One night, he hit off the first tee and his ball landed right in the fairway behind a man who was playing ahead of Wiethe. But he didn’t care. Wiethe’s attitude was: Get out of my way.
The man playing ahead of him knocked his shot up on the green. Wiethe hit his ball onto the green close to the man, who then knocked Wiethe’s ball back at him. Wiethe grabbed his ball and approached the man, asking why he hit the ball his way. The man explained that he was upset Wiethe was hitting his shots so close to him.
Wiethe picked up the man’s bag of clubs and threw it off the base of the green. The guy came after Wiethe, who then picked up the man and threw him down toward his bag.
The man sued Wiethe for $10,000.
The next summer, Dallmer saw Wiethe and asked, “Whatever happened to that lawsuit?”
“Awww,” Wiethe said, “I gave the fellow a C-note and that was the end of that.”
“That’s just the kind of character he was,” Dallmer said of Wiethe.
Dick Dallmer was a four-year starter at forward. During his career, the Bearcats went a combined 77-27. He was a team captain as a junior and senior. (Photo by University of Cincinnati/Sports Information)
ZONING OUT
And so the story goes it was 1948 or ’49, and the Bearcats were playing some of their games at Music Hall downtown. Wiethe was driving a carload of players to a game one evening. As he was driving, he was deep in thought about that night’s matchup and discussing strategies with the players in the car.
He stopped at a red light on Central Parkway, and he continued talking to the players as the light turned green, then red again. The driver in the car behind Wiethe started honking his horn.
Wiethe slowly got out of his car, walked back to the other car, opened the door, grabbed the man’s keys, and threw them. Then he walked back to his car, got in, and continued driving to the game.
MAKINGS OF SUCCESS
For all the antics, Wiethe was driven to get UC among the upper echelon of college basketball programs. He would play anyone anywhere and was the first to coach a Cincinnati team at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Under Wiethe, the Bearcats would also schedule games at Chicago Stadium and the Orange Bowl in Miami.
Wiethe, a lawyer who would eventually become head of the Hamilton County Democratic Party in Cincinnati, coached the first UC team to win 20 games in a season and the first to score 100 points. He left after UC finished 11-16 in 1951-52—his only losing season.
“We were the beginning of things,” Dallmer said. “We really got the program started.”
4
GEORGE SMITH ERA (1952-1960)
FATHER FIGURE
George Smith, captain of the Bearcats’ football team in 1934 and a former assistant football coach, took over for John Wiethe as UC’s head basketball coach in 1952. The players lost a hothead and gained a father figure.
Players loved Smith. Parents loved Smith.
Here’s an example of why:
Smith’s relationship with future Hall of Famer Jack Twyman was forever cemented during a period in the 1953-54 season when Twyman was feeling a little discouraged.
Smith sensed something was wrong, and he went to Twyman’s hotel room when UC was in Oklahoma City to play in the All-College Tournament in December 1953. The two spent an hour or two talking while looking out the window at oil wells on the horizon.
George Smith’s 154 career victories as head coach of the Bearcats rank him third only to Bob Huggins and Mick Cronin on Cincinnati’s list of winningest coaches. After stepping down as head coach in 1960, Smith served as UC’s Athletic Director for the next 13 years. (Photo by University of Cincinnati/Sports Information)
“He sat down on my bed and we talked about life and what I wanted and how we were going to do it together,” Twyman said. “Actually, that was a turning point in my career at UC.
“I always appreciated that. He and Helen (Smith’s wife) didn’t have any children. I kind of thought of them as my parents away from home. We had a great relationship. I really considered him my mentor, so to speak.”
KEEPING GOOD COMPANY
On February 26, 1954, the unranked Bearcats were playing host to No. 1-ranked Duquesne (21-0) at the Cincinnati Gardens (remember, Twyman, a Pittsburgh native, was supposed to play for the Dukes). UC won 66-52.
Twyman’s mother was in town for the game. After it was over, Smith took Twyman, his mother, his girlfriend, Bill Lammert and his mother out to dinner at a restaurant on Reading Road. Joining them was Mike Boich, an official who worked the game. He lived in Cleveland and was a friend of Wiethe’s.
