Iowa Wesleyan College - Croaker Yearbook (Mount Pleasant, IA)

Page 111 text:

 Basketball The 1915-1916 basketball season at Wesleyan was semi-successful. The team did not strike their winning stride until the latter part of the season, when they were able to take games from Simpson, Penn and Parsons. The coach took hold of the men the early part of the season with no knowledge of the ability of the different players and several games were sacrificed before the coach found the best arrangement of his men. Four men from the previous year’s squad reported for practice but early in the year Campbell was laid up with a bad knee and only three men of any experience remained. Captain Grant, Wahl and Lee had played the year before arid the coach was aware of the fact that if he could find two other men of equal ability with the three ‘W’ men he would be able to win a majority of the games scheduled. One of the two men to be unearthed was Craver, an old Mt. Pleasant high school star who came up from the Freshman five. His only trouble was a tendency to play individual ball rather than to develop team work. After a few groomings by the coach, however, he eliminated this difficulty and proved himself to be one of the best men who ever performed in a purple and white jersey. His speed and ability to cage the ball from all corners of the floor have marked him as a star forward. Dean, who had been Campbell's understudy at the pivot position, was called upon for duty when the lanky center was injured and since having a bit of stage fright removed he has proved a valuable addition to the team. He is above all a hard fighter and should have little difficulty holding down his position for the next two years. Wahl and Grant are the two men who receive their sheepskins in June and their loss to the team will be keenly felt. Altho both of the men had a bit of trouble finding themselves the early part of the season they were going their best on the last lap of the year and in their final appearance for the Parsons game both played the best ball of their lives. Lee, the plucky little guard, did more than his share of the work of the team and at the end of the season was given honorable mention by the Capital City papers. With a strong Freshman team to draw from Wesleyan should have even a better basketball team next year than they had this. CAPTAIN GRANT