When Did the Jump Shot Become Popular?

Posted by Dan Jensen

     Low scoring basketball games were the norm before the jump shot came along.  Just when did it become widely popular at Webster/Clear Creek?  I remember Kennith Dismukes shooting it some and, of course, Boonie Wilkening did it all the time as a sophomore.  When did everyone on the team jump before he shot?

     I remember Coach talking about his college coach, Milton Jowers, not warming to it initially because he thought it left the shooter in a poor rebounding position.  When did our coach warm to it?  Probably the first time he saw Boonie jump and deliver.

     Ed Davis said he still had a set shot in addition to the jumper and he graduated in 1959.  Do any of you other old guys have anything to contribute on this?

Comments

[Pat Jensen]

I don't remember when I started shooting a jump shot, but it would have been in the back yard. I can't remember shooting it in Jr. High but I do remember shooting it as a B teamer when a Soph. That was 1954, but it probably started well before then. I might have started sooner if I could jump high enough to shoot before I came back down. I didn't abandon the set shot though. Still got that jessie.

[Frank McKinney]

Pat,
Shooting jump shots in the backyard makes it sound like you had a peach basket nailed to a tree. I remember it as paved driveway with a very nice backboard in front of the garage. I always thought that you were a better basketball player because you had the best driveway. During pickup games, I also remember your older brother hiding in the back corner and shooting that deadly baseline set shot without taking a dribble.

[Pat Jensen]

Mornin, Franklyn. I'm sommmmme worried about your memory this morning, though I sure have empathy with you. No peach basket, but we never had a paved driveway, unless shell and dirt combo is considered paved. And our goal and backboard, the goal usually without a net, was on a big Cottonwood tree next to a deep bar ditch on Iowa Street. Heck, I'm trying to remember if I even knew anybody with a paved driveway. (:O)

[Jim Pell]

Here is a link about the jump shot. A whole book on its origins, would you believe? I guess I have been thinking all this time that Boonie was the inventor. Wrong!

http://www.johnchristgau.com/jumpshot/jumpshot.html

[Dan Jensen]

Jimmy, read that part abut Belus Van Smawley who, with his back partly to the basket would jump and twist in the air before shooting. Now, who does that sound like?

If you will investigate further, I think you would find that when Belus Van Smawley move to the Clear Creek district from Burton, he changed his name to Franklin Boone Wilkening. Franklin McKinney didn't want to have two with the same name in his class, so he started calling him Boonie.

Now you know the rest of the story--and the inventor of the jump shoot.