Cam Henderson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (March 2008)

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (March 2008)

This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (March 2008)

The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.(March 2008)

Eli Camden "Cam" Henderson was the coach who originated the fast-break and the zone defense, the hallmarks of the modern game of basketball. Henderson was born in 1890 in the town of Joe in Marion County, W.Va. and graduated from Glenville Normal School (Glenville College) in 1911. He began coaching at Shinnston High School in rural West Virginia, then moved to Bristol, W.Va., where no gymnasium existed. Henderson got the town to build a gym, but the wood was cured poorly and the roof leaked. As a result of the slippery floor, Henderson began to distribute his defenders in "zones" to avoid the slick spots. Out of this, he developed an offense of "breaking fast" off a missed basketball, with two forwards tearing down each sideline and a point guard bringing the ball up the court quickly for a number of options. Henderson eventually moved on to Muskingum College in Ohio and Salem College in W.Va. His greatest glory came during the period of 1923-34 as head basketball and football coach of Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, W.Va. He coached during the Scarlet Hurricane Era, before the name was changed officially to Senators. Henderson coached first undefeated (22-0) W.Va. collegiate basketball team (1924-1925) at D&E,), coached first (proclaimed) D&E state collegiate football championship team in 1928 and was inducted into the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame, the West Virginia Sports Writers Hall of Fame, the D&E Hall of Fame, the Marshall Hall of Fame and the NAIA Hall of Fame as well as elected All-Time WVIAC Coach. His first D&E team was 8-0 in 1923, and Henderson would have one of the highest scoring basketball teams in the East during his tenure. Henderson's 1933 team won the West Virginia Athletic Conference title. His basketball teams played teams like Long Island University, under the coaching of another Marion County native, Clair Bee, and at Davis & Elkins, Henderson was 220-40 in basketball and 83-33-6 in football. His D&E football teams beat much larger schools like West Virginia University, Army, Fordham, Villanova, George Washington and Navy.

At Marshall beginning in 1935, Henderson would win 68 football games, one Buckeye Conference title (9-0-1 in 1937), send the Thundering Herd to a Tangerine Bowl (1/1/1948 vs. Catawba College in the second-ever bowl in Orlando) and produce College Football Hall of Fame running back Jackie Hunt, who set the national scoring mark with 27 touchdowns in 1940. His basketball teams won 368 games and won the Buckeye Conference in 1936-37, 1937-38 and 1938-39, the final year for the league. He won 35 straight home games from 1944-47 in Huntington, started the 1946-47 season 17-0, then went on to a 32-5 mark and Marshall's only National Championship in basketball in the NAIB (today's NAIA) Basketball Tournament in Kansas City, Missouri. Henderson also sent teams to the 1938 and 1948 tournament. His 1947-48 team won the Helms Foundation's Los Angeles Invitational by knocking off Syracuse, 46-44.

Henderson's first All-American was Bill Smith in 1937 in football, Jule Rivlin in 1940 in basketball. He sent numerous players to the professional ranks, including Frank "Gunner" Gatski (Marshall 1940-42), who is the Herd's only member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Gatski went on to play in 11 title games in 12 seasons with the Cleveland Browns (1946-56) and Detroit Lions (1957), winning four All-American Football Conference and three NFL titles with the Browns and one NFL title with the Lions. Henderson also recruited the first African-American to play at the formerly all "white" colleges of West Virginia when he signed Hal Greer from Huntington in 1954. Greer went on to help Marshall win the Mid-American Conference title in 1955-56, then to lead the nation in scoring in 1957-58 with 88 points per game. Greer signed with the Syracuse Nationals of the NBA, but went on to greatest glory with the Philadelphia 76ers by winning the title in 1966-67 and becoming a multi-year All-Star and MVP of the 1968 All-Star game. Greer, named as one of the top 50 players in the NBA 50th Anniversary, averaged 19 points per game (1,122 games played), five rebounds and four assists and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. Henderson was forced to resign his football position following a 6-4 1949 season by Director of Athletics Luther Poling, but would coach basketball until 1955. His championship team of 1947 was responsible for the Herd moving into the new Cabell County Veteran's Memorial Field House, a 6,500-seat arena that was Marshall's home from 1950-80. His final team in 1954-55 was 18-4, but the MAC prevented Marshall from accepting an invitation to the National Invitational Tournament. Henderson's failing health from diabetes forced him to step down after the season and he would died that summer. Wins by the football team under Henderson include beating Wake Forest 16-6 in 1941, but his basketball team had some huge wins.

Marshall had three wins during Henderson's tenure over Tennessee and Colorado, beat the Dayton Flyers 17 times and topped teams like BYU, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Long Island, St. Francis, St. Louis, Loyola, Virginia Tech, Cal, Louisville, Denver, Wichita State, Miami-Florida, City College of New York, Xavier, Indiana State, Maryland, Murray State, Western Kentucky, Kansas State, Creighton, Hawaii, Washington, Idaho, Evansville, Pepperdine, Texas A&M, Memphis (State), Southern Miss and Virginia and over 20 seasons had only one losing season, going 6-10 in his first year. Henderson's teams won 32 once and won 20 or more games seven more times. He produced the first-ever first round draft pick for the NBA, Andy Tonkovich, and produced All-Americans like Walt Walowac (two-times on Helms Foundation Teams, first in 1953, third in 1954 and scored 1,982 career points). 1947 and 1948 NAIB All-Americans included Gene James, who played in the NBA, Bill Hall, Bill Toothman, Marvin Gutshall and Tonkovich. Rivlin was on the AP Little All-American team in 1940. Charlie Slack set a still-standing NCAA record of 25.4 rebounds per game for Henderson's final team in 1954-55, and finished his career with 1,916 rebounds and 1,551 points in four seasons. Slack and Walowac played for the Goodyear Winged Foots of Akron, Ohio, in national and international AAU contests, and Slack was an alternate for the 1960 Olympic team. Marshall has a Cam Henderson Award for the top student-athlete and the building that houses the athletic department and the 9,000-seat Marshall basketball arena are named the Cam Henderson Center. Just last year in 2007, Emmy Award winning producer/director Deborah Novak and John Witek released "Cam Henderson: A Coach's Story" on public television and DVD to great acclaim. The film was honored with a first place Platinum Award at the Worldfest of film in Houston, Texas

[edit] Bibliography

• Books:
  • Marshall University 2007-08 Men's Basketball Media Guide, Huntington, W.Va., Chapman Printing, 2007.
  • Marshall University 2007 Football Media Guide, Huntington, W.Va., Chapman Printing, 2007.
  • "The Cam Henderson Story," Dr. Sam Clagg, Huntington, W.Va., Marshall University Press, 1981
  • "Sports In West Virginia," Doug Huff, Donning Company/Publishers, Virginia Beach, Va., 1979
  • "Marshall University: An Institution Comes Of Age 1837-1980, Dr. Charles Moffat, Marshall University Alumni Association, 1980
• DVD:
  • "Cam Henderson: A Coach's Story," Deborah Novak/John Witek, WV Public Broadcasting, 2007
  • "Ashes To Glory," D. Novak/J. Witek, WV Public Broadcasting, 2000