Men's Basketball | 2/14/2025 7:29:00 AM
Front row, left to right: John Criss (24); Dave Leach (54); Jamie Thompson (32); Verlyn Anderson, assistant coach; Gary Thompson, coach; Ron Heller, assistant coach; Kelly Pete (30), Manny Zafiros (52), Tommy Newman (44). Back row, left to right: Vernon Smith (4); Melvin Reed (20); Larry Nosich (40); Gerald Davis (10); Dave Stallworth (42); Bob Powers (14); Nate Bowman (12);
Al Trope (22); Gerard Reimond (50); Charles Broski, team manager.
By
Paul Suellentrop
Wichita State basketball grew into a national presence and a local favorite in the early 1960's.
As a member of the Missouri Valley Conference – then one of the nation's top conferences – the Shockers spent the first half of the decade often nationally ranked and in post-season play. WSU peaked in 1965 with a second straight MVC title and an appearance in the Final Four in Portland, Ore.
The team's success and star power sparked an attendance boom at what is now Charles Koch Arena. The Shockers averaged 4,162 fans in 1959-60. Crowds rose to 9,866 in 1963-64 and 10,218 the next season.
The 1965 team will celebrate its 60
th anniversary this weekend with six Shockers (Dave Leach, Gerry Reimond, Manny Zafiros, Tommy Newman, Melvin Reed and Bob Powers) scheduled to attend, in addition to family and friends of living and deceased members of the team.
The group will be introduced during Sunday's game against No. 14 Memphis at Koch Arena.
Five Kansans started in the 1965 NCAA Tournament.
Five things to know about the 1964-65 Shockers:
1. Coach Gary Thompson took over the program with high expectations after the departure of Ralph Miller to Iowa.
Miller coached the Shockers for 13 seasons and built them from a mediocre program into a power. The Shockers went to the 1954 NIT to make their first national splash. They returned to the NIT in 1962 and 1963 (a time when the NCAA Tournament took only conference champions and a few independents).
The 1963-64 Shockers, in Miller's final season, made their big break-through with an MVC title and NCAA Tournament bid.
When he went to Iowa, Thompson was the natural replacement. He played for Miller at East High School and WU and returned to the university as Miller's assistant coach in 1957.
With star forward Dave Stallworth, center Nate Bowman, Kelly Pete (who changed his name to Mohamed Sharif after college), Leach and others returning, the Shockers started the 1964-65 season ranked No. 3.
2. The Shockers started the season 4-0 to rise to No. 1 in AP and UPI national rankings for the first time.
The same day as the poll, No. 2 Michigan defeated the Shockers 87-85 in Detroit on a buzzer-beating shot from 30 feet by Cazzie Russell. WSU dropped to No. 2 and remained in the top 10 until late February.
WSU started the MVC schedule with eight straight wins, including snapping a 16-year losing streak at Bradley with an 85-79 win. Pete scored 22 points. Leach scored 10 of his 12 in the second half and handed out five assists.
The Shockers defeated NCAA Tournament team BYU twice and beat NIT participants UTEP, Villanova, Bradley and Saint Louis. WSU finished the season 21-9, 11-3 in the MVC.
3. The season changed significantly in February. Stallworth, a two-time All-American, exhausted his eligibility after the first semester (he played one semester in 1961-62).
He scored 40 points in his final game, a 96-76 win over Louisville on Jan. 30 to end his 16-game season averaging 25 points and 12 rebounds. Even with an abbreviated season, Stallworth earned first- and second-team All-America honors from the major organizations.
Academic ineligibility ended the season for Bowman, a 6-foot-10 center who played six NBA seasons, after 14 games.
That left the Shockers small in stature and limited in numbers. They went 6-4 in February to finish the regular season.
The roster had a strong local presence, and those players carried Wichita to the Final Four. Five Shockers – Pete, Thompson, Vernon Smith, John Criss and Dave Leach – grew up in Kansas. Those five started the season's final 14 games.
4. Those local products (Criss, Pete and Thompson from Wichita, Smith from Newton and Leach from McPherson) kept the Shockers up in the MVC race.
With Stallworth and Bowman out, Thompson moved into a starting role and averaged almost 20 points over the final 14 games. He scored 24 points, making 10 of 14 shots, in a 59-48 win over Tulsa that clinched a share of the MVC crown.
Leach, pressed into center duties at 6-foot-5, made a buzzer-beating jump shot to beat North Texas 69-67 and keep the Shockers two games up in the MVC standings. He scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Pete, an All-MVC pick and honorable mention UPI All-American, scored 23 points in a win over Saint Louis in the team's first game without Stallworth. He scored 24 points in a win over Drake in the regular-season finale as WSU celebrated its outright MVC title.
5. The Shockers, without a starter over 6-foot-5, headed back to NCAA play at Kansas State's Ahearn Field House.
In the opening NCAA game, Pete scored 31 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in an 86-81 win over SMU. Wichita State's press frazzled the Mustangs. Melvin Reed and Gerald Davis played well in the second half when foul trouble benched starters.
The Shocker starters played all 40 minutes in the 54-46 win over Oklahoma State in the regional final. Pete scored 19 points to move the Shockers to the Final Four in front of 12,500 fans. Smith, a transfer from Oklahoma State, added 12 points. Leach scored 11 in a slowdown game in which the Shockers made 17 of 29 shots and 20 of 25 free throws.
Shocker fans stormed the court at Ahearn and cut down the nets.
Tickets to the Final Four went on sale for $7 at the WSU Field House the next day.
The Final Four was a different story. Eventual champion UCLA routed the Shockers 108-89 in the semifinal. Princeton's Bill Bradley scored 58 points in a 118-82 win over WSU in the consolation game.
The Shockers made many post-season memories since the 1965 team, highlighted by a return to the Final Four in 2013. The 1965 Shockers will always be the group that introduced fans to the excitement of a run in the bracket in March basketball.
Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
