Baylor Bears basketball

Early years

Luther Burleson coached the initial basketball team at Baylor in 1907 also doubling as the soccer coach. In Baylor’s next season of basketball then cross-town rival TCU began their schedule that the Bears defeated twice during the 1908–09 season. Ralph Glaze’s (1911–1914) .788 winning percentage rankings in the best all time in school history. Ralph Wolf (1927–1941) direct Baylor to its very first SWC Championship in 1932 after living and beating one of the first excellent tragedies in college athletics in his first season as coach.
Immortal Ten
See also: List of accidents involving sports teams
On January 22, 1927, Coach Ralph Wolf’s Baylor Basketball group was travelling by bus to perform the University of Texas. As the bus passed through Round Rock, Texas, it approached railroad tracks across the south side of the company district on a drizzly, cloudy day. As the bus crossed the tracks the natives failed to listen to the noise of the train whistle and ringing bell. The motorist caught sight of the train at the last moment and attempted to steer away, but the Sunshine Special crashed into the bus at near 60 mph tearing off the roof and right side.
The Immortal Ten Memorial Ten Baylor students and basketball players were killed by the effect. [3] One player, James Clyde”Abe” Kelly, driven his buddy, Weir Washamout the window at the bus just moments before the impact, saving Washam’s lifetime but costing Kelly his very own. The bodies of Kelly and Robert Hailey were discovered horrifically stretched across the cow-catcher on the front part of the train, with arms wrapped around each other and Kelly missing a leg. Ivy Foster Sr. of Taylor, Texas, had heard of the accident and rushed to the train station in Taylor to meet the train and assist where needed simply to locate 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 rest of the 1927 season was canceled. The catastrophe had reverberations over the whole nation and nation and led to the building of the first railway overpass in Texas where the event happened at Round Rock. Buses were later needed to return to a full stop and open the door at all railway crossings to listen to trains. The Immortal Ten story has been commemorated each year since 1927 initially in Chapel services then later at the Freshman Mass Meeting during Homecoming Week. In 2007, the event was also memorialized in bronze on the Baylor campus at Traditions Plaza.
About the 90th anniversary of the catastrophe, January 22, 2017, the City of Round Rock held a memorial event to recall those who were murdered in the train-bus collision. In the event, the city committed 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 public, and attendees included 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 title). The Bears reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1946, and reached the Final Four in 1948 and 1950. Bill Henderson’s 1948 group advanced to play the Kentucky Wildcats for the NCAA championship, but dropped 58–42 to Adolph Rupp’s first national championship team. The group again advanced into the NCAA Final Four in 1950 beneath Henderson losing to the Bradley Braves 68–66. Bill Menefee (1962–1973) will lead the Bears to a nationwide ranking in 1969 but failed to make the postseason that year. Menefee was the only coach over the next 50 years to really have a career listing of over .500, and would later serve as Baylor’s athletic director from the 1980s. Gene Iba’s 1988 NCAA championship team would be 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 murdered by former teammate Carlton Dotson; then-coach Dave Bliss was forced to resign amidst allegations that he had violated NCAA rules by making financial payments to four players and that he made improper statements to the media characterizing Dennehy as a drug dealer. The school put itself on probation, restricted itself to 7 scholarships for two years and imposed a post-season ban for a year. Additionally, the NCAA further punished the team by initiating a non-conference ban to the 2005–2006 season and extending the probationary period during which the faculty would have restricted recruiting statements.
Decade Long Resurgence
The 2005 Bears were hindered by only having 7 scholarship players and recorded only one win in conference playwith. In spite of these challenges, head coach Scott Drew managed to gather a 2005 signing class ranked No. 7 nationally by HoopScoop.
The basketball program experienced a resurgence under coach Scott Drew having an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2008 for the first time in 20 years with a 9–7 conference record and the team’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 again was ranked early in the season but stumbled to a 5–11 summit finish before heating up in the Big 12 Tournament defeating both Kansas and Texas en route to the championship game 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 first round NIT victory within the Georgetown Hoyas at Waco.
The 2008–09 team went on to advance to the NIT Final where they fell to Penn State. The 2009–10 squad was rated in both polls and hauled off the largest road win in school history over the then #6 Texas Longhorns in Austin 80–77 on Jan. 30th. The Bears closed out the season with a Big 12 era best 11–5 record and #1 in the Big 12 tournament.
The 2009–10 team was picked to finish 10th in the Big 12 at the Big 12 Coaches Poll as a result of graduation of several important players from the previous calendar year. However, the group finished the regular season 23–6 and tied for 2nd in the Big 12 standings. After a 2–1 album in the Big 12 championship, the Bears were rewarded with a #1 in the South Region of the NCAA tournament. The Bears defeated #14 seed Sam Houston State 68–59 in First Round action and then defeated #11 seed Old Dominion 76–68 in Second Round drama to advance to the Sweet 16 hosted in Reliant Stadium in Houston. The Bear’s Sweet 16 match-up was 10 seed Saint Mary’s, that had defeated #2 seed Villanova the previous week ahead of the Sweet 16. The Bears won handily over the Gaels, 72–49, after major 47–19 in the half. The Elite Eight was held at Reliant Stadium and the Bears’ opponent was the #1 seed Duke Blue Devils, the final #1 seed standing 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 crowd of over 47,000, the Bears were defeated by the Duke Blue Devils, 78–71, to end the magical run to the Elite Eight. It was the best season from the Scott Drew era as characterized by conference standing, overall ranking, wins, and NCAA championship wins. The Bears finished the year ranked #10 from the final ESPN/Coaches Poll–the maximum ranking in program history at that time.
The 2010–11 team started the season ranked 14th (according to this AP Preseason poll). The Bears began 7–0, and climbed to 9th in the polls before falling to Gonzaga in a neutral court in Dallas. The team finished 18–13 overall and 7–9 in league play. The highlight of the season was Lacedarius Dunn becoming the Big 12’s all-time leading scorer, and a sweep of the series versus ranked Texas A&M. After freshman star Perry Jones III was suspended from the NCAA for six games, the Bears proceeded to lose their first-round game of the Big 12 Championship from Oklahoma.
The 2012 season saw another historic effort for the Bears as they followed the 2011 season with another successful seminar run which saw the Bears win 30 games and make it to the Big 12 tournament title match. The Bears were selected for the NCAA tournament and made it all of the way to the Elite Eight, which ended at a loss to eventual national champion Kentucky.
The 2013 season witnesses another winning campaign for the Bears as they followed the 2012 Elite Eight season with another successful seminar run which saw the Bears sweep both TCU and Texas Tech while just dropping one match to UT. The bears started out using a pre-season ranking of #19 in the country. The Boys finish conference play at .500 and were chosen for the NIT tournament. The Bears made it all the way into the Final, which ended in a win over Iowa, winning the tournament in front of a large crowd in Madison Square Garden and promising that the 2013 NIT Title.

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