1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history. 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:13,000 This is Elgin Baylor of the Minneapolis Lakers. In a few moments I'll tell you about my greatest sports thrill. 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:28,000 This is Harry Wismer. What you're about to hear is a transcribed story of one of pro basketball's 4 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:37,000 outstanding players and an event our special guest, Elgin Baylor, considers his greatest sports thrill. 5 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:47,000 And Elgin himself is here to tell us all about it. But first, here is Bill Ratick with a message of interest from your United States Air Force. 6 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:54,000 Service, volley, smash, lob. You have to know them all to succeed in tennis. 7 00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:05,000 By the same token, Air Force flying officers must know aircraft engineering, navigation, and airborne electronics in order to succeed in their chosen profession. 8 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:15,000 These men have exciting jobs with brilliant futures ahead. In the years to come, they'll operate the radically new vehicles that will explore outer space. 9 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:23,000 And of course, everyone recognizes that Air Force pilots and navigators are leaders of men because they're taught to command and take responsibility. 10 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:28,000 Why not be one of them? Wouldn't you like a career with the United States Air Force? 11 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:35,000 The requirements are high, but the rewards and prestige, benefits, and future advancement are outstanding. 12 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:42,000 If you're between 19 and 26 and a half and a high school graduate, see your local Air Force recruiter. 13 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:47,000 Become an aviation cadet now. Now back to Harry Wismer. 14 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:56,000 People who should know are saying that Elgin Baylor can't miss becoming the greatest basketball player who ever tore up and down a hardwood floor. 15 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:04,000 In fact, his coach at Seattle University called Elgin Baylor the finest basketball player he had ever seen in his life. 16 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:09,000 This lavish statement was made while Baylor was still a sophomore at Seattle, mind you. 17 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:15,000 Today, he is a professional with the Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association. 18 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:25,000 An excellent rebounder, ball handler, dribbler, passer, and shooter, Elgin Baylor moves well with or without the ball and boxes out under both boards. 19 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,000 Along with this wealth of talent, he has the confidence and poise of a player that belongs. 20 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:39,000 In his first ten games in the NBA against the outstanding players in the league, Elgin Baylor proved beyond doubt that he is no ordinary rookie. 21 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:43,000 His average of 24 points per game attested to that. 22 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:51,000 After he had scored 34 points in a game against Syracuse, the net Seydolf Shays shook his head in disbelief and said, 23 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:53,000 He makes every shot in the book. 24 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:58,000 Considering that Shays has quite a repertoire himself, that's quite a compliment. 25 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:08,000 Standing 6'6", weighing 225 pounds, and being able to move with the effortless grace and precision of a well-oiled piece of machinery, 26 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:17,000 Elgin Baylor likes to take a jump shot from the outside, but he can drive like a small man and get the ball in from every conceivable angle. 27 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:20,000 Some of his shots have to be seen to be believed. 28 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:29,000 Seattle University fans got their biggest thrill watching him tear down the court on a fast break and dunk the ball into the basket. 29 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:39,000 In the opinion of most experts, Elgin Baylor was a far better basketball player in college than the more publicized and taller Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain. 30 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:44,000 Although 5 inches shorter than Wilt, Baylor outscored him in each of their two years in college. 31 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:54,000 Elgin Baylor is not perfect. He has his bad days too, just as he did in the 1957 National Invitation Tournament in Madison Square Garden. 32 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:58,000 Against St. Bonaventure, he played what was probably his worst game. 33 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:03,000 He passed badly and had the ball stolen away from him by the alert ball-hawking Bonneys. 34 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:10,000 His New York debut before 10,469 fans was a great big bust. 35 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:19,000 Yet, at his worst, he still managed to score 23 points and grab 25 rebounds, both figures high for each team. 36 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:24,000 Elgin Baylor first attracted attention while in high school in Washington, D.C. 37 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:31,000 There he scored 2,000 points in high school play and was named to the Helms High School All-America team. 38 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:41,000 Naturally, dozens of bright-eyed college coaches had their eyes on him, and he began to receive the attractive scholarship offers which come to every schoolboy phenom. 39 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:47,000 Schools like Seton Hall, Michigan, LaSalle, and Notre Dame were anxious to have him. 40 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:57,000 In the summer of 1954, Baylor was set to enter the service when he received a telephone call from Sammy Vokes, a coach at the College of Idaho. 41 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:03,000 Groundwork for the call had been laid out by a friend of Elgin's who played on the College of Idaho basketball team. 42 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:10,000 This small school was embarking on an ambitious athletic program and succeeded in getting Baylor. 