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Busters consistently competitive in sports
Published 9/12/2009 in GCCC Anniversary
By BRETT MARSHALL
How does a person sum up more than 60 years of a college's athletic performance?
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Garden City Community College quarterback Eugene Smith (5) stretches the ball across the goal line for a touchdown as Dodge City's Kevin Dix and Josh Bradshaw tackle him in October 2008 at Memorial Stadium.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Garden City Community College's Fedarico Argreda, left, sends a penalty kick over a wall of Neosho County players during an October 2008 game at Memorial Stadium.
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In the case of the Broncbusters of Garden City Community College, the words that come to mind are -- consistent, tradition, innovative, competitive and successful.
Whether it's the 1950 NJCAA third-place basketball team of coach Ed Hall, the hard-running of future NFL running back Corey Dillon as a Broncbuster in 1994, or the wrestling exploits of NJCAA two-time champion John Lightner (1967-68), one can always find excellence nearby.
The list of football standouts is staggering -- 120 NJCAA All-Americans, including National Player of the Year quarterback Chris Windsor in 1994.
Running backs -- and not just good ones, but great -- such as Dwayne Crutchfield in 1979, Ricky Kelly (1973-74), and Clyde Russell (1971-72), who rushed for 3,676 yards and 38 touchdowns in his two-year stint with the Busters. Toss in 1997 NJCAA Player of the Year Frank Murphy and one would have a difficult task in selecting the all-time best Buster back. Anthony Pontillo, the Busters' first All-American, rushed for 350 yards in just 10 carries against Parsons in 1959.
Defensively, there was Demetrius Hill, who was named the 1987 NJCAA Defensive Player of the Year. Locally-grown Doyle McGraw was one of the early All-Americans, and he eventually played with the Oakland Raiders.
A father-son combination earned their way into the Broncbusters Hall of Fame on the football field. Bill Bryan played for GCCC in 1969-70, and his son, Michael, followed in 1990. Both were linemen, and they each earned All-American honors.
GCCC began playing football in 1946, and the Busters have had 19 coaches in 64 seasons. They have combined for a 366-267-11 record, a .568 winning percentage. Current Athletic Director Bob Larson is the winningest of the GCCC coaches at 48-18 (.727).
In spite of that, the Busters have never won a NJCAA championship. The 2000 team coached by Larson set a school record of 11 wins but suffered a single loss that year. Jeff Leiker's 1994 team went 10-1. The Busters have played in more than a dozen bowl games through the years.
Basketball, too, has had its share of outstanding talent come through the doors at GCCC. It would be difficult to forget Keith Smart, who garnered NJCAA Player of the Year honors in 1986 and then went on to Indiana, where he would hit the shot to give the Hoosiers the 1987 NCAA championship. Darrin Hancock, the high-flying forward who holds numerous school records, played here in 1992 and also was named the top player that season in the NJCAA. George Ackles, who went on and won a national title at UNLV, is another great player from the 1990s.
Legendary coach Gene Keady, national basketball coach of the year six times at Purdue University, played here in the 1950s and was a three-sport letterman. Ironically, he was an All-American quarterback in football for the Busters.
More than 60 former Busters advanced to play at the four-year level after concluding their two-year careers.
Amazingly, through the years of near-misses in the Region 6 basketball playoffs, the Busters broke through in 2008-09 with one of the great flourishing finishes to claim the regional title and eventually place sixth in Hutchinson at the NJCAA National Tournament. It had been 59 years since they had appeared in the national tourney (1950), when Ed Hall coached the Busters. It was that 1950 team that produced John Keller, a 1952 Olympic team member.
Jim Carey brought national prominence to the men's program in the 1980s and into the early 1990s when he won 231 games before stepping down in 1993 with 602 career victories tucked away.
Of all the great ones, though, many old-timers will point no further than Harold "Pat" Patterson, who came to Garden City from Pawnee Heights High School. He made All-American in both 1951 and '52 and then went on and starred at the University of Kansas in football (end), baseball (shortstop) and basketball.
On the women's side, look no further than Betty Jo Johns, who started virtually every sport for women at GCCC during her more than 25 years at the school. She is credited with the start-up of basketball, softball, tennis, volleyball and track and field. At one time, she coached them all.
Dale Meadors spent the bulk of his coaching career here in Garden City. He launched the track and field program into the national limelight and also served as the basketball and golf coach.
At one time, the Busters had the preeminent wrestling team in the country, winning three national titles in a period of four years before dropping the program.
John Lightner was perhaps the best wrestler of all for the Busters. A two-time All-American and 1968 Outstanding Wrestler of the Year, he pinned every opponent in winning his championship that season.
Baseball was placed on the map for Region 6 during the Joe Slobko era. From 1976 to 1997, Slobko took the Busters diamond program to unheard heights at the regional level. He won an amazing 820 games while losing 340 (.710 percentage). He had perhaps the greatest player in GCCC baseball history play for him on that 1981 team -- Kevin Bascue -- now the Finney County Sheriff. All Bascue did was set records for batting average (.443) and single season (26) and career (50) home runs.
Women's basketball and volleyball have had their brief moments of success. John Armstrong coached the Lady Busters basketball to a three-year record of 70-26 from 1989 to 1991. Chareka Terry and Jasmine Irving earned All-American honors in the early 2000s. Cross Country has been solid throughout the years, as well, culminating this past year with a third-place national finish by Coach Dan Delgado's men's squad.
The still-new men's and women's soccer programs have flourished recently, as well, with the men's team, under Stephen Gorton, having advanced to the school's first NJCAA National tourney in 2008 and finishing fourth.
The success in 2008 of the men's soccer, men's basketball, men's and women's cross country, women's softball and men's baseball can only mean one thing -- in the tradition of outstanding performances, GCCC continues to retain its place among the elite.
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