Early years
Luther Burleson coached the first basketball team at Baylor in 1907 also doubling as the soccer coach. In Baylor’s second season of basketball then cross-town rival TCU started their schedule that the Bears defeated twice during the 1908–09 season. Ralph Glaze’s (1911–1914) .788 winning percentage rankings in the top all time in school history. Ralph Wolf (1927–1941) lead Baylor to its first SWC Championship in 1932 after surviving and overcoming one of the first excellent tragedies in college sports in his first season as coach.
Immortal Ten
See also: List of mishaps involving sports teams
On January 22, 1927, Coach Ralph Wolf’s Baylor Basketball team was traveling by bus to play with the University of Texas. As the bus passed through Round Rock, Texas, it approached railroad tracks on the south side of the business district on a drizzly, cloudy day. As the bus crossed the paths the occupants failed to hear the noise of the train whistle and ringing bell. The motorist caught sight of the train at the last minute and attempted to maneuver away, but the Sunshine Special crashed to the bus near 60 miles off ripping off the roof and side.
The Immortal Ten Museum Ten Baylor students and basketball players have been killed by the effect. [3] One participant, James Clyde”Abe” Kelly, driven his friend, Weir Washam, out the window at the bus only moments before the impact, rescue Washam’s lifetime but costing Kelly his very own. The bodies of Kelly and Robert Hailey were found horrifically stretched throughout the cow-catcher on the front of the train, with arms wrapped around each other and Kelly missing a leg. Ivy Foster Sr. of Taylor, Texas, had heard of the accident and rushed to the train station in Taylor to meet the train and help where needed simply to find his son one of the dead.
The deceased were Jack Castellaw, Sam Dillow, Merle Dudley, L.R. “Ivey” Foster Jr., Robert “Bob” Hailey, James Clyde “Abe” Kelly, Willis Murrary, James “Jim” Walker, and William Winchester.
The rest of the 1927 season was canceled. The catastrophe had reverberations over the whole nation and nation and contributed to the building of the first railway overpass at Texas in which the event occurred at Round Rock. Buses were later needed to come to a complete stop and open the door at all railway crossings to listen for trains. The Immortal Ten story has been commemorated annually since 1927 at first in headquarters providers then later at the Freshman Mass Meeting throughout Homecoming Week. In 2007, the occasion was memorialized in bronze to the Baylor campus at Traditions Plaza.
About the 90th anniversary of this tragedy, January 22, 2017, the City of Round Rock held a memorial occasion to remember those who had been killed in the train-bus collision. At the event, the city committed the”Immortal Bridge,” which arcs over the railroad tracks where the accident happened. Green lampposts, green-and-gold paint and other markings honor the 10 students who were murdered there. The event was open to the public, and attendees included Baylor administrators and student leaders, the spirit squads, and Baylor’s Golden Wave Band.
Post World War II victory Baylor men’s teams won five conference championships at the former Southwest Conference (1932, 1946, 1948, 1949*, 1950*; * denotes shared title). The Bears reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1946, and reached the Final Four in 1948 and 1950. Bill Henderson’s 1948 group advanced to play the Kentucky Wildcats for the NCAA championship, but dropped 58–42 into Adolph Rupp’s first national championship team. The team advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1950 under Henderson dropping to the Bradley Braves 68–66. Bill Menefee (1962–1973) would lead the Bears to a nationwide position in 1969 but failed to make the postseason that year. Menefee was the only trainer during the next 50 years to really have a career record of over .500, and might later serve as Baylor’s athletic director in the 1980s. Gene Iba’s 1988 NCAA championship team would be the very first NCAA tournament appearance for the program in 38 years.
2003 scandal
Main article: Baylor University basketball scandal
The men’s basketball program was plagued by a scandal in 2003. Patrick Dennehy, a player for the group, was killed by former teammate Carlton Dotson; then-coach Dave Bliss was forced to resign amidst allegations that he had violated NCAA rules by making financial payments to four gamers and that he made improper statements to the media characterizing Dennehy as a drug dealer. The school put itself on probation, limited itself to 7 scholarships for two years and enforced a post-season ban for a year. Furthermore, the NCAA further punished the team by initiating a non-conference ban to the 2005–2006 season and extending the probationary period through the school would have limited recruiting privileges.
