Ken James

HTML <h2><strong>No 40 KEN JAMES</strong></h2>

HTML <h2><strong>6 feet 3 inch (190cm) Guard</strong></h2>

HTML <h2><strong>1972 Olympic Games</strong></h2>

HTML <p>The 1972 Munich Olympic Basketball stadium was filled beyond capacity&#160;because the host country&#160;West Germany was playing. The atmosphere was&#160;very emotionally charged from the&#160;past evening and morning events surrounding the massacre of Israeli hostages by Palestinian terrorists. The host team led by fifteen points at half time so the Australiansdecided to see how the opposition could handle a zone defence. Thetactic worked and the Germans fell out of rhythm and the Aussies were able to tie the score with a few seconds left. The Germans were trying to get the last and winning shot off before the buzzer and the player Australian Ken James was guarding threw a pass which Ken deflected straight up. They collided, the referee called a foul on the German player and Ken went to the foul line with the score tied and two seconds left.&#160;The entire stadium&#160;of Germans was screaming in&#160;emotional bedlam for Ken to miss. Ken calmly took a deep breath, sank a free throw to win the game 70-69.</p>

HTML <p>“Sinking that foul shot and insuring the win was the greatest thrill I have ever had in athletics,” says Ken.</p>

HTML <p>Kenneth Robert James was born January 19th 1945 in Curwensville, Pennsylvania, USA. He first got interested in basketball when he was ten years old and his dad took him to a recreation hall basketball game. Ken thought it was the most exciting thing he ever seen, sohis dad put up a basketball hoop on the telephone pole outside the James house. Ken was hooked on the game and shot hoops every day. In the fifth grade the basketball coach liked something about Ken’s basketball ability and placed him on the sixth grade team which won the City Championship. In Junior High, Ken’s team won the City Championship and the highlight of that season for Ken was making two winning baskets in two different sudden death overtime games where the first basket scored won the game.</p>

HTML <p>A high school highlight for him personally was winning the State scoring title two years in a row and he still holds the school career scoring record of 26.4 points per game almost fifty years later. Unanimous selection to the All State First Team two years in a row followed and he was selected as a High School All American in his senior year. After receiving over fifty scholarship offers, Ken selected Brigham Young University,Utah. </p>

HTML <p>Ken had a standout college career at BYU, the highlight being the winning of the 1966 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in New York. “Nothing beats winning in Madison Square Garden at Christmas,” Ken reminisces. That same year BYU was ranked number two in the nation during the season.</p>

HTML <p>After four years under-graduate university studies, Ken was accepted into the dental school at the University of Washington in Seattle. In Seattle he played AAU basketball for four years and was voted the MVP of the AAU City League in 1969 and 1970. The team went to the national AAU playoffs all four years that Ken played for them. “It was a great way to let off steam during a heavy four year course in dentistry,” recalls Ken.</p>

HTML <p>Ken had married Rhondda an Australian girlwhile at BYU and half-way through his dental studies in Seattle they returned home to Melbourne, Australia for a visit as she had not been home for eight years.Her father, Ron Cutts, was a pioneer of Australia basketball and he quickly arranged for Ken to play some basketball games at Albert Park stadium.</p>

HTML <p> During that first visit Ken met Lindsey Gaze and played for the Auburn Tigers Club in the Melbourne competition and the South Eastern Conference (SEC). He and his wife returned to America, so that Ken could finish his dental degree in June 1971. He then explored the option of immigrating to Australia and naturalizing. He and his wife returned to Australia and Ken resumed playing with the Melbourne Tigers and was selected on an Australian Team to tour overseas for eight weeks. After the tour the Australian Basketball Team for the 1972 Munich Olympic team was selected and Ken was named to that team.</p>

HTML <p>“The Munich Games for me were bittersweet. After the two day moratorium we took to honour the eleven Israeli athletes who were killed in the terrorist incident, it was decided that the competition would go on,” remembers Ken.</p>

HTML <p>Ken was a starter on the Australian Olympic Basketball Team and played very well in Munich where the team gained 9th place.A very good athlete and a good rebounder as a 6’3” guard he played some pivotal games and in particular in thegame against Germany when he scored eleven points and took nine rebounds.</p>

HTML <p>After two years in Australia,Ken returned to the USA as his dental career in Australia was not going in the direction that he wished.In Seattle he established a highly successful dental clinic that still operates today. </p>

HTML <p>Ken cites pivotal adults along the way in his basketball, who loved the game enough to have a passion to share it with the youth about them. His fourth grade coach comes to mind, with his thumb-less-stub which he would poke into any kid who messed up a play or goofed off. His high school coach, who transferred in to their small, rural school their first year in division one to coach Ken to become named &quot;All American&quot; is also given much credit by Ken. BYU and the powerhouse of Division One NCAA basketball taught him skills for life and allowed him to see a lot of the world at an impressionable time. Ken concludes, “The smartest and most dedicated Coach I ever had was Lindsay Gaze. He lived his life on and off the court as a beacon for me personally to emulate.”</p>

HTML <p>Today Ken is semi-retired in Seattle, supervises his Dental Clinic, and plays gym “hoops” and at 66 years of age none of his sons-in-law can beat him in a game of basketball “HORSE”.</p>

HTML <p>Ken James (13) drives the baseline at the 1972 Olympics Games (Courtesy K. James)</p>

HTML <p>Ken James (13) in action for Australia (Courtesy K. James)</p>

HTML <p>Ken James and family at the airport prior to his departure for Munich in 1972 (K. James)</p>