A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From pro football’s Super Bowl to baseball’s World Series, from dynamic soccer’s World Cup to golf’s and tennis’ U.S. Open, major auto racing, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more major tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, major college football, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. — Obrey Brown.
If you want to talk basketball, maybe “Black” Jack Gardner – a 1928 Redlands High alum – might be about as good for a story, or two, or three, or more of anyone from that tiny city. Also known as “The Fox,” Gardner’s departure from Redlands led him on a sensational journey in which he would eventually wind up in 10 different Halls of Fame.
He’d coached against legendary hoopsters like Bill Russell, John Wooden and Adolph Rupp, against his former college, USC, logging most impressive basketball-coaching careers around college annals. In 1998, Gardner spoke by telephone with me from Salt Lake City, his living residence.
Revelations from that conversation, plus another couple of contacts, were eye-opening. Credited with discovering another Hall of Famer, John Stockton, Gardner watched plenty of hoops, even in retirement. In fact, he showed up at every Final Four between 1939 and 1997.
It’s a man with quite a resume. Even today, after the remarkable successes of Wooden, Bobby Knight, Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Larry Brown, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, Rick Pitino, Rupp and Jerry Tarkanian, Gardner qualifies among collegiate basketball’s most elite coaches.
To date, he remains one of three coaches – Pitino and Williams are those others – to lead two different programs to that Final Four on two occasions. Though he was a 1910 New Mexico birth, his path began in Redlands, where he was a four-sport Terrier athlete.
Long before Kansas became a major force in collegiate basketball, especially under legendary coach Forrest “Phog” Allen, Gardner’s Kansas State regularly outplayed those Jayhawks.
“Yes,” said Gardner in that 1998 telephone chat. “Coach Allen didn’t recruit much in those years. I think I got better players because I recruited. When he got going, boy, things got better for them.”
One name: Chamberlain! To Kansas. Yes, Gardner tried to get him. More on Wilt later, though. As for Gardner, off he went to USC after his Redlands days, that 5-foot-11, 160-pounder becoming an All-American during his 1928-1932 stint as a Trojan. It was, of course, long before basketball became one of USA’s iconic sports.
He was All-Coast, USC’s high scorer for two seasons, Trojans’ team captain and MVP during a successful collegiate playing career. His hoops future wasn’t in a uniform.
COACHING CAREER BEGINS
After coaching at Alhambra High School, going 29-11 over two seasons, to a 1934 Southern Section runner-up spot, losing to Santa Barbara, 19-14, at Whittier College.
It was off to Modesto Junior College, posting three state California state titles over four years, then hired at Kansas State in 1939.
Gardner, who is enshrined in that Naismith Hall of Fame, coached K-State’s Wildcats in two stints – first from 1939-42, then after World War II from 1946-53. After posting just 20 combined wins in his first three seasons, Gardner returned to Manhattan, Kansas in 1947 and led the team to its first winning season in 16 years with a 14-10 mark.
One season later, the Wildcats made most of their first NCAA Tournament appearance, advancing all the way to Final Four in 1948. Runner-up Baylor University beat K-State, 60-52, in those Western Regional Finals.
That squad became K-State’s first in school history to notch 20 wins en route to capturing a Big Seven crown. K-State tied for another Big Seven title in 1950-51, finishing 25-4. Gardner guided his ’Cats to arguably their greatest season.
All-American Ernie Barrett led K-State to its third Big Seven title in four seasons.
Ranked fourth that season, K-State survived a scare from No. 12 Arizona, winning 61-59, then beat No. 11 Brigham Young University, then No. 2 Oklahoma State to reach the 1951 finals against Rupp’s No. 1-ranked Kentucky.
What a spot for a guy that had graduated from Redlands some 23 years earlier. Anyone watching him at all those playing days in old Terrier Gymnasium couldn’t have predicted anything like this.
It was a battle of Wildcats in the finals – No. 1-ranked Kentucky taking on Gardner’s K-State Wildcats. K-State led at halftime, 29-27.
Barrett, though, was injured and K-State got overwhelmed in that second half, losing 68-58. What a story that would eventually turn out, though. History revealed some dirty play. Point shaving. Kentucky players were branded. Arrested. Jailed. Barred for life.
In looking ahead to Gardner’s career, consider that he coached against the likes of Smith and Wooden, Rupp and Allen, plus both McGuires – Frank and Al.
Gardner’s Utah team went up against Russell’s University of San Francisco in 1955. A decade later, he played the foil of Kentucky in Glory Road movie fame, scouted Stockton for the Jazz and had an edge in a pair of Utah-based rivalries against both Utah State and Brigham Young University.
Part 2 coming.
