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Rf• iTlP fC Ol Ifm i v.ph In the riEhi*lf*niti field, .theg performgiant«i hi t tuineerI§£4 111\\ ! fit r ; - 'd IL Toledo and Western Kentucky In that order.C f * IffCinderella champion?♦ Ithpvv IIPWHOifilff ofV ■ _Kirwe r#f npI I. 4Hf Ol»fA 1 ’fillh11»f the town’* by the NewTime andlAthen-ftin fhihot, global con-land foundsnareI 'vMlrowned championsThose hoys had the heart. declared a delighted Dyke Raese whose coaching was applauded by both contemporaries and critics. You’ve got to hand It to them. Every bov on the team played his heart out.Yes.that’s what won it—heart!»tRaese never coached again after that season (exceptfor a stint in tht Navy) and West Virginia finished with asurprising-but-sparklmg record of 19 victories and only fourUS.Hi\s now a well-known local business executive.The late Roy M. (Lefts) Hawkey, who as athletic difto* tor had to all hut beg the NIT to give his great team aberth, agreed with Raese’s observations.The hoys just out-gutted all of them,” llawlev said. I’ve never seen a team put forth such great effort againstsuch great odds.New York writers were .skeptical of West Virginia’s acceptance, despite its impressive 16-4 record for the regular season. They thought LIU, one of the nation’s top teams and a defending champion favored to repeat, would wallop the MountaineersIII! si OLD I’ll II His show West Virginia’s NIT champions of 1912 riding down High Street In a gala welcome home Coach A A. (Dyke) Raese, Dave C hristopher (then a member of the W\I athletic office Maff), and (apt RudyOn the night of March 17, 1942, however, those “know-it-alls found out different.West Virginia, fighting an uphill battle most of the way, uent overtime to upset the mighty Blackbirds 58-19. TheMountaineers had trailed by 25-18 at halftime and still were nine points down with 10 minutes left.TMli(forged a 45-45 tieinside regulation time, then pulled away in the extra period as Dick Kesling scored seven points, Walter Rollins four and Roger (Shorty) Hicks two.Kesling finished with a high of 20 points (and in those days that represented a great output) and Baric wound up with 15 to break the school’s career scoring record.Scotty Hamilton, roly-poly middle man, was the key operative in one of the finest ball-handling performances ever seen by the Madison Square Garden crowd of 17,000.Lou Kalmar, a native of Osage and an outstanding defensive player, rounded out the starting lineup.West Virginia played a deliberate style of basketballthen, with accurate and rapid passing of the hall. Each man seemed to know exactly when and where the ball was going, on split-second exchange.Six nights later—on March 23, 1942—the Mountaineers trimmed Toledo 51-39 with another excellent exhibition of ball-handling and sharp shooting.They led by 24-21 at halftime and remained in front trroughout the second half, with the rotund Hamilton again engineering the attack. V... ... ....... ■ lt;.. '. . w.--v-va record cruwu * 52,750 the number of| spectators who had attendthree tourney games, ...Upon their return to Morgantown, the Mountaineers were paraded through the downtown business sectton and two nights later were honored at a big banquet.••Best bunch of fellows I have ever been in contact with. said ( oach Raese. “They had a fighting spirit wilh-out which they couldn’t have won.They were fighters, all right. And there weren t many of them.With only eight players on the WVU squad, Raese summoned Neil Montone from the football team so hedninth man—just in case another was needed.George Ricky, Walter Rollins and Don Raese were theonly reserves who got into action.Not long after their thrilling triumphs, the NIT champions were called away from the campus for a different t\peof shooting.Some never came back.Burn rre pictured in the backseat of (he car in the left phnto. In tb«‘ right photo are Shorty Hicks, Lou Kalmar and Scotty Hamilton.R e bai l'd a game high of 18 points and aLo did agreat guarding job against Toledo’s Bob Gerber, who hadset a Garden record of 37 points against Rhode Island State in the opener. Gerber got only 14 points against WVU.Hicks’ deadly set shooting from outside forced the Toledo defense farther from the basket, enabling Baric toconnect on close-in shots. %I tnallv, on Marc h 25, 1942, West Virginia completed therout of favour -, hy heating Western Kentucky 47-15 with jhri'i free throws in the last 45 seconds.Kesling made the first one to tie the score at 45-45. Then, with 20 seconds left, Hicks cashed the tie-breaker. Hamilton added another after the final gun cracked.By that time, West Virginians everywhere already were celebrating. •Locally, residents and most of the 3,000 WVU studentsforgot the war temporarily and vented their enthusiasm ina wild, tumultuous celebration.Thousands rushed onto the streets singing, shouting and parading. Horns blew and guns were fired.A most memorable night, that was.C. Ahem Ralt; e called (he best basketball playerI evei was voted the tournament’s most valuable; i i ' award. He scored 17 points In the title tussle.H im Iton and Kesling joined the Mountaineer captain on the all-tournament team. Raese coached the NIT all-stars in an Army emergency benefit game against an all-starmilitary unit two nights later.♦tShorty Hicks was killed in trance.NormandyDon Raese was killed in an Army air crash,Rudy Baric returned with leg wounds received inFrance. , .Lou Kalmar served as a Naval officer in the Normandyinvasion, Scotty Hamilton and Dick Kesling also served inthe Navy, and Walter Rollins was in the Army.They brought big-time basketball to West Virginia.Those who followed merely have carried on in the tradition they established—so unexpectedly, yet so convincingly.Baric now is a high school athletic director in Penns Grove, N.J. Kalmar is in the lumber business at Savannah,Ga. Hamilton is dean of men at Marietta, O., High School.Kesling is associated with Owens-Illinois Glass at I airmont. Roliins Is a businessman at Kenova.In his telegram of congratulations to Coach Raese, thelate M. M. Neely, then governor, wired:The Arabs are said to have a thousand expressions that mean ‘I thank you.’ If my vocabulary contained them all. it would still be impossible for me to express the full measure of my gratitude to you and your famous team forthe brilliant victories you have won for your state.In my opinion, no other athletic team in the history of the nation ever in a similar length of time earned greater renown for its alma mater than yours has earned for West Virginia University in the series of thrilling battles, gloriously completed in Madison Square Garden tonight.My sincere hope and earnest prayer is that success surpassing that which you now enjoy may attend all of you
Newspaper Details
Morgantown Dominion News
Morgantown, West Virginia, US
Tue, Mar 12, 1968
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
WV, USA 27 Mar 2021
Other Publications Near Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown Dominion Post
Morgantown Morning Reporter
The Morgantown Post and The Dominion-News
Morgantown Dominion News and Morgantown Post
Morgantown Dominion News
