HERE'S THE DEAL: All through my younger years at KWBG and the Boone News Republican, 1953-1970, I spent hours and hours of research into Boone High School athletics. All sports were covered but, honestly, as you can imagine, there was never an end. Still, lots of material was gathered. For example, at one time, I had accumulated the score of every Toreador football game from 1896 on. Each opponent was named, where the game was played, the final score and what the Toreadors all-time record against that opponent was....at home and away.....separately. Each Toreador coaches record was right up to date.
The information was a valuable piece of material that would, oftentimes, fit into and, hopefully, enhance daily news stories.
I must admit, I'm getting older and I hate to think of a demise of this material. I guess my attitude is, "if I don't try to "keep it alive" who will?"
Much of it, eventually, appeared as a supplement to the News Republican titled, "Legends in Sports." This was in my "retirement years", the 2007, 2008, 2009 era, and I've decided to copy some of those stories and many others that were not in the supplements, periodically, for use in this blog whenever possible.
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Here's a story from 2009 and before.
FORMER TOREADOR COACH GUIDES IOWA HAWKEYES TO TWO FINAL FOURS
The University of Iowa basketball program has been a participant in the NCAA Division 1 FINAL FOUR tournament a total of three times and two of those three times, the Hawkeye team was coached by a former Boone High School coach.
Yes, in both 1954-55 and 1955-56, Frank (Bucky) O'Conner was the Hawkeye basketball coach and both those teams earned their way into the NCAA Final Four. In 1954-55, his Hawks defeated Penn State, 82-53, and Marquette, 86-81, in the big show before losing to LaSalle, 76-73, and Colorado, 75-54.
A SIDE NOTE: In the Colorado win over Iowa, the top scorer for the Buffalos, with 18 points, was another former Toreador basketball coach, Jim Ranglos. Ranglos coached Toreador basketball from the 1960-61 campaign through the 1967-68 season.
But back to coach O'Conner. In the 1955-56 Final Four, Iowa defeated Morehead State, 97-83; Kentucky, 89-77, and Temple, 83-76.
In the NCAA championship game, O'Conner's team lost to the legendary Hall of Famer Bill Russell and his San Francisco University team, 83-71. Many, of course, consider Russell, who played many years in the NBA, as the greatest player ever.
Bucky O'Conner was born in Monroe, IA and played on Drake University's basketball team from 1936-38. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Drake in education and coached a short time in Harrisburg, IL Township High School before coming to Boone in 1942.
Quickly, Bucky was called away from BHS for a four-year stint in the Army Air Corps but returned to BHS in time for the 1946-47 school year. He coached the Toreador basketball team to a 16-6 record that year and followed that up in the 1947-48 season with a team that was 21-8 and earned a berth in the Iowa State High School Basketball Tournament.
It was the first time, a Boone team had earned state tournament play since the 1932 squad captured the state championship.
O'Conner's '48 team defeated Carroll in the first round of the state meet, 45-41, but then lost out to Ankeny, 41-37.
Bucky's two-year record in Boone was 37-14 for a .725 winning percentage.
In addition to his basketball duties at Boone High, O'Conner served as Athletic Director, varsity boys golf coach and, in addition, filled in as Athletic Director at Boone Junior College.
As the 1947-48 school year ended, Bucky was hired by his good friend, University of Iowa Athletic Director Paul Brechler, as head golf coach and freshman basketball coach at UOI.
By the way, when O'Conner went to Iowa, his 1947-48 star Toreador player, Bob (Pinky) Clifton, soon followed and, eventually, earned All American honors as a Hawkeye player. Another Boone native, Paul Stark, also joined the Hawkeye team after his 1950 graduation from BHS.
When "Pops" Harrison, the Hawkeye varsity coach, at that time, became ill during the 1949-50 basketball season, O'Conner was called on to be the Hawkeye varsity coach for the last 10 games of that campaign.
For the next season, 1950-51, another Iowa athletic staff member, Rollie Williams, was named the head coach, with O'Conner as his top assistant.
After that one season, Williams bowed out of coaching and O'Conner was named the head coach at the University of Iowa on March 27, 1951. He also retained his position as varsity golf coach.
It didn't take long for O'Conner to show his basketball coaching talent. In his first year as head coach, he guided the 1951-52 Hawks to a 19-3 overall record, 11-3 and second place in the Big Ten Conference.
In 1952-53, his team was 12-10 with a 9-9 conference mark and sixth place in the conference. In 1953-54, his Hawks were 17-5 overall, 11-3 and second in the conference. In 1954-55, his first Final Four team was 19-7 overall and 11-3 in the conference to win the league championship. In 1955-56, his second Final Four team was 20-6 and won another conference championship at 13-1.
O'Conner's 1956-57 team was 8-14, 4-10 in the league and the eighth place finisher. The 1957-58 unit was 13-9, 7-7 in the conference and finished in sixth place.
Tragically, at the end of that season, O'Conner was killed in a traffic accident.
Of all the University of Iowa basketball coaches, Ed Rule, who coached four years in the early 1900's, had the best overall winning percentage of .712, 32-14; Harrison was second at .700 in eight seasons, 98-42, and O'Conner is still third best at .659, with his 114-59 mark in eight seasons.
That puts him ahead, percentagewise, of three legendary Hawkeye coaches, National Hall of Famers Ralph Miller and Lute Olson plus Dr. Tom Davis. Miller, in six seasons, was 95-91, .651; Olson, in nine seasons, 165-95, .640 and Davis in 13 seasons, 269-140, .658.
O'Conner married a Boone native, the former Jane Westberg, and the couple had one daughter.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Various sports will be covered in coming blogs. A separate story will be coming on the 1932 State Championship Toreador basketball team that played in the state title game before 14,000 fans at Drake Fieldhouse. Up to that time, it was the biggest crowd ever at any basketball game played in Iowa. Not even any Iowa college teams had ever attracted that big a crowd. We'll also have a story on Boone's "Pinky" Clifton, an All American cager at the State University of Iowa coming.
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BOONE CONNECTED DEATHS: Pence Howard, 92, Boone. Navy vet. Married Marvea Burgess in 1949 and they were divorced. Married Yvonne Clinton in 1958. Pence worked in road and building consruction and also with the Madrid Police Department and the Boone County Sheriff's Department. He and his wives had three sons and four daughters. Survivors include a daughter, Pamela Crooks of Boone, sons Mark Howard of Boone and Alan Howard of Ogden. A sister, sister-in-law and brother-in-law also survive........Lucille (Lucy) Herrick, 96, Boone. Married Earl Herrick in 1945. Did house cleaning and then in 1987, went into fulltime ministry for the next 34 years. Survivors include a son and a son-in-law, Larry Whitmer, of Boone........Dixie Hickcox, 64, Ogden. Married Fred Hickcox in 1987 and they moved to Ogden. She served the Ogden Community School District as a bus driver for 15 years. Survivors include her husband, Fred, of Ogden and a son.........Steven Crise, 66, Boone. Was the victim of a fire in Boone........Bob D. Herman, 66, Boone. Formerly of Pocahontas with services in Pocahontas.
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Worldwide korner headquarters are located at 928 South Jackson, Boone, Iowa 50036-4932. Phone number is 515-432-1530. Leave a message. To email your stories/memories/comments.......
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