The Buchan Bakers came into existence in 1948, when Warren "Bud" Howard convinced George Buchan to sponsor his basketball team in the Northwest AAU League. Howard's old team had just won a championship in a less competitive league, but the plumbing shop that sponsored the team chose not to continue. So Howard enlisted the Buchan Baking Co., a growing wholesale bakery in Seattle whose offices were near Howard's workplace.
The team suffered for three years as Howard learned that the players he had brought with him from the old league were not as good as the players of the Northwest AAU League. In the 1940s the league was dominated by Alpine Dairy, which managed fourth place finishes in the National AAU Tournament in 1947 and 1949.
Howard revamped the team for the 1951-52 season with quality players with college experience. The Buchan Bakers that year were led by 6-foot, 8-inch center Rod Gibbs from College of Puget Sound and guard Dar Gilchrist from Long Island University. Other members of the team included Jack Ward and Louis Soriano, both from the University of Washington. The Bakers breezed through Northwest League competition and went to the National AAU Tournament in Denver for the first time. Although they lost in the first round, for the Buchan Bakers the season had been a successful turnaround of the team's fortunes.
The next season they lost Rod Gibbs to Alpine Dairy and finished third in the Northwest AAU League. Meanwhile, the University of Washington basketball team, led by All-American center Bob Houbregs, made it to the NCAA Final Four. As soon as the 1952-53 season was over, Bud Howard began recruiting Houbregs and other Huskies for the Buchan Bakers. Houbregs agreed to play for the Bakers, and both he and his father, were given jobs at the bakery. But shortly after Houbregs received his first paycheck, he was drafted by the Milwaukee Hawks of the NBA. But all was not lost. Even though the Bakers lost Houbregs, they managed to sign up his supporting cast from the UW - Charlie Koon, Joe Cipriano, Mike McCutcheon and Doug McClary. Howard also enlisted Bob Morris, a UW assistant coach, to take over for Howard as coach.
In the 1953-54 season, the Buchan Bakers unveiled their new team of former UW players from the previous year's Final Four, along with Chet Noe, a 6-foot, 7-inch center from the University of Oregon. The team won the Northwest League title, edging out Darigold Farms, the successor to Alpine Farms. Also during the season, Howard scheduled games against national AAU powers, playing the Denver Central Bankers and the Phillips 66ers on the road and the Ada Oilers at home. Winning only one of six let the Bakers know where they stood in comparison, and although once again the Buchan Bakers traveled to Denver for the National AAU Tournament, once again they were defeated in the first round.
The next season, Bob Morris returned to the UW, and former high school coach Frank Fidler was hired to coach the Buchan Bakers. Although the Bakers lost center Chet Noe to the Ada Oilers, the team was strengthened by the additions of Hartley Kruger, a 6-foot, 8-inch center from the University of Idaho, and forward Ed Tucker, a former Stanford star, who was attending the University of Washington Medical School. Unfortunately, the two newcomers weren't always available to play - at one point Kruger had work obligations and Tucker had military obligations leaving the Bakers shorthanded on a losing road trip to play the Ada Oilers, the Phillips 66ers and the Denver Central Bankers. The high scoring Tucker returned to the team in time for the Buchan Bakers to wrap up the Northwest AAU League title once again, and Kruger was back for the National AAU Tournament. The Bakers also added two college seniors - Dean Parsons from the UW and Stan Glowaski from Seattle University for the tournament. This time, the Bakers won their opening round game, but fell to the Peoria Caterpillars in the second round, 81-79 in overtime.
For their championship run in 1955-56, the Buchan Bakers brought in several key players, including Phil Jordon, a 6-foot, 10-inch center, who would play in the NBA for several years, and George Swyers, the nation's second leading scorer at West Virginia Tech. Dean Parsons, a 6-foot, 8-inch forward, and Stan Glowaski, a high-percentage shooter, who joined the Bakers for the AAU tournament the year before, returned to the team. But the Bakers' season was almost derailed by a new team to the Northwest AAU League which featured Elgin Baylor, a Seattle University recruit sitting out the season to gain eligibility. Baylor's team beat the Bakers twice and the two teams finished the regular season in a tie for first. A wild playoff game to determine the league championship resulted in a victory for the Buchan Bakers.
For the National AAU Tournament, the Bakers added Bruno Boin, a 6-foot, 9-inch sophomore center from the University of Washington who had been named on the same All-Coast team as Bill Russell, K.C. Jones and Willie Naulls. The Bakers defeated Denver Central Insurance and the Pasadena Mirror-Glazers to get into the semifinals against Milwaukee Allen-Bradley. The Allen-Bradley team featured 6-foot, 10-inch Terry Rand, an All-American from Marquette, but it was Bruno Boin who was the difference, sinking Milwaukee with deadly long-range hook shots. That set up the championship game with Phillips 66ers, the defending champion, against the unheralded Buchan Bakers. Phillips came out strong, building a 10-2 lead, but after the Bakers closed the gap, the game remained close throughout. The game featured rough play and cold shooting, and neither team led by more than three points the rest of the way. With two-and-one-half minutes left, the score was tied 57-57 and Buchan's coach Frank Fidler decided to hold on for the last shot. With 29 seconds left, Fidler called time out and set up a play for George Swyers to take the last shot. The play went exactly as planned until the ball got to Swyers, who found himself tightly guarded by Burdette Haldorson. Swyers had to twist around the 6-foot, 8-inch defender, and throw up an awkward runner as the horn went off. Incredibly, the ball went through the net and the Buchan Bakers were National AAU Champions. Swyers and Charlie Koon were named to the all-tournament team.
