About the BW Men's Basketball Timeline: The Baldwin Wallace University Basketball Timeline features some of the top moments in Yellow Jacket basketball history. BW has a rich tradition of success in the sport of basketball as well as in the prestigious Ohio Athletic Conference.
OAC Regular Season Titles (five): 1953-54, 1967-68, 1968-69, 1978-79 and 2005-06
OAC Tournament Titles* (six): 1966-67, 1995-96, 1997-98, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2018-19
* -- denotes the OAC Tournament began in 1948-49.
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1903-04:
The first Baldwin Wallace University basketball game is played. The 1903-04 season consisted of only one game.
1914:
Baldwin Wallace University entered the Ohio Athletic Conference.
1921:
BW posts an 18-5 mark under Head Coach W.J. Lemke.
1921-24:
The Yellow Jackets compile an impressive 51-19 record during a four-year span and come close to claiming the 1924 OAC Championship.
1929-36:
BW posts six winning seasons under the direction of the legendary and Hall of Fame Coach Ray E. Watts.
1934:
Ward Powell becomes BW's first all-conference selection. He repeated the feat in '35 by earning first-team honors from the OAC.
1941:
The Yellow Jackets win the Big Four Championship while Paul Adams and Jack Ogerst earn All-Big Four honors.
1941-49:
The Jackets post an impressive 101-52 mark with five Big Four Championships.
1944:
BW pulls one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history with a 57-54 victory over Bowling Green State University. The loss was the only blemish for BGSU prior to the NCAA National Championship contest.
1950-51:
BW earns the No.3 ranking in the NAIA National Tournament.
1951:
Dick Retherford becomes BW's first All-American as the Brown and Gold win a then school-record 19 games en route to a Big Four title. BW would defend their championship until 1957 behind the likes of Retherford, Paul James, Tom Blackwood and Hall of Famers Jerry Seuss and Wynn Hawkins.
1960:
Bob Walters scores a then school-record 47 points against St. Vincent College en route to setting the then BW mark with 544 points for the season. Walters ranks sixth on the College's all-time scoring list with 1,840 points for his career. Ends up being drafted by the New York Knickerbockers in the sixth round and is the last cut at that season's preseason training camp.
1966:
Terry Allerton eclipses Walters by scoring 554 points as BW wins a school-record 23 games and the first of three consecutive Ohio Athletic Conference titles.
1968-69:
Ted Johnson sets the BW single game (24) and single season (400) rebounding records.
1970:
Former Berea High School standout Dean Martin dons the Brown and Gold and sets every BW scoring and rebounding career records while being named All-OAC in four consecutive seasons.
1977-80:
Terry Rupert coaches the Yellow Jackets to 50 wins in three seasons, including 21 during the 1978-79 campaign.
1980-81:
The legendary Steve Bankson marks his inaugural head coaching season by winning the Northern Division of the OAC and finishing runner-up in the OAC and NCAA Great Lakes Regional Tournament. The Yellow Jackets finish 22-6 overall.
1989-90:
The Yellow Jackets make their first appearance in the Ohio Athletic Conference Final Four.
1992-93:
Three of the best scorers in school history graduate, Kenn Kaminski, Brian Newland and Joe Rinkes, play on the same team. That trio led the Jackets to four straight winning seasons and the OAC Final Four three times. It is the only time that three players have reached the 1,000-Point Club during the same season.
1994-95:
Behind 1995 graduate Joe Mackey, Kevin Braaten and Ryan Sooy, BW makes its first trip to the NCAA Division III National Tournament since 1980 and advances to the "Sweet 16" with upset wins over Hope (Mich.) College and longtime rival Wittenberg University. The two teams were seeded first and second in the Division III national tourney and ranked No.1 and No.2 nationally in the Final Division III national poll. BW also plays before a packed house at Gund Arena and beats cross-town rival John Carroll University, 77-67, in the first game of a doubleheader. The Ohio State University beat Cleveland State University in the nightcap.
1995-96:
BW earns its first OAC Tournament title since the 1966-67 season when junior forward Jason Frolo, dubbed "Mr. Saturday Night" makes two foul shots with no time remaining as the Yellow Jackets beat Marietta College for the OAC title.
