1930s Connections | Wyandotte High School Basketball, Kansas City, Kansas

to Wyandotte High School

Select or scroll down to view:

Pittsburg High School, Class of 1930 - Pittsburg, Kansas

High School Career

Competed as a multi-sport athlete for the Pittsburg Dragons.
Helped the Pittsburg Dragons to the 1930 “single class” state tournament that was held at Washburn Field House in Topeka. In the first round, the Dragons fell to the Quinter Bulldogs 21-20. Gutteridge contributed 2 points in the game. Pittsburg later defeated the Lawrence Lions 30-19 to win the Consolation tournament helped by 4 points from Gutteridge.
- The Wyandotte Bulldogs won the 1930 state championship by defeating the Newton Railers 17-9.

Professional Career

Played Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals (1936-1940), St. Louis Browns (now Baltimore Orioles) (1942-1945), Boston Red Sox (1946-1947) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1948).
Played in the 1944 World Series with the St. Louis Browns & 1946 World Series with the Boston Red Sox.
Served as both a Chicago White Sox coach (1955-1966 and 1968-1969) and manager (1968-1969).
Served as a scout for the Kansas City Royals, New York Yankees, and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Don Gutteridge, playing for the Boston Red Sox, c. 1947.

Sumner High School, Class of 1932, Kansas City, Kansas

Early Life and High School Career

Grew up at 5th & Haskell Avenue in the Rattlebone Hollow neighborhood. Attended Dunbar Elementary School & Northeast Junior High School. Graduated from Sumner High School in 1932.
Grew up as a contemporary of Wyandotte’s 1930 & 1933 State Championship teams.

College Career

Graduated from Kansas City Kansas Junior College (now KCK Community College) in 1933.
In 1936, he became the first African American to graduate from the University of Kansas with a degree in Physical Education. While at Kansas, he was advised by the game of basketball’s inventor, Dr. James Naismith, who was then the Athletic Director at the school.

Professional Career

Credited with the integration of basketball with the “Secret Game” he organized between his all-black North Carolina Central Eagles team and the all-white Duke University School of Medicine team on March 12, 1944. The game was held in an era where Jim Crow laws in place at the time considered racially mixed athletic competitions to be illegal.
Led the Tennessee A & I (now Tennessee State) Tigers to 3 consecutive (1957-1959) NAIA National Championships (held at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri). The team, led by future New York Knick NBA Champion Dick Barnett, was chronicled in the 2023 PBS documentary The Dream Whisperer.

John McLendon, inducted twice into the Naismith National Basketball Hall of Fame, c. 1997.

Hired by the Cleveland Pipers (owned by future New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner) of the ABL in 1961, McClendon was the first black professional basketball head coach.
Hired by Cleveland State University in 1967, McClendon was the first black head coach for a primarily white university.
Credited with 3 significant innovations in the evolution of basketball. The fast break, full-court press, and the four corners offense were all first utilized by McLendon’s teams.
- University of North Carolina Coach Dean Smith, a fellow University of Kansas graduate, popularized the “four corners” offense with the Tar Heels and credited McLendon with inventing it.
Inducted twice in the Naismith National Basketball Hall of Fame. (1979–contributor & 2016-coach).