re: LSU Basketball 1935 National Champs

Spary and the National Champs

They came from a time when the big feature at the Paramount was "Peck's Bad Boy: and the theater's Saturday morning highlight was Betty Boop's Kiddie Show

Ham sold for 14 cents a pound and the newly-born Dionne quintuplets were almost daily news.

The 1934-1935 LSU cagers will always hold a special spot in the hearts of Tiger fans--and they should. They were the first and only national basketball champions at the Ole War Skule.

Basketball was still a relatively new phenomenon at LSU when Harry Rabenhorst fielded his senior-laden '34-'35 squad.

His bread and butter man was 5'7" magician Malcolm "Sparky" Wade, and the Tigers fielded a lineup that included names like Judge, Shongaloo, Taxas Bo and Bucky.

LSU had gone 15-8 under Rabenhorst when the Southeastern Conference was first formed in 1932-33. They followed with a 13-4 season while Alabama was declared conference champion.

But it was an experienced squad that Coach Raby sent to the court on Dec. 18, 1934 to face Southwestern Louisiana Institute (later USL). The small, but quick Tigers raced to an early lead and waltzed to a 54-30 victory--a lot of points for that era.

Forward Bill Leathers led the way in that opener with 13 points, while Wade and Lloyd "Shongaloo" Lindsy each had 12.

Still, not much was known about the Tigers' SEC chances. The league ws not yet on a round robin schedule and no tournament would be held to decide a true champion.

"The starting five had played to gether for four years", said Nathan "Buddy" Blair, one of the first team fowards and now with the Department of Education in Monroe. "We knew we had quickness and experience, but we didn't know much about our opposition".

After bowling over Alabama twice, the Tigers ran afoul of a hot Rice team in Houston and lost 56-47. Ben Journeay, who teamed in the backcourt with Wade, was so unnerved at playing against his twin brother that he fouled out well before halftime.

But that loss was to be the lone blemish in a great Tiger season. A pair of wins over Ole Miss, Tulane and Mississippi State followed, before the Tigers faced Vanderbilt for their fifth and sixth games in eight days.

They whipped the Commodores twice and then thumped Tulane two straight to extend their mastery over the Greenies to 11 games in a row.

Though they had not faced Kentucky, the Bengals were awarded the SEC title because they finished 12-0 to the Wildcats' 11-0 in league play.

Wade, the colorful playmaker whose behind the back antics brought him the tag of "clown", won his third straight conference scoring crown. And Blair and Harris made the second team All-SEC.

Still ther was nowhere to go when the season ended on Feb. 23. Some Tigers headed for spring football practice, while others like Blair made the track and baseball teams.

W.I. Spencer, then sports editor of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate first broke the news of an impending game in his daily "Post Mortems in Sports" column two weeks later.

American Legion chairman Prof. S. E. Hippensteel had arranged for Pittsburgh, champions of the East to meet LSU for the mythical national championship on April 13. The game would be played in Atlantic City where their giant auditorium would hold the expected crush of fans.

The mob never developed. Only 5,000 of the anticipated 25,000 showed up to see LSU win 41-37 behind Blair's 20 points.

The Panthers of coach H. C. Carlsen put a vise-like defense on Wade and held him to five points. But Blair and Lindsey penetrated the rough-house Pitt defenders and led a second half barrage.

Journeay tied the game 33-33 on a late free throw, and from there it was all Tigers. Blair looped in a long set shot and then added six more points in the final minutes.

A rousing welcome greeted the champs when they returned by train after six days of sightseeing along the east coast. Along with the '33 track title, it was LSU's second national crown in three years.

Wade went on to make Chuck Taylor's All-American squad. Today he is a commercial pilot for Pan AM and is based in Miami. His daughter Patti and son Sparky Jr. are both students at LSU.

It would be 18 years before another Tiger team had a shot at the national title.

Lloyd "Shongaloo" Lindsey - nick named for his hometown.

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Um,when was this written ?

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1973

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Is it bad that I knew this?

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Not at all.

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the shoe guy? i didn't know he manufactured hypothetical basketball teams too

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I was wondering the same thing. Is this where the term All American came from?

woah

Update: Apparently All-American started in 1889. Way before Chuck.

That's awesome. You got a bigger picture than that? I've been looking for one in digital format for years and haven't been able to find it.

Must be stalking you today, hadn't read down the thread and was wondering why you posted. Then I read the names of the players and understood.

I didn't know Shongaloo = Lloyd Lindsey. The heighth genes still run strong in that family.

You must look like your grandmother.

why are they wearing ULL's uniforms?