History of the 1936 United States men's Olympic basketball team
Basketball has become a staple of the Summer Olympics, but its a realtive newcomer to the games. During the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, the game was part of an exhabition of new sports that was shown. Three teams played in St. Louis; the United States, Canada and Cuba. The US beat Cuba 3-2 in the final game. Likewise, there was a basketball exhabition for the 1924 games in Paris were the United Kingdom won. But the very first time basketball was an Olympic sport was in 1936 in Berlin.
The Berlin Games are famous for a lot of reasons and basketball's inclusion to the Games is little noted. The Games were given to Germany who had just recently seen the Nazi's take over.
Basketball had just been invented in the United States by James Naismith less than 40 years earlier had ballooned in popularity by the late 1920s and many were excited to see the best players in the world compete against each other. The US was heavy favorites for a medal because most colleges and universities by this point had teams and the amateur game in the US was second to none.
The US selected all amateur players, as would be the custom for the US until 1992, for the Games. Many of the players played for Corperate teams. Corperate teams were teams owned by businesses who did not pay their players, instead the players worked for the company and were paid for their work there and thus were considered amatuers. Seven of the 14 players on the roster worked and played for Universal Pictures out of Los Angeles, California. Six others played and worked for McPherson Globe Refiners in Kansas. The only member of the 1936 team not to be a player for Universal or McPherson was Ralph Bishop from the University of Washington.
One point of contraversy on the roster selection was the exclusion of three members of the NCAA's Long Island Blackbirds, a team who had just gone 25-0 and won the Nation Championship. Jules Bender, Ben Kramer and Art Hillhouse were all shoe-ins to make the roster, but because of the Anti-Semtic policies of the Nazi's, they and other Long Island players boycotted the Olympics. Long Island University not only protested the basketball inclusion in the games, but actively sought to have the United States boycotte Olympics as a whole. The boycotte failed and the US participated in the games.
The US got a shocker when they arrived in Europe for the games. FIBA rules were vastly different than American rules, and the US was informed that rosters were to be just 7 players. One rule change that sent the Americans into a fit was that players were to be 6'2" or under. US coach Jim Needles successfully protested this ruling and won. He failed to win the protest about roster size, and ended up splitting his team into two squads. One squad was full of Universal Players, the other full of McPherson players and Bishop, and he would alternate sqauds for each match.
Unlike the modern games, the 1936 Games were more like street ball - which ironically was something that the American players were not accustomed to playing. All 14 US players had been playing in the best gymnasiums in the US with even floors and standard rims. The 1936 games were to be played out doors on clay surfaces that turned to mud with just the players sweat.
The US got one more shocker in their very first game, their opponent the Spanish national team never showed up. Spain was embroiled in the middle of the Spanish Civil War and could not attend the games. The US was there awarded a 2-0 forfeit victory.
The American's second game was against Estonia - a highly touted opponent made up of what some were calling the best players in Europe. The American's started their international basketball tradition of obliterating opponents 52-28. A 24-point win might not sound like much in today's game, but at the time the games were much shorter and scoring was at a premium.
The US had another blowout win in their third game vs the Philippines winning 56-23. This win put the US into the medal round. where they faced Mexico. The game vs Mexico was a lot closer and the Mexicans actually held the US to just 25 points, but were only able to score 10 themselves.
The US would face Canada in the Gold Medal game which is probably the worst basketball game in history. The game was played outdoors and the weather was atrocious. A downpour of rain made it all but impossible to dribble the basketball. The team teams managed to combine for just 8 points in the second half as the United States would claim its very first Olympic gold medal in basketball with a score of 19-8.
The Medals were handed out to the players by James Naismith himself, in what would be one of his last public events. Naismith would die 3 years later.
Joe Fortenberry, a 6'8" center would lead the US in scoring at 7.3 points per game. he would go on to have a very successful AAU career playing for the Phillips 66ers and winning the AAU title in 1940. Fortenberry is often credited with being the first player to dunk a basketball. It is thought that the dunk was around before Fortenberry, but a New York Times article from 1936 is the first to credit him with the act. Dunking the ball was also likely a common thing for Fortenberry as German Chancellor Adolf Hitler is said to have wanted to see him dunk the basketball, but upon seeing him thought him to "Jewis" and left the event. Fortenberry's Olympic gold medal showed up on the PBS hit TV show Antiques Roadshow and was appraised between $100,000 and $150,000.
Ralph Bishop would go on to play for the Denver Nuggets, and would be the only member of the 1936 team to play in the NBA when the Nuggets joined the NBA in 1949.
Sam Balter was the only Jewish player on the team and originally was not going to play because of the Nazi propaganda, but was convinced to play to help disprove the Nazi's claims. In the late 1940s Balter would go on become a famous sportscaster in the Los Angeles area and was known as the "voice of UCLA football and basketball". He was also the broadcast announcer for the ABA's Los Angeles Stars.
Frank Lubin not only played for the US during the 1936 Olympics, but was also the coach of the Lithuanian national team. He would go on to play for Lithuania and have a very successful career. When Nazi Germany invaded Lithuania in World War II, Lubin had to flee and returned to California. Lubin is often called the "grandfather of Lithuanian basketball.
Duane Swanson ended up playing briefly for the Sheboygan Red Skins of the NBL. He would serve in the Army during WWII and spend the rest of his career in the entertainment industry.
Tex Gibbons, Francis Johnson, Carl Knowles, Art Mollner, Don Piper, Jack Ragland, Will Schmidt, Carl Shy and Bill Wheatley rounded out the roster.
23 nations entered the 1936 games, but 2 (Spain and Hungary withdrew) and 199 played in at least one game during the Games. The US won gold, Canada silver and Mexico bronze. Since there were no seeding games, the last place finish was a three-way tie between Belgium, France and Turkey. The host, Germany, which touted its racial superiority finished 18th behind the Republic of China, Egypt, Japan, Brazil and Peru.
Five American born players played for Latvia.
At least 13 players who played in the 1936 Olympic basketball tournament were killed either fighting in World War II, or the attrocities which acompanied the War. The majority of Olympians who lost their lives were either German, French,Czech, Estonian, or Japanese.
It would be another 12 years before the Olympics would return due to the fighting of World War II.
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