Well, the bus carrying the Duquesne team, which was playing in Dayton next, stopped at the same restaurant to pick up food for the trip north.
“The whole team came into Schuller’s and here’s Jack Twyman and George Smith and Bill Lammert and their families eating with the referee,” Twyman said. “It was so funny. They were kidding us about it.”
ARMORY OPENER
Twyman’s career high was 49 points, in a 101-92 victory over Western Kentucky his senior year.
But one of his most memorable performances was in the very first game played at the Armory Fieldhouse. Cincinnati opened its $2 million on-campus arena December 18, 1954, against the defending Big Ten champion Indiana Hoosiers, who had won the 1953 NCAA title. A sellout crowd of 7,000 was on hand.
Don Schlundt, IU’s six-foot-10, three-time All-American who left as the school’s career scoring leader, drew the assignment of defending the 6-6 Twyman.
“I remember Schlundt being very big,” Twyman said. “I went outside and he wouldn’t come out, so I was able to shoot over him. When he did come out, he wasn’t quick enough to guard me.”
Twyman finished with 35 points on 15-of-24 shooting. Schlundt, who came in averaging 26.3 points a game, had just 17 against UC. The Bearcats won 97-65.
“Twyman never looked better in his life,” The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
His career rebounding high came a month later when Twyman grabbed 30 boards against Miami University in an 86-80 victory in Oxford.
WILLING TO WORK
Twyman finished his college career with 1,598 points and 1,242 rebounds and was the University of Cincinnati’s all-time leader in both categories until a guy named Oscar Robertson came along.
He was selected by the Rochester Royals with the 10th pick in the 1955 NBA draft and played professionally from 1955-66. Twyman was enshrined to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983.
In 11 years in the NBA, Jack Twyman averaged 19.2 points and 6.6 rebounds and was an All-Star six times. (Photo by University of Cincinnati/Sports Information)
After getting cut from his high school team as a junior, Twyman had two choices: Give it up, or turn it up. He told his coach, “You’re not going to be able to cut me next year.”
Twyman turned himself into a player by working harder than others. He said he became a pretty good shooter “because I was willing to spend the time and take the initiative to practice.
“I would take a couple thousand jump shots after practice,” he said. “I wanted very badly to be a pro and was willing to forgo everything else in order to get there. I had my own key to the gym (at UC). Whenever I wanted, I could go in and turn on the lights. At 10, 11 at night, I was practicing my shooting.
“I’m proud of what we accomplished. I feel we moved the program to another level. I’m very proud of my association with the University of Cincinnati. Starting with Wiethe, it gave me a lot of ideals that served me well through business and a pro (basketball) career.”
JACK BE NIMBLE
The translation of a conversation can even be lost when it involves two future Hall of Famers in their respective sports.
Tony Trabert played tennis for the United States in Davis Cup competition in Australia in December 1953, then returned to Cincinnati to play the last eight games of the 1953-54 basketball season.
He was rooming on the road with Twyman, the starting center, and wa
s talking about his experiences Down Under.
Trabert told Twyman: “You know, we had kangaroos for ball boys. They hopped out on the court. The main thing they did is when you’re practicing your serve, they’d fill their pouches with tennis balls and they stood there and you could serve and take the balls out of their pouch.”
Twyman bought the whole story.
“He had me going for at least a couple of weeks,” Twyman said. “I was just a kid coming out of Pittsburgh. Now I’ve heard the story ad nauseum. Every time we’re in a public venue he brings that story up. But I’ve got to admit, it’s true.”
ONCE A BEARCAT
Chuck Machock really wanted to attend the U.S. Military Academy. Twice he took tests to get an appointment to West Point; the closest he came was first alternate.
By July 1955, after his senior year at Elyria (Ohio) Catholic High School, Machock accepted a full scholarship offer from UC.
