By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN
Special to Hays Post
It couldn’t have been scripted any better.
Let’s invite a lot of basketball alumni back to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our building, and then we tell this year’s teams to give them something to cheer about.
That’s what Fort Hays State University’s athletic department thought, and both the men’s and women’s Tiger teams came through in a big way.
Members of past FHSU teams attended a reunion Friday night on the eve of the Tigers’ home games with Missouri Southern State University.
They were joined by more former players the next day and watched as the FHSU women won in two overtimes, and the men followed that with an overtime victory over the visiting Lions.
Tigers from several generations returned to Hays for the event, including Bill Greving, who walked into Friday’s reunion at the Robbins Center wearing his letter jacket that is more than 50 years old.
Greving, who grew up in Phillips County, never got to play in GMC. After two years at Dodge City Community College, Greving played for the Tigers in 1967-69 – in the snakepit in Sheridan Coliseum.
But once a Tiger, always a Tiger. And Greving is proud of that letter jacket.
“It’s been a number of years since I put this on,” he said. “I thought this would be a good time to wear it.”
While many conversations on the weekend were, of course, about basketball, several people also talked about friendships made during their time at FHSU.
What the coaches meant to their players also was the topic of some of those conversations.
Barton Snow played for the Tigers during two different stints in the ’70s when he was a rebounding machine. However, after his sophomore year in 1972-73, he decided to leave school because “I was trying to find my place in the world.”
“A friend of mine found me a job working in a packing house on a kill floor,” he said. “One day, I had blood all over me, just shaking my head.”
Someone told Snow he needed to “go back to school.”
“So I called Coach (Chuck) Brehm and asked him if I could come back,” Snow said, “and he said ‘Yes.’ I owe Coach Brehm a lot.”
Coach Brehm knew what he was doing. He was glad to welcome back Snow, who had 25 rebounds in one game during his sophomore season.
Snow went on to dazzle Tiger fans for two more years while earning All-America honors in 1976. Almost 50 years later, he is still the program’s all-time leading rebounder with 980.
A new home
After 55 years of playing in the close confines of Sheridan Coliseum, the Tigers got a new home on the west side of Big Creek in 1973.
Hank Pierce and John Schippers Sr. were partners in Pierce-Schippers Construction, a local company that won the bid for the 322,979-square-foot Gross Memorial Coliseum that featured a tartan basketball floor surrounded by an indoor track.
The spacious new facility, which cost $7 million to build, included a health, physical education and recreation complex (Cunningham Hall) connected to GMC. GMC was named after Paul B. Gross, who coached basketball at FHSU from 1930 to'46 and also served as the university’s athletic director for several years.
A huge walking bridge was built for students to get from the main campus to Cunningham Hall for classes and to GMC for practice and games.
“We about froze walking across that bridge in the winter,” someone remembered at Friday’s reunion.
Family members of Pierce-Schippers Construction were honored at mid-court during Saturday’s games.
Included in that group was the son of John Schippers Jr., whose name coincidentally is Pierce Schippers.
Pierce-Schippers Construction had sold its company by the time John “Butch” Schippers Jr. and his wife Bobbie welcomed their youngest child into the world in 1994.
Butch and Bobbie were fans of Irish actor and film producer Pierce Brosnan. Thus, the name Pierce Schippers has been carried on for nearly three decades – and counting.
National championship teams
All four of the Tigers’ national championship teams were represented at the 50th anniversary celebration.
Ron Morse came from his home in Grove, Okla., for the reunion – and to visit his dad, Bill Morse, who still lives in Hays.
Bill Morse is the Tiger men’s basketball coach who guided FHSU to back-to-back NAIA national titles in 1984 and ’85. Those special years came after finishing third at nationals in Morse’s first year in 1983.
Ron Morse, who hit the game-winning shot in the 1985 finale, played for three years for the Tigers.
“It was a pretty special time,” he said. “The community was really into Tiger basketball, and we had a lot of support.”
He admitted that playing for his dad was challenging at times, but he learned valuable life lessons during his FHSU career – one he wouldn’t trade for anything.
It took only six more years for the Tigers to bring home another national title as the women won the 1991 title in FHSU’s final year in the NAIA.