43 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:18,000 When Elgin Baylor arrived at the College of Idaho, he found a fantastically talented bunch of playmates waiting. 44 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:25,000 This group included R.C. Owens, a great basketball player who now catches football passes for the San Francisco 49ers. 45 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:31,000 He also discovered a one-armed wizard named Gary Mays, plus several other top drawer players. 46 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:36,000 Together, this bunch set the Northwest Small Colleges on their ears. 47 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:43,000 Baylor averaged 31 points a game as a varsity freshman, and College of Idaho ran up a 24-3 record. 48 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:47,000 Baylor made the Small College All-America team. 49 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:52,000 At this point, College of Idaho started to de-emphasize the fact that it did not go unnoticed in Seattle. 50 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:58,000 A prosperous automobile dealer, an Arden Seattle Booster, wrote Baylor a letter inviting him to Seattle. 51 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:07,000 The plan called for Elgin to stay out of competition a year, as required by NCAA transfer rules, and play for an AAU basketball team. 52 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:14,000 Elgin Baylor averaged 33 points a game for the AAU club, coached by another Seattle All-American, Johnny O'Brien. 53 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:19,000 Some of his gymnastics that season are still the talk of the Northwest. 54 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:26,000 In one game, training by six points with a minute and a half to go, Baylor stole the ball cleanly four times in that minute and a half, 55 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:30,000 and won the game with a clutch basket as the final gun went off. 56 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:36,000 The fans in Seattle were well acquainted with Elgin Baylor's talents before he ever played a game with the college team. 57 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,000 There were, of course, skeptics. 58 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:46,000 Seattle's schedule was not considered particularly warlike, including, as it did, several small schools with below-average cage teams. 59 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:51,000 But two contests with Pacific Coast Conference schools converted the unbelievers. 60 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:57,000 In one of these, Baylor dunked in 33 points, and Seattle won 76 to 73. 61 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:07,000 In the other, he scored 22 points in the first half and 32 points in the last 20 minutes for a 54-point game total, breaking by three points, 62 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:12,000 the school record set by Johnny O'Brien in 1953. 63 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:19,000 Elgin Baylor made several All-American teams as a sophomore at Seattle, led the nation in rebounds with 538, 64 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:24,000 and finished with a scoring average of 29.7, third best in the country. 65 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:29,000 In his junior year, he went right ahead and improved on his sophomore record. 66 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:32,000 He was the country's second leading scorer. 67 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:44,000 Seattle proved a big surprise in the 1957-58 NCAA tourney, knocking off four rival colleges to advance to the finals against the mighty Kentucky Wildcats. 68 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:55,000 In the payoff game, Seattle led at the half, 39 to 36, but Baylor was lured into committing his fourth foul three minutes after the intermission and had to be careful thereafter. 69 00:07:55,000 --> 00:08:00,000 Even so, he scored 13 points in the second half and finished with 25. 70 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:06,000 Johnny Cox of Kentucky, however, scored 30, and the Wildcats won 84 to 72. 71 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:11,000 Baylor snared 19 rebounds in the game, high for both teams. 72 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:20,000 In the five tournament games, Elgin Baylor accounted for 135 points, a 27-point average which easily topped the entire field. 73 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:29,000 He was unanimously chosen on the NCAA All-Star team and selected as the tourney's most valuable performer. 74 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:37,000 Today, Elgin Baylor is doing everything in the NBA that his followers said he had been doing while in college and would do with the pros. 75 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:43,000 There's no question about it, Elgin Baylor is quite a basketball player. 76 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:56,000 And now before you meet our special guest, Elgin Baylor in person, and hear about his greatest sports thrill, here is a message of interest to all young men with an eye on the future. 77 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:01,000 One of the significant new words in today's language is aerospace. 78 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:12,000 The word aerospace describes the exciting world in which our Air Force operates, a world that combines aircraft, rockets, missiles, both inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere. 79 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:21,000 And of course the key man in all aerospace travel is the pilot, the U.S. Air Force officer who operates these advanced aircraft and space vehicles. 80 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:26,000 Today's pilots are given priceless training by the world's finest instructors. 81 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:31,000 They learn airborne electronics, engineering, plus administration and physical training. 82 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:37,000 If you'd like to apply for membership in the select company of Air Force pilots, check these qualifications. 83 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:43,000 Are you a graduate of an accredited high school, single, and between 19 and 26 and a half? 84 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:53,000 If so, contact your local Air Force recruiter and start on your way to a bright, exciting, rewarding future as a U.S. Air Force pilot. 