His father was an NCAA football official for 20 years and a basketball official for 18 years. Machock knew of Cincinnati’s dominance in the Mid-American Conference from 1946-51 and was aware of the kind of talent in the program. He considered it a challenge to try to play at UC.
As a freshman, there was no choice. After two scholarship players dropped off the team, there were only five players remaining.
In his sophomore season, there were so many players that Machock rarely got in games, and when he did, it was in the final seconds.
Coach George Smith knew Machock wanted to eventually coach basketball. So at the start of his junior year (1957-58), Smith had an honest exchange with Machock, telling him that he likely wasn’t going to play much—if at all.
Machock said: “He kind of took me under his wing and said, ‘You want to be a coach? I’ll work out a situation where you can be our manager and help coach the freshmen with Coach Jucker.’”
That worked out just fine for Machock. Ed Jucker would spend the first hour each day with the freshman team, then go help Smith with the “varsity.” When he was a senior, Machock helped former Bearcat Jim Holstein, who became the new freshman team coach. During the 1958-59 season, Machock sat on the bench with the varsity as part of the coaching staff.
THE HUGGINS CONNECTION
Indeed, Machock went into coaching, starting at St. Henry High School in Erlanger, Kentucky. From there he went to Elyria (Ohio) Catholic High School, Lorain County Community College, Akron as an assistant, Steubenville College and then to West Virginia University in 1972-73. There, he recruited a high school player out of Northeast Ohio named Bob Huggins. Machock had worked at Bob’s father Charlie’s camp as a guest coach when Huggins was just starting high school.
Machock left the Mountaineers to join Holstein’s staff at Ball State. From there, Machock went to Ohio State and worked for Eldon Miller in 1976. When there was an opening on the staff, Machock suggested Miller hire Huggins, who was a graduate assistant at West Virginia. Huggins and Machock coached two years together with the Buckeyes.
In 1983, when Machock became head coach at Central Florida, he hired Huggins as his No. 1 assistant.
Machock left coaching to work in securities and ran his own office out of Lancaster, Ohio. He would occasionally meet up with Huggins to go scout high school players.
When Huggins got hired as UC’s coach in 1989, he called Machock. “You want to get back into coaching?” Huggins asked. “Transfer down to Cincinnati and I’ll wait for you to get off work at four to start practice. You can be a part-time coach.”
Machock’s wife, Dottie, is from Cincinnati. Her mother and brother lived there.
Offer accepted.
Machock was a volunteer assistant coach at UC with Huggins—more than 30 years after he helped coach the Bearcats freshman team—for three years before the NCAA changed the rules for men’s basketball staffs. Machock could no longer be a part-time coach, so in 1992 he became the radio analyst and continued to be a frequent visitor to practice. He is one of Huggins’s greatest supporters and confidants.
“I watched him grow up and play basketball,” Machock said. “He was a phenomenal basketball player. No one shot it with any more consistent rhythm than Bob Huggins. I saw him score 40 or more in three straight games. He was the No. 4 scorer in Ohio high school history when he graduated (with 2,438 career points, he ranked ninth in 2004).
“I knew he was going to be a damn good college coach. Nobody has a better work ethic than Bob Huggins, to prepare a team for a game and to prepare a team for a season. He is relentless. He is super, super intelligent. That’s what got him to where he is today.”
REBOUNDING MACHINE
For all the great rebounders in the history of UC basketball, nobody ever had a game like six-foot-nine junior Connie Dierking did against Loyola (Louisiana) on February 16, 1957.
UC won 82-77 at the Armory Fieldhouse, but what was memorable about that day was that Dierking pulled down 33 rebounds, a single-game school record still standing in 2004. (He also scored 34 points that night.)
“Things just happened to be falling my way that day, I guess,” Dierking said. “I knew I had a lot. But I had no idea how many I had. You don’t need a lot of ability to rebound; what you need is a lot of heart. If you go after the ball, you’re going to get it.”
It was no fluke, either.
The next season, during his senior year, Dierking grabbed 31 rebounds—second-most in UC history—during a 70-point Bearcat victory over North Texas State. When he was a sophomore, Dierking had 30 rebounds against George Washington.
