Young Howard Hobson led
Oregon to the first national
championship in basketball
The first-ever NCAA
basketball championship
trophy ever awarded went
to the Ducks in 1939
By Steve Spatz
Of the Emerald
h 1939 "
Just the mention of the year lights up
Howard Hobson's face The number rolls
smoothly from his tongue as if he was speaking of a
good friend
It was the year that Adolph Hitler launched mankind
into a worldwide struggle for freedom A time when the
U S was slowly picking itself up out of the Depression,
and speculating whether F.D.R would run for an
unprecedented third term
It was also the year young coach Howard Hobson
directed the University of Oregon basketball squad to
the very first national collegiate championship. Played
in a tiny gymnasium in Evanston, III., witnessed by the
inventor of the game, Dr James Naismith, the ‘‘Tall
Firs” of Oregon defeated Ohio State, 46-33, to capture
the championship.
“There were about 5,000 fans packed into this little
gym, and no one could care less about the game except
the two teams playing," says Howard Hobson, 77,
laughing “It was terrible."
“But after we won, when we came back home to
Portland and Eugene, the whole place just went crazy.”
Forty-two years have passed and a lot of jump shots
have been put up since then. Yet, the memories of the
special year are still fresh and vivid for Hobson as he sits
in his sun streaked Portland apartment, home for
himself and Jennie, his wife of 55 years.
As he goes back in time, you can almost place him
in the team picture taken in 1939 — the confident coach
surrounded by his tall players. He perches stiffly on the
edge of the couch, immersed in thought His tanned
brow wrinkles in concentration as he goes back in time,
when his now-silver mane was a deep brown The
moments live once more.
"We were very confident going into the playoffs,”
says Hobson of his squad, led by 6-8 center "Slim"
Wintermute, forwards Laddie Gale and John Dick, plus
backcourt starters Bobby Anet and Wally Johanson,
teammates since junior high All the starters were native
Oregonians, and the rest from no further away than
Idaho
'We didn't know anything about Ohio State and
they didn't know anything about us Neither team had
scouted the other All we had to go on was their
reputation and season records "
"I remember it was a very poorly lit court, and our
shooting wasn't up to par in the first half
"What helped us is that we controlled the boards,’’
says Hobson, refering to his club's superior height —
hence the nickname 'Tall Firs ' "If we didn't make the
first shot then we might get the fourth shot ”
There is a curious mix of past, present and future
within Hobson and his relationship to the game of
basketball. He is a symbol of the game's illustrious past,
qualifying perhaps as the John Wooden of his day Yet,
he remains in the mainstream of college basketball to
Members of the 1939 NCAA championship team
celebrate their victory.
this day As to the future, many of Hobson’s ideas
formulated during World War II are still bantered about
when talk of rule changes surfaces
Even his attire hints at the blend, as the garb suited
for a man his age — dress slacks, loafers and a check
ered sports shirt — is offset by green-and-gold athletic
socks
Howard Hobson s path to becoming one of the
greatest coaches of his time, began, predicta
bly enough, with a successful athletic career at
the U of O in basketball and baseball Following Ifiis
junior year, Hobson began pursuing a coaching career
He coached first at Kelso (Washington) High
School, with a team he terms "not very good " But he
built them into league champions within two years He
did the same thing at Benson High in Portland, before
assuming the head basketball post at Southern Oregon
College at age 29
By guiding his squad to six wins in eight games ovei
his more talented alma mater, Hobson attracted the
attention of Oregon officials who promptly hired him in
1936
He made the big jump in coaching ranks and
became one of the youngest head coaches in the
Pacific Coast Conference at 33 — an interesting parallel
to the present coach, Jim Haney, who began at age 29
And Hobson, like Haney, had problems in those early
years
"The first year was very difficult," recants Hobson,
"because it's hard for a new coach coming in to get the
complete support of the veterans We had a few disci
plinary problems that year, just as Jim Haney had with
(Dan) Hartshorne and (Paul) Bain
"It takes time for a coach to settle in, that's all."
A few years later, following the championship year,
Hobson was at the top of his profession His teams at
Oregon, and later those he coached at Yale, played to
packed houses The wild, stampeding fast break style
he popularized drew raves from all over the nation
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