Hall of Fame
The 1967-68 Pasadena College Crusader basketball team won the NAIA District Three Championship with a tense final game over the archrival Whittier College Poets. The Chalmer Cartwright-coached Crusaders gave legendary WC coach, Aubrey Bonham, a loss to remember in the last game before his retirement.
The win qualified Pasadena College for the fifth time (1953, 1954, 1957, 1958, 1968) for the prestigious NAIA National Tournament at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. The Crusaders, with a 27-4 record and nationally ranked in the NAIA Top-20 poll the entire season, expected to be one of the 16 seeded teams in the 32-team tournament. With All-American Lloyd Higgins, the individual featured player on the National Tournament program, it was quite a shock when the seedings were announced and the Crusaders were left out. Instead, it became the team’s mission to play sixth seed Westminster College (PA). This WC school brought with them many years of tournament experience and top coach Charles “Buss” Ridl.
In what was to be Chalmer Cartwright’s final game as a Pasadena College coach, the Crusaders battled the favored Titans with much tenacity. Though they remained in it the entire game, PC lost on an offensive putback at the buzzer, 69-67. It was a sad ending to a marvelous season and the Crusader team could only think of what might have been as WC ripped off two more wins against Monmouth College and Eastern Michigan University before finishing in fourth place.
It’s hard for the NAIA fan of today to comprehend just how difficult it was to qualify for nationals from the ‘50s all the way up to the early ‘80s. There was only one division with over 550 NAIA institutions which included most of today’s NCAA DII and DI AA schools. The NAIA was divided into 32 districts and there were no at-large bids to the tournament. Winning the NAIA District Three Championship with its 20+ highly skilled teams was a mighty chore in itself and if the Crusaders were fortunate enough to end up at nationals they had quite a selection of tough schools and players to contend with. Famed former NAIA players included: Willis Reed (Grambling), Lucious Jackson (Pan American), Dick “Fall Back Baby” Barnett ( Tennessee State ), Scottie Pippen ( Central Arkansas ) and Dennis Rodman ( Southeastern Oklahoma ).
It was everyone’s dream just to play and coach in Kansas City and for the 1967-68 Pasadena College Crusaders, their dreams became a reality.
If there ever was a team connected to Pasadena College , the ’67-’68 group certainly must qualify. Of the 12 players, five went on to join Coach Cartwright as teachers and/or coaches at PC/PLNC. Eight have spouses that are PC/PLNC alums and 16 children of the team members have attended PLNU.
Members of the 1967-68 PLNU Men's Basketball team included Don Bradford, Gary Davie, Larry Ellison, Ben Foster, Lloyd Higgins, Hadley James, Larry Lawton, Bob Molenkamp, Daryl Nicholson, Bill Olin, Larry Powell and Bill Robertson. Chalmer 'Champ'Cartwright was teh head coach and Jim Poteet was the assistant.
