Eastern Kentucky University Athletics

Dec. 17, 1929-30 -- In coach Charles “Turkey” Hughes’ first season as Eastern’s head coach, the Maroons defeat Louisville 26-16 en route to a 14-8 season.

1939-40 – Coach Rome Rankin, in his fifth season as Eastern’s head coach, guides the Maroons to their best record in school history as Eastern finishes the year at 16-2.

1945-46 – Eastern defeats Kentucky Wesleyan, Morehead State and Louisville to win the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament and finish the season, 21-3.

1946-47 – Paul McBrayer takes over the Maroons’ reins and picks up where Rome Rankin left off by going 21-4 his first year with wins over Pepperdine, Baylor and Tulsa to the team’s credit. Eastern runs off 18 straight victories over a two-year span, which includes winning the first 11 games of this season.

1948-49 – In the Maroons’ first year in Ohio Valley Conference play, Eastern was 16-3 overall, 7-3 in the OVC and advanced to the semifinals of the OVC Tournament, while being ranked 24th in the nation in the final poll of major college teams.

1949-50 – Comprised mostly of seniors who had played for Paul McBrayer for four years, the Maroons won the OVC Tournament with a 62-50 decision over Western Kentucky. Eastern was ranked 11th in the nation in the final Dunkel Index poll, missing the Top 10 by just five-tenths of a point.

1950-51 -- Eastern finishes 21st in the nation with a final 18-8 record which included victories over Virginia Tech, Dayton and North Carolina.

1951-52 – Jim Baechtold, 6-4 forward, ends his illustrious four-year Eastern career with 1,137 points and 933 rebounds. He was a three-time All-OVC selection, a two-time All-OVC Tournament choice and an UPI honorable mention All-America pick in 1951-52. He was taken as the second pick of the NBA draft by the Baltimore Bullets and had a five-year professional basketball career that included being NBA Rookie of the Year for the Bullets in 1953. He closed his pro career with a four-year stint with the New York Knickerbockers.

The World Champion Rochester Rockets of the NBA came to Eastern’s campus in October for their pre-season training camp and after scrimmaging against the Maroons for a couple of weeks, called Eastern “the best college team they had ever seen”.

1952-53 – Paul McBrayer’s 1952-53 team wins its first regular season OVC title and makes its first NCAA Tournament appearance, losing to Notre Dame, 72-57. Eastern had to play the Fightin’ Irish without the services of leading scorer Elmer Tolson and captain and playmaker Bill Bales who were ineligible because of being freshmen.

Feb. 6, 1954 – Eastern hands No. 3 Western its first defeat of the season, 63-54, breaking the Hilltoppers’ 21-game win streak.

1954-55 – Paced by junior forward Jack Adams who ended the season as the nation’s 28th leading scorer with his 23.2 points per game average, Eastern wins its second OVC Tournament title with a 76-59 decision over Murray State.

1955-56 -- Jack Adams, who played varsity basketball three seasons for the Maroons and was a three-time All-OVC choice, has his No. 40 jersey retired by Eastern, the only number in any sport to ever be retired by the University. He scored 1,460 points in his three-year varsity career for the Maroons.

Jan. 22, 1958 – Eastern begins what would turn out to be a 38-game homecourt winning streak at the Weaver Health Building gymnasium with a 72-64 victory over Murray State. The win streak would span four seasons and would, ironically, end with a loss to the Racers, 82-80, Jan. 8, 1962.

1958-59 – Eastern wins the OVC championship with an overall record of 16-6. The Maroons played in their second NCAA Tournament game in the school’s history, losing in the first round to the University of Louisville, 77-63. Eastern finishes the season as the nation’s fourth-best rebounding team.

Former Eastern basketball great Jack Adams is named an AAU All-American for the All-Army team. He participated in the Pan-Am Games in Chicago this season. He had already made world headlines earlier in his pro career when he scored 56 points and pulled down 28 rebounds for the Cleveland Pipers against Seattle in the AAU National Basketball League. He later was chosen MVP of the Pipers and MVP of the AAU Tournament.

1962-63 – Eastern closes competition in the Weaver Health Building gymnasium after more than three decades of basketball action. Eastern teams had won 225 contests and lost only 51 during this period (1931-63, no team in 1943-44 due to World War II).

Dec. 4, 1963 – Eastern christens its brand new playing facility, Alumni Coliseum, with a 78-65 win over the University of Louisville.

1963-64 – Eastern closes the season with a .755 school record free throw percentage, which placed the Maroons sixth in the nation in this category at the end of the season.

1964-65 – Eastern wins the OVC basketball crown as third-year coach Jim Baechtold was named OVC Coach of the Year in guiding the Maroons to a final 13-1 league record. Eastern, who scored more than 100 points five times this season, makes its third appearance in the NCAA Tournament, losing 99-52 to DePaul.

1967-68 – Garfield Smith finishes second in the nation in rebounding to the University of Florida’s Neal Walk. Although Smith averaged a school-record 19.7 rebounds per game, Walk, on the strength of a closing 38-rebound performance, averaged 19.8 rebounds per contest. Later that year, Smith became a first-round draft choice of the Oakland Oaks of the American Basketball Association and a second-round pick of the Boston Celtics of the NBA.

Dec. 27-30, 1971 – Eastern defeats Texas Tech, Santa Clara and Oklahoma City to take one of the nation’s oldest Christmas tournaments, the All-College Tournament in Oklahoma City, OK.

1971-72 – Eastern ties for the OVC regular season championship with Morehead State and Western Kentucky, setting up a playoff in Frankfort, KY’s Civic Center to decide the league’s representative to the NCAA Tournament. Morehead State defeated Western, setting up the championship game with EKU. Eastern downed the Eagles, 98-86, to win the OVC crown and advance in to the NCAA Tournament. EKU had to play Florida State, the eventual NCAA Tournament runner-up, and took the Seminoles to the wire, before losing, 83-81.

Feb. 15, 1979 – Eastern, en route to a 21-win season, defeats the West Virginia University Mountaineers, 93-91, in Charleston, W.VA’s, Civic Arena.

1978-79 – In one of the most talked about games in Eastern sports history, reserve guard Dave Tierney hit two free throws with no time left on the clock to give Eastern a memorable 78-77 victory over arch-rival Western Kentucky in the finals of the OVC Tournament in Alumni Coliseum. The win sends Eastern to the NCAA Tournament where the Colonels were defeated 97-81 by the University of Tennessee.

1986-87 – Austin Peay guard Richie Armstrong spoils coach Max Good’s Colonels dreams of going to the NCAA Tournament when he hits a three-point shot at the buzzer to give the Govs a 71-68 win over Eastern in the finals of the OVC Tournament played that year in Murfreesboro, TN.

Feb. 24, 2001 – Guard Lavoris Jerry ends his career in style for Eastern by scoring 41 points against Eastern Illinois in his last game a as a Colonel.

2004-05 – Coach Travis Ford leads Eastern to a school-record 22 wins as Eastern captures its last seven games of the regular season en route to taking the OVC crown. Eastern draws Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and plays the Wildcats to the wire before losing 72-64 in the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, IN.

2006-07 – Freshman Josh Taylor’s floating 10-foot jumper with two seconds left gives Eastern a thrilling 63-62 win over Austin Peay in the OVC Tournament championship and its seventh trip to the NCAA Tournament. Eastern loses to national power North Carolina, 86-65, in Winston-Salem, NC, in the NCAA first round.