Basketball Anniversary has Local Tie
by Dave Burcham
It's not much bigger than a quarter, but for Hiram College, it's an
invaluable treasure.
Exactly 100 years ago, the small institution of higher learning
that's located about five miles from the Trumbull County border in
Portage County, brought home a rare momento from the Olympic Games
held at the World's Fair in St. Louis.
And the first college basketball gold medal remains untarnished and
encased in the Hiram College archives.
A seven-member team captured the rarest of prizes in a sport that
was known then as basket ball (two words) at the 1904 Olympic
Games. It was played for the first time as a demonstration sport at
the first Olympics held within the borders of the United
States.
Hiram qualified by winning the Ohio intercollegiate
championship.
Since travel from Europe was costly and time consuming, 500 of the
700 athletes competing in the 1904 games were Americans. The
winners of the 1904 gold-medal game were billed as winners of the
world's championship.
Games were played outdoors, on a clay surface. Baskets were
attached to the top of a pole, not a backboard. The ball had laces
on the outside--similar to a football--which made passing important
and dribbling difficult. Players could not shoot after dribbling,
only after receiving a pass.
There was no three-second rule. Only shots taken using the set-shot
style of shooting counted in the scoring. A jump ball at center
court followed each basket. There was no shot clock to speed up
play, so games were low-scoring affairs that highlighted ball
movement to create open shots. No noise was
permitted from the sidelines, so spectators could not cheer.
Hiram played Wheaton College of Illinois in the first game at 10:45
a.m. after a night of rain, creating slippery conditions. The game
was described as fast
and furious. Despite enjoying an advantage in size, Wheaton trailed
15-13 at halftime and lost to Hiram 25-20.
After Wheaton defeated Latter Day Saints University (LDS&),
40-35, in the afternooon game, Hiram defeated LDSU 25-18 to earn
the gold. All seven players, plus two advisors received a gold
medal. One of the medals is displayed in Hiram's archives.
Members of the gold-winning team were: J.J. Line, Paul Wilson,
Wallace Smith, Carl Clark, Lester Hurd, Ben Phillips and Earl
Clark.
Timothy Bryan, assistant to the President at Hiram College in media
relations, is attempting to track descendants, although he admits,
"We're not having much success."
Bryan remembers how he first felt when he first learned of the gold
medal years ago: "This was just too good to be true."
Bryan said Hiram college has promoted its gold medal in different
ways during his 17 years at the school, but there never has been a
better time than now--the 100-year anniversary of the event that
just happens to coincide with the 2004 Olympics.
Hiram had hoped to schedule a game against Wheaten [sic] during the
upcoming season to commemorate their game 100 years ago. But Bryan
says there has been little interest from the Illionois school.
Latter Day Saints University, in Salt Lake City, Utah, was one of
the schools founded by Brigham Young and eventually evolved into
Brigham Young University.
Bryan said the college plans to make replicas of its gold medal and
offer them to members of this year's team representing the United
States. Of course, that depends on whether Allen Iverson, LeBron
James and company can be successful in Athens, Greece. Perhaps the
U.S. team should have included a player from Hiram to enhance their
chances.
-from the August 15, 2004 issue of the Warren Tribune Chronicle
