Final home game provides chance for b-ball reunion
On Saturday March 2 up on the third floor of the Jim & Carol Laub Athletic Complex overlooking the north end zone of USU’s football field a former USU star basketball player Elmo Garff asked his son, “Is this my salad?”
“No dad that’s your cheesecake, your dessert,” his son, Richard Garff replied.
Garff is now 94 years old, almost blind and has a slow, labored walk but 70 years ago he was quick as a dart and had an eye like a sniper. Garff was a member of Utah State’s basketball team from 1935-39, only thing was it wasn’t then known as the Utah State University basketball team it was the Utah State Agricultural College basketball team. Garff is one of the many players who traveled from across the nation to come together for USU’s second basketball reunion. At 94 Garff is the most senior of the Aggies who attended but not the only one in his 90s to have played with coach E.L. Romney. Roland Reading, 90, played from 1937-41 under coach Romney and was part of the first ever NCAA tournament in 1939.
Reading said that they were actually the second best team in the conference that year behind Colorado and that Colorado had been asked to participate in the tournament. Colorado declined because they hoped to get an invitation to the NIT tournament, which was the main tournament of the time, Utah State was invited only after Colorado declined.
Reading recalled the story, he said the team took a bus to Salt Lake where they boarded a train headed to San Fransisco to play in the West-region tournament. The tournament was single elimination with four teams from the West, playing in San Fransisco, and four teams from the East, playing in Philadelphia. The two regional representatives would then play the championship game in Evanston, Ill. Utah Agricultural College, or “The Cow College,” as Reading called, it was matched up against Oklahoma, to whom they lost 39-50. The two losing West teams, USU and Texas, then played for third place. Reading remembers the game being tied in the final seconds and missing an easy layup, but luckily having it tipped in by one of his teammates and winning the game 51-49. Oregon went on to play Ohio State in the championship game that year with Oregon winning 46-33.
“Nobody had heard of the NCAA tournament – no one knew what it was,” Reading said. “To us it was just another trip, just another game.”
Reading wasn’t the only one to play in historically important game.
“It was the 1936 Olympics and that was when Hitler was in power. That was before your time but he was killing everyone off you see,” Garff said.
The Berlin Olympics of 1936 was the first time Olympic basketball was an official medal sport. As pro basketball was still in its infancy, the best college basketball teams from around the US played in Madison Square Garden to see who would represent their country. Utah Agricultural College was one of those teams to try out and Garff was one of eight USU players chosen to play in the Garden.
“It was an experience you’d have just once in a lifetime,” Garff said. “To play in Madison Square Garden was the ultimate … everyone played just as well as they possibly could but we ended up just a couple points short.”
Exactly 70 years after USU made their first NCAA tournament appearance the Aggies return, no longer one of eight but now one of 65 teams fighting for the chance to call themselves national champions. Although many things have changed, such as the length of the shorts, the height of the players, the material of shoes, the pace and the rules, one thing remains the same for “cow college” basketball … the desire to win.
c.h.j@aggiemail.usu.edu