Every week until the Canada West Men's Basketball Playoff Tournament, Bison Sports will be sharing the proud history of the Herd's hardcourt program, featuring comments from alum from six different generations of Bisons basketball. We start with John Loewen, who played from 1968-73.
 
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The University of Manitoba's men's basketball program has a rich and storied history in the game. Between the 1920s-1950s, the Bisons played in various collegiate and city leagues, while also facing US teams from North Dakota and Minnesota.  
 
The Herd were particularly successful in the 1950s and early 1960s, winning three straight Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Association (WCIAA) titles in 1955, 1956 and 1957, at a time when there was no national championship.
 
Over those three seasons, the Bisons won a combined 38 games, led by Hall of Famer Bud Fraser, who coached Manitoba for 14 seasons, starting in 1951.
 

The Herd's winning tradition continued through the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in the program's first, and only national championship in 1975-1976.
 
Prior to '76, Manitoba had knocked on the door of a national title many times. They won four of the first six GPAC (Great Plains Athletic Conference, founded in 1972-73) titles, with a combined regular season record of 53-3.
 
The Bisons also claimed the overall WCIAA title in 1970-71 and were the top team in the WCIAA's Prairie Division the following year, going combined 32-2 in the regular season during that span.
 
And, between 1967-1970, Manitoba had a combined overall record of 42-15, finishing as the runners-up in the WCIAA in 1968, 1969 and 1970.
 
Perhaps the best part of Manitoba's sustained success, was the fact that the rosters were primarily local.
 
A thriving high school basketball scene helped prepare many local athletes for post-secondary play against the likes of Regina, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Brandon, Lakehead, Victoria, UBC and many other western Canadian rivals.
 
John Loewen – who played forward during Manitoba's impressive run between 1968-73 – looks back fondly on his time with the Herd. It was at UM where the prominent businessman and politician formed life-long friendships that still last to this day.
 
"With the exception of [1969-70 roster member] Cliff [Cornelius] and a guy by the name of Jon Gurban [1969-73], who ended up here out of UND, [Manitoba] was really the hotbed of Canadian basketball. We were all pretty proud to be a part of that," Loewen recalled.
 
"For me, it was more than just a team. There were friendships forged that have lasted a lifetime. From what I can gather from people we played against, what the Bisons teams do in terms of gathering to this day is quite remarkable and very unusual. There was a comradery there. Everybody was rooting for everybody else."
 

Loewen's roots in basketball can be traced to church leagues when he was 12 years old. He later played his high school ball at Churchill, where he used his near 6'5" length and strong defensive presence to affect countless games.
 
"At that time there were city leagues and suburban leagues. Gordon Bell and Churchill were the two best teams in the city at the time. Gordon Bell ended up winning the city championship," said Loewen.
 
"We ended up losing to them in the third game of a best of three. Then there was a provincial tournament with eight teams, two from the city and the rest from the suburbs. We got into that. We ended up blowing a lead in our first game. That year Dakota won the provincial championship."
 
Back then, not many Canadian universities were recruiting, and so local university basketball was the route to go. For Loewen, school also played a factor in his decision.
 
"There was only one university at that time giving scholarships, and that was Simon Fraser. They had actually given me a football scholarship, but I wanted to play basketball. I had talked to [Hall of Famer] Vic Pruden at the University of Winnipeg. I ended up at the University of Manitoba, because it had a business school. It was called the Faculty of Commerce back then."

'A lot of basketball talent in the province'
Loewen's first season at Manitoba in 1968-69 – a ten-team roster – was also the first for head coach Jack Lewis. His winning percentage of 78 percent over four seasons (and 108 total games coached) is still the best in program history dating back to 1962.
 
Over that span, the Bisons went 62-8 in conference play as a perennial national contender. But Loewen was quick to remind readers that the "groundwork" was laid the year prior by Darwin Semotiuk, who coached the team to an 11-5 conference record and trip to the WCIAA final.
 
"[Semotiuk] took a young team and kind of moulded them. Ross Wedlake, Bob Town, Ted Stoesz, Terry Ball, Irv Hanec, guys like that. They struggled that year, but then Jack walked in, and Darwin had got them to a point where the team believed in themselves and understood that they could be a good basketball team."
 
