Baylor Bears basketball

Posted July 30, 2019

Early years

Luther Burleson coached the first basketball staff at Baylor in 1907 also doubling as the soccer coach. In Baylor’s next season of basketball then cross-town rival TCU started their program that the Bears defeated twice during the 1908–09 season. Ralph Glaze’s (1911–1914) .788 winning percentage ranks at the top all time in school history. Ralph Wolf (1927–1941) lead Baylor to its first SWC Championship in 1932 after living and beating one of the first excellent tragedies in college sports in his first season as coach.
Immortal Ten
See also: List of mishaps involving sports teams
On January 22, 1927, Coach Ralph Wolf’s Baylor Basketball team was travelling by bus to play with the University of Texas. As the bus passed through Round Rock, Texas, it approached railroad tracks on the south side of the company district on a drizzly, cloudy day. As the bus crossed the paths the natives failed to listen to the sound of the train whistle and ringing bell. The motorist caught sight of the train in the last moment and tried to maneuver clear of however, the Sunshine Special crashed into the bus near 60 mph tearing off the roof and right side.
The Immortal Ten Museum Ten Baylor students and basketball players have been killed by the impact. [3] One player, James Clyde”Abe” Kelly, driven his buddy, Weir Washam, out the window of the bus only minutes before the impact, rescue Washam’s life but costing Kelly his very own. The bodies of Kelly and Robert Hailey were found horrifically stretched across the cow-catcher on the front of the train, with arms locked around each other and Kelly overlooking a leg. Ivy Foster Sr. of Taylor, Texas, had heard of the accident and rushed to the train station in Taylor to meet with the train and help where needed simply to find his son among the deceased.
The deceased were Jack Castellaw, Sam Dillow, Merle Dudley, L.R. “Ivey” Foster Jr., Robert “Bob” Hailey, James Clyde “Abe” Kelly, Willis Murrary, James “Jim” Walker, and William Winchester.
The remainder of the 1927 season was canceled. The catastrophe had reverberations over the whole state and country and led to the building of the first railway overpass in Texas where the event occurred at Round Rock. Buses were later required to return to a full stop and open the door at all railway crossings to listen to trains. The Immortal Ten narrative has been commemorated each year since 1927 at first in Chapel services then afterwards at the Freshman Mass Meeting throughout Homecoming Week. In 2007, the occasion was also memorialized in bronze to the Baylor campus in Traditions Plaza.
About the 90th anniversary of the tragedy, January 22, 2017, the City of Round Rock held a memorial occasion to recall those who had been killed in the train-bus collision. In the event, the city committed to the”Immortal Bridge,” which arcs over the railroad tracks where the incident happened. Green lampposts, green-and-gold paint and other markings honor the 10 pupils who were killed there. The event was open to the general public, and attendees comprised Baylor administrators and student leaders, that the spirit squads, and Baylor’s Golden Wave Band.
Post World War II success Baylor men’s teams won five conference championships in the former Southwest Conference (1932, 1946, 1948, 1949*, 1950*; * discussed shared name ). The Bears reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1946, also reached the Final Four in 1948 and 1950. Bill Henderson’s 1948 group advanced to play the Kentucky Wildcats for the NCAA championship, but fell 58–42 into Adolph Rupp’s first national championship team. The team again advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1950 under Henderson losing to the Bradley Braves 68–66. Bill Menefee (1962–1973) would lead the Bears into a nationwide ranking in 1969 but failed to make the postseason that year. Menefee was the only coach during the next 50 years to really have a career listing of over .500, and would later serve as Baylor’s athletic director in the 1980s. Gene Iba’s 1988 NCAA championship team are the very first NCAA championship appearance for the program in 38 decades.
2003 scandal
Main article: Baylor University basketball scandal
The men’s basketball program was plagued by a scandal in 2003. Patrick Dennehy, a participant for the team, was killed by former teammate Carlton Dotson; then-coach Dave Bliss had been forced to resign amidst allegations that he had violated NCAA rules by making monetary payments to four players and that he made improper statements to the press characterizing Dennehy as a drug dealer. The school placed itself on probation, limited itself to 7 scholarships for two years and enforced a post-season ban for a year. Furthermore, the NCAA further penalized the group by initiating a non-conference ban for the 2005–2006 season and extending the probationary period during the school would have limited recruiting statements.
