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| ISBN-13: | 9781491834572 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 11/12/2013 |
| Pages: | 226 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.52(d) |
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BRANCH
The Branch McCracken Story
By Bill Murphy
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2013 Bill MurphyAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4918-3457-2
CHAPTER 1
The Early Years
Emmett Branch McCracken was born to Charles and Ida McCracken on June 9, 1908, in the small rural community of Monrovia, Indiana.
Branch's grandfather, William A. McCracken, had served in Company D of the Seventieth Indiana Volunteers during the Civil War. He would return to Monrovia as the owner of a drug store for the next 23 years before moving to Martinsville as the county recorder.
Branch was one of nine children in a family of five girls and four boys. Branch's father was a road contractor back in the days when, according to Branch's younger brother Bill, a contractor "was someone who had to do it the hard way, with mules and slip scrapers." Bill would recall, "We were a big family and every one of us had to work. My sisters had to work— we all had to work. It was rough but we enjoyed it. If we had a quarter in our pocket when we went away to play a basketball game on the road we were set. A hamburger cost you a nickel. A coke cost you a nickel. If we had twenty-five cents, we were in good shape."
Branch was one of the most placid kids in Morgan County until he discovered basketball. The story goes that one day a friend came by with a pig bladder and a bicycle pump. They would pump the pig bladder full of air until it was almost round and then hang a bottomless peach basket to the barn, and they had instant basketball, barnyard-style. However, Bill McCracken would recall that he and Branch played in the loft of the barn on their farm with their neighbors, the Woodens, using stuffed socks because they could not afford a basketball. Whatever the original story, the result was a love affair with Dr. James Naismith's game of basketball.
By 1919 a young, rawboned eleven-year-old Branch McCracken was a sixth-grader who landed a spot on the eighth-grade basketball team. Branch would always hold on to the small-town values of honesty and compassion, and for the next three years he would grow and play on Monrovia's eighth-grade team. The McCrackens relocated from their farm to a house in town, and Branch would eventually sleep at a family friend's home his last two years of high school to alleviate crowding at his own home.
After honing his basketball skills for three years at the eighth-grade level, Branch entered high school ready to establish himself as a force to be reckoned with. He made Monrovia's varsity high school team as a freshman forward in the 1922–23 season. As "Mac" entered his sophomore year in 1923–24, both he and Monrovia began to turn the heads of high school observers from not only the state of Indiana, but the tri-state area of Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. Monrovia would join with seventy schools from throughout Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky to participate in the famous Tri-State Tournament held in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the first year of the tournament, Monrovia knocked off several larger schools as they pushed their way to finish second in the tourney. The Bulldogs from Monrovia would complete their season with a record of 25 wins against only 3 defeats.
The 1924–25 season began as Branch's junior year, and he fell into a role that he would eventually become familiar with: that of being his team's leading scorer and primary offensive weapon. Branch was such a force on offense that he would often outscore the opposition entirely by himself. Monrovia began the season outscoring both Gosport and Cloverdale by scores of 75 to 8 and 65 to 18, respectively (remember that, during this era in basketball, scores in the thirties and forties were considered to be a huge offensive game).
Monrovia would go back to Cincinnati again to play in the Tri-State Tournament. This time, the Bulldogs of Monrovia reeled off five straight wins to capture the tournament championship, with Branch taking home MVP and Monrovia earning the nickname "Corn Stalk Boys." Monrovia would finish the season with a record of 27 and 1. That one loss came in the sectional championship to neighboring Martinsville, 28 to 23.
The next season, Monrovia would become the first school ever to win the Tri-State Tournament twice in a row as the Bulldogs ran through five straight opponents by a combined score of 180 to 50, and Branch would once again be named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Unfortunately, Monrovia fell to its archrival, Martinsville, in the sectional finals for the fourth straight season to finish the year 26 and 2. McCracken's old neighbor and friend, Johnny Wooden, was a sophomore on that Martinsville team, and the Monrovia head coach was Herb Curtis, the younger brother of Martinsville's famous head coach, Glen Curtis.
Monrovia would finish with 78 wins to 6 defeats in Branch's last three seasons. Thus drawing to a conclusion Branch's days in high school but foreshadowing great things to come to one Branch McCracken.
CHAPTER 2The Indiana Years as a Player
Branch: The Football Player
Branch's career in high school and the success that came with it would lead to Branch gaining fame and notoriety. His fame was such that Logansport High School scheduled a game with Monrovia to dedicate their new gym. Branch was sought after by many a college basketball coach and programs. One day during McCracken's senior year, Pete Straub from the IU Alumni Association came to the McCracken farm to call on Branch. Straub was directed out back to a creek, where he caught sight of the powerful six-four, 190-pound youngster wading in a storm-swollen stream using his powerful arms and agile hands to pluck out watermelons that were getting washed away by a flash flood. Straub saw that he had a bona fide country boy on his hands, and a very promising athlete. He made an appeal for Branch to go to IU.
