{"id":22982,"date":"2010-10-15T08:18:25","date_gmt":"2010-10-15T12:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=22982"},"modified":"2010-10-21T08:32:36","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T12:32:36","slug":"a-time-capsule-of-husky-hoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/10\/a-time-capsule-of-husky-hoops\/","title":{"rendered":"A ‘Time Capsule’ of Husky Hoops"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>The<\/a>
The cover of 'Basketball Vault,' the history of UConn men's basketball written by Ken Davis. Provided by Ken Davis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fans of Husky men\u2019s basketball often reminisce about their favorite players over the years, from the days of the old Yankee Conference to the creation of the Big East Conference and the arrival of Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun. But most probably don\u2019t know that back in 1923 Sumner Dole was named the new basketball coach at the Connecticut Agricultural College, the forerunner of UConn, or that he was named coach of the football and baseball teams as well.<\/p>\n

Such interesting nuggets of history have been uncovered by freelance writer Ken Davis in his just-published book, University of Connecticut Basketball Vault: The History of the Huskies, <\/em>published by Whitman Publishing<\/a>, as part of its College Vault sports history series. Davis will sign copies of the book at the UConn Co-op on Friday, Oct. 15, beginning at 4:30 p.m., just before the 2010-11 basketball season kicks off with First Night activities at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.<\/p>\n

The College Vault series features a \u201ctime capsule\u201d approach to its books, including historic images and reproductions of ephemera that are part of the team\u2019s history, such as game programs, statistics sheets, and other items that enhance the comprehensive narrative about each team.<\/p>\n

The UConn book includes reproductions of items such as a handwritten Department of Athletics budget for the 1925-26 academic year; handwritten publicity questionnaires for James Ahearn and Worthy Patterson, players in the 1950s; a statistics sheet from the March 12, 1955 NIT Game at Madison Square Garden; a ticket to the first game at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion against St. John\u2019s University on Jan. 27, 1990; and the itinerary for Ray Allen\u2019s official recruiting visit to Storrs on Oct. 22, 1992.<\/p>\n

Davis, who has covered the Huskies since 1985 including 12 years as the beat writer for the Hartford Courant<\/em>, says he faced two challenges in writing the 25,000-word narrative history. First was uncovering the earliest history of Connecticut basketball, which started on Feb. 8, 1901 \u2013 just two decades after James Naismith invented the game in Springfield, Mass. \u2013 when the Connecticut Agricultural College defeated Willimantic High School by a score of 17-12. It was the only game of the season, but it provided the incentive for organizing a varsity squad the next year. Davis spent many hours looking through old records at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center<\/a>, which includes the University archives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew a lot about recent history, but certainly didn\u2019t know much about the very beginnings of the basketball program in the early 1900s.That was a very fascinating process,\u201d says Davis. \u201cI wanted to tell people about who they were, where they came from, and what they accomplished in their time. It meant going through the Daily Campus<\/em> and the yearbooks and finding out what things were like back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betsy Pittman, the University archivist who helped guide Davis, says staff at the Dodd Center \u201cpulled scrapbooks, yearbooks, student newspapers, everything we could think of. Ken conscientiously went through and did his fact-checking. He looked at everything, including board of trustees\u2019 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were only team photos,\u201d Pittman adds. \u201cYou don\u2019t get action photos until later in the 20th century. It took a lot of digging to find out about games. He was looking for stellar highlights, but in the early years they were playing high schools, fire departments, and YMCAs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second challenge for Davis was to edit himself as a writer, since he covered the arrival of Calhoun in 1986 and the transformation of Husky men\u2019s basketball from a regional team to a national powerhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were so many things Jim had to do off the court to get things so they could recruit and be competitive in the Big East,\u201d he says. \u201cI view those things as vital to the history. As important as winning the national championships is, I view the NIT in 1988 and Dream Season as equal to the national championships, as vital to the development of the program. You couldn\u2019t just gloss over that. Other authors might have focused on other games or stories, but this simply is my version of UConn history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the Vault series template is a format that includes highlights of 10 games for each era in a team\u2019s history. It provided Davis with a way to include specifics of an important game, allowing him to spend more time on the narrative stories.<\/p>\n

An archivist from Whitman Publishing, Chris Marsden, visited the Dodd Center to compile historic photos and ephemera from the University archives, but Davis found some items during his interviews with those who were themselves part of UConn basketball history.<\/p>\n

During a visit with Howie Dickenman, head coach at Central Connecticut State University, the former longtime Huskies assistant coach to Calhoun opened his desk drawer and pulled out a stack of index cards wrapped in a rubber band. Included in the stack were two cards now in the book \u2013 the handwritten notes for Ray Allen and Donyell Marshall listing their home addresses, high school coaches\u2019 telephone numbers, and other notations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s also got some cards from guys UConn didn\u2019t get, like Kevin Garnett,\u201d Davis says.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Jim<\/a>
Jim Calhoun was named the new men's basketball head coach on May 15, 1986. Ken Davis, a reporter for the Hartford Courant at that time, is in the second row, on the right. Provided by Ken Davis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Davis, who also just completed editing the \u201cHuskies Tip-Off 2010-2011\u201d season preview magazine published by Maple Street Press, says he found an item in his own files that made it into the book.<\/p>\n

While going through old files from his days covering the Huskies, he found a black-and-white photo from the May 15, 1986 press conference announcing Calhoun as the team\u2019s new coach. One of those covering the event was a young reporter for the Courant,<\/em> Davis himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sent it to the archivist for a laugh,\u201d Davis says. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect him to use it to open the chapter on Jim\u2019s arrival. It kind of put the book in perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information go to Davis\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new book tells the story of UConn men’s basketball, starting from 1901.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-22982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 21:46:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22982"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23363,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22982\/revisions\/23363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22982"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=22982"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=22982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}