Games of the XIVth Olympiad — 1948London, England • July 30 – August 13, 1948
An easy United States march to the gold proved in the first post-World War II Olympiad that the U.S. remained the world leader in basketball. Obviously, a war-torn Europe had not had the opportunities to advance the game like the United States and South America. In fact, five of the eight teams in the quarterfinals were from the Americas, and a sixth, Argentina, almost upset the U.S. in the preliminaries.
(USA Basketball Photos)
1948 USA RESULTS (8-0)
USA 86 Switzerland 21 USA 53 Czechoslovakia 28 USA 59 Argentina 57 USA 66 Egypt 28 USA 61 Peru 33 USA 63 Uruguay 28 USA 71 Mexico 40 USA 65 France 21 *1948 OLYMPIC GAMES FINAL STANDINGS
1. United States (8-0) 13. Cuba (4-3) 2. France (5-2) 14.Iran (2-5) 3. Brazil (7-1) 15.Argentina (4-4) 4. Mexico (5-2) 16. Hungary (3-5) 5. Uruguay (5-3) 17.Italy (4-4) 6. Chile (4-4) 18.China (5-3) 7. Czechoslovakia (4-4) 19. Egypt (2-6) 8. Korea (3-5) 20. Great Britain (0-7) 9. Canada (6-2) 21. Switzerland (2-6) 10.Peru (4-4) 22. Iraq (0-7) 11.Belgium (5-3) 23. Ireland (0-6) 12.Philippines (4-4) The Phillips 66ers, winners of the 1948 national AAU title, met the 1948 NCAA champs, University of Kentucky, in the final game of the Olympic Trials. The 66ers edged Kentucky,
53-49, and Bud Browning of the 66ers was named head coach, and University of Kentucky legend Adolph Rupp was selected as his assistant.During a pre-Olympic tour in Scotland, Browning and Rupp, each believing his own members of the team played best as a unit, concocted a strategy of unit substitution — one unit of five 66ers and one unit of five Kentucky Wildcats.
Relying on the two coaches’ unit plan, Switzerland was beaten 86-21 as Alex Groza led all scorers with 19 points, and several days later, nine Americans scored in a 53-28 win over Czechoslovakia. Still utilizing the unit plan as much as possible against Argentina, the starting 66ers five forged a 14-9 lead. When the second group of Kentucky players were substituted, Argentina rallied and by half led 33-26. The original starting crew returned at the start the second half, but eventually it had to be revised because of foul trouble. With three minutes remaining and the score even, 55-55, Kenneth Rollins sank a free throw, Jack Robinson added a field goal and Gordon Carpenter added one free throw to clinch the USA’s 59-57 victory. Rollins and Carpenter led the U.S. with 12 points each.
Egypt proved no match for the U.S. in a lopsided 66-28 U.S. win, and with Wallace Jones leading the way with 12 points, the U.S. crushed Peru 61-33. Kurland scored 19 points as the Americans handed South American champion Uruguay a 63-28 setback, and the U.S. moved within a victory of the Olympic gold after discarding of Mexico, 71-40, as Groza scored 19 points.
Facing France in the finals, Browning started his five 66ers. Only leading 9-4, the unit system was abandoned and Browning began substituting one player at a time. At half the U.S. was in command 28-9, and the Americans went on to record an easy 65-21 victory over France. The USA’s scoring was led in the gold medal game by Groza and Raymond Lumpp who tallied 11 points each.