During the 1955-56 season, the Buchan Bakers traveled to Asia, playing teams from Japan, China and the Philippines. After the season, the Bakers traveled to Europe and were the first AAU basketball team to play behind the Iron Curtain. The team played in Poland and Czechoslovakia, in addition to France, Spain, Italy and Austria. But the team's hopes of traveling to Australia to play in the Olympic Games were swatted away like a Bill Russell-blocked shot. As winners of the National AAU Tournament, the Bakers were invited to a four-team round robin tournament to determine the U.S. Olympic Team. The Bakers lost to the Russell-led College All-Stars and dropped a rematch with Phillips 66ers. Although the Bakers beat the Armed Forces All-Stars, the Bakers were shut out of the Olympic selections.
After winning the national championship, many of the key players chose not to return for the 1956-57 season. Phil Jordon joined the NBA, George Swyers returned home and joined the nearby Akron Goodyear team, Stan Glowaski was called up for military duty, Joe Cipriano started his basketball coaching career, and Bruno Boin returned to the UW. Charlie Koon and Dean Parsons were the key returnees. After seeing how well Elgin Baylor played, Howard recruited Baylor's teammate from the College of Idaho, R.C. Owens. Owens, although only 6-foot, 3-inches tall, was a strong rebounder with incredible leaping ability. The Buchan Bakers won the Northwest AAU League easily, and advanced in the National AAU Tournament to the semifinals before losing to the Air Force All-Stars, the eventual champions. R.C. Owens was named to the all-tournament team, but after the season ended he decided to give professional football a try. He became a wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, where he became known for the "Alley Oop" play whereby his quarterback, Y.A. Tittle, would purposely throw the ball over his head and let him jump up to catch it, high above the arms of the defender.
The 1957-58 season was the last for the Buchan Bakers in the Northwest AAU
League, and once again they finished in first place. The veteran Charlie Koon
was joined by his championship season teammate Bruno Boin, who took a year
off from playing at the University of Washington. Other standouts on the team
included Dick Stricklin, a 6-foot, 7-inch forward from Seattle University,
who averaged 13.3 points a game; Larry Beck, a 6-foot, 4-inch forward from
Washington State, who scored 38 points against the Wichita Vickers, and Carl
Boldt, a 6-foot, 5-inch forward from the University of San Francisco. Boldt
had played on the USF team with Bill Russell that had won the NCAA championship
in 1956. The Bakers fell to the Phillips 66ers in the quarterfinals of the
National AAU tournament, 71-61.
Bud Howard's long established goal of having the Buchan Bakers compete regularly on a national basis was finally realized for the 1958-59 season, when the team was accepted into the National Industrial Basketball League. The league featured the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots, the Phillips 66ers, the Denver D-C Truckers, the Peoria Caterpillars and the Wichita Vickers - teams that the Bakers had played regularly in the past several years. The Bakers retained their Pacific Northwest identity with returnees, Charlie Koon and Larry Ramm from Washington, Dick Stricklin from Seattle U, and Larry Beck from Washington State. Carl Boldt from University of San Francisco returned, and Howard recruited two of Boldt's teammates from USF - guard Gene Brown and center Art Day. Also from the Bay Area, guard Carroll Williams joined the team from San Jose State. Williams had played for the U.S. Air Force All-Stars two years before when they won the National AAU Championship and had been named to the All-Tournament team. The Bakers went 10-20 during their first year, finishing in last place. They were bounced from the National AAU Tournament by the Marines All-Stars 63-62.
The rigors of a national schedule proved too much for the two remaining participants in the 1956 National AAU Championship run. Coach Frank Fidler and veteran guard Charlie Koon, citing time away from home and work, left the Buchan Bakers after the 1958-59 season. To replace Fidler, Bud Howard hired Gene Johnson, a long-time AAU coach who had guided the McPherson Globe Oilers to the National AAU Championship in 1936 and then had coached the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic Team that year. Howard and Johnson began looking outside the West Coast for talent, and what they gained in player ability they lost in local fan support. The Bakers did obtain the services of Bruno Boin, who had graduated from the UW, and Charlie Brown, who had played with Elgin Baylor at Seattle U. for one year and had starred in his own right the following year. But the squad also featured players from Loyola of Louisiana, Memphis State, Davidson and Kentucky Wesleyan.
The 1959-60 Bakers managed to improve to a 14-18 record, good enough for seventh in the nine-team NIBL. However, the team caught fire in time for the National AAU Tournament, helped by the pick up of Dave Mills, a strong rebounder and scorer from Seattle University. The Bakers lost their semifinal game to Akron Goodyear, but came back to win the next night for a third place finish.
The next year, there were no players from local colleges and interest in the team dwindled. The NIBL had shrunk to six teams, and the Bakers finished 10-24, which gave them a third place finish in the three-team Western Division of the NIBL. The Buchan Bakers played their last game March 23, 1961, losing to the Denver D-C Truckers, 107-81, in the quarterfinals of the National AAU Tournament. The National Industrial Basketball League folded after the season as two of its members, the Cleveland Pipers and the New York Tuck Tapers, moved into the newly formed American Basketball League. George Buchan had also decided not to continue the team in the face of changes in both basketball and the bakery business.
The Buchan Bakers had played for 13 seasons and every player, coach, manager
and employee of the Buchan Baking Company during that time had much to be
proud of. The team had won the National AAU Championship, had won the Northwest
AAU title six times, and had represented the United States in trips to Asia,
Europe and behind the Iron Curtain. In addition, the Bakers, with their three
years in the National Industrial Basketball League, had been Seattle's first
national sports franchise.
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