Before Division I: The Shockers’ first steps

Recruiting for the first basketball team at Fairmount College in 1905 was more of a plea for players. “Everybody come out with the intention of being the star on the team,” physical education teacher Willis Bates wrote in the campus newspaper. “Come and bring someone with you.”

Six men have the distinction of being on that first team, which was 2-4 with victories over Mulvane High and the Hutchinson YMCA. By the 1920s, though, Fairmount (and later the University of Wichita) began to produce notable players.

Harold “Buddy” Reynolds, Harold Davis and Ross McBurney were star players during the decade, then the program really took off under coach Gene Johnson, who gets credit for developing a full-court zone press that was unheard of then but still in use today.

In 1933, Francis Johnson (Gene’s brother) and Bill Hennigh led the Shockers to a 14-2 and a spot in the prestigious AAU national tournament. Johnson left WU over a contract dispute and coached three AAU champions and the gold-winning 1936 U.S. Olympic team in Berlin.

This story was originally published March 4, 2014 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Before Division I: The Shockers’ first steps."