“Undoubtedly the oddest basketballers in the country” Globe Refiners were the best team in basketball in 1936

In 1933 the McPherson Globe Oil and Refinery sponsored an amateur athletic basketball team as a means of marketing its products, and filling stations.Coach Gene Johnson, who quickly procured the team’s membership in the Missouri Valley League conference of the Amateur Athletic Union, organized the team.The AAU was the organizing body of post-collegiate basketball teams at that time.

Johnson recruited what Time Magazine described as a team of “athletic freaks” in an article in 1936.“The Tallest Team in the World”was lead by centers Joe Fortenberry, 6-8, and Willard Schmidt, 6-9.The pair towered over the competition and were the first players to “dunk” as described by New York Times sports columnist Arthur J.Daly: (the Refiners) “pitched the ball downward into the hoop much like a cafeteria customer dunking a roll in coffee.”

The Refiners quickly excelled taking second in the AAU championship in 1935 and winning against the Hollywood Universal team For the championship in 1936.

The Refiners met the Universal team again that year in the Olympic basketball qualifying tournament held in Madison Square Garden. The AAU teams defeated a field of five NCAA teams and one YMCA team to make the final game.This time Universal was the victor by a score of 44-43.The roster of the first-ever USA Olympic basketball team was composed of players from both teams plus one college player from Washington State University.

Support for the team’s participation in what many called the “Nazi Olympics”was hard-won and players were charged with paying their own way to New York to board the boat for Berlin.The members of the Refiners that went to Berlin were Fortenberry, Schmidt, Francis Johnson, Jack Ragland,Tex Gibbons and Bill Wheatley.

The USA team advanced handily through the Olympic tournament that was played outside on clay courts.The championship game against Canada was played during a rainstorm in temperatures hovering in the low 50s.The court quickly became a soggy mess and the game was described as “more of a slapstick comedy”by Universal player Sam Balter.The final score of 19-8 was indicative of the challenging conditions.The top scorer with eight points was Fortenberry.

Following their historic achievement in Berlin, the majority of the Refiners soon departed Kansas to play for different teams. Fortenberry and Ragland later played for the Phillips ’66 Oilers.The Johnson brothers and Schmidt went on to play for Antler Lodge in Colorado and later founded the Vickers Petroleum team in Wichita.Wheatley stayed on to coach the Refiners team for two years before going to play for teams in California.

This early exposure to a highly entertaining game is credited with the widespread popularity and success of subsequent amateur and high school teams throughout McPherson County. In 1949, the McPherson American Legion team won the national Legion tournament.

McPherson High school has produced 11 boys state champions and seven girls state champions.The tradition is alive and well with the annual Basketball Tradition Celebration held annually in August (www.facebook.com/basketballtraditions).