The Bob Brannum Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Wednesday, April 7th, 2004
You were born on May 28th, 1926, three years
before the Black Thursday stock market crash on October
24th, 1929. What memories do you have of the
Great Depression?
I don’t remember the crash itself, because I was too
young at the time. But I do remember vividly my dad and
his brothers being out of work, and unable to get
anything but part time jobs. My dad had a Model T,
which really wasn’t much more than four wheels and an
engine, and he attached the belt from that old car to a
saw so that he could cut wood. He worked on my uncle’s
farm, cutting wood for two dollars a cord. I remember
one time when he went into town to cash his check, only
to learn that the bank had gone under and closed its
doors. That was in 1930. He also worked on a farm.
He’d walk four miles, make a dollar a day, and walk four
miles back home.
In 1943-44 you were a consensus All-American as a
freshmen at the University of Kentucky. Please take me
from your hometown of Winfield, Kansas to Lexington,
Kentucky, and how you came to play for the legendary
Adolph Rupp.
Well, the war was in progress at that time. I graduated
from high school at sixteen, but back then you weren’t
eligible for the military draft until your seventeenth
birthday. During my senior year, a gentleman from the
army base in Winfield saw me play. His name was Major
Boxley. He came to several games, was impressed with
what he saw, and figured I’d make a pretty good college
player. He was friendly with Adolph Rupp. He called
Rupp and told him that there was a prospect in Kansas he
might want to take a look at. Two prospects, actually,
because my twin brother also played on the team and was
a pretty good player himself.
Rupp had a trip planned for Halstead, which is about thirty-five miles north of Wichita and eighty miles north of Winfield, so our mother packed us into the car and drove us up there. We met Rupp, and he asked us if we’d consider going to the University of Kentucky. At that point we hadn’t considered college. We both figured we’d find jobs or go into the military, but he convinced us that we should try out for the team.
Rupp gave us twenty dollars apiece to pay for the train ride to Lexington. We could only afford tickets in the standing section of the train, which meant we were on our feet from Kansas to Chicago. From there we caught a trolley to Lexington. I was scared to death.
Rupp worked us out two-on-two, and we were impressive enough that he offered both of us a scholarship. I went to summer school and took the necessary classes to get in. I wasn’t a bad student, but I wasn’t a good one, either. I joined the team in late September, started working out with them, and immediately got married. Rupp was flabbergasted. He thought we were too young. We got into the women’s housing for three dollars a week rent.
Hall-of-fame NFL quarterback Otto Graham was a member of
that 1944 All-American team. George Mikan, the NBA’s
first dominant big man, was also selected. Did you know
either of these gentlemen, and how did it feel to be
recognized as one of the best players in the country?
I didn’t know Otto, but I knew Mikan well. He played
for the Lakers so it was natural that we fought a lot.
We played against each other on those [barnstorming]
exhibitions between the Celtics and Lakers, and then met
several more times during the regular season. There
were plenty of battles.
I knew Leo Klier from Notre Dame, and Bob Kurland from Oklahoma A&M. I never dreamed of becoming an All-American, and I would have thought you were crazy for suggesting it. When did I hear about it? Back then the NCAA didn’t pay anything and Rupp wasn’t going to send his team to a lesser tournament, so we were getting ready to go to the NIT when I found out the news. We went to New York City for the awards ceremony, had a nice dinner, and received a watch to commemorate the event. It was quite an honor.
A lot of people may not know this, but I was the youngest player to ever be selected as an All-American. Paul Walther of Tennessee was the youngest ever nominated. They called him ‘Lefty’. He was a great guard, but he never made it through the selection process. I was seventeen years old at the time of my selection.
Your college basketball career was interrupted by World
War II, when you served two years in the military.
During your tour of duty, you were teammates with Alex
Groza on an armed forces team at Fort Hood, Texas. What
stands out most in your mind about this period in your
life?
The damned army, that’s what stands out [laughs]. As
far as playing basketball with Groza, we had to figure
out who was going to play the pivot. Alex was taller
and a lot smoother than me – I was what you’d call a
fifty percent shooter, because I’d always miss my first
shot and have to follow it up to make a basket – so he
ended up in the middle and I ended up playing forward.
