1956 Streaks- How Good Were They?

This is from Tom Wilson’s scrapbook- a few of the Silver Streaks playing on college teams in 1960. Realize this is not all the Streaks who were playing in college in 1960, but it is what’s in the scrapbook. 

These are all Silver Streaks off the 1956 team that lost in double overtime to Rockford West in the Supersectional by a score of 66-64. At this time, the second overtime was sudden-death. The Streaks lost West went onto win the State Championship. 

Three of the seniors off this team went onto to play at Bradley, Colorado, and Illinois State. The 4th player went to Knox College, where he set the school’s scoring record at the time and led them to multiple Midwest Conference championships. 

Mike Owens at Bradley- Every year it was Bradley and Cincinnati battling for the Missouri Valley title. Every year it was Bradley and Cincinnati battling for the #1 in the nation. Owens’ junior and senior years Bradley split with Cincinnati, but the Bearcats won the Missouri Valley title. 

One of the highlights was the 91-90 Bradley win over Cincinnati and Oscar Robertson in 1960. The Bearcats were ranked #1. Bradley had Chet Walker, who went onto star with the Chicago Bulls. It was Mike Owens who sank the key free throws to win the game. 

In this era, only the conference champs went to the NCAA tourney. It could be argued that each year Bradley was the second best team in college basketball but never went to the NCAA. They went to the NIT each year. In 1960, Bradley defeated Providence and Lenny Wilkins for the title.

Bill Graning led Knox College to the Midwest Conference championship. At the time, he became the all-time leading scorer in Knox history. 

Jerry Odell was on the Illinois State basketball team. Not pictured was Russ Lind, who was All-Big 8 guard at Colorado University. 

For a more detailed look at the 1956 Streaks- click on this link. 

Streaks Scrapbook- 1956 Sweet 16