Former player Adam West died last month from cancer. He was a Navarro Junior College transfer and played at Baylor in the early 70's. He died at his home in Florida.

Didn't he play with Vinnie?

I remember him and he was a beast on the boards.

Adam West the actor died in June 2017.
Adam West the basketball player played at Baylor in 1970-71. I don't know if they are the same person.

Not the same person. The actor was born in 1928 & would have been quite old for a college MBB player. His film career started in the late 1950s in movies & on TV shows. It's easy to look it up on IMDb.

Historian.......can you expand your thinking to imagine what the nickname of Adam West, the basketball player, could have possibly been ???

Coach Carrol Dawson told me that when he signed, their season depended on Adam. He was undersized at 6'5 or so, but he he was all they had inside. The guy could get up. There are a few of us that watched basketball at the HOT Coliseum 60 years ago. Bennie Lenox, Dub Malaise, later, Spencer Moore, Spencer Carlson, Ed Horne, Roy Wolfe (almost full court shot), first great sign Darrell Hardy, next probably Lee Griffin. Coliseum damaged during storm back in the 70s I guess, games moved back to Rena Marrs Gym on campus. Not a good team, but Charlie McKinney from San Antonio was a bull inside. Ok, enough.

And don't forget Larry Gatewood

McKinney was a quick as anyone I ever watched at BU. And West could jump as high as a one I ever saw, just wasn't always well-timed!

70-71 would have been the same time as William Chatmon and Roy Thomas; right after the Larry Gatewood/Tommy Bowman/David Sibley teams and right before Charlie McKinney. Tom Stanton may have been the same years. Was ranked a week or two during the season and ultimately finished 2nd or 3rd in the SWC. Lost to eventual conference champ TCU in what was the largest crowd in HOT Coliseum history.

BUWaco said:

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Coach Carrol Dawson told me that when he signed, their season depended on Adam. He was undersized at 6'5 or so, but he he was all they had inside. The guy could get up. There are a few of us that watched basketball at the HOT Coliseum 60 years ago. Bennie Lenox, Dub Malaise, later, Spencer Moore, Spencer Carlson, Ed Horne, Roy Wolfe (almost full court shot), first great sign Darrell Hardy, next probably Lee Griffin. Coliseum damaged during storm back in the 70s I guess, games moved back to Rena Marrs Gym on campus. Not a good team, but Charlie McKinney from San Antonio was a bull inside. Ok, enough.

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Spencer Moore, is that the retired Waco optometrist? If so, he is still found around Baylor sports shooting some really great pictures.

Saw him play his freshman season against MCC ........he was definitely a beast on the boards ......

CTbruin said:

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Didn't he play with Vinnie?

I remember him and he was a beast on the boards.

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Vinnie came later than Adam West (Vinnie was like '76-'77 period and West was early 70's but after players like Chatmon, Stanton and Thomas). I recall watching West play during my years as a BU student.

Not sure, but it may have been Adam West who drove a late model Grand Prix on campus that had an oversized LIGHTED eagle hood ornament. You could tell it was him driving down 5th street from a good distance away when it was nighttime because of that eagle glowing in the dark.

historian said:

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I don't know if they are the same person.

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Adam West played only one year for Coach Menefee....the 1971-72 season. He started all 26 games. Baylor had a bad season after being very competitive the prior 3-4 years.

I attended a few of the games at the HOT that year. I hope someone recalls the event I'm about to mention, and can give it some additional detail.

One game that season turned into a brawl....I think it was against the Aggies (not surprisingly). Stanton had an ongoing issue with one of the Aggies, the name Mario Brown sticks in my memory, and as I recall, either Stanton threw water on the Aggie...or the reverse happened, and a brawl began.

Adam West had a girlfriend who joined in the fray on the court....I recall her battering one of the Aggies with her purse. Yes, things were a bit different back then.

Surely someone other than I was there that night and recalls the fun and can fill in the obvious blanks.

There were some memorable moments at the HOT, and Adam and his girlfriend were definitely a part of this one.

PS....I think I found his obituary in a recent Miami newspaper...the dates match and he was from Miami. If I'm wrong, I apologize in advance.....I just did a little Google search and could definitely be wrong.

