In almost 50 seasons, the 66ers earned 1543 wins against 271 losses. Twelve 66ers and two coaches represented the United States in Olympic tournaments, and three of them were the only amateur players to have ever played on two Olympic basketball teams. The club ceased operations in 1968.
History
Team creation
Phillips Petroleum was established in 1917, amidst the burgeoning oil industry. In 1919, upon their return from World War I, a group of local individuals in Bartlesville sought employment opportunities at Phillips. Some of them, inspired by their shared experiences, decided to create a basketball team under the Phillips banner. By 1920, this team commenced playing matches against other corporate teams, gradually gaining recognition. In 1921, seeking avenues to maintain fitness during the winter, a contingent of Phillips employees organized a team within the Bartlesville YMCA basketball league.
Initially, their matches were confined to Bartlesville and nearby areas, maintaining a modest profile. However, as time progressed, a spirited rivalry emerged with Empire Oil & Gas.
1921–1942: First years in AAU
The 66ers joined the Amateur Athletic Union, which featured the best basketball players at that time; in 1921.
In the 1920s, the standout player for the team was Paul Endacott, a former college star at Kansas who earned recognition as the Amateur Athletic Union Player of the Year in 1923, a time when there was no NCAA tournament. Joining the 66ers in 1927 as a Phillips employee, Endacott brought his talents to the team. Concurrently, a rivalry with Phillips University of Enid, the national collegiate runner-up, began to intensify.
During the 1928–29 season, Phillips 66 did not field a team. However, the subsequent season marked a pivotal moment coinciding with the company's initiation of marketing its products to the public. This prompted Phillips' leadership to make significant investments in their basketball team. In 1929, Lou Wilkie, the coach of Phillips University of Enid, was hired as the team's first full-time coach. Additionally, several skilled players, many of whom hailed from the disbanded Mid-Continent Oil Co. team, were recruited to bolster the roster.
The 1929–30 team lost in the second round of the National AAU tournament, as did the next year's version. Then, with the Depression raging, Phillips dropped basketball to concentrate on survival. That strategy worked, and by 1936, Phillips was more convinced than ever that a strong basketball team would be good for business. The AAU's annual tournament drew the best players in the world, as well as thousands of fans and dozens of sports writers and broadcasters. During the 1930s, the only professional basketball teams were barnstormers like the House of David and the Harlem Globetrotters. In all those years the 66ers played against teams fielded by various commercial companies, under the sanction of the Amateur Athletic Union.
Paul Endacott and promising talent David Perkins emerged as pivotal figures during the 1930s for the team. Phillips gradually gained recognition, securing second place in the AAU tournament in both the 1936–37 and 1938–39 seasons, boasting an impressive 36–11 record. Notably, three of those 11 losses were inflicted by the Oklahoma City Parks. Following the disbandment of the Parks after the season, Phillips recruited their top two players, Grady Lewis and Bill Martin, both of whom had earned AAU All-America honors.
G. Harold "Smitty" Schmidt took over coaching duties for 2–4 years towards the end of the 1930s, bringing with him experience as a player under Phog Allen at the University of Kansas. With Lewis, Martin, and talents like Joe Fortenberry and Don Lockard on the roster, the 66ers dominated with a 48–5 record. Their pinnacle moment came with a thrilling 39–36 victory over the reigning champions, the Denver Nuggets, in the finals of the 1939–1940 AAU tournament. The team received an enthusiastic welcome upon their return to the Bartlesville station, celebrated as champions.
Although the team secured second place in the 1940–1941 season, they faced a setback in a post-season Red Cross benefit game in Tulsa, where they lost to Arkansas, led by the towering 6–8 center John Freiberger, who would later join the 66ers. However, the outbreak of World War II and the involvement of the United States led to most of the top players from the 66ers enlisting in the military. Bill Martin joined the Army Air Corps in 1942, followed by John Freiberger in 1943, resulting in a decline in the team's performance during the 1941–1942 season.
