First basketball Olympic gold medal up for auction
Bill Dennis remembers the stories his father-in-law Bill Wheatley would tell about playing in the 1936 Olympics.
It was the first time basketball was a medal sport in the international event, and the United States won gold in Berlin. As team captain, Wheatley went up to the podium during the medal ceremony and received the Olympic wreath and first basketball gold medal from James Naismith, who invented the game. His teammates each received their medals afterward.
“Going to the Olympics and then winning and being the first person to receive the Olympic gold medal for basketball was an extreme honor for him,” the 78-year-old Dennis told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home in El Cerrito, California. “He couldn’t describe the feeling to get the medal, the crowds and everything.”
With the sport’s popularity still in its infancy – and before the birth of the NBA – the Olympic organizers had the games played on an outdoor dirt court. The United States beat the Philippines 56-23 in the quarter-finals, and then defeated Mexico 25-10 in the semifinals to advance to the gold medal game against Canada.
The championship was then played during a rainstorm with puddles all over the court that made dribbling difficult. The US won 19-8, helped by its height advantage that allowed it to pass the ball a little more efficiently.
“He’d say, ‘You can’t believe it. You’d take the damn ball and you’re dribbling, and the damn ball’s not bouncing,’” Dennis recalls Wheatley saying. (AP)