Ross Wedlake [1967-71] later became a three-time conference all-star and two-time team MVP and was a member of the Canadian National Team that played in Mexico, Italy and Germany in 1972, while brother Bill [1967-69] went on to lead the Winnipeg Wesmen's basketball team for 16 years.
 
Their contributions, along with others in the Wedlake family, continue to be felt in the basketball community to this day.
 
"They were very dedicated," noted Loewen. "Very down to earth. Ross had a terrific sense of humour, always has. They were real hard workers. They didn't push people so much as they brought them with them."
 
Town [1967-72], a 6'4" forward, along with Ball [1965-70], a 6'3" guard, later became All-Canadians, while Stoesz [1967-71], a 6'3" forward, was a tournament all-star in 1970-71 when the Herd advanced to nationals.
 
"Bob I played with in high school. He was a year ahead of me at Churchill. Ted Stoesz and Ross Wedlake all played on the national team at various times. Bob played on the team, and Rick [Watts] would've been on the team but he tore his ankle up. There was a lot of basketball talent in the province of Manitoba," recalls Loewen.
 
"The real key to success at the university and senior men's levels was teamwork. Everybody knew their role on the team and played a role on the team. That was the key to Manitoba basketball teams' success in that era."
 
Under Lewis, who "had a way of bringing the group together," the Bisons thrived in a fast break offence, led offensively by Stoetz, who "had one of the smoothest shots," along with Town, who was "an incredible athlete" and Ross Wedlake.
 
"He was fast and quick," added Loewen of Town. "That was part of the key to our fast break was certainly the way Bob could run the floor and the way Ross [Wedlake] could rebound.
 

 Many other players made their mark defensively, shining in their respective roles.
 
"I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to play with the players I played with. I think of myself as the quarter horse in with the thorough-breds. I played in the post. I was just a little shy of 6'5" when I graduated from high school. As I progressed, everyone kept getting taller and taller so I switched from the post to a forward spot, so I had to learn to play facing the basket," he says.
 
"My contribution was primarily on defence and rebounding. I usually was given the job of guarding the other team's best forward scorer. I took a lot of pride in my defence. I like to think that I had a pretty good sense of the game and was a good passer and could get the ball to the guys we needed to get the ball to score. I was more of a journeyman that anything else, but everybody has a role on a team like that."

In '68-69, Manitoba finished second in the WCIAA to Alberta. At that time there was only one team that could come out of western Canada to get to the national championship, meaning Manitoba would have to wait another year to punch their ticket to the dance.
 
"We had four games with Edmonton. They won the two at home, we won the two in Winnipeg, but we lost a game that year to Saskatoon, which meant that Edmonton was in first place and we were in second," added Loewen.
 
The following season, the Bisons were boosted by the additions of Americans Cliff Cornelius, a former Iowa conference all-star and Jon Gurban, a Minneapolis product.
 
Cornelius, 6'4", was named a conference all-star and All-Canadian in his lone season at Manitoba after playing the prior four in Iowa [only four years of eligibility in the states at that time]. Gurban also became a conference all-star.
 
"[Cornelius] took a lot of us to the next level. He had played four years at one of the smaller universities in Iowa. Coach Lewis and [assistant] coach [Hank] Tatarchuk were at a coaching clinic in the states. He was recommended by someone they met at the coaching clinic," mentioned Loewen.
 
"Cliff was one of the first US-trained basketball players to come play his fifth year in Canada and get another year of eligibility. He was a very hard worker and a very skilled low post guy that had the experience that we all drew from."
 
Local sensation Angus Burr [1970-75] out of East St. Paul was another immediate presence on the Bisons' roster.
 
A fan favourite, Burr's 899 career points were the most in program history until Eric Bridgeland [1989-93] shattered the record with a total of 1307. Burr's total still ranks ninth all-time.
 
The 6'1" guard was a two-time silver medalist at nationals, was named a tournament all-star in 1973-74 and was also a multiple-time conference all-star bringing a signature flair to the Herd that was hard to stop.
 

"Angus was a lot of fun. He wasn't all that big, but he was the first one, probably in western Canada, to dribble between his legs and behind his back. At that time that was virtually unknown," remarked Loewen.
 
"That was Angus' style, very free-flowing. He had a great shot and he was very quick, very fast. He could create a shot pretty much any time that he wanted to. He was a lot of fun to play with."
 
