[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 18 (Thursday, February 12, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E166-E168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO RUSSELL ``SOX'' WALSETH, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 11, 2004

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the 
legacy after the passing of a good man and fine coach, Russell ``Sox'' 
Walseth, Jr. ``Sox'' was a member of the University of Colorado family 
as a student, athlete and coach. With the university ``Sox'' coached 
both the men's and women's basketball. He holds the distinction of the 
winningest coach in CU men's basketball history but also holds the 
highest winning percentage of any coach in the history of the 
University of Colorado.
  His contribution to the University and the community was great and he 
will clearly be missed by family, friends and fans.
  For the information of our colleagues, I am attaching several items 
from the (Boulder, Colorado) Daily Camera.

                 [From the Daily Camera, Jan. 29, 2004]

                    Russell M. ``Sox'' Walseth, Jr.

       Russell M. ``Sox'' Walseth, Jr. of Boulder died Wednesday, 
     Jan. 28, 2004, of natural causes in Boulder. He was 77.
       The son of Russell M. Walseth and Marie J. Gehan Walseth, 
     he was born April 6, 1926, in Aberdeen, S.D. He married 
     Eleanor Hahn on Oct. 9, 1953, in Denver. She died on Oct. 6, 
     1997. He married Joan Mabee Funk on July 19, 2002 in Boulder.
       He graduated from Pierre High School in Pierre, S.D. He 
     earned a bachelor of science degree and a master's degree in 
     education from the University of Colorado.
       He was enlisted in the Navy during and after World War II 
     from 1944 to 1946.
       Mr. Walseth spent 38 years at CU, starting as an athlete in 
     the 1940s when he lettered a combined six times in both 
     basketball and baseball.
       He became head men's basketball coach prior to the 1956-57 
     season and coached the next 20 Buffalo teams. The winningest 
     coach in CU men's basketball history with a 261-245 record, 
     the Buffs won three Big Eight titles under his direction, in 
     1961-62, 1962-63 and 1968-69. He was the Big Eight Conference 
     coach of the year on five occasions. All three of his Big 
     Eight champion teams represented the conference in the NCAA 
     regional tournaments. Eventual NCAA champion Cincinnati 
     eliminated the Buffs in the first two appearances, while his 
     third tourney team may have represented his best coaching job 
     in his tenure as he piloted a sophomore-dominated team to the 
     league title and NCAA berth.
       He retired from coaching in the spring of 1976 and remained 
     on in an administrative position with the athletic 
     department. But four years later in 1980, and CU hit with 
     budget woes, athletic director Eddie Crowder asked him if he 
     would come out of retirement to help the program to which he 
     had devoted much of his adult life. Sox answered that call 
     and coached the CU women's team between 1980 and 1983, 
     compiling an impressive 77-21 record. That mark included his 
     43-0 record at home, and earned coach of the year accolades 
     one time.
       Mr. Walseth was the first and one of the few men to have 
     coached both the men's and women's programs at the same NCAA 
     school. The basketball floor at Coors Events/Conference 
     Center is named after him. In 1998, he was inducted into the 
     Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, and four years later, he was a 
     member for the fourth class inducted into CU's Athletic Hall 
     of Fame.
       He was a member of Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Church of 
     Boulder. He received five Basketball Hall of Fame Awards, two 
     from Colorado and three from South Dakota. He was also the 
     recipient of the Robert Stearns Award on June 8, 1967.
       Survivors include his wife of Boulder; two sons, Joe 
     Walseth of Denver and Nick Walseth of Boulder; one daughter, 
     Cynthia Axley of Arvada; and four grandchildren.
       A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 1:30 p.m. 
     Saturday at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, 2312 14th 
     St., Boulder. The Rev. Daniel Flaherty of St. Louis Catholic 
     Church of Louisville and the Rev. William E. Dreslin of 
     Sacred Heart of Jesus will be co-celebrants.
       Contributions may be made in his name to the CU Foundation, 
     in care of Russell ``Sox'' Walseth Scholarship Fund, 369 
     University Campus Box, Boulder, CO 80309.
       M.P. Murphy & Associates Funeral Directors is in charge of 
     arrangements.
                                  ____


                           Career Highlights

       Following are highlights of Russell ``Sox'' Walseth's 
     career:
       Played on CU's 1946 NCAA Tournament basketball team.
       Coached three Big Eight championship men's teams.
       Took three Buff men's teams to the NCAA Tournament.
       Named Big Eight coach of the year on five occasions.
       Retired after 20 years as the winningest coach in CU men's 
     history, with a record of 261-245.
       Named CU's women's coach in 1980, becoming the first to 
     coach men's and women's teams at the same NCAA school.
       Took the CU women's team to back-to-back national 
     tournament appearances.
       Compiled a 77-21 record as the women's coach, the best 
     winning percentage of any coach in CU history.
       Basketball floor at Coors Events Center named in his honor 
     in 1996.
       Inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.

[[Page E167]]

       Inducted into the University of Colorado Athletic Hall of 
     Fame in 2002.
                                  ____


                Creedon: Memories of Sox Won't Soon Fade

       I count Sox Walseth among lifelong friends.
       From the days a wide-eyed, 7-year-old in northern New 
     Jersey squinted into an old Dumont black-and-white television 
     set in a neighbor's home and instantly adopted a sophomore 
     guard they called Sox as his first University of Colorado 
     sports star.
       The Buffaloes were making their annual New York City visit 
     and were paired against New York University in a doubleheader 
     at Madison Square Garden, truly the Mecca of college 
     basketball in those days. CU had a basketball name then. The 
     Buffs had played--and played well--earlier in the 1940s in 
     the National Invitation Tournament, the nation's oldest and 
     then most prestigious postseason event.
       Sox scored 20 that night and hooked this future Boulderite 
     on CU hoops.
       Later, for 20 years, first as a student and then as CU beat 
     writer and Camera sports editor, I had the enjoyment of 
     following Sox's team and getting to know one of the 
     shrewdest, classiest and humorous coaches.
       The tributes gathered Wednesday by CU media relations boss 
     Dave Plati only hours after cancer claimed Sox's life all 
     ring true.
       But please don't forget the silver-haired Sox deserves to 
     be remembered as a great coach, too. As the years pass by, we 
     realize just how great.
       Sox won three Big Eight championships ('62, '63 and '69). 
     You don't have to be reminded the Buffs haven't won a title 
     since Walseth's last title year. His first two championship 
     teams lost to national champ Cincinnati in the regional 
     finals. CUers don't even speak of winning championships in 
     men's hoops in setting lofty goals for the basketball program 
     these days. Sox was also around, as Bebe Lee's assistant, 
     when the talented was gathered for CU's Big Seven 
     championship teams of '54 and '55.
       In other words, Sox didn't miss much of three decades of 
     glory for Buff hoops dating from an NIT appearance in 1938 
     until the Big Eight title garnered by Cliff Meely, Gordie 
     Tope, Mike Coleman, Dudley Mitchell, Tim Wedgeworth and 
     friends in '69.
       Sox didn't win against run-of-the-mill opponents or 
     coaches. He broke in here against Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain 
     and Tex Winter-led Kansas State squads that limited the 
     ``Stilt'' to just one crown. Later on, he matched wits with 
     the legendary Henry Iba of Oklahoma State and Norm Stewart in 
     his early years at Missouri.
       And he challenged top-flight non-league opposition, too.
       Superstars weren't