PJC Indians – January 1947 & 1948

January 1947 - This season we really got serious about basketball. Some of the veterans were still smoking, and Coach Simmons said it was okay if they wanted to, but he really ran them a lot and most of them quit.

Champions! - on the way to California

We had a very successful season and won the conference championship. In March we were invited to the Western States College Basketball Tournament in Compton, California and really wanted to go since we hadn’t gone the previous season.

Tournament Schedule

We left for the tournament a week early to get to California in time to be rested up and get some practice at the lower altitude. We lost to Dixie first on Wednesday at 3:30, and then to McNeese on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. We had a great time, but were not too successful against the large schools that were competing at Compton Jr. College in Los Angeles. They were much bigger schools and just too much competition.

Leona and I had very little money, and I kept what I had for Leona. The coach would pay for my meals and rooms, so I needed very little. To get some money, I ate big when Coach paid for the meals, and I ate little when he gave me money to buy my own meals. So I came home with more money than I had when I left on the trip!

Final season for my college basketball career - 1948
We started basketball again in December of 1947 by playing two teams in one night! We won the first, but lost the second and Coach Simmons said that we should have won both games, but some of the team were still smoking and not able to keep going because we weren’t in shape. Needless to say, he really worked us hard getting ready for the next games. We never lost another game and we were invited to a National Tournament, this time in Scott City, Kansas. [Our local source reports that the team won 22 straight games!]
We left Pueblo in three cars in mid March 1948. As we got into Kansas it was snowing and there was a lot of snow already on the ground. We were following a snowplow as we finally got to a small hotel in Greensburg, Kansas and stayed there until the tournament was over, and then we headed back to Pueblo, very disappointed. My basketball career had ended; what a way to end!