University Basketball Team Called One of Fastest in the Nation

Ten Men Go East

January 20, 1943

The University of Wyoming basketball team made an impression in the East during the team's Christmas-New Year trip, when the Cowboys played in Pittsburgh, Reading, Philadelphia, New York City, Rochester and Detroit.

Eastern sports writers and radio announcers told Head Basketball Coach Ev Shelton that the Wyoming teams on its visit last year to New York was considered one of the two most striking and popular teams to play in Madison Square Garden.

"We were saying," said Stan Lomax, sports announcer for WOR, New York radio station, "that City College had the fastest team in the nation. But Wyoming came to town, and then we knew Wyoming had it. That is what we think also this year."

Shelton points out, however, that although Wyoming won five, it lost its first Eastern game, that in Pittsburgh with Duqesne. Duquesne has not, in fact, lost on its home floor in eight years.

Albright's defeat by the Cowboys was the first Albright loss in seven games, LaSalle's the first loss in six games, St. Francis' the first loss in six games. Rochester had won 22 straight before they lost to the Cowboys by 68-45. Lawrence Tech, with a long-term score average of 62 points, had won nine straight before losing to the University of Southern California preceding the visit of the Cowboys.

The 14,000 spectators who saw Wyoming play St. Francis in New York were so impressed by Milo Komenich, Wyoming center, that when Shelton brought him out of the game four minutes before its end, the New York spectators forced the referee to hold the ball while they gave Milo a long applause. A minute before the game's end Shelton took out Sailors. One of the Wyoming men timed the applause which the crowd also gave Kenny. It was nearly three minutes before the game could proceed.

"We may have injuries," says Shelton, "and any team has bad days. But Wyoming has an advantage this year, and that is in the spirit. It's in how the boys work together. They subordinate themselves to their team. A referee told me in the East that he would rather officiate for the Wyoming club than any other basketball club he had ever seen."