He was a good player.

GruntTuff said:

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Adam West played only one year for Coach Menefee....the 1971-72 season. He started all 26 games. Baylor had a bad season after being very competitive the prior 3-4 years.

I attended a few of the games at the HOT that year. I hope someone recalls the event I'm about to mention, and can give it some additional detail.

One game that season turned into a brawl....I think it was against the Aggies (not surprisingly). Stanton had an ongoing issue with one of the Aggies, the name Mario Brown sticks in my memory, and as I recall, either Stanton threw water on the Aggie...or the reverse happened, and a brawl began.

Adam West had a girlfriend who joined in the fray on the court....I recall her battering one of the Aggies with her purse. Yes, things were a bit different back then.

Surely someone other than I was there that night and recalls the fun and can fill in the obvious blanks.

There were some memorable moments at the HOT, and Adam and his girlfriend were definitely a part of this one.

PS....I think I found his obituary in a recent Miami newspaper...the dates match and he was from Miami. If I'm wrong, I apologize in advance.....I just did a little Google search and could definitely be wrong.

He was a good player.

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Yes, the brawl was against the ags and Stanton and Mario Brown did have some bad blood between them. I recall someone swinging a folding chair during the melee and I'm surprised somebody didn't get seriously hurt. I also recall the game going into overtime and we eventually lost.

The highlight of Adam's season was winning the Las Vegas Tournament right after Christmas.

Johnny Bear said:

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CTbruin said:

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Didn't he play with Vinnie?

I remember him and he was a beast on the boards.

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Vinnie came later than Adam West (Vinnie was like '76-'77 period and West was early 70's but after players like Chatmon, Stanton and Thomas). I recall watching West play during my years as a BU student.

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Adam was a Junior the year he played. Roy Thomas, Tom Stanton, Pat Fees were Seniors.

GruntTuff said:

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Adam West played only one year for Coach Menefee....the 1971-72 season. He started all 26 games. Baylor had a bad season after being very competitive the prior 3-4 years.

I attended a few of the games at the HOT that year. I hope someone recalls the event I'm about to mention, and can give it some additional detail.

One game that season turned into a brawl....I think it was against the Aggies (not surprisingly). Stanton had an ongoing issue with one of the Aggies, the name Mario Brown sticks in my memory, and as I recall, either Stanton threw water on the Aggie...or the reverse happened, and a brawl began.

Adam West had a girlfriend who joined in the fray on the court....I recall her battering one of the Aggies with her purse. Yes, things were a bit different back then.

Surely someone other than I was there that night and recalls the fun and can fill in the obvious blanks.

There were some memorable moments at the HOT, and Adam and his girlfriend were definitely a part of this one.

PS....I think I found his obituary in a recent Miami newspaper...the dates match and he was from Miami. If I'm wrong, I apologize in advance.....I just did a little Google search and could definitely be wrong.

He was a good player.

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The highlights of that season was winning the Las Vegas Tournament and playing Arkansas in the hills for the highest scoring game in the history of the SWC...final score was something like 120-115. The record stood for quite afew years.

PhoenixBear said:

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GruntTuff said:

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Adam West played only one year for Coach Menefee....the 1971-72 season. He started all 26 games. Baylor had a bad season after being very competitive the prior 3-4 years.

I attended a few of the games at the HOT that year. I hope someone recalls the event I'm about to mention, and can give it some additional detail.

One game that season turned into a brawl....I think it was against the Aggies (not surprisingly). Stanton had an ongoing issue with one of the Aggies, the name Mario Brown sticks in my memory, and as I recall, either Stanton threw water on the Aggie...or the reverse happened, and a brawl began.

Adam West had a girlfriend who joined in the fray on the court....I recall her battering one of the Aggies with her purse. Yes, things were a bit different back then.

Surely someone other than I was there that night and recalls the fun and can fill in the obvious blanks.

There were some memorable moments at the HOT, and Adam and his girlfriend were definitely a part of this one.

PS....I think I found his obituary in a recent Miami newspaper...the dates match and he was from Miami. If I'm wrong, I apologize in advance.....I just did a little Google search and could definitely be wrong.