1943–1946: Beginning of the dynasty
Bud Browning played for the 66ers from 1937–1943 and served as the team's head coach 1943–48, 1953–54 and 1958–64
Phillips dominated the AAU titles from 1943 to 1948, winning six straight titles and posting a 241–24 record (+909) against all comers. With the World War II war ongoing in 1943 and Phillips being a war-related industry, most of its employees were exempt from the draft. And with other AAU teams weakened the 66ers won AAU titles in 1943–44, 1944–45 and 1945–1946.
1946–1952: Bob Kurland era
In the 1945–46 season, the college basketball was dominated by the first two "modern big menGeorge Mikan of the DePaul Blue Demons, and two-time NCAA champion Bob Kurland of the Oklahoma A&M Aggies. Bob Kurland became a 66er in 1946 and considered the club's greatest player since then.
Kurland made the 66ers more popular and powerful than ever. Huge crowds thronged to the Bartlesville high school gym, which only seated 1,400 to see Kurland and the 66ers rolled to a 52–2 record in 1946–47. It was the year that the war had ended, and most of the former players returned, including Freiberger and Martin. Those two teamed up with Bob Kurland and the 66ers rolled to their fourth straight AAU championship in 1946–1947 season.
The 66ers achieved a stunning 62–3 record in 1947–48 and won their AAU 5th title in a row.
Phillips also dominated the 1948 Olympic trials, beating NCAA champion Kentucky Wildcats, 53–49, in the finals. That put five 66ers Bob Kurland, Cab Renick, Lew Beck, Gordon Carpenter and R.C. Pitts on the Olympic team, and made Phillips coach Bud Browning the head coach over Kentucky's Adolph Rupp. Ironically, it was the second time Rupp had played second fiddle to a Phillips man. He was a back-up to Paul Endacott in their college days at Kansas.
The Phillips 66ers' record finished in 1949 after the Oilers lost to the Oakland Bittners in the AAU finals. According to George Durham, the team's publicity director and business manager for 20 years that team generated approximately $545,000 in free publicity during the 1948–49 season. The 66ers won the AAU title again in 1949–50, but that was followed by two bare seasons in 1950–1951 and 1951–1952 where they did not manage to repeat the triumph in the Olympic Trial Games (Peoria Caterpillars won the playoffs). Kurland set a record by being named to his second Olympic team in 1952, but he broke a lot of hearts in Bartlesville by deciding to retire just after the Games. The following year (1953) Clyde Lovellette joined Mikan signing for the Minneapolis Lakers.
In 1953 a 6–6 foot forward named Pete Silas signed from the NCAA Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Silas had led the Southeastern Conference in scoring despite competing against such talented players as Cliff Hagan and Frank Ramsey and Louisiana State's Bob Pettit. He made the Armed Forces All-Stars and played on the gold medal-winning Pan-American Games team in 1955. Despite the fact that Silas was in the Army the 66ers led by a 6–9 scoring-machine forward from Colorado named Burdie Haldorson won the 1956 Olympic Trials playoffs and sent five men to the 1956 Olympics.
Haldorson set the team record by scoring 53 points against the Cleveland Pipers in 1960. He also tied Kurland's record by making the Olympic team for the second time in 1960 Olympics. He retired after that and went to work for Phillips' Denver division.
1960–1968: Decline and the end
The 1963–64 Phillips 66ers, from left to right: [standing] Don Watkins (team manager), Jerry Shipp, Ken Charlton, Jim Hagen, Mike Moran, Terry Cerkvenik, Bud Browning, [kneeling] Ken Saylors, Del Ray Mounts, Denny Price, Larry Pursiful, Charlie Bowerman and Bob Turner.
By the time Haldorson retired, AAU basketball was dying a slow death. TV had discovered the NBA, and the pros were starting to stabilize and pay more money than teams like Phillips could. The National Industrial Basketball League, the top amateur loop, disbanded in 1961.
The Phillips players were strictly amateurs. They worked during the daytime and practiced at night. They got no special treatment, except for being excused from work at noon on game day. As the pro salaries increased, it got harder to get and keep quality players. But still a few good players came to Bartlesville. Like a 6–1 guard from the lowly Wabash College named Charlie Bowerman, and Gary Thompson from Iowa State. Thompson helped the 66ers win the 1961–1962 AAU tournament, and he was named the MVP.
