Cincy sports trivia

[JohnU]

I had no real place to put this but does anyone remember when this guy played basketball for the best UC teams of all time (or thereabouts)?




Carl Bouldin Baseball Stats by Baseball Almanac

 

[Hit-n-Run]

I was 5-6 years old when UC won back to back NCAA's, but I know/heard plenty of stories surrounding the glory years.

Carl Bouldin played a big role in the 1st UC Championship. He still lives in the area, but doesn't get anywhere near the notoriety that The Big O gets even though Oscar didn't play on either of the two Championship teams. A lot of good players get lost in the shadow of a legend like Oscar Robertson.

Adding a little fabric to the subject.
Carl Bouldin's Senior year was the first UC Championship. It was also Ed Jucker's first year as Headcoach. Earlier in Ed Jucker's career at UC he coached baseball. Ed Jucker coached a UC Freshman pitcher that would become a baseball legend equal to basketball great Oscar Robertson.

The name of that Freshman pitcher that came to UC on a basketball scholarship was Sandy Koufax.

Koufax left UC to sign with the Dodgers after his Freshman year.

 

[JohnU]

I recall following all the UC recruits in those days around the years Oscar played. Guys like Dierking, Fritz Meyer, Thacker, Yates ... when they got Paul Hogue, that was a huge deal because Hogue could play. Bonham, George Wilson ... they had a 6-11 guy named Ron Reed who never got into games. In the late 50s, a 6-11 guy was RARE. Thacker, at 6-2, was an amazing athlete.

I will never forgive Jucker for going into a stall against Loyola with 10 minutes left, up 15 points.

Those were amazing years of basketball. Even Xavier won an NIT, I think.

As I recall, the Reds had a chance to sign Koufax but passed for some reason that he would have had to be on the big club roster. Can't recall the details but Koufax was a long way from being a Hall of Famer.

 

[JohnU]

Anecdotal story about Oscar ... the UC team was invited to play in the ECAC tournament in O's soph season. In those days, the ECAC holiday tournament was THE basketball event of the year. Only the best teams got invited to MSG, so so they told us. The East Coast media didn't have a lot of respect for "Midwestern" teams and the scribes there thought Oscar was overrated. Naturally, they were quite bigoted.

In any event, UC was to play Seton Hall in the first game and one of the scribes said the Setons would show Oscar how the game was MEANT to be played.

Oscar scored 56 points and Seton Hall scored 54.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

I only got to see Oscar play as a pro. Did you go to any Royals' games at the Gardens John?

 

[JohnU]

I only got to see Oscar play as a pro. Did you go to any Royals' games at the Gardens John?

Only went to one Royals game at CG and that was pre-Oscar. It was in about 1958 and the Royals were pretty bad. They had Lovellete an Twyman, maybe Mo Stokes, SiHugo Green. The deal was, we got out of school to see the game

but

the game we were going to see was the Globetrotters. The Royals were the "OTHER" game on the card that night. In those days, the NBA really wasn't that big a deal. Royals played the Knicks that night -- Willie Naulls, maybe Nat Clifton ... can't recall. Big Clyde L had that ba dass hook shot. Twyman had a magic touch. He ended up being Mo Stokes' guardian after Mo got sleeping sickness.

I did follow the Royals on radio (Ed Kennedy announced) when Oscar was on the team, eventually joined by Jerry Lucas.

Getting to Cincy in those days was really not that easy and my step-dad wasn't a real big fan of pro basketball.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

The last time I saw the Royals play Bob Cousy was the coach.

I'd rather have seen Bob Cousy play.

I don't miss the Royals anymore than I miss the Stingers.

 

[JohnU]

I'd rather have seen Bob Cousy play.

Cousy was very good. During the early days of the NBA, he was amazing.

This is some NBA stuff.


I can't find the Holy Cross stuff but as you can imagine, he was far advanced for the slow pace of play of his day.