Hall of Fame
The 1955-1956 Wayne State University men’s basketball squad is the first team to be inducted into the WSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
The Tartars won the season opener at Eastern Michigan before falling to Louisville in the home opener at U of D Memorial Building.
WSU then won 17 consecutive games, including home-and-home victories against Valparaiso and Central Michigan, and a home court triumph over EMU. Wayne State had a perfect 6-0 mark in the President’s Athletic Conference and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Tartars’ 72-63 victory over DePaul in an NCAA First Round game in Fort Wayne, Ind., was the first win in an NCAA Tournament game by a school in Michigan.
The squad lost to Kentucky (in Iowa City) in a Sweet Sixteen match-up.
The team had such standouts as George Brown (one of the first African American players signed to an NBA contract), George “Baby” Duncan, Fred Snowden (who later became the first African American head coach at a major university), and Clarence Straughn.
Brown averaged a double-double with 17.4 points and 15.0 rebounds per game, while Duncan contributed 13.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest. Straughn added 15.3 points per game.
Brown played with the Harlem Globetrotters after appearing in one NBA game for the Minneapolis Lakers.
The team was led by head coach Joel Mason and finished the year with an 18-3 record after falling to Morehead State in a regional third-place game.
