Sleuthing Series — Basketball – JCCC Billington Library

JCCC Archives presents the Sleuthing Series, where every Tuesday, we bring you an image from our past and ask you to help us find out more!

What We Know

JCCC Men’s Basketball was a big thing from the start. They began in 1969-70 with coach Orville Gregory, and were in the Kansas Jayhawk Conference. That year the had only a 3-11 win-loss standing in the conference, but by the next year, Coach Gregory brought them to 11-5 win-loss conference standing. The college took pride from the start. That first year, the staff newsletter invited staff to sign up for a bus ride to games.
In 1975-76, the team went to the NJCAA Tournament, as noted above. The fact that they did not place did not dampen their mood. In 2000-2001, the men’s basketball team (now, the Cavaliers) won a second trip to the national tournament. This time, they returned as national champions.
The coaches were: Orville Gregory, 1969-1973; Jeff Simons, 1973-1978; Don Wilhelm, 1978-1982; Lafayette Norwood, 1982-1991; Mike Jeffers, 1991-the present.
The first Women’s Basketball team played in 1974-75 with coach Nancy Smith. They played non-conference until 1979.
They went to their first NJCAA tournament in 1999-2000, and returned as national champions (one year before the men’s team). In 2014-2015, they became national champions once more.
The women’s coaches were: Nancy Smith, 1974-1976; Vic Casitillo, 1976-1977; Barb Gill, 1977-1986; Sonny Maynard, 1986-1988; Toby McCammon, 1988-1992 (Sonny Maynard finished the 1991-1992 season upon McCammon’s departure); Betsy Sloan-Meeks, 1992-1996; Debbie Carrier, 1996-2008; Ben Conrad, 2008-the present.

Not only was the women’s team non-conference until 1979, we have no statistics for the first two years, and no listing of team members.
Can you identify anyone that we did not?
Tell us if anything needs to be corrected!