1996-97:
Seniors Kevin Braaten and Ryan Sooy graduate as dual members of the 1,000-Point Club. Braaten was a two-time honorable mention All-American as well as an Academic All-American.
1997-98:
BW captured another OAC Tournament title and hosted its first-ever NCAA Division III National Tournament game in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium. BW loses to Allegheny (Pa.) College, 97-88, in the first round of the NCAA tourney.
2002-2003: Shawn McCormick ends his career as one of BW's best all-time players. He scored 1,865 points to rank No.5 all-time and was the OAC Player of the Year as a a senior.
2004-05:
Led by the school's No.3 all-time leading scorer, Thad Davis, the Yellow Jackets compile a 20-9 record, win their third OAC title since the 1996 season with an 82-77 victory versus Cleveland cross-town rival John Carroll University. BW would lose at The College of Wooster, 94-78, in a first round NCAA Division III National Tournament game. Davis would go on to earn OAC Player of the Year honors and continue a streak that had three separate Yellow Jackets combine for four OAC Player of the Year awards during a five season span.
2005-06:
OAC and DIIINews Division III Player of the Year Tori Davis leads BW to a second straight OAC Tournament Championship with a 91-84 overtime victory versus Ohio Northern University. The Jackets also defeated Carnegie Mellon (Pa.), 79-71, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to host Wittenberg University, 78-60, in the Great Lakes Region Championship Game. Davis would go on to be named as the DIIINews Division III Player of the Decade and to its All-Decade Team following the 2009-10 season. In addition and earlier that season, Davis scored 42 points and made 20-of-22 shots from the floor and grabbed 18 rebounds in a 113-108 double overtime win against Wooster in the Mose Hole Classic.
2007-08:
The legendary Steve Bankson retires after 28 seasons as the head coach of BW men's basketball. He ends his career as the third winningest men's basketball coach in OAC history with 420 wins and 701 in his 42-year coaching career. He would be inducted into the BW Alumni Athletic Association Hall of Fame in the Fall of 2008.
2008-09:
1994 BW graduate Duane Sheldon, a former Academic All-OAC player and defensive standout for the Yellow Jackets, takes over as head coach. He led OAC-rival Heidelberg University to an OAC Tournament title and the NCAA Division III National Tournament in 2007-2008.
2014-15:
Senior Jaron Crowe ends his career as the 39th player to score 1,000 points in school history with 1,002 and third all-time in assists with 481. Senior Justin Roth led the OAC in scoring with 18.5 ppg. and in three-pointers with 88. Freshman Cam Kuhn '18 (Vermilion) was the OAC Co-Freshman of the Year.
2016-17:
Tom Heil took over as the head coach, succeeding Duane Sheldon, who coached for eight seasonsand had six winning seasons and a n 80-74 record. Heil came to BW after just one season at Defiance when he led them to a conference title and into the second round of the NCAA Div. III National Tournament.
2017-18:
Seniors Cam Kuhn and Jake Fetherolf end their careers as two of the best-ever to play at BW. Kuhn ends his career fourth on the all-time scoring list with 1,881 points. He also0 set a BW single-game record with 51 points at the University of Mount Union on Dec. 2, 2015. Fetherolf ended his career with 1,204 points to rank 22nd all-time, 983 rebounds to rank fifth all-time and 30 double-figure scoring and rebounding games. He is just one of six BW players to score more than 1,000 points and grab mre than 900 rebounds.
2018-19:
The Yellow Jackets finish the regular season 17-8 overall and barrel through and WIN the OAC Tournament by winning three games on the road, at Wilmington (74-71), at Capital (81-67) and at Mount Union in the OAC Championship Game (79-75). Senior 4-time All-OAC guard Jay Battle is the OAC Tournament MVP. In the NCAA Division III Tournament, BW beats Salisbury State (Md.), 75-61 in the first round before falling to SUNY Oswego, 75-71 in overtime, in Oswego, N.Y. Battle ends his career 12th all-time in scoring with 1,531 points. He was the 42nd player to score 1,000 or more points. He also had 383 career rebounds, 379 assists, 208 three-pointers, 98 steals and 20 blocked shots.
Last updated by Kevin Ruple on March 27, 2019