Karl Bolstad ’68 remembers it as the year he got engaged. Charlie Claggett ’70 recalls media coverage of the team’s starting line-up and its cumulative GPA of 3.75—“four guys with 4.0s,” Claggett says with a laugh, “and me, major undecided, with a 2.5.” Denisonians of the era simply remember the 1967-68 Big Red basketball team as one of the best in school history.
After an inauspicious start—they opened just 4-3 in December—coach Dick Scott’s boys caught fire, winning nine straight games in Ohio Conference play, then four more in the conference tournament to claim the league title. From there, it was on to the NCAA tournament, where they fell to Norfolk State in the Mideast regional before beating Roanoke in the regional consolation game. Their final 18-5 mark tied a school record for most wins in a season, which stood for 49 years.
The selflessness of the upperclassmen allowed Claggett, then just a sophomore, to lead the team with 27 points per game. Claggett’s prolificacy earned him team MVP honors. “We were,” he says, “the definition of a team.” And not only on the court, as the team members were reminded when they returned to Granville in February to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that conference crown. “We all sincerely liked each other,” Claggett says, “and boy, was that evident at the reunion.”