'51 K-State squad to celebrate its golden anniversary

The 1951 Kansas State Wildcat basketball team.

By KEVIN HASKIN
The Capital-Journal

Minneapolis will observe a golden anniversary when it plays host to the Final Four this season.

And the difference in hype over 50 years can be measured by the buildings used. The cavernous Metrodome will be the site this year. In 1951, Williams Arena, a gym similar to Ahearn Fieldhouse on the University of Minnesota campus, was big enough to handle the event.

Back then, only the finals and consolation game were played at that site after the three previous rounds (16 teams qualified) were played in two regionals at Kansas City and New York.

So, just how much attention did the tournament draw?

For the final, there was no television feed. Only radio. In Topeka, Kansas State fans tuned in to WREN to hear the Wildcats' first, and only, appearance in the NCAA championship game. K-State fell 68-58 to Kentucky, ending a glorious 25-4 run that included an 11-1 first-place finish in the Big Seven.

"The NIT was the bigger tournament back then," acknowledged Ernie Barrett. "The Final Four wasn't as celebrated as it is today. But I've only missed one Final Four since I played in it, and our loss has just been magnified time and time again.

"Every time I go to the Final Four, I just look up at all those flags and I don't see Kansas State up there ... and it should have been up there."

Whenever Barrett glances upward, he probably gets a slight twinge in his shoulder. The Wildcats were magnificent in the West Regional finals, whipping Missouri Valley champion Oklahoma A&M, 68-44, before a packed house at Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium.

However, Barrett hurt his shoulder that night and did not have enough time to recuperate. The NCAA Final (technically there was no Final Four) was played just three days later and Barrett managed 4 points on 2-for-12 shooting. K-State finished an icy 23 of 80 after earning the reputation as a deep, sharpshooting squad that coach Jack Gardner had taught to apply dogged man-to-man pressure.

Two weeks after the final, Barrett's shoulder had healed enough he was named the most valuable player of the East-West all-star game after scoring 17 points.

"I kept trying to get Gardner to shoot my shoulder with novocaine, but in those days, novocaine was not a proven drug," recalled Barrett, who went on to serve as Kansas State's athletics director and still works in the department as a chief fund-raiser.

"As a result, he wouldn't do it. He thought it might be detrimental to my health, my shoulder, everything. But I wish he'd have done it anyway. I look at the film and it was ridiculous. I was bringing the ball up the court, one arm dragging."

That will be one of many memories the 1950-51 team rekindles this week when it reunites in Manhattan for a 50-year anniversary. The team will be honored at halftime of K-State's home game Saturday against Colorado.

It will be the eighth reunion for the squad, which has lost only one member, Don Upson. All surviving players plan to attend. Gardner died last April, but his assistant, Tex Winter, is taking some time off as an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers to also attend.

No doubt, Gardner (known affectionately as "The Fox") will be remembered. Although he was 90 when he died, Gardner actually traveled to Manhattan by himself just a few years ago for the last reunion.

"In all the years I've been in the game of basketball, I'd have to look back at those days at Kansas State as the fondest times I had," Gardner said in his last interview with The Topeka Capital-Journal. "The people there were always great to us."

Gardner did move on to Utah from Kansas State, but would leave his duties whenever his old Wildcat teams got together.

"I'm not sure they liked that too much at Utah, but we knew coach Gardner always had a special fondness for us," said Ed Head, a 6-foot senior forward on the 1950-51 team who is retired in Topeka. "You know, Gardner never interviewed with Kansas State. He always told us it cost him a 3-cent stamp to send his application and Mike Ahearn hired him."

Head was joined as a starter by three other seniors -- Barrett, a 6-3 guard; Jack Stone, a 6-3 forward; and Lew Hitch, a 6-7 center. Jim Iverson, a 5-11 junior guard, rounded out the lineup.

The balanced Wildcats had four different scorers lead them in the four NCAA games. Head netted 13 as the Cats held on to nip Arizona 61-59 in the first round and drew praise from the Associated Press.

"Four times during his career, Head had been sidelined by injuries, but Wednesday he was sound as a pre-depression dollar," the AP reported.

Bob Rousey came off the bench to score 13 points and lead four Cats in double figures in their 64-54 victory over BYU, which was considered the regional favorite after winning the NIT.

Hitch then led K-State with 12 points in the romp over Oklahoma A&M. Gardner removed his starters with K-State up 53-27 after the Cats exhibited "a defense which stuck as tight as a mustard plaster," reported United Press.

In the finals, Hitch outplayed 7-foot Kentucky center Bill Spivey early, sparking the Cats to a 29-27 halftime edge before Spivey finished with 22 to ignite UK. K-State's cold shooting proved devastating down the stretch -- a disappointment Head vividly remembers along with an odd moment prior to tipoff.

"I remember Adolph Rupp comes into our lockerroom right before the game going on about how great a team we were," Head said of the UK coach, a Halstead native who played at Kansas. "We're all thinking he's full of it, of course, but I think Gardner kind of respected the ol' guy. I was kind of amazed by his visit. Phog (Allen) never would come over to see us."

Before the NCAA Tournament even started, 1950-51 was recognized as a banner season at Kansas State. In fact, in a highlight tape Gardner commissioned to show to recruits, the opening of Ahearn Fieldhouse was cited as the biggest moment of the season.

After playing in 2,800-seat Nichols Gym, where Gardner had students toss a dummy from the rafters one night that almost nailed Allen on the KU bench, the new arena was considered a palace. An attendance record of 14,028 was set to see K-State thump Long Island, avenging an earlier loss in New York to a program found guilty of point shaving.

"When we started playing in Ahearn, it wasn't completely finished and we still dressed over at Nichols Gym," Barrett recalled. "We'd ride over in a bus and we wore these huge capes that made us look like Batman."

Good analogy. Even without TV for the NCAA Finals, these Wildcats were super heroes to the fans who followed them. Their accomplishments on and off the court were equally impressive.

All four seniors off the 1950-51 team were taken in the NBA draft. Also, Iverson was drafted the next year, while Rousey and another sophomore, Dick Knostman, were drafted two years later.

The underclassmen later led K-State to finishes of 19-5 and 17-4 the next two years, but the Wildcats failed to get past Kansas in the Big Seven in the days when only conference champions went on to the NCAA Tournament. KU went on to capture the national title in 1952 and placed second in '53.

"I can't remember playing a game at Kansas State that we didn't think we shouldn't win. We really did think of ourselves as winners," said Knostman, a two-time All-American who averaged 16.3 points as a junior and 22.7 as a senior after taking over for Hitch at center.

That holds true today. All 14 players on the 1950-51 team graduated from K-State and 11 earned advanced degrees. This weekend, they'll catch up on the last 50 years and share a few fibs.

"We're really a close-knit bunch," Knostman said. "We got along well and there's not a lot of selfish bones in anyone's body. Most all of us have hung on for 50 years and we've got a little better each time."

Perhaps good enough to claim the championship today on a technicality. Head mentioned another point-shaving scandal from that scandalous period that involved some of Kentucky's players.

"After what happened in Florida (with the recent presidential election), we ought to get a recall now and say we won," Head suggested.