Several members of that team returned for the anniversary celebration, including Coach John Klein and his wife, Petrece (Faulkner) Klein, one of the starting guards on that championship team.
The Wiles sisters who put tiny Hunter, Kansas on the map also were there.
Annette Wiles, the scoring and rebounding leader for the national championship team, is still the all-time leading scorer in FHSU women’s basketball with 2,407 career points, and her younger sister, DeAnne (Wiles) Thaemert, was a valuable player off the bench for the title team.
Another five years later, the Tiger men gave the school its first NCAA national championship in 1996.
Brothers Geoff and Mark Eck from Andale were starters on the 1995-96 team that finished undefeated at 34-0 under Coach Gary Garner. They both now live in nearby Ellis and attended the celebration. And point guard Chad Creamer made the trip from Colorado to celebrate.
Fans packed GMC to watch the Tigers beat South Dakota State in an exciting regional championship game back in March of 1996. They then won all three of their Elite Eight games in Louisville, Ky., to give FHSU its first NCAA basketball title.
Whether they played at FHSU the past couple of years or in decades past, the alumni had a good time reminiscing and taking group photos.
Klein held the attention of former players from the women’s teams Friday. All were smiling, listening to him telling stories of “the good ol’ days.”
Some who played under Klein (but not in 1990-91) noted they weren’t part of the national championship team, followed by somewhat sad looks.
“But you still played a part in our success,” Klein was quick to note. “You helped us build that winning foundation.”
The smiles quickly returned.
The way it all began
The Tigers won their first game in the new coliseum, beating East Central (Okla.) 74-68 on Nov. 30, 1973.
An East Central player scored the first points in GMC, but the Tigers soon tied the score.
Brad Rumble, then a junior from Great Bend, tallied the first basket for FHSU. And he remembers the moment like it happened yesterday.
“On our first possession, I was at the top of the key and saw an opening and just went down the middle for a layup,” Rumble said. “It hit me as I as going on back on defense that I had just scored our first points in this new arena.”
Rumble, who now lives in Kansas City, Mo., still enjoys watching the Tigers of today – at the MIAA Conference Championships that are played each March in historic Municipal Auditorium.
He echoed the feelings of many attending the weekend activities, which were highlighted by the exciting finish to both games on Saturday.
“Those were the most enjoyable games you could have asked for,” he said. “It was loud and reminded me of our first games here. They were packed back then because the building was new, and people wanted to see us play there.”
Several teammates from that first team joined Rumble at the celebration. The head coach and a player from the first women’s team to play in GMC were also there.
Helen Miles, who coached the Tiger women from 1971-86, was joined by Debbie (Bealby) Maupin, on the GMC floor Saturday as the 130-plus former Tigers present were announced.
It was estimated that more than 250 former Tigers and their families attended the weekend activities.
Kathy Harper, wife of Keith Harper, a member of the 1973-74 team, remembers sitting on chairs early in that first season because the bleachers had not yet arrived.
“It was so new and beautiful that we didn’t care,” she said.
The Harpers are still loyal fans today. They are season ticket holders in the lower level of seating not far from the action on the floor.
The men’s team finished with a 14-9 record in 1973-74, and the women were 14-4 overall – setting a winning standard that is still adhered to today.
Still one of the best D-II venues
Gross Memorial Coliseum is still considered one of the best venues in NCAA Division II. The men’s and women’s teams consistently record some of the best attendance records in the country, and GMC has been voted one of the best arenas in D-II basketball by several ranking organizations.
Like any 50-year-old building, Gross Coliseum has seen some upgrades over the years.
A new wooden floor was installed following the national championship year in 1996.
Chairback seating has been added to the lower-level seating. A new video board was installed in 2017. And installation of air conditioning in the arena area is scheduled to be completed later this coming summer.
The multipurpose facility has been used for numerous state and national athletic contests, concerts and a variety of other events over the years.
It is also home to the Tiger volleyball, wrestling and indoor track and field teams.
But on this particular weekend, fans were treated to some of the best D-II basketball around.
“Gross Coliseum was, and still is, a phenomenal facility,” Ron Morse said. “I’m so glad I got to play here. It was electric back during our days.”
It still is, Ron. It still is.