He was a good player.

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The highlights of that season was winning the Las Vegas Tournament and playing Arkansas in the hills for the highest scoring game in the history of the SWC...final score was something like 120-115. The record stood for quite afew years.

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Score was 132-113 IIRC. Martin Terry for Arkansas put up 46 I think.

PhoenixBear said:

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Johnny Bear said:

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CTbruin said:

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Didn't he play with Vinnie?

I remember him and he was a beast on the boards.

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Vinnie came later than Adam West (Vinnie was like '76-'77 period and West was early 70's but after players like Chatmon, Stanton and Thomas). I recall watching West play during my years as a BU student.

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Adam was a Junior the year he played. Roy Thomas, Tom Stanton, Pat Fees were Seniors.

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I do recall Stanton, Thomas, and Fees being on that '71-'72 team, but for some reason, thought that West came a season or so later. Anyway, thanks for the correction.

HOT. Not a great place to watch a game and the place where my heart was broken.

My memory may not be 100%, but we were playing Long Beach State who had some good teams back in the day. Baylor, maybe Vinnie, hit a shot at the buzzer...but the buzzer didn't sound. Refs talked about it and the shot clock stopped before the buzzer sounded by after 0 time. Refs decided that until the buzzer sounded the game wasn't over.

Long Beach State threw it in to a guy at their free throw line who threw it 3/4 of the way down the court and swished it. They celebrated and our fans were stunned.

Ok, where is my memory off? Probably in 1977 or '78.

Bakersdozen said:

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HOT. Not a great place to watch a game and the place where my heart was broken.

My memory may not be 100%, but we were playing Long Beach State who had some good teams back in the day. Baylor, maybe Vinnie, hit a shot at the buzzer...but the buzzer didn't sound. Refs talked about it and the shot clock stopped before the buzzer sounded by after 0 time. Refs decided that until the buzzer sounded the game wasn't over.

Long Beach State threw it in to a guy at their free throw line who threw it 3/4 of the way down the court and swished it. They celebrated and our fans were stunned.

Ok, where is my memory off? Probably in 1977 or '78.

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Correct for the most part, except I thought we hit 2 FTs with one second on the clock to take the lead. They inbounded and the guy turned around and heaved it, nothing but net from 60 feet.

VJ the microwave was at Baylor from 77 to 79 (two seasons) 79 was my freshman year. I remember a bunch of us driving to AM and seeing around 50 points. We limped home back to Waco the next morning and I took a test I had forgotten. It was worth it.

Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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VJ the microwave was at Baylor from 77 to 79 (two seasons) 79 was my freshman year. I remember a bunch of us driving to AM and seeing around 50 points. We limped home back to Waco the next morning and I took a test I had forgotten. It was worth it.

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I lived in Abilene at the time and made several trips to Waco to see VJ play......you're right......well worth it.
Kudos to coach Johnny Carter in recruiting him out of NYC to Waco.
To my knowledge, no Baylor player really comes close to his PPG average........

TJ55 said:

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Limited IQ Redneck in PU said:

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VJ the microwave was at Baylor from 77 to 79 (two seasons) 79 was my freshman year. I remember a bunch of us driving to AM and seeing around 50 points.

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To my knowledge, no Baylor player really comes close to his PPG average.

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Career PPG Leaders (min 40 games)
1. Vinnie Johnson ('78-79) 24.1
2. William Chatmon ('70-71) 22.1
3. Terry Teagle ('79-82) 19.9
4. Darrell Hardy ('65-67) 18.9
5. Charlie McKinney ('73-74) 17.8

Top 5 PPG Seasons (min 20 games)
1. Vinnie Johnson ('79) 25.2
2. William Chatmon ('71) 23.3
T3. Terry Teagle ('80) 23.0
Vinnie Johnson ('78) 23.0
5. Terry Teagle ('82) 22.2

That night we ran the clear out and let VJ score offense a lot. He could beat anyone 1-1 80% of the time and if you doubled him he could find the open man. Couldnt run a zone because he shot almost anywhere on the half court too well. He could tie his shoes without bending over.