"We were playing one time at Brandon. We were down one point and it was very late in the game. Coach Lewis called a timeout and brought us over. It was probably our last possession. Coach started drawing up a play and Angus just said 'just get the ball to me,' so we gave the ball to Angus in bounds," added Loewen.
 
"He went down and scored. That was Angus. He just wanted the ball and he knew what he needed to do to score. He could usually do it. He was, for the most part, unstoppable in those days and very creative. He was kind of like the [NCAA all-time leading scorer] Pete Maravich of Canadian basketball. He was doing things that nobody was doing at the time."

'The veterans usually come out on top'
In 1969-70, Manitoba gained revenge against Alberta, knocking them off in the conference semi-finals in two games, 77-62 and 80-63.
 
In game one, Ball went 7-for-8 from the floor and 4-for-4 from the line in the second half, to finish with 21 points, while Ross Wedlake added 12, Cornelius had 14 and Burr had 11.
 
In game two, Manitoba led 37-33 at the half, with Wedlake taking over in the second half after the Bears had briefly taken a 48-45 lead. The 6'6" centre finished with 12 rebounds overall, while the Bisons outscored the Bears 28-7 from the foul line.
 
"We're a little older than the Bears. When you get rookies playing against five-year veterans, the veterans usually come out on top," said head coach Jack Lewis at the time. "But the Bears played good, disciplined ball and their coach should be proud of them."
 

In the finals, Manitoba fell in two to constant rival and top-contender UBC in two games. Cornelius had a double-double in game one, which went to overtime, while Manitoba shot 43 percent in the game two loss.
 
The Herd wouldn't be denied the following season, winning the WCIAA crown following a two-game sweep of UBC.
 
In game one, the Thunderbirds were ahead 11-4 when Town caught fire, finishing with 16 points in the first half and 28 overall. Gurban added 15, while Burr also had 15 and Stoesz had 12.
 
In game two, the Bisons pulled out a 68-65 win in a thriller.
 
Wedlake finished with 19 points, along with 12 boards, while Burr had 16 and Stoesz had 11.
 
"Beating UBC, that was our goal for the whole year. They were one of the better teams in Canada. They'd won the west and beaten us the year before, we were thrilled to beat them. That was a memorable series for all of us," says Loewen.
 
"Back in those days we played in the old Bison gym, which maybe sat 1500 or 1600. It was packed every time we played BC in there. You could hardly breathe. For that final series, the new UMSU building had been built by then. In the multi-purpose room they were broadcasting the game for the overflow. For us as players it was very exciting to have that type of fan support. That was very memorable."
 

The Herd continued their run all the way to the national final in 1971. They beat Waterloo Lutheran 66-63 in the semis, led by 16 points each from Burr and Wedlake, along with 12 boards from Wedlake.
 
In the final, Manitoba met their match against host Acadia, a team that'd had their number all year. The Axemen got up early and won 72-48, led by Richard Eaton's 27 points. Stoesz paced the Bisons with 18.
 
"That year we only lost three games and two of them were to Acadia. We lost to them in the semi-finals of the Golden Boy Tournament (now the Wesmen Classic) at Christmas, and they beat us in the final. They had three very strong Americans on the team, including guard Steve Pound, who might've gotten some NBA tryouts," recalled Loewen.
 
"They were the better team. It was difficult playing for a national championship in their home gym, with refs from eastern Canada. But it was a great experience. We all learned a lot. My most memorable year I think."
 
The 1971 national final was as close as Loewen got to bringing home a banner for the Bisons. And while his squads didn't reach the ultimate goal, they helped create a standard of excellence that continued for years to come, eventually culminating in a national title in 1975-76.
 
"Everybody was rooting for everybody else," said Loewen.
 
"Once you left, you still came to games and encouraged the guys, and at the senior level you still played against them. To me the most important thing was the friendships that came with it. You can go to any game and still run into a few guys you played with, or alumni that were close in years that we've kept in touch with. Those games for us are a great gathering spot."
 
Stay tuned for next week's article, detailing Manitoba's dominant run in the mid 1970s. The story will include comments from Rick Watts [1971-76] and Greg Daniels [1973-78], along with the impact of team members like Darryl Rumsey [1971 commit], who, along with 1972-73 commit Doug Freeth and 1973-74 commit Martin Riley and others, helped form the leadership group that brought Manitoba back national gold.