But there’s no denying the talent that would bring the Phoenix to the upper reaches of Division II basketball. Sure, hairstyles have changed and thankfully so have the uniforms. Reviewing that vintage game footage has affirmed Buss’ belief that a number of his Phoenix players could play in the modern era. He said the Horizon League is clearly among the elite mid-major conferences and the Phoenix is consistently near the top of the league. That season the Phoenix lone regular season loss was a 55-49 heartbreaker at De Paul.īuss, whose final season was 1981-82, still follows the Phoenix, and is impressed by how well the program has done in the ensuing years. In 1977-78 the Phoenix finished 30-2, losing in the NCAA Division II Final Four championship to Cheyney State. During his tenure Buss’ teams had just one losing season. That season included a 63-62 win at major-college contender DePaul and a trip to the NAIA tournament in Kansas City by defeating UW-Whitewater at Whitewater. But they were winners from the start, posting a 16-8 record in that first season, and 23-5 in their second year.īy 1972-73 the Phoenix had become a small college powerhouse. That first season the Phoenix featured eight freshman, two sophomores and two junior college transfers. “It’s something that was almost lost, but is now available.”īuss, a Marshfield native, was named head coach in early 1968 and given the responsibility to recruit a basketball team that could play the next year when the four-year campus opened. To identify the former Phoenix basketball players in action, she turned to Phoenix alumnus Tom Anderson (no relation to Debra Anderson).Īnd what has been the reaction among those former players who have received their DVDs? “If we had come to this point even 10 years in the future, some of these memories could have been lost,” Anderson said. Fortunately, the old films had been stored well, so they don’t look much different than 40 years ago. “It was a pretty labor intensive project. “It’s pretty technical, but it required a special projector that converted film to video,” Schmitt said.
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Buss quickly responded by sending a check that not only covered the cost, but made sure that UW-Green Bay has a full set for the historic record.Īnderson then turned to Mike Schmitt from UW-Green Bay Media Services to make a digital transfer of more than 100 games. Anderson replied that the film could be transferred to DVD, but added there would be a cost. Buss wanted copies of film to send out as gifts to some of his former players.
The story of the film rescue began last spring when Buss contacted Debra Anderson, who is coordinator of the University Archives. I thought if we don’t save it now, it’s not going to be preserved. “This was the only recorded evidence of their playing careers and it was deteriorating. “Back then we shot 16 mm films of the games and it was really expensive,” said Buss, now retired and living in Horseshoe Bay, Texas, a community about 50 miles west of Austin. There are also scenes from the Phoenix upset of national powerhouse DePaul, and a victory over UW-Whitewater in Whitewater, which catapulted the Phoenix into the NAIA Championship Tournament.
So the first Phoenix scoring featured an old-fashioned 3-point play.Ĭlick thumbnails to enter slideshow view.
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Haglund was fouled on the shot and made a free throw. For the record that very first season they were known as the Bay Badgers, and the first points scored were by guard Dave Haglund, who curled around a screen and took a pass from Ray Willis for a layup. The collection includes the Phoenix’s very first game, a 99-70 defeat of Milton College on Dec. Former University of Wisconsin-Green Bay head basketball coach Dave Buss doesn’t want the Phoenix program’s first seasons to fade into obscurity.Īnd thanks to his generosity, more than 100 long-forgotten game films from the earliest seasons of the men’s basketball program have been converted into digital format and will be available for public viewing through the University Archives at Cofrin Library.
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