As the United States Olympic men’s basketball team strives for another gold medal, 88 years ago in 1936 at the Berlin games, the sport of Olympic men’s basketball began and a Southwestern College graduate was a member of the first gold medal-winning team. 

John Haskell “Tex” Gibbons, from Elk City, Okla., played at SC in the late 20’s.  In 1929, Gibbons was named First Team All-Conference and Second Team in the annual Inter-collegiate Tri-State Basketball Tournament held in Stewart Field House. After graduation in 1931, Gibbons joined the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and played for several teams.  In 1935 he was a member of the AAU National Champion McPherson Oilers team that qualified for the 1936 Olympic Games.

Photo: John Haskell "Tex" Gibbons from the 1929 SC Moundbuilder Yearbook.

According to Wikipedia, basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics was the first appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. The tournament was played in Berlin, Germany, under the watchful eye of Adolf Hitler. Twenty-three nations entered the competition, making basketball the largest tournament of the team sports, but Hungary and Spain withdrew, meaning 21 competed.

The International Olympic Committee and International Basketball Federation, which is the governing body of international basketball, used the 1936 tournament to experiment with outdoor basketball. Lawn and dirt tennis courts were used for the competition, but this caused problems when the weather was adverse, especially during the final of the tournament when the USA played the game on a clay and sand court in the rain.

The US team beat the Philippines 56-23 in the quarterfinals, beat Mexico 25-10 in the semifinals, and defeated Canada 19-8 to capture the gold medal.  The team finished the Olympics with a record of 8-0. James Naismith, the game's inventor, watched many of the 1936 Olympic basketball matches and helped award medals at the end of the basketball competition.

Gibbons, a captain on the team, went on to teach and coach at UCLA before joining Phillips Oil where he made his career in the petroleum industry.

Gibbons passed away in 1984 at the age of 76.