The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-01-20

lection of the biggest Boys to be
found anywhere outside of BRING
ling Brothers tent. Quite naturally,
they play basketball
Gigantic
But not just plain, ordinary bas-
ketball," shouted the Lone Star
stout from his height of six feet,
four inches. I'VE play the biggest
basketball in the world, we use no
defense and we can field team
which averages six feet, six inches
in height. And that is nothing I'M
usual.
We've had teams that big for the
past eight years down in Canyon.
We grow 'em awfully big in Texas,
you know, and then birds of a
feather tend to flock together. You
collect a few big guys at your school
and all the others come arunning.
They don't like to be stared at if
they are the only big boys around:
they like to mingle with boys their
size"
Mr.. Baggett has coached the West
Texas basketball team since 1888
and he has parlayed forty boys and
$500 into a 100000 dormitory and
a half dozen regional championships.
That he SAID, was no trick at all be-
cause when you boys gets over six
feet six, you just toss .'em a ball
and keep order.
Il haven't had to teach them very
much" he confessed modestly. II
had trouble first in collecting them
and keeping them fed and bedded
down. So gave them jobs digging
rock and chopping petrified wood to
build the dormitory. Now they all
have jobs keeping it maintained.
They get bed, board, tuition and a
few minor items, but they have to
work for them"
The system has worked wonder
fully we'll because this year the Buff
faloes, as they are known, have won
l6 games of II, scored 1,1O9 points
and will have travelled 10000 miles
when they meet Long Island U. next
week. They always travel at least
that much, even when playing home
teams like Rice, Baylor, Texas Chris
tan, Southern Methodist and Texas.
Charley Halbert is our real big
boy" Mr.. B. continued. "He is a
six, ten center. Price Brookfield is
six, four and the best shot. The
others are skyscrapers, too. They are
so tall they play over the opposi-
tons head and they all are fast.
The only time they got mad they
scored Ill points and they led the
only game they lost, 21-8, before they
lost interest"
Trouble, Too
west Texas uses no defense be-
cause the boys acn blanket all kinds
OF shots. They work strictly on the
offensive and have won II of Sc
games In three years. Last year they
scored $50 goals and 343 free throws
for accuracy averages of 80 and 60
per cent and rang up 2,O63 points,
OF which Brookf1eld collected 492.
But all is not beer and skittles.
For instance, Baggett had to buy
special bus with extra leg room
for the boys, must have Pullman
partitions knocked out SO limbs can
overlap in trains, has a particularly
difficult time finding beds in hotels
and forks out plenty of cash every
four hours for food. His hardest
blow, however, was the loss of six
eight guard who weighed 275 pounds
and was plenty fast. This lad got
himself married.
After what happened to that
Texas football team" brother Bag
gett yelled trifle nostalgically, I'm
taking no chances on marriage and
having a team broken up because
wives fight over publicity. Six feet,
eight inches; 275 pounds and all
that speed was hard to lose, but
out he went"