The only other player in UC history to get 30 rebounds in one game: Twyman, who had 30 on March 2, 1955 against Miami University.
REPORT TO ROOM 116, PLEASE
Dierking was born in Brooklyn and went to high school in Valley Stream, N.Y. Jucker, a UC assistant coach, had spent some time coaching at Rensselaer Polytech Institute in New York, and, well, he knew somebody who knew somebody who knew about Dierking. Jucker told Bearcats head coach George Smith about the kid.
One day during his senior year in 1955, the front office called Dierking’s classroom and asked that he be sent to room 116.
“If anybody was sent to room 116, that meant you were in big trouble,” Dierking recalled. “I said, ‘Oh, what did I do?’ I didn’t remember doing anything.
“George Smith was on the phone. He asked, ‘How would you like to come and visit the University of Cincinnati?’ I never even went to Times Square. I said I’ve got to go home and talk to my parents about it.”
Dierking came for a recruiting visit and never left town. He has lived in Cincinnati for roughly 50 years.
“Primarily I wanted to get away from home,” he said. “My father was a tough cookie, and I just wanted to get away. As it turned out, it was a good move.”
RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD
Phil Wheeler remembers going to pick up Dierking, who was taking his recruiting visit, at the airport while driving his convertible with the top down. Problem was, the weather was not fit for an open-air ride.
“We drove down the old Dixie Highway,” Wheeler said. “It was a very sunny day, but there was a cloud over us and it rained on us all the way into Cincinnati. We expected it to stop because it was sunny everywhere. That was his entrance to Cincinnati. He never let me forget that.”
“WE HAD A LITTLE PROBLEM WITH THE TROPHY”
In December 1955, the Bearcats went to Richmond, Virginia, and defeated Virginia, Seton Hall and the host school to win the Richmond Holiday Tourney championship. The final was played on December 30. Wheeler, UC’s team captain, got the OK from Coach Smith to take the tournament trophy to a New Year’s Eve party back in Cincinnati at the home of a UC booster.
Well, the team was celebrating. As the clock neared midnight, players were pouring some “beverages” into the trophy, passing it around and taking drinks from it. All of a sudden, someone snapped off one of the small basketball figurines on the trophy. Then off came another. And another.
“
We had about eight little basketball players that weren’t on the trophy anymore,” Wheeler said. “It was demolished.”
The next day, he took it to Smith in a box. The trophy “was in a million pieces” and reeked of alcohol. The really bad news? The Cincinnati Post had called Smith and wanted to take a picture of the trophy.
“Uh, George, we had a little problem with the trophy,” Wheeler told his coach. “We put it on the mantle at the party and it fell off.”
“George accepted that and not another word was said,” Wheeler said. “Of course, he knew exactly what had happened.”
The trophy was later repaired and was eventually on display in Shoemaker Center.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW
On February 2, 1956, Wheeler scored a career-high 37 points against St. John’s at Madison Square Garden. He was being guarded all night by center Mike Parenti, who finished with 29 points. The Redmen were favored to win by three, but UC prevailed 93-78.
Wheeler, a senior, was feeling pretty good about that night—until five years later. In 1961, 37 players from 22 colleges were arrested in gambling scandals that had ties to the mob. In testimony against gamblers, Parenti was mentioned as one of the players involved in fixing games.
“Let’s put it this way,” Wheeler said laughing. “I thought I had a helluva game, but now I’m not so sure. How much he let me score, I don’t know.”
“THE BIG O”
It was the fall 1956, and freshmen were ineligible to compete on the “varsity.” But soon, word got out about Oscar Robertson, the UC newcomer from Indianapolis. About 6,000 fans showed up to watch the freshmen scrimmage the varsity at the Armory Fieldhouse. The freshmen lost, but Robertson finished with 37 points, 17 rebounds and eight assists. There were times during the 1956-57 season that UC drew more fans at home for its freshmen games than for the varsity games.
Tales from the Cincinnati Bearcats Locker Room Page 5
