college education.”These same countless coaches and friends established a special
Newspaper Details
Dillon Wescolite
Dillon, Montana, US
Tue, Oct 01, 1968
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Matthew K.
NA, 03 Apr 2025
Other Publications Near Dillon, Montana
Dillon Wescolite
Dillon Daily Tribune
Dillon Montanomal
Dillon Monmal
Dillon Tribune
