In these chronicles, or tales, or whatever you wish to call them, some of them are longer than others and back in 1936, close to 90 years ago, it is a given that basketball was much different today than it is now. The game has evolved (and for the worst in the past decade if you ask me, but I digress). That to say, in this edition of Banner Years and Tournament Tales, we look at a coach and a team that should be looked at and celebrated but rarely is.

JV Sikes left Commerce for his alma mater at Texas A&M to coach the ends for the Aggies, switching schools and also sports. SJ Petty, an unknown coach, took over the head basketball coaching position at East Texas State.

Unlike so many other coaches I have researched, Petty is almost impossible to be found. All that can be found is that Petty coached basketball at our alma mater for one season, and won a conference title.

In only their fifth season in the Lone Star conference, the Lion cagers showed themselves to be a force to reckoned with. Starting out 4-0, the Lions then dropped 2 games to East Central Oklahoma, only to go on a 10-1 winning streak. The Lions had a chance to clinch their second title outright, but dropped a heartbreaker to Stephen F. Austin, a team they had defeated earlier in that season. The season’s climax would come down to two final games against North Texas State, one game in Denton, one in Commerce. The first matchup the Lions and Eagles went to overtime with the Lions pulling out a 36-31 win, however one win would not be enough to clinch the conference championship. The Lions would need to defeat NT one more time on their home floor to do it.

On February 28, 1936, in a tight and physical affair that resembled more a football game than a basketball game, the Lions used “stall ball” to keep the ball out of North Texas’s hands and eeked out another close affair, 18-16. The Lions had clinched their second conference championship in Basketball. The Lions finished 16-4 overall and 7-1 in conference. As I had written earlier, the 1939 would see another LSC title and their first national tournament appearance. In their first decade in the Lone Star conference, the Lion program set the standard for being a perennial conference power in the NAIB, NAIA, and NCAA for years to come.

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Lone Star Conference Champions