FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In the event you’re mid-40s or youthful and grew up in Arkansas, the prevailing line about Razorback basketball is that it principally did not begin till Eddie Sutton rolled into city from Creighton in 1974. 

Nobody ever speaks of something earlier than that point. Though, to be honest, just about something earlier than then is pre-integration, so it is onerous for folks today to place a complete lot of inventory into wins and losses from that point interval.

Nonetheless, to utterly write it off could be to disregard probably the most feared groups in Arkansas historical past and its ties to a legendary interval of post-college basketball that’s now all however forgotten.

Again in 1940, Glen Rose put collectively a roster of younger males from an array of tiny cities that now maintain 1,100 folks or much less like Ash Flat and Emmet, Arkansas and Level, Texas.  

They had been innovators of the sport. Ahead Johnny Adams set the world on its head by scoring 36 in opposition to TCU utilizing this unusual taking pictures method he referred to as the bounce shot that allowed him to garner the popularity wanted to be named an All-American.

Heart Gordon Carpenter and ahead R.C. Pitts would go on to win gold medals as a part of the 1948 U.S. Olympic group. 

They had been an unusually tall group for his or her time with the shortest participant being Howard Hickey at 6’2″.

Nonetheless, what made them well-known was their absolute dominance of faculty basketball and one distinctive win that no trendy Razorback group will ever have the ability to declare.

Arkansas destroyed groups in a time when large blowouts actually weren’t a factor. With scores like 62-17, 68-33 and 71-45, they had been an enigma in a world with no shot clock or 3-point line. 

Not a single school group may beat them within the common season. Nonetheless, that does not imply they weren’t with out losses.

The Hogs misplaced twice that 12 months, however each losses had been to a group considered the perfect on the earth at the moment, which wasn’t a university group.

They had been the Phillips 66ers, the trendy day equal of an NBA group besides the gamers had been capable of keep their newbie standing. 

The 66ers had been primarily based out of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, residence of the Phillips Petroleum firm. They had been a member of the Beginner Athletic Union.

Sure, it is that AAU, however its mission was a lot nearer to its 1888 founding as a company accountable for overseeing preparation for potential Olympic athletes.

It remained that method till the Olympic Sports activities Act of 1978 created the U.S. Olympic Committee, liberating the AAU to morph into the beloved and hated monstrosity it has turn into as we speak.

The 66ers performed groups just like the Akron Goodyears and Detroit Ford Mustangs amongst different groups owned by the likes of twentieth Century Fox, Safeway, Cessna, Boeing and Caterpillar.

Regardless that the NBA would not be established for an additional eight years, the Phillips 66ers took down the Denver Nuggets within the AAU championship recreation the 12 months earlier than and had been considered the best group basketball needed to supply when Rose lined up three video games in opposition to them to check his Razorbacks.

Arkansas startled the basketball world by taking down the 66ers 38-24 in Little Rock simply earlier than Christmas. 

To place that in perspective, this may be like Nolan Richardson deciding to see how good his 93-94 nationwide championship group really was, scheduling a 3-game sequence with the Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen led Chicago Bulls, after which beating them in Sport 1 in Memphis.

The 2 groups locked horns once more proper after Christmas break, this time on the 66ers residence flooring in Bartlesville. The 66ers barely held on, knocking off Arkansas, 35-33.

With the sequence tied 1-1, Arkansas left campus shortly after Valentine’s Day for a drive over to Tulsa to find out which group actually was to be thought-about the perfect in American basketball.

It was one other defensive wrestle as a 66ers group that had already held Arkansas to its two lowest offensive performances of the season held the Razorbacks to their worst displaying of the 12 months. 

The Phillips 66ers clawed out a 31-26 win because the group got here away with a wholesome respect for the Razorbacks.

Each groups later got here up wanting perceived expectations. 

Arkansas knocked off Wyoming within the Elite 8 on the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas Metropolis, organising a showdown with Washington State within the Last 4 the next day.

Anticipation of a Wisconsin vs. Arkansas battle within the finals that night was excessive after the Badgers took down Pitt within the first recreation of the morning session.

Nonetheless, the 24-5 Cougars pulled off the upset, 64-53, sending Washington State to the nationwide championship recreation as an alternative.

As for the 66ers, 1941 was the one 12 months they weren’t within the nationwide championship recreation between 1939 and 1950;. As an alternative, twentieth Century Fox took residence the title with a 47-34 win over San Francisco Olympic Membership. 

The next 12 months, 6’8″ Arkansas heart John Frieberger joined the 66ers. Ultimately, so would Carpenter and Pitts. 

Enjoying for Phillips meant a job with the corporate in the course of the day whereas attending to play basketball at evening. As one former participant put it, those that caught with the corporate virtually all grew to become millionaires. 

4 group members went on to turn into presidents of the corporate.

As for Carpenter and Pitts, they owe their Olympic gold medals to these three video games scheduled in opposition to the 66ers that 12 months. It allowed them to be observed and pave a path to Madison Sq. Backyard the place the Phillips 66ers took on Adolph Rupp’s Kentucky Wildcats.  

The 2 groups had been to be mixed to kind an excellent group of the ten greatest gamers America may muster. Carpenter and Pitts had been chosen from that recreation.

Bud Browning, the 66ers coach, was named head coach of Crew USA and Rupp was named his assistant.

Collectively they coached the U.S. group to an ideal 8-0 within the Olympics, knocking off France 65-21 within the championship recreation in Wembley Stadium the place the primary Olympics since earlier than World Warfare II had been held.

Rose left because the coach of the group the next season with a 154-47 file to strive his hand at a failed stint as the pinnacle coach of the Razorback soccer group. 

He later turned the soccer group over to John Barnhill and finally returned to teaching Arkansas basketball in Arkansas Fieldhouse, which might later be renamed to Barnhill Area.

Rose completed his second run with a 171-154 file. His 14 seasons throughout this much less profitable a part of his tenure was the longest consecutive stretch of any Arkansas basketball coach till Nolan Richardson topped him with 17 years.

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