Dennis Vinzant’s East Texas State Teachers College Lions were starting making going to Kansas City a habit at the end of the year, and for the 1942 Lions, it was a start of some adversity that would lay the groundwork for the great teams to come in an era with so much uncertainty. After making…

Dennis Vinzant’s name is not usually mentioned in the names of the great Lion Basketball coaches, but for the pre World War II era and the college students that made up the greatest generation, it was Vinzant that steadied so much of the athletic department at East Texas State Teacher’s College during that time frame.…

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…

J.V. Sikes is a coaching legend in the annals of East Texas State Lion history. A northeast Texas native from Leonard, Sikes was a 3 sport letterman at Texas A&M University before he got into coaching. In 1929, Sikes left Southeast Texas and came north to coach the freshman at East Texas State Teachers College…

I love two things, history and basketball. I read a lot because in my 38 years it amazes me how things have progressed from the time I was coming home as a newborn from St. Paul’s Medical in Dallas to the current day. How much our society has evolved and changed from 10, 20, 30…