85 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:56,000 Now back to Harry Wismer. 86 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:59,000 Elgin Baylor, what was your greatest sports thrill? 87 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:05,000 Well Harry, I think my greatest sports thrill was when I was in college at Seattle University. 88 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:10,000 It was the year of 1957-58 NCAA Far Western Regionals. 89 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:17,000 CLU was playing the University of San Francisco, and fortunate for us, we won the game. 90 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:27,000 And by winning the NCAA Regionals, it was the first time in the history of the school that CLU has ever advanced that far and to win an NCAA Regionals. 91 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:30,000 And Harry, I think that was my greatest thrill. 92 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:35,000 Elgin, what is the big difference you noticed in making the jump from college to professional ball? 93 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:38,000 Well Harry, it's the big jump. 94 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:46,000 The fellows are larger and it's tough offensively and defensively, and you find that you have to condition yourself more. 95 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:49,000 The shooting is much better and the defense. 96 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:51,000 And there are a few other things. 97 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:56,000 Well, the game, the fellows are a lot larger and it's a lot rougher, a lot more body contact. 98 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:04,000 Then you find great shooters and scores like Shays, Adolph Shays that is, Bill Russell, Bob Cousin, and other greats. 99 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,000 And I think it's quite a jump. 100 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:11,000 Is there one game in your college career you wish you could play over again if you could? 101 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:22,000 Yes, I think the year of 1957, 1958, the NCAA Championship game we played, CLU, against the University of Kentucky. 102 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:24,000 It was a wonderful game. 103 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:25,000 The fellows played well. 104 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:27,000 We lost the game. 105 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:33,000 It was such a hard game to lose that I think the rest of the fellows on the team feel the same way as I do. 106 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:39,000 In addition to that, well, Kentucky had a very good team, well-balanced team, and was well coached. 107 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:42,000 And I think, well, we got off to a bad start. 108 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:45,000 And near the end of the game, we played pretty well. 109 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:49,000 So if there is a game I would like to play over it, it would be that one. 110 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:55,000 Elgin, thinking back to the first game you ever played as a pro, how did you feel just before the first whistle? 111 00:11:55,000 --> 00:12:05,000 Well, Harry, before the regular season started, we had quite a few exhibition games against St. Louis Hawks and the Detroit Pistons. 112 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:11,000 And that sort of loosened us up a little and got us used to playing with the professionals. 113 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:14,000 And I would say I felt as if I did when I was playing college ball. 114 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:16,000 I was just relaxed. 115 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:21,000 Elgin, what is the big difference in the conditioning program between the colleges and the pros? 116 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,000 Well, I think the big difference is the practice. 117 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:30,000 We practice twice a day, that is at 10 o'clock in the morning and 2-3 in the afternoon. 118 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:37,000 And then at practice in the afternoon, practice, well, the coach stress more on defense and we work hard on defense. 119 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:40,000 And in college, well, we work more on offense. 120 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:48,000 And of course, with the 24-second rule being in professional ranks, conditioning would be stressed more, 121 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:52,000 the lay of condition of getting yourself in shape so you may be able to run the entire game. 122 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:56,000 And there are 48 minutes and still 40 minutes in the game. 123 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:59,000 And I think that is about the biggest difference. 124 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:04,000 What is the funniest thing that ever happened to you on the court, either as a collegian or a pro? 125 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:09,000 Well, Harry, the funniest thing that happened to me since I have been watching basketball, 126 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:17,000 it was in the year of 1955, I was playing with an AAU team in the state of Washington. 127 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,000 I was over at the practice at Seattle University. 128 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:23,000 The varsity team was practicing. 129 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:28,000 Well, the offensive team had the ball and I think the fellow who had the ball was Callex Bauer. 130 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:31,000 He was a top scorer for Seattle University. 131 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,000 And the defender was on him. 132 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:36,000 And Callex was making an attempt to pass the ball. 133 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:41,000 The defender deflected the ball and the ball bounced off his head and went into the basket. 134 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,000 And I think that is about the funniest player I have seen in basketball. 135 00:13:44,000 --> 00:14:01,000 Thank you very much Elgin Baylor of the Minneapolis Lakers, one of pro basketball's outstanding players.