In the 1960s the AAU basketball faced hard times. The Big Ten had always prohibited its teams from playing AAU squads, and in the mid-60s other conferences followed suit. Newspapers started cutting down on space given to AAU teams, partly because of the pro glut and partly because of an attitude that companies should pay for all advertising and publicity.
The team cost about $150,000 a year to operate, not including players' salaries. Very little of that was recouped by ticket sales. The highest tickets were $2, but most of the tickets were $1 or 50 cents.
The final blow fell in 1967: The ABA was founded. The ABA was on firmer financial footing than the old ABL, and it needed bodies to compete with the established NBA. Seven 66ers jumped to the new league, most notably Darel Carrier and John Beasley, both of whom had excellent ABA careers.
The 66ers already had an AAU schedule for 1967–68, so enough players were called out of retirement to form a team to play out the schedule. The 66ers lost their last game ever, 57–52, to the Spokane (Washington) Vaughan Realtors in the quarterfinals of the AAU national tournament.
The 66ers fulfilled their other goal: making the Phillips' name and their northeastern Oklahoma town known all over the country.[citation needed]
Notable players
The Oilers placed a record of 39 players in the AAU's All-America teams and 21 became members of the AAU Basketball Hall of Fame. In the 1930s, these All-Americans included Jay Wallenstrom (1937) and Ray Ebbing (1939).
AAU All-Americans
In the 1940s, Phillips 66 All-Americans were the players below:
The Phillips 66ers won 11 out of the 14 championships organized by the NIBL from 1947 to 1961 and 11 Athletic Amateur leagues from 1940 to 1963. They managed to collect 27 championship medals in total.
The National Industrial Basketball League was founded in 1947 to enable United States mill workers a chance to compete in basketball. The league was founded by teams sponsored by large companies and made up of their employees belonging to the National Basketball League (NBL) that did not join the National Basketball Association when the NBL merged with the Basketball Association of America.
The Denver Nuggets were a professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets joined the National Basketball League (NBL) for the 1948–49 season, and then joined the National Basketball Association when the NBL was absorbed by the Basketball Association of America to create the NBA for the 1949–50 season. The Nuggets were the first major professional sports franchise in Colorado, but disbanded after going 11–50 in their inaugural season. This franchise is not directly connected to the current Denver Nuggets franchise of the NBA.
Donald Argee Barksdale was an American professional basketball player. He was a pioneer as an African-American basketball player, becoming the first to be named NCAA All-American, the first to play on a United States men's Olympic basketball team, and the first to play in a National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Robert Albert Kurland was a 7 feet (2.13m) American basketball center, who played for the two-time NCAA champion Oklahoma A&M Aggies basketball team. He led the U.S. basketball team to gold medals in two Summer Olympics, and led his AAU team to three national titles. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Akron Goodyear Wingfoots are one of the oldest basketball teams in the United States. They were founded in 1918, by the workers at the Goodyear Tire Company, in Akron, Ohio. The teams, while giving workers recreation, also helped to promote one of the first canvas/rubber based shoes made specifically for athletics, the wingfoot.
Gerald Tucker was the head coach on the 1956 USA Men's Basketball Gold Medal Olympic Team. He was the coach of Bartlesville Phillips 66ers for four seasons from 1954 to 1958 having the most wins in the National Industrial Basketball League in each of those 4 seasons. In 1955 Bartlesville Phillips 66ers won the AAU National Basketball Championship against the Luckett-Nix Clippers of Boulder, Colorado, winning 66-64 and in 1956 they were the runners-up to the Buchan Bakers of Seattle, losing 59–57.
Omar M. "Bud" Browning was an American basketball coach. In 1948, he became the United States' second Summer Olympics men's basketball head coach. Browning led 1948 USA team to a final record of 8–0, en route to a gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics basketball tournament, in London. Browning became the winning-est coach in AAU tournament history, when his teams won AAU championships in 1962 and 1963.