1948 USA Men’s Olympic Games Roster
NAME POS HGT WGT AGE SCHOOL HOMETOWN Clifford Barker F 6-2 185 27 University of Kentucky Satsuma, FL Don Barksdale C 6-6 200 25 Oakland Bittners (UCLA) Los Angeles, CA Ralph Beard G 5-10 176 20 University of Kentucky Louisville, KY Lewis Beck G 6-0 165 26 Philips 66ers (Kansas) Pendleton, OR Vincent Boryla G 6-3 190 21 Denver Nuggets (Univ. of Denver) Englewood, CA Gordon Carpenter C/F 6-7 220 21 Phillips 66ers (Arkansas) Lakewood, CA Alex Groza C 6-7 220 21 University of Kentucky San Diego, CA Wallace Jones C/F 6-4 205 22 University of Kentucky Lexington, KY Robert Kurland C 7-0 220 23 Phillips 66ers (Oklahoma St.) Bartlesville, OK Raymond Lumpp G 6-0 170 25 New York University East Williston, NY R.C. Pitts F 6-5 200 29 Phillips 66ers (Arkansas) Baton Rouge, LA Jesse Renick G 6-2 185 30 Phillips 66ers (Oklahoma St.) San Francisco, CA Kenneth Rollins G 6-0 170 24 University of Kentucky Charleston, NC Jack Robinson G 6-0 180 21 Baylor University Fort Worth, TX HEAD COACH: Omar Browning, Phillips 66ers (Bartlesville, OK) ASSISTANT COACH: Adolph Rupp, University of Kentucky MANAGER: Louis Wilke, Phillips 66ers (Bartlesville, OK) 1948 USA Men’s Olympic Games Cumulative Statistics
NAME G FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTAPCT PF PTS/AVGAlex Groza 7 35- 8- 14.571 19 78/ 11.1Robert Kurland 7 27- 11- 15.733 17 65/ 9.3Don Barksdale 6 20- 14- 19.737 16 54/ 9.0R. C. Pitts 4 13- 5- 6.833 3 31/ 7.8Raymond Lumpp 5 14- 8- 10.800 11 36/ 7.2Wallace Jones 6 19- 5- 9.556 11 43/ 7.2Gordon Carpenter 5 13- 9- 12.750 6 35/ 7.0Vincent Boryla 5 11- 6- 10.600 11 28/ 5.6Jesse Renick 7 17- 5- 7.714 13 39/ 5.6Lewis Beck 7 13- 7- 11.636 3 33/ 4.7Kenneth Rollins 6 10- 4- 5.800 5 24/ 4.0Clifford Barker 5 7- 5- 12.417 13 19/ 3.8Ralph Beard 7 10- 6- 12.500 7 26/ 3.7Jack Robinson 5 6- 1- 3.333 6 13/ 2.6USA TOTALS 8 215- 94-145.648 141 524/ 65.5OPP. TOTALS 8 81- 94-166.566 132 256/ 32.0
“[Rupp] turned out to be my closest friend,” Barksdale said. “We went to London and won all 12 games and got the gold medal.” But he had to brush off indignities just about every step of the way. . . Later, coach Rupp told Barksdale, “Son, I wish things weren’t like that, but there’s nothing you or I can do about it.” Barksdale agreed. He lived by a very simple philosophy. He wasn’t interested in protest; he was interested in playing basketball. He had faced prejudice before, and he knew that he would face it again.
I’ll leave it there. Take from it what you will.
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Good stuff, Dave! Just more proof of the ignorance of opposing fans in their accusations toward Rupp.
“Wah Wah” is without a doubt one of the greatest Wildcats ever. Sad that the assist stat wasnt kept as you know Ralph Beard was as good as there was passing the ball. Groza, Jones, Beard, Rollins and Barker……WOW!!
Thanks for the read, DAWG!!!
Correction. Hatton was on the ’58 Championship Team.
When I was a junior at Meade County High in 1957, I played in a basketball game against Shepardsville High. Joe B. Hall was the Shepardsville coach. During the 1958 season, we played Fort Knox High. Bob Burrow was the Fort Knox coach…During the summer of 1958, I had the pleasure of playing in a lot of nightly pick-up games in the fieldhouse on the base at Fort Knox…Vernon Hatton was stationed at Fort Knox while he was in special services, and Hal Greer, another great basketball player, was also there for a six-month stint prior to playing professional basketball…Two of the nicest fellows one could ever having the pleasure of meeting, and it was so fun playing basketball with them …Hatton and his Kentucky team beat Seattle for the 1958 NCAA crown…Seattle had Elgin Baylor and Charlie Brown..In the opening round of the final, Kentucky beat Guy Rodgers and his Temple team…This blog brought back memories of listening to Phil Sutterfield broadcasting games on the radio from Memorial Coliseum
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
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Ahh but I have the game ball signed by all the players
That’s awesome!