Beloit College Basketball, A Living Legacy

LIST OF CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS 

James Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, sports coach, and innovator. The same year he left Canada for Springfield, Massachusetts, he invented the game of basketball. He wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program. Naismith lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Tournament (1939). 

Born and raised on a farm near Almonte, Ontario, Naismith studied and taught physical education at Montreal’s McGill University before moving to the United States, where he designed the game of basketball in late 1891 while teaching at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.

A few short years later in 1904 Beloit College fielded its first interscholastic basketball team, the same year that basketball was first recognized as an Olympic sport. A black student, Sam Ransom, from Hyde Park, Chicago, was one of the standouts of that team. The rest is history!!

The Role of Sports
"Winning isn't everything, it is the only thing", a saying attributed to a famous Green Bay Packer’s coach.  In these days of intense competition for students attending small liberal arts colleges, the very existence of Beloit College and similar schools is being threatened. The allure of a college comes in as many forms as there are personalities on campus.

Exercise and sport contribute to healthy bodies and minds. Successful sports programs have an amazing positive response in student athlete recruitment, community involvement, and broader recognition for the college than marketing can buy. Innovative coaching coupled with talented athletes is a recipe for success. In the following history of Beloit College basketball, this will be shown to be true in both women's and men's teams. Read the compassion, the struggles, and dedication of a leading advocate for Beloit College women’s physical education from Dr. Shirley Ahrens, herself a gifted athlete from Macalester College.  

The women's basketball teams began interscholastic competition in 1976. From coach Ann Arbor in the late 70's, to Mimi Walters in the 90's, to coach Kristi Straub and the early 2000's, Beloit College women’s teams provided dominating performances. The same was true on the men's side during the Dolph Stanley era in the mid 1940's to the mid 1950's. The Buccaneers were victorious 80 percent of the time, thus receiving national recognition. Bill Knapton's 40 years of coaching resulted in 10 conference champions. Winning championships 25 percent of the time ain’t bad!!  Beloit College even won the first conference championship under coach Mills back in 1922. Our name is all over the conference basketball records.

Academics and Athletics
There are inevitable tensions when academic interests and sports collide. During and after WWII there was a lull in sports team action. Immediately following the war, Dolph Stanley was hired out of Taylorville, IL High School to coach men's basketball at Beloit College. Taking advantage of men returning from military service who had basketball experience, he was able to put together a very competitive quintet of players, and victories begat victories. It gave the local community and the college a real lift to have something to cheer for after the war years. A new Field House dedicated in 1947, with fans filling it on game days energized the whole community. After winning six conference championships, the college was ousted from the conference in May of 1951 by a vote of conference college presidents. Stanley continued as coach for six more years with an independent schedule. In 1957 the college hired Bill Knapton to replace Stanley, and imposed recruiting restrictions in order to de-emphasize sports. This was done in order to return to the "academics first" spirit of the Midwest Conference. Conference membership was re-established in March of 1958. Later, the Beloit Plan/Trimester program also affected recruiting of student athletes. 

The women's program had other hurdles to overcome with the implementation of Title IX, which required equal women’s and men’s Interscholastic sport opportunity. The word “equal” was difficult to achieve. College competition had always been a men's thing.  It was a tough sell to convince male coaches and AD's that women deserved pregame meals, equal locker and practice facilities, plus adequate transportation to games. That was especially so with limited funds and reduced staff available at the conclusion of the Beloit Plan/Trimester program.

Basketball at a Small College
To anyone watching college basketball, it seems abundantly clear that a few skilled athletes with a skilled motivator as coach can bring winning results to a sports program. Basketball is a unique sport that small schools can dominate and the above examples prove it. Tennis, golf, wrestling, and perhaps swimming can dominate their fields with small numbers of student athletes. Basketball has the ability to bring wider recognition to a college due to national press coverage and larger followings of fan support since it is unaffected by climate while enjoying excellent viewing arenas. Only two or three excellent student recruitments per year will bring a basketball program to prominence by the time the first recruits are juniors.  Winning begets winning while recruitment of student athletes becomes self-fulfilling.

As you read the heartfelt memories of former Beloit College players, it becomes abundantly clear that sports, and especially basketball, can create three important social elements: coaching, discipline, teamwork. The coach is leader of the pack. As human beings, most of us crave these elements and don’t even realize it. This wonderful project has provided me the opportunity to see the benefits of sports in education through reading personal accounts from a myriad of contributors. What other elements jump out? First and foremost, discipline followed closely by teamwork. If those two elements come together, we have lasting friendships through life’s journey. See if you do not agree as you cycle through these memories.

Beloit Forever
It is confession time. 

For me, this project in Beloit College basketball history has a personal impetus. It began in the late 1940's into the early 1950's for me. The McClellan family farmed in the Delavan, Wis. area within 20 miles of Beloit. With a brother on campus in the fall of 1949 and into the early 50's, we attended many basketball games during the Dolph Stanley era. In fact, game day meant we had to milk the cows a little early to get to Beloit in time for tip-off! They were exciting times with a packed field house. Watching those teams run through their warm-up routines was enough to get my blood stirring. As a 10 to 12-year-old, I would go home and practice spinning the ball on my index finger like the Bucs did in warm-ups. I was hooked on the run and shoot game of basketball.

 Now the confession. I applied to no college other than Beloit.  My choice of Beloit was due to Stanley basketball. It had nothing to do with the excellent education I received. Coach Knapton and I arrived on campus the same year. After three years of varsity basketball I made the heart-wrenching decision to forego most of my senior year of basketball competition. The college offered me the chance to participate in international study, a forerunner of the Beloit Plan. I joined with a group of my contemporaries to study the emerging European Common Market. They named us the “Brussel Sprouts” since we lived with families in Brussels, Belgium. (Insert study group Pix) The decision was not an easy one since my goal had been to see my name in lights on the basketball court. My classmate, Jared Dornburg, and I lived with the DeBie family, (insert family pic) Madame DeBie, two sons, and a daughter. They were of poor means without even a place to bathe. We solved that problem when Jared and I were invited to play basketball with a city team. The best part of that experience was the team showers! Our study group returned to Beloit in mid-January which allowed me to end my senior year playing basketball with the varsity a few games in February 1961. The closest I ever came to getting my name in lights was the Beloit Daily News report of our February 11^th contest against the Ole’s of St. Olaf in our storied Field House.

Beloit College basketball allowed me the opportunity to reach beyond the borders of my previous life experiences. Sports in a Division III college is an advantage that cannot be duplicated at larger universities. When your college education is funded by athletic scholarships, the chance to reach beyond that sport is very difficult. In looking back at my life’s story with the perspective of years and a career, my decision to come to Beloit because of basketball allowed me to enjoy the competition. More importantly liberal arts and foreign study gave me a foundation for life that could never be duplicated.

As you read the stories in this Beloit legacy from the many contributors, it may trigger a story you have relating to basketball and your Beloit College experience. This history is a “living legacy.” If you have an experience you would care to share, we invite you to forward it to (college Administrator) for consideration. 

We hope you will enjoy this living history of basketball at a small liberal arts college, a college that needs our support in locating those deserving student-athletes who will continue this legacy. I don't know about you, but for me, I can’t wait to see more Midwest Conference championships posted on Beloit College’s basketball timeline.