May 20, 2011
A University of Dayton hoops legend and a pioneering Flyer women’s basketball team will be inducted with the 2011 class into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame. Arlen “Bucky” Bockhorn, along with the 1979-80 UD women’s basketball team that won the AIAW National Championship, will be enshrined on May 21, 2011 at the induction ceremony at the Columbus Convention Center.
Bockhorn was the face of the toughness that embodied University of Dayton basketball in the mid-1950s. A 6-foot-4 swingman from Campbell Hill, Ill., Bockhorn came to UD in 1952 as a freshman before a two-year stint in the Army.
After serving our country, he returned to start the next three seasons for coach Tom Blackburn’s Flyers. As a sophomore at Dayton, Bockhorn averaged 10.7 points on a team that had a 25-4 record, won the University of Kentucky Invitational Tournament, finished third in the final Associated Press poll and was runner-up in the NIT.
In 1957-58, Bockhorn was team captain and Most Valuable Player during his senior year when UD went 25-4 again and placed second in the NIT. He averaged 10.8 points and an a team high 12.4 rebounds. Also in that season, Bucky and his brothers Harold and Terry made college basketball history when they were the first (and believed to still be the only) trio of brothers to play Division I basketball for the same team in the same season.
A versatile player, Bockhorn scored 941 points, grabbed 708 rebounds and always drew the toughest defensive assignment, regardless of whether that player was a forward or guard. His teams were a combined 69-17 and played in three NIT’s. He was named to UD’s All-Century Team (top 20 players in 100 years of Flyer basketball) in 2004.
He went on to play seven seasons in the NBA as a starting guard for the Cincinnati Royals. His backcourt partner for five of those years was Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson. Bockhorn averaged 11.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists before a knee injury ended his career 19 games into the 1964-65 season.
In addition to joining the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame, Bockhorn is also a member of the University of Dayton Athletic Hall of Fame and the Cincinnati Royals Hall of Fame. His work as the color analyst on WHIO Radio for UD basketball broadcasts for nearly 40 years have also led to his enshrinement into the Miami Valley Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
The 1979-80 University of Dayton women’s basketball team was a trailblazing, one-of-a-kind group that achieved a moment of glory that they fought for and earned; a National Championship.
The humble beginnings of UD women’s basketball began with a three-game schedule in 1949.
That 1979-80 team had come a long way.
They paved the way for the success of the program now – a program that, for the first time in history, earned a berth to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship during the 2009-10 season.
The 1979-80 Flyers, coming off a season in which they were 33-3 overall and national runners-up, upped the ante with an astounding 36-2 record, setting the mark for the highest single season winning percentage in UD history (.947).
They claimed their third consecutive MAIAW Regional Championship, outscoring opponents by 43 points per game.
Then came their fourth consecutive trip to the AIAW Division II National Championships. This time Dayton would not be denied the crown and won the title game with an 83-53 victory over Charleston (SC).
The 1979-80 Flyers were known for their dominance, displayed perfectly by their 25-point average margin of victory. And they didn’t play cupcake teams. The Flyers went 5-1 against teams from the Big Ten Conference with victories over Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio State.
Four members of the 1979-80 Flyers are in the top six career scorers at UD, including career leading scorer Ann Meyers, who totaled 2,672 points. Meyers closed out her four-year career by being named the Division II Player of the Year and earned All-American honors for the third season. Carol Lammers ranks second in UD history with 2,151 points. Beverly Crusoe is fourth with 1,627 points and Tammy Stritenberger is eighth with 1,380 points scored.
Members of the 1979-80 Flyers include: Journey Beard, Beverly Crusoe, Mary Carol Gleason, Pat Hoffman, Marlene Jarzynka, Julie Johnson, Carol Lammers, Mary McDonald, Ann Meyers, Kim Ramsey, Tammy Stritenberger, and Sue Youngpeter. The group was inducted into the University of Dayton Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.
Bockhorn, and the 1980 UD women’s team join other five other former Flyers and two teams into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame – Don Donoher (Class of 1954), Tom Blackburn, Don May (Class of 1968), Jim Paxson (Class of 1979), Don Meineke (Class of 1952), and the 1962 and 1968 Men’s NIT championship teams.
