Their names are tucked away in the University of Colorado’s basketball history book.
Coach Frosty Cox and All-Americans Jack Harvey, Jim Willcoxon, Robert Doll and Leason McCloud are documented as being part of CU’s grandest era in college basketball. But it was some 70 years ago and long forgotten by most who follow CU.
In 1939-40, the Buffaloes won the NIT championship at Madison Square Garden by defeating DePaul 52-37 in the semifinal and Duquesne 51-40 in the championship game.
Doll was named MVP of the NIT in 1940 with 31 points in two games.
Two seasons later, and with some of the same players leading the way, CU made the eight-team NCAA Tournament field in Kansas City, Mo., and lost to Stanford 46-35 in the semifinals.
With CU headed back to the NIT semifinals this week, thoughts of CU’s NIT victory come to mind.
“I like to think our teams should get a little mention for what we did,” said Bob Kirchner, who was on the NIT championship team. “Frosty Cox especially deserves some mention. He produced four different players to All-American status in four years.”
Kirchner was a freshman on the NIT championship team and did not play varsity. Two years later, he was a mainstay for the NCAA Tournament team.
“We were rated No. 1 in the country in some publications before the NCAA Tournament in 1942,” Kirchner recalled. “We played a double post with Leason McCloud and Robert Doll. I played guard and had the duty of clearing the backboards.”
Kirchner remembers a much different college basketball setup in his day. For one thing, the NIT was a bigger tournament than the upstart NCAA Tournament.
After winning the NIT in 1940, the Buffs took a train to Kansas City to play in the NCAA Tournament, where they lost consecutive games, 38-32 to USC and 60-56 in overtime to Rice.
Kirchner noted that the logistics were much different back then too. For the Buffs in 1940, getting to New York was a two-day train trip as compared with a morning flight for this year’s Buffs, who leave today.
As for CU’s style back then, Kirchner said Cox taught a no-nonsense approach that led to a runner-up finish at the NIT in 1939, with Willcoxon the star, then a title the next year.
“Frosty Cox was a fierce competitor,” Kirchner said. “We’d shoot 100 free throws at the end of every practice. He was a great believer in fundamentals.”
Cox came to Colorado from the University of Kansas, where he was an assistant coach to Forrest “Phog” Allen. Many of his players in his early years at Colorado came from Kansas.
Kirchner didn’t get to play as a senior. CU suspended its basketball participation for the 1943 and 1944 seasons because of World War II. The team entered the National AAU tournament in Denver instead.
After serving in the Navy upon graduation from CU, Kirchner turned his sports attention to golf.
He started the Colorado Open at Hiwan in 1962 and was the tournament chairman for the 1978 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
1940 NIT champs
Jack Harvey
Bob Doll
Leason McCloud
Don Thurman
Don Hendricks
George Hamburg
Gene Grove
Martin Trotsky
Paul Schmidt
Dick Emery
1942 NCAA semifinalists
Bob Doll
Leason McCloud
George Hamburg
Bob Kirchner
Heath Nuckolls
Horace Huggins
Don Putnam
Reed Hannon
Barney Oldham
