Famous names on '77 PC West hoop squad

Someone asked me on Monday who coached the 1977 Putnam City West basketball team, the last group of PC West boys to make state.

Considering I wasn’t born until 19 months after the tournament, I had to do some digging, and that digging produced some interesting tidbits.

The coach of the team was Don Calvert, who had tons of success coaching women at Barton County Community College and ran the show for the ORU women for a few years. He was a finalist for the OU women’s job in 1990, and made a few other high school stops around the state. Current PC West coach Tim Stogsdill plans to bring Calvert in to speak to his team before Thursday’s game against Muskogee.

Calvert’s son, Don Calvert Jr., was a player on the team. He went on to OU, where he was part of the 1979 Sooner squad that included Terry Stotts, Al Beal, John McCullough and a few other big names. The Dave Bliss-coached squad won the Big Eight title and breathed life into the Sooner basketball program with momentum that carried over into the Billy Tubbs era.

The ’77 Pats advanced to the semifinals with a one-point win over Tulsa Edison, and the deciding bucket was scored with 23 seconds left by Scott Tinsley, the star quarterback who went on to play at USC and in the NFL.