As much as it could look surprising, national leading scorer Earl Monroe starred at the 1967 US team Pan American Games trials but didn’t make the cut. And he was in good company, as other top college players met the same fate.
This is from a research on 1967 Stars&Stripes archives and other newspapers, all quotes from various issues, April through August.
(Part 1 of 3).
US national teams participated in three 1967 major international events:
- 5th World Championship (Montevideo, URU, May 27-June 11),
- 5th Pan American Games (Winnipeg, CAN, July 24-August 6th),
- 6th World University Games (Tokyo, JPN, August 26-September 3).
Of these events Pan American Games were the best-known in the US at that time, also resultant from four consecutive gold medals won in previous tournaments, and national team trials were set to be organised by AAU and NCAA, on April 7-9 weekend, soon after college and AAU seasons ended. Pan Am trials served as the basic players pool for WC and (partially) WUG teams as well. Venue was the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Four all-star teams were selected, representing NCAA, NAIA (small colleges), AAU and Armed Forces.
By the end of March a powerful NCAA all-stars selection was assembled for the trials, including Houston’s All-American Elvin Hayes, a later addition to the star-studded squad, and Louisville's Westley Unseld, both juniors and future NBA super stars.
This selection represented the crop of major colleges, with the exception of UCLA soph sensation and PoY Lewis Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and of Providence’s Jimmy Walker, the eventual #1 NBA draft.
Here’s how the NCAA trials selection was depicted by the sports press (AP, Stars&Stripes 04-03-1967, p18, 22):
Most of the top college basketball players in the country will compete next weekend in trials to select the U.S. squad for the Pan-American Games.
UCLA's big Lew Alcindor, the best known of all, decided not to play, but many other All-America players will join in the trials at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus April 7-9.
Four all-star teams representing the NCAA, NAIA, AAU and Armed Forces will play a round-robin schedule.
18 players will be chosen from the field to form the U.S. team and that number will be trimmed to 12 before the team goes to Winnipeg, Canada, for the Pan-American Games, July 24-Aug. 6.
Minnesota coach John Kundla, coach of the NCAA all-stars, has lined up a sparkling squad that includes Elvin Hayes of Houston, Bob Verga of Duke, Westley Unseld of Louisville, Bob Lloyd of Rutgers and Sonny Dove of St. John's (N.Y.). "With the exception of Alcindor, who decided not to play any more this year, we have about the strongest squad available," Kundla said.
…
The NCAA's potent 13-man basketball squad for the Pan-American trials, including most of the nation's leading major college scorers and rebounders, will meet for the first time Monday at the University of Minnesota.
Mal Graham, 6-foot-1, of New York U., averaged 28.7 points; 6-8 Elvin Hayes of Houston 28.4 and 6-1 Bob Lloyd of Rutgers 27.9 for the season, ranking 3-4-6 in the final NCAA major college scoring figures.
Westley Unseld, 6-8, of Louisville, averaged 19 rebounds a game, while 6-7 Keith Swagerty of Pacific grabbed 18.5 a game, 6-4 Don May of Dayton 16.7 and Hayes 15.7. This quartet ranked 3-4-5-6 in the final NCAA figures. Also high was Sonny Dove, 6-7, of St. John's of New York with a 14.8 rebounding average.
Lloyd led the nation in free throw accuracy at .921. His career average is .898 including 60 straight, both NCAA records.
The best field goal shooter on the NCAA squad is 6-6 Bill Hosket of Ohio State at .546, followed by Unseld at .537 and 6-6 Rodger Bohnenstiehl of Kansas .514.
Jo Jo White of Kansas, a gifted 6-3 backliner, is probably the most versatile man on the team with his ball stealing, dribbling, deft passing, rebounding and clutch scoring.
Others on the squad are 6-foot Bob Verga of Duke, a 26.1 scorer; 5-10 Russ Critchfield of California, a 21-point man; and 6-7 Tom Kondla of Minnesota, averaging 24.9 points and 11.3 rebounds.
The coaches are Minnesota's John Kundla, who coached the United States to victory in the 1965 World University games at Budapest, and John Bennington of Michigan State.
NAIA All-stars, coached by West Carolina’s Jim Gudger, included Earl Monroe, the nation’s leading scorer from Winston-Salem, Willie Scott of Alabama State and Al Tucker, 6-8, from Oklahoma Baptist. The three seniors were joined, among others, by juniors Bob Kauffman, 6-8, of Guilford, Darryl Jones (St Benedict’s), Henry Logan (Western Carolina) and 6-9 Charlie Paulk (Northeastern St. Oklahoma). Small college players were often in the radar of NBA at that time and Monroe was picked with #2 by Baltimore Bullets. Kauffman, Logan, Paulk, Scott and Tucker would also play either in NBA or ABA.
Besides NCAA stars, AAU were co-favorite at the trials. AAU team could match NCAA on height with several players over 2 m. Most of them came from Denver tournament winners Akron Goodyears (also title winner of the 2nd Intercontinental Cup for clubs early that year) and from runner-ups Phillips 66ers of Bartlesville.
Calvin Fowler (St Francis Loretto, PA, 1962), Jay Miller (Notre Dame, 1965), 6-7 Jim King (Oklahoma State, 1965) and 6-10 Dan Anderson (Augsburg, 1965) represented the AAU champs of Akron, Darel Carrier (Western Kentucky, 1964), Jeff Congdon (BYU, 1966), 6-7 Ray Carey Jr (Missouri, 1964) and 6-10 Kendall Rhine (Rice, 1964) came from Bartlesville, while Steve Jones (Oregon, 1964) and 6-8 Jim Williams (Temple, 1966) had starred for Jamaco Chicago Saints. Some of them would turn pro later the same year, while guard Fowler would be named co-captain of 1968 US Olympic team.
Armed Forces all stars were the shortest (but quickest) team, as nobody reached 2m, tallest were centers 6-6 Mike Silliman (Army West Point, 1966) and Edward Smith of Army, John Snipes of Navy (Elizabeth State College) and Ken Brady, Air Force. Forwards were Army’s John Clawson (Michigan, 1966) and Marines’ Don Kalinowski (Loyola, LA, 1966). At guards played Navy’s Mike Barrett (West Virginia Tech, 1965), Army’s Darius “Pete” Cunningham (Central State, Oh, 1965, who once scored a game record 90 points at Carver HS, Chicago), Bernie Barnes (who left North Carolina AT&T after one year in 1966 and enlisted at USAF for 21 years), Ken Pichette (Georgetown, 1958) and Harry Gilmore (Mesa JC, 1963).
Air Force’s experienced Buzz Bennett coached the 11-man team.
On Day 1 doubleheader, NCAA against Armed Forces and AAU vs NAIA were favored.
But, as it often happens, results proved quite different, against the odds.