However, another school in the state had also taken interest in Branch. Butler, with football and basketball coach Pat Page, had taken special interest in this big, strapping young man from Monrovia who possessed not only power but a great set of hands, quick reflexes, and speed to match—in short, a coach's dream in almost any sport. Page asked Branch to come play not only basketball but football as well at Butler, even though Monrovia High School did not have a football team and Branch had never played the sport. Page, who was at one of Branch's basketball games during his junior year, made an offer to Branch to come to Butler right then and there. Branch simply thanked Page and told him to come back and see him next year because he was only a junior in high school. As fate would have it, by Branch's senior year, Page would be hired as the new football coach at Indiana University.
Coach Dean would talk about Indiana recruiting Branch in a 1989 documentary. "We didn't have any trouble recruiting Mac," he said, "although several other universities wanted him. But he wanted to come to Indiana, and he was a great player."
Dean would go on to talk about McCracken the Hoosier player. "Mac was as good a basketball player as they are today," he recalled. "You see, he had something that some of the big boys today don't have, and that was that he was active and had speed. He could handle himself well. If any of the opposition got a little too rough with Mac, he would get rough in return." In Philadelphia in 1981 for the NCAA Championships, Dean would say that McCracken was the finest player he had ever had the privilege to coach. He would add that Branch was a "big husky fellow, about six-four, with the weight to handle himself under the basket, and he could shoot."
When Branch arrived at Indiana University, he found that Pat Page had not forgotten about him, and the invitation was extended for Branch to join the Indiana football Hoosiers. Branch did indeed go out for the football team and found that he had an aptitude for football as well as basketball. Branch would join his future college basketball coach Everett Dean in a distinction in that both men, known for their basketball prowess, would score a touchdown in college football before ever scoring their first basket on the hardwood.
In his first collegiate football game, against Kentucky State, Branch was on the receiving end of a 40-yard pass play that would set up a score for the Hosiers as they went on to a 21–0 victory over Kentucky State. However, Branch's crowning glory in football at IU would take place in what would be dubbed "the greatest homecoming ever observed in Bloomington." A Minnesota team described as gargantuan came into Bloomington as huge favorites. Minnesota scored first as anticipated; however, the Hoosiers would score to tie the game. The actions of the fourth quarter were described as follows by the 1928 Arbutus: "Joestling, the immortal, played in the second half, but it was late in the fourth quarter before Minnesota took the lead with another touchdown on a long end run by Almquist who kicked goal also. The tangled thread of Indiana's hopes was straightened four plays later by McCracken, who picked up Nydahl's fumble and ran 20 yards for a touchdown. Balay Cooley kicked goal. The score was again tied, 14–14, with five minutes to play. They were maddening minutes, and when the gun finally crashed it's palan [sic] to the sky, unnerved spectators fled from Memorial Stadium screaming exultation."
Branch's son Dave described the accounts of that play, saying his father told him that when he picked up the fumble, he "heard a loud noise behind him" and it was Minnesota's great Bronko Nagurski. He would say that he "never ran so fast in his life."
Branch's first football season playing under Page was for a team that would have more people than ever before witness the gridiron Hoosiers. The '27 team finished with a record of 3–4–1. McCracken's next two years in football would see Indiana compile records of 4 and 4 in 1928 and 2 and 6 in 1929. McCracken's overall career in Hoosier football saw Branch play on teams that won 9 games and tied 2 in a period of three years, covering 25 games with Branch making honorable mention as a sophomore and the All-Conference team as a junior playing end. This would earn him a contract offer from the Green Bay Packers worth $125 per game. Branch turned down the Packers because his heart was in basketball. Upon entering Indiana University, Branch was given two nicknames, one of which was "Doc" because he intended to become a veterinary doctor until he caught a different fever—Hoosier fever: basketball. The other nickname Branch would receive was "Big Bear." Branch would be given this moniker because of his size, six-foot-four, and his tendency to scowl on the gridiron or court.
Branch: The Basketball Player
McCracken quickly made an impression on Coach Dean and the other players and made it clear that he had a chance to become a major contributor as a sophomore. "I loved the game of basketball, and I had enough confidence in myself that I thought I could make any team in the country," Branch would remark. "When freshman practice started there were a lot of boys who came out for basketball who had quite a reputation. Some of them were all-state in high school and I didn't know just how good they were going to be, but after the first scrimmage I knew right then that if they were good enough to play at Indiana University then I could make the team too."
McCracken earned a starting spot at center in his sophomore year, and his impact on the team was felt right away. McCracken, in his first collegiate game, would be the Hoosiers' second-leading scorer with eight points in a 34–25 win over Franklin at Bloomington. Just five days later, the Hoosiers hosted Wabash and Branch led the Dean men with seven baskets and two free throws for a team leading 16 points as IU ran their record to 2 and 0 with a 39 to 26 victory. McCracken would share scoring honors in a win over the Bearcats of Cincinnati with 14 points and the Hoosiers were 3 and 0.
The Hoosiers would open Big Ten play on January 7 at home against Chicago. The Hoosiers won that game 32–13, but in that game Branch would score 24 points on 11 field goals and 2 free throws. Branch would not only outscore Chicago by himself, but he would set a new Big Ten record for points in a game with 24. His record would stand for the next 10 years; ironically, his record eclipsed the old mark of 21 held by his coach, Everett Dean, set on February 12, 1921, against Ohio State.