Decade Long Resurgence
The 2005 Bears were hindered by only using 7 scholarship players and listed just one win in conference play. In spite of those challenges, head coach Scott Drew managed to gather a 2005 signing class ranked No. 7 nationally by HoopScoop.
The basketball program undergone a resurgence under coach Scott Drew having an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2008 for the first time in 20 years with a 9–7 summit record and the group’s first national standing in 39 decades. The January 23, 2008 116–110 5OT triumph over Texas A&M in College Station formally became the longest game in Big 12 history. The 2008–09 team was rated early in the summer but stumbled on a 5–11 conference finish before heating up in the Big 12 Tournament defeating both Kansas and Texas en route to the championship match versus Missouri, also lost by a score of 73–60. The 2008–2009 group recorded the program’s first postseason victory since 1950 in its initial round NIT victory within the Georgetown Hoyas at Waco.
The 2008–09 team went on to progress to the NIT Final where they fell to Penn State. The 2009–10 squad was again ranked in both surveys and pulled off the largest road win in school history across the then #6 Texas Longhorns in Austin 80–77 on Jan. 30th. The Bears closed out the season with a Big 12 age finest 11–5 album and #3 seed in the Big 12 tournament.
The 2009–10 group was picked to finish 10th in the Big 12 in the Big 12 Coaches Poll due to the graduation of several important players in the previous year. However, the group ended the regular season 23–6 and tied for 2nd in the Big 12 standings. After a two –1 record at the Big 12 tournament, the Bears were rewarded with a #3 seed in the South Region of the NCAA tournament. The Bears defeated #14 seed Sam Houston State 68–59 at First Round action and then defeated #11 seed Old Dominion 76–68 in Second Round drama to advance to the Sweet 16 hosted at Reliant Stadium in Houston. The Bear’s Sweet 16 match-up was #10 seed Saint Mary’s, which had defeated #2 seed Villanova the previous week to advance to the Sweet 16. The Bears won handily over the Gaels, 72–49, after leading 47–19 in the half. The Elite Eight was also held at Reliant Stadium and the Bears’ competition was the #1 seed Duke Blue Devils, the final #1 seed status at the NCAA tournament after another three #1 seeds (Kansas, Syracuse, and Kentucky) were defeated by lower seeded teams. In front of quite a pro-Baylor audience of over 47,000, the Bears were defeated by the Duke Blue Devils, 78–71, to finish the magic run to the Elite Eight. It was the best season from the Scott Drew era as characterized by conference standing, overall standing, wins, and NCAA championship wins. The Bears finished the season ranked #10 in the final ESPN/Coaches Poll–the maximum ranking in program history at that moment.
The 2010–11 team began the season ranked 14th (according to this AP Preseason poll). The Bears started 7–0, also climbed to 9th from the polls before falling to Gonzaga in a neutral court in Dallas. The group finished 18–13 overall and 7–9 in league play. The highlight of this season was Lacedarius Dunn becoming the Big 12’s all-time leading scorer, and a sweep of this series versus ranked Texas A&M. After freshman star Perry Jones III was suspended by the NCAA for six matches, the Bears proceeded to shed their first-round game of the Big 12 Tournament against Oklahoma.
The 2012 season saw another historic effort for the Bears since they followed the 2011 year with another successful conference run that saw the Bears win 30 games and make it to the Big 12 championship title match. The Bears were selected for the NCAA tournament and made it all of the way into the Elite Eight, which ended at a loss to eventual national champion Kentucky.
The 2013 year witnesses another winning campaign for the Bears as they followed up the 2012 Elite Eight season with another successful conference run which saw the squirrels sweep both TCU and Texas Tech while just dropping one game to UT. The bears started out with a pre-season standing of #19 in the nation. The Boys finish conference play .500 and were chosen for the NIT championship. The Bears made it all the way into the Final, which ended in a triumph over Iowa, winning the championship in front of a sizable audience in Madison Square Garden and claiming the 2013 NIT Title.