letters
Welcome, Bill Bayno
I thoroughly enjoyed the summer 2008 Vistas article welcoming Bill Bayno as new LMU basketball coach. It reminded me of the arrival on campus of another basketball coach, the great Jimmy Needles, who came to Loyola from the University of San Francisco in 1935 and coached into the ’40s.
One problem Bill Bayno and most coaches never have is providing a practice court for their teams. In Needles’ case, he found he had a few willing players, but no gym, no place to practice. So it became his duty to spend time hunting for practice venues. The team spent at least one season working out on the gently rolling floor of the old Santa Monica Ballroom on the Santa Monica Pier, the same ballroom, now long gone, which later became well known as home to the Spade Cooley Show.
Did Needles know his basketball? Consider this. When he came to Loyola, Needles was also the coach of a local Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team, Universal Pictures, which included several former UCLA greats. After some tournament play, Universal Pictures was selected to represent the United States in the first Olympic competition in 1936, which the team won handily. Conceding that basketball then was not the global force it is today, it is reasonable to argue that Needles’ AAU team was the best in the world.
Further evidence of Needles’ ability to teach basketball is the fact that two of his Loyola players of that period now reside in basketball’s Hall of Fame. Phil Woolpert is there for coaching USF, which had Bill Russell and K.C. Jones, to two National Collegiate Athletic Association titles in the ’50s. Pete Newell gained fame coaching at Michigan State and University of California, Berkeley, and as coach of a U.S. Olympic championship team in the ’60s.
Of course, the Jimmy Needles era is only one small segment of LMU’s basketball history, but it’s enough to show LMU’s potential. So, Bill Bayno, I know you’re ready to make your contribution. Best wishes to you and to your team.
W. Jess Sweeters ’39
Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Editor’s Note: W. Jess Sweeters, author of the above letter, was a member of the 1938 Loyola University basketball team, along with Pete Newell and Phil Woolpert. At left is a photo of Jimmy Needles’ 1938 LMU squad (clockwise): Coach Needles (top), Paul “Ichabod” Kanne, Pete “Foggy” Newell, Carl Hovland, Edwin “Scotty” McDonald, Peter Rocovich, Tony “Snow White” Quigley, Vidi Kriste, W. Jess “Free-wheeling” Sweeters, Dick Palmatary, Francis “Skeezix” Schnieders, Pat McGarry and Phil “Tor” Woolpert..
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