Personality Profile - Howard Hobson

Intro: This is the first in a series of personality profiles I will be doing. Some will be a paragraph or two, others like this, will be a full post. Enjoy!

"If there is a basketball game in heaven, I know who’s coaching" – Former University of Oregon star Laddie Gale on national championship winning coach Howard Hobson. [1]

Howard Hobson grew up in Oregon and attended Portland’s Franklin High School. He won himself an unusual championship after losing a game to Baker High School in the 1921 state tournament. However Hobson and his teammates were re-instated to the tournament when it was revealed that Baker had used an ineligible player.

Hobson and his mates shook off the effects of “breaking training”, which amounted to not practicing and eating ice cream and won two games in a row on Saturday to claim the state championship. The championship did not signify the end of Hobson’s time in Oregon sports history. It was rather just beginning.

He played for the University of Oregon from 1924-1926, tying Oregon Agricultural College for the Pacific Conference Crown in 1925. The Ducks fell to OAC in the playoff series. In 1926 the Ducks won the conference crown only to lose to California in the championship series.

After he graduated from University of Oregon, he began his coaching career, stopping at Kelso, WA before landing back in Portland at Benson High School. Hobson and Benson missed the state tournament his first year but the following two were banner years for the Portland school.

In 1931, the team compiled a 21-5 record heading into the state tournament. They easily defeated Pleasant Hill in the first round and squeaked by Ashland 24-22 in the second round. All that stood between Benson and a birth in the state championship game was the Capitol City quint that had dominated the state in its early years. Salem prevailed 25-18 knocking Hobson and Benson to the third place game. There they would meet another early powerhouse, Astoria, who was coached by John Warren.

I wonder if Hobson and Warren knew that they would soon be in line for the same job at the University of Oregon. Warren’s Astoria club got the best of the matchup, winning 30-23 to secure third place.

The following year Benson cruised to Salem with a 25-1 record and looked every part the championship contender. Once again Astoria was strong, as were Salem, Corvallis and Medford. Benson caught a nice draw into the semifinals, easily defeating small school entry Athena 38-11 before hammering Lincoln 33-14 to reach the semifinals. The win set up a showdown with Warren and the Fishermen. Once again, Warren and Astoria got the better of “Hobby” with a one-point win. Astoria would go on to win the state championship.

Hobson missed most of Astoria’s dominance over the next couple of years after opting to join the college coaching ranks at Southern Oregon where he won three league titles in a row. His success at the high school and small college level came at just the right time as the University of Oregon was looking for a new coach to lead their team after coach Bill Reinhardt left to become football coach at George Washington. [2]

Another quality applicant entered his name into the hat as coach for University of Oregon, Astoria’s John Warren. Astoria and Warren were fresh of a remarkable streak, having won four of the past six Oregon state championships. Both candidates were worthy choices. So the university did the logical thing and hired them both. Hobson coached the varsity while Warren was hired to coach the freshmen.

So began the journey to the NCAA championship for the Oregon Ducks.

During his illustrious coaching career, Hobson became somewhat of a trailblazer. He was notorious for his stat keeping, at a time when very few teams charted stats. He had his managers chart every shot, rebound, assist and turnover. He was also one of the first coaches to advocate the use of a three point line and widening the old "keyhole" three second lane. As an active member of the NCAA rules committee, he staged a game between Columbia and Fordham in 1945 where the new three point line and widened lane were used. He also advocated a 30-second shot clock which should come as no surprise given Oregon’s up-tempo style of play. [3]

His fastbreaking offense frustrated and wore down his opponents but equally confounding was a zone scheme he employed that would later become known as a “matchup zone.” It looked like a 2-3 zone but it employed man-to-man principals so teams couldn’t figure out if they were to run a zone offense or a man-to-man offense against the defense. [4] Hall of Fame coach Phog Allen, who played for James Naismith and coached the likes of Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp showed up at the 1939 national championship press conference to discuss Oregon’s mysterious and effective defense.

Basketball in the late 30’s was still catching hold and Hobson saw an opportunity to make a splash and promote the University of Oregon to the masses back east. In the championship season of 1939, Hobson and the Ducks became the first west coast team to travel east for a series of games. The Ducks \met City College of New York at Madison Square Garden where a crowd of 16,000 fans roared as CCNY knocked off the Ducks 38-36. [6]

Hobson would eventually move east to coach at Yale and coached there from 1948-1956. He won or shared five Big Three championships. He also became the first coach to win a championship on both coasts. Just as he had done at Oregon, Hobson pioneered inter-sectional play at Yale, bringing his 1948-1949 team to the Pacific Coast for a series of games. [7]

In 1947 he was named President of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and was enshrined into the basketball Hall of Fame as a coach on October 13, 1965.

[1] Blakely, Joe. The Tall Firs: The Story of the University of Oregon & the First NCAA Basketball Championship. Wallowa: Bear Creek Press, 2004
[2] Ibid
[3] Meehan, Brian. “Hobson Kept his Cool while Heating up Basketball.” Oregonian. Online. April 7, 2008.
[4] Ibid
[5] Meehan, Brian “When Firs Stood Tall.” Oregonian. Online. April 7, 2008
[6] Ibid
[7] http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Howard_Hobson