Beloit College

Lanier Gordon
Class of 1967
 
I found coming to Beloit College in 1963 from a small high school to be very intimidating. There were so many great students to compete against, and I was concerned about coming to a school with a very small African American student base. Along with the small number of minority students at Beloit, there were only two or three fraternities that accepted African-American pledges.
 
Beloit College regarded mental development of primary importance, but equal emphasis was given to the acquisition of knowledge of our fellow men and women and the conception of relationships to one another. This is not learned from text books and lectures but from actual relationships with our fellow students and professors. Beloit College is a unique institution that combined scholarship, leadership, athletics and social life in a way that allows you to share in all these aspects of college life. It had leaders in all fields and tried to maintain a happy and healthy balance between all the activities. Perhaps most important, Beloit College is an educational institution where one is not only allowed—but encouraged—to be an individual.
 
Under the direction of Coach Bill Knapton, Beloit College had some good basketball players and teams. As a coach, tactician, scholar and always a gentleman, Coach Knapton encompassed all these qualities as a professional at Beloit College. He would invite his players to his home for dinner and took time to get to know us on a more personal level. I learned from Coach Knapton and others to set my expectations high and establish an environment to potentially reach those expectations. Nothing was given; you had to earn your way. Such it was with sports. Work hard. Do everything to help the team win and bring pride to the school and our great students. We are all indebted to Coach Knapton for that.
 
In the early 1960s, it seemed the team’s fortunes went up or down depending on one player’s performance. That was usually the shooting guard. Our freshman team, (freshman could not play varsity then) was led by the willingness of Lloyd Smith, the next great scoring guard recruit, to completely change his game. Our group embraced a team-oriented style. Lloyd eventually became the varsity floor general and was arguably the best point guard in Coach Knapton’s era.
 
Our basketball team became a reflection of the college with 13 individuals working as one. That meant that each had to make changes for the team to be at its full potential. I feel the class of 1967 was the starting point for the new rise of Beloit College basketball. Our initial teams were small so we had a fast-paced offense and pressing defense. We went to a more controlled break with a precise half-court offense during our final year as we added more height to our frontline. With Coach Knapton drawing up his x’s & o’s, we were prepared for anything.
 
We were one game out of first place during our sophomore and junior years, and we were 1966-1967 co-champs during our senior year. I feel that our team was the catalyst for the Beloit College championship run that followed.
 
My classmates Lloyd Smith, Phil Woolley and Bob Brown have continued to be great friends.