Decade Long Resurgence
The 2005 Bears were hindered by only having 7 scholarship players and recorded only one win in conference play. Regardless of those challenges, head coach Scott Drew was able to gather a 2005 signing class ranked No. 7 nationally by HoopScoop.
The basketball program experienced a resurgence under coach Scott Drew having an NCAA Championship appearance in 2008 for the first time in 20 years using a 9–seven summit record and the team’s first national ranking in 39 years. The January 23, 2008 116–110 5OT win over Texas A&M in College Station officially became the longest game in Big 12 history. The 2008–09 team was ranked early in the summer but stumbled to a 5–11 summit finish before heating up in the Big 12 Tournament beating both Kansas and Texas en route to the championship match versus Missouri, also lost by a score of 73–60. The 2008–2009 team recorded the program’s first postseason victory since 1950 in its first round NIT victory over the Georgetown Hoyas at Waco.
The 2008–09 team went on to progress to the NIT Final in which they fell to Penn State. The 2009–10 squad was again ranked in both polls and pulled off the biggest road win in school history over the afterward #6 Texas Longhorns in Austin 80–77 on Jan. 30th. The Bears closed out the season with a Big 12 age finest 11–5 album and #1 in the Big 12 tournament.
The 2009–10 group was picked to finish 10th in the Big 12 at the Big 12 Coaches Poll as a result of graduation of several key players in the previous year. On the other hand, the team ended the regular season 23–6 and tied for 2nd in the Big 12 standings. Following a 2–1 record in the Big 12 tournament, the Bears were rewarded with a #3 seed in the South Region of the NCAA tournament. The Bears defeated #14 seed Sam Houston State 68–59 at First Round action and then conquered #11 seed Old Dominion 76–68 in Second Round play to advance to the Sweet 16 hosted in Reliant Stadium in Houston. The Bear’s Sweet 16 match-up was 10 seed Saint Mary’s, which had defeated #2 seed Villanova the previous week ahead of the Sweet 16. The Bears won handily over the Gaels, 72–49, after leading 47–19 at the half. The Elite Eight was held in Reliant Stadium and the Bears’ competition was the #1 seed Duke Blue Devils, the final #1 seed status in the NCAA tournament after the other three #1 seeds (Kansas, Syracuse, and Kentucky) were defeated by lower seeded teams. In front of a very pro-Baylor audience of over 47,000, the Bears were defeated by the Duke Blue Devils, 78–71, to finish the magic run to the Elite Eight. It had been the best season in the Scott Drew era as characterized by convention standing, overall ranking, wins, and NCAA championship wins. The Bears finished the year ranked #10 from the final ESPN/Coaches Poll–the maximum ranking in program history at that moment.
The 2010–11 team started the season ranked 14th (according to this AP Preseason survey ). The Bears began 7–0, also rose to 9th in the polls prior to falling to Gonzaga in a neutral court in Dallas. The team finished 18–13 total and seven –9 in league play. The highlight of this season was Lacedarius Dunn getting the Big 12’s all-time top scorer, and a sweep of the series versus rated Texas A&M. After freshman star Perry Jones III was suspended by the NCAA for six games, the Bears proceeded to shed their first-round game of the Big 12 Tournament against Oklahoma.
The 2012 season saw another historic campaign for the Bears as they followed the 2011 year with another successful conference run which saw the Bears win 30 games and make it into the Big 12 tournament title game. The Bears were chosen for the NCAA championship and made it all of the way to the Elite Eight, which ended in a loss to eventual national champion Kentucky.
The 2013 season witnesses another winning effort for the Bears since they followed the 2012 Elite Eight season with another successful seminar run which saw the Bears sweep both TCU and Texas Tech while just dropping one game to UT. The bears started out with a pre-season ranking of #19 in the nation. The Boys finish conference play at .500 and were selected for the NIT championship. The Bears made it all the way into the Final, which finished in a win over Iowa, winning the championship in front of a sizable crowd in Madison Square Garden and promising that the 2013 NIT Title.
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