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*scriptsll TONY CONSTANTINE»*'• V'-iVt ■ % iu-. vvTHE ELECTION OF SCOTTY HAMILTON to the Slates sports Hall of Fame brings back memories of the most remarkable West Virginia team that ever won a championship in anysport,Scotty starred as the playmaker on the Mountaineer basketball team that rocketed to national prominence by winning the 1942 National Invitation Tournament, then the No. 1 championship carnival in that sport, at Madison Square Garden.It was as motley a team, physically, as seen on any basketball court. Only one player stood over 6 feet. The others came inodd shapes and sizes. What speed the team had was more in the hands than the feet.Scotty was the Fat Man of the lineup When the Mountain-mile of Bucky Bolyard and as tough a competitor. He excelled on defense.Dick (Blackjack) Keshng was a rubber - legged retriever around the basket. He fooled you with his ability to get the ball for a 6-footer. He was a good shot inside, and the principal target for Hamilton's passes on the fast-break. He scored 29him as the middle man on the fast-break, it was like rolli out the barrel. But he cou handle the ball with the best.eers go. a rebound and led it to [?'n's 'ha' inK thlt;! old, Pm* .. ... .. Stadium court to break a longstanding record.The finest all-round player on the team was its handsome cap-Scotty had not only a deft touch Itain-,Rudr Ba'c, He was as out-as a passer and dribbler, but ! a,andln5 on deas«, as ° f owned .he penphera! or w.de- ,!!!?. '?“L0f..!!!!angled vision to spot an open teammate in a twinkling.A dozen years or so later Scotty returned to the Field House court to play with an alumni team in an exhibitiongame, and between long spells to catch his breath, he wowed Mountaineer fans with his almost flawless feeding to players driving into the basket.The lineup also had a Thin Man in the late Roger (Shorty) Hicks. He stood about the same size as Scotty, around 5-11, but looked at least 50 pounds lighter. Writers covering the NIT claimed he was the first basketball player existent entirely on white corpuscles.Shorty was the long range sharpshooter of the team. He could riddle a zone defense withhis two-handed set shots. He wasas deadly at the foul line, where he finished with 44 conversions of 50 free throws. His foul conversions with 10 seconds left proved the deciding point in the 47-45 victory over Western Kentucky for the NIT championship.Shorty died in action as a lieutenant with an Army unit in France a couple of years later.Lou Kalmar at one guard looked like a refugee fromthe wrestling team. He had muscles. He was as unlikely a prospect as ever made a WVU basketball team. He came from one of the Pursglove mine camps, and played his high school ball at University High. He had quit the WVU squad his junior year because he felt that he wouldn’t play any. But he was strong and quick, something of a facsi-team at 6-3—a little center even by standards of his day. What made him bigger was unusually long arms. Because of his wing-spread his mates tagged him “Goon,” after a character then in the Popeye cartoon.Rudy won the most valuable player award in the NIT, and deservedly so. In the semifinal victory over Toledo, he tied up rival center Jack Gerber, one of the nation’s leading scorers. After the point that gave WVU the lead over Western Kentucky, he clinched the victory by interceptinga pass. He is one of the all-time greats in Mountaineer basketball.Rudy almost died in action in France too as a lieutenant. His legs were shot up so badly that he still limped when he returned here for graduate work afterthe war.Fundamentally, this Mountaineer team relied on ball-control and a tough zone defense, under the coaching of Richard (Dyke) Raese. Its passwork was marvelous. It capitalized too on fouls by sinking a high percentage of free throws for that era, especially in the NIT. Most of all, it had that something extra, the intangible quality that makes a championship team.No WVU basketball team in memory ever achieved mare with what it had.MERRY CHRISTMAS everybody.—MOIQANTOWRLODGE SO m04 SPIITI STREET
Newspaper Details
Morgantown Post
Morgantown, West Virginia, US
Fri, Dec 24, 1965
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
WV, USA 27 Mar 2021
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