The Hoosiers' first taste of the road for the Big Ten season came at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and resulted in their first defeat of the year, 42–41. Branch would be held to 8 points on the night; this would be the first of only two defeats for the Dean men on the year. The Hoosiers won their next two games with Branch scoring 6 and 14 points, respectively. With a record of 6 and 1, the Hoosiers ventured to West Lafayette. Branch would score only 5 points as he fouled out early in the second half. The Purdue great, Stretch Murphy, however would score only one basket, but the Boilers handed the Hoosiers their second and last defeat on the year, 28–25. On February 4, the Wildcats of Kentucky came calling to Bloomington ,and Branch, with his good friend James Strickland, sent them home defeated as Branch totaled 10 points and Strickland 19 in a 48 to 29 victory.
The Hoosiers turned their attentions back to the Big Ten, playing and defeating both Iowa and Ohio State with Branch averaging 10 points a contest in those games. On February 18, Purdue visited Bloomington and the Dean men had revenge on their mind with Strickland's 16 and Branch's 6, although he would foul out late in the game. The Hoosiers weathered a 16-point outburst by Murphy to win 40 to 37 and gain their pleasure of revenge.
The Hoosiers then hosted their last nonconference foe in Coe College, winning 35 to 14. McCracken would have his lowest point total ever in a game with just one point. Indiana turned their attention to the Big Ten for the rest of the year. Riding a five-game winning streak, the Hoosiers would travel to Columbus, Ohio, and Iowa City for their next two contests. The Dean men would prove victorious in both games, with Mac averaging 12 points a contest.
On March 3, the only other team to defeat the Hoosiers in 1928, the Michigan Wolverines, would venture to Bloomington. McCracken and Strickland would combine for 31 of Indiana's 36 points as the Hoosiers edged Michigan 36 to 34 and pushed the winning streak to eight games. The last game of the '28 season would be played in Illinois with the Hoosiers knowing that a win would guarantee a Big Ten Championship. Branch scored only 2 points and the game was tied 22 to 22 at the end of regulation. The Dean Men would outscore Illinois 5 to 1 in overtime to wrap up a share of the Big Ten Championship, closing the season on a nine-game winning streak and ending the season with a 15 and 2 mark. For Branch, personally, he would conclude his sophomore season on a Big Ten Championship team while ending up in a tie for second in the Big Ten individual scoring race, connecting on 46 field goals and 31 free throws for a total of 123 points, just 6 behind the league leader, Osterbaan of Michigan, with 129. He would score 123 of Indiana's 474 points and had Coach Dean pleased with the prospect of having his big, young center back for two more years. Because the 1927–28 Hoosier team was the winningest in school history and because, as we have learned over the many decades of sports, winning breeds interest, tickets were hard to come by in Indiana's 2,400-seat Men's Gym. The trustees authorized the building of a new 8,000-seat arena that would be opened for the '28–29 season.
After Branch's sophomore season, he was showing a glimpse of the player that would go on to become the most prolific scorer in Big Ten history to that point in time.
"We found out about Mac's ability in the pivot in one game when he was hurt and probably shouldn't have been playing," Coach Everett Dean would say. He went on to add, "But Mac wanted to play so badly, and there was no holding him. He said he'd stand around the basket and get the rebounds and he did. What he also did was take the ball in the middle and wait until one of the players could move around him, and then he would feed the ball to him. He also found out that he could fake the man behind him, then wheel around, take a couple of steps, and put the ball in the basket himself. He was the first man to play the true pivot in the Big Ten."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from BRANCH by Bill Murphy. Copyright © 2013 Bill Murphy. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword, xiii,Introduction The Beginning, xvii,
Chapter 1 The Early Years, 1,
Chapter 2 The Indiana Years as a Player, 5,
Chapter 3 A Psychology of Coaching and Teaching, 16,
Chapter 4 The Ball State Years, 21,
Chapter 5 Mac's First Indiana Team, 33,
Chapter 6 The First Championship, 39,
Chapter 7 The Early '40s After The Championship, 49,
Chapter 8 Branch Goes to War, 57,
Chapter 9 Branch McCracken and the Bill Garrett Era, 61,
Chapter 10 McCracken Goes West?, 71,
Chapter 11 The McCracken Era Ushers in College Basketball on Television, 73,
Chapter 12 The '53 Champions: A Team for the Ages, 79,
Chapter 13 The '54 Season: Champions Back-to-Back, 99,
Chapter 14 The '55 and '56 Seasons: Sixth Place, 105,
Chapter 15 The '56–57 Season: The Third Championship, 111,
Chapter 16 The '57–58 Season: The Last Title, 117,
Chapter 17 1960 and What Might Have Been, 123,
Chapter 18 The Bellamy, Rayl, and Bolyard Years, 131,
Chapter 19 Branch: The Last Years, 149,
Chapter 20 Branch After Indiana Basketball, 167,
Chapter 21 Stories About the Sheriff, 173,
Chapter 22 McCracken's Honors and Records, 193,
Notes, 199,