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University of North Texas Athletics
UNT Golf Kicked Off Dynasty 70 Years Ago
5/29/2019 10:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
DENTON – As Stanford looks to add to its impressive total of men's golf NCAA championships today, and Texas aims for its fourth championship, it's only fitting that 70 years ago, the UNT men's golf team began a historic run that has only been seen on a handful of occasions across the NCAA sports spectrum.
At the 1949 NCAA championship in Ames, Iowa, the foursome of Gene Towry, Palmer Lawrence, Buster Reed and L.M. Crannell Jr., topped heavy favorites Purdue and Texas, as North Texas State, as it was then known, became the first school from the Lone Star State to win the NCAA golf championship, lapping the field by 10 strokes.
But the Eagles weren't finished. In fact, they went on to win three more consecutive national titles with some of the biggest names in program history – Don January, Billy Maxwell and Joe Conrad leading the way.
While many might assume that threesome was a part of the run of four consecutive championships, freshmen could not participate in varsity sports back then, so Towry and Lawrence have been a bit forgotten, while Crannell Jr., helped win the back-to-back titles in 1949 and 1950, when North Texas State beat Purdue by four strokes in Albuquerque, and Reed was part of the 1951 championship team.
That year, the Eagles made it three straight when January, Conrad, Maxwell and Reed narrowly clipped Ohio State by one stroke, thanks to a clutch putt on the 18th green by January to clinch the win. The Eagles completed the run of four in 1952, when January, Conrad, Maxwell and Marion Hiskey beat Michigan by six strokes in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Aside from the makeup of that 1949 team, another thing might surprise several followers of the North Texas program, as the Eagles were national runners-up in 1954, 1955 and 1956 – losing by just one shot in both 1954 and 1956.
In total, over an eight-year period, the North Texas State men's golf team won four national championships and had three second-place finishes, putting that squad in the conversation for some of the best runs in NCAA sports history, along the lines of John Wooden's great UCLA men's basketball teams. In terms of their own sport, the Eagles' four titles puts the program in rarified air with only four programs (Houston, Oklahoma State, LSU and Stanford) having more NCAA championships.
And it all started with that domination of two heavy favorites 70 years ago.
At the 1949 NCAA championship in Ames, Iowa, the foursome of Gene Towry, Palmer Lawrence, Buster Reed and L.M. Crannell Jr., topped heavy favorites Purdue and Texas, as North Texas State, as it was then known, became the first school from the Lone Star State to win the NCAA golf championship, lapping the field by 10 strokes.
But the Eagles weren't finished. In fact, they went on to win three more consecutive national titles with some of the biggest names in program history – Don January, Billy Maxwell and Joe Conrad leading the way.
While many might assume that threesome was a part of the run of four consecutive championships, freshmen could not participate in varsity sports back then, so Towry and Lawrence have been a bit forgotten, while Crannell Jr., helped win the back-to-back titles in 1949 and 1950, when North Texas State beat Purdue by four strokes in Albuquerque, and Reed was part of the 1951 championship team.
That year, the Eagles made it three straight when January, Conrad, Maxwell and Reed narrowly clipped Ohio State by one stroke, thanks to a clutch putt on the 18th green by January to clinch the win. The Eagles completed the run of four in 1952, when January, Conrad, Maxwell and Marion Hiskey beat Michigan by six strokes in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Aside from the makeup of that 1949 team, another thing might surprise several followers of the North Texas program, as the Eagles were national runners-up in 1954, 1955 and 1956 – losing by just one shot in both 1954 and 1956.
In total, over an eight-year period, the North Texas State men's golf team won four national championships and had three second-place finishes, putting that squad in the conversation for some of the best runs in NCAA sports history, along the lines of John Wooden's great UCLA men's basketball teams. In terms of their own sport, the Eagles' four titles puts the program in rarified air with only four programs (Houston, Oklahoma State, LSU and Stanford) having more NCAA championships.
And it all started with that domination of two heavy favorites 70 years ago.
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