James Carlos McNatt was an All-American basketball player for the Oklahoma Sooners and the AAU's Phillips 66ers. At Oklahoma, McNatt led his team to the first-ever NCAA final Four in 1939, and at Phillips 66, McNatt guided the 66ers to four consecutive AAU national championships. He was a two-time All-American at Oklahoma and a four-time AAU All-American for Phillips 66. The speedy player came to be known by his nickname “Scat” McNatt, a moniker originally traced back to the term “Boy Scats” which sportswriters had used to describe McNatt's fast-breaking, sophomore-led 1937-38 Oklahoma Sooners basketball team. McNatt grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, attended Norman High School, and then opted to stay in his hometown to play basketball for the University of Oklahoma.
Burdette Eliele "Burdie" Haldorson was an American basketball player who competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics and in the 1960 Summer Olympics. Haldorson played college basketball for the Colorado Buffaloes.
Gary Thompson is a retired American basketball player and broadcaster. He was an All-American player at Iowa State. Following his collegiate career, Thompson played for the Phillips 66ers of the Amateur Athletic Union and had a successful career as a broadcaster.
Paul F. Lindemann was an American basketball player who was an All-American at Washington State University in 1941 and was later an AAU All-American with the Bartlesville Phillips 66ers.
Edward J. Beisser was an American standout basketball player for Creighton University in the early 1940s and was named a consensus NCAA First Team All-American as a senior in 1942–43. He was a three-time First Team All-Missouri Valley Conference selection and was later named one of the MVC's "50 Greatest Players" in the conference's history.
Fred J. Pralle was an American college basketball standout at the University of Kansas from 1935–36 to 1937–38. In his three varsity seasons, Kansas won all three Big Six Conference regular season championships. Pralle led the Jayhawks in scoring in each of his last two seasons, and as a senior he also led the conference in scoring with a 10.7 points per game average. He was twice named an NCAA All-American, and in 1938 he became Kansas' first ever play to be honored as a consensus All-American.
The Amateur Athletic Union Men's Basketball All-Americans were players who competed in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) between 1920–21 and 1967–68 and were chosen as the best players in the league during their respective seasons. Founded in 1888, the Amateur Athletic Union is one of the largest non-profit, volunteer, sports organizations in the United States. It is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.
Jerome Franklin Shipp was an American basketball player. He played for the U.S. national team at the 1963 FIBA World Championship, 1963 Pan American Games and 1964 Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal at the latter two competitions. Shipp was also a three-time Amateur Athletic Union All-American for the Phillips 66ers in Bartlesville, Oklahoma during the 1960s.
The Caterpillar Diesels was an amateur basketball team located in Peoria, Illinois and sponsored and run by the Caterpillar Inc. company. The Caterpillars were one of the most successful teams of the Amateur Athletic Union League in the 1950s and they became world-wide known in 1952 when five of their players represented the USA team in the Olympics, winning the gold medal.
The Houston Ada Oilers was an amateur basketball club located in Houston, Texas, sponsored and run by the Phillips Petroleum Company. The team was created after the huge success the company's other team, the Phillips 66ers, had achieved in the 1940s and early 1950s.
The Oakland Bittners were an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball team, located in Oakland, California. The team was named after sponsor Lou Bittner and became the first club to bring a basketball championship back to Oakland back in the day. The Bittners changed their name to Oakland Blue 'n Gold Atlas in 1949 getting a sponsorship from an engineering company, called Atlas-Pacific. The sponsor was Oakland businessman Ted Harrer.
Allan J. Bunge is a former National Basketball Association (NBA) first round draft pick of the Philadelphia Warriors in the 1960 NBA draft. Bunge led the Maryland Terrapins to the NCAA tournament in 1958. Bunge's career was interrupted, and his entire life impacted, by flareups of ulcerative colitis that was discovered during his freshman year at Maryland.
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![The 1963-64 Phillips 66ers, from left to right: [standing] Don Watkins (team manager), Jerry Shipp, Ken Charlton, Jim Hagen, Mike Moran, Terry Cerkvenik, Bud Browning, [kneeling] Ken Saylors, Del Ray Mounts, Denny Price, Larry Pursiful, Charlie Bowerman and Bob Turner. 1963-64 Phillips 66ers.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/1963-64_Phillips_66ers.jpg/220px-1963-64_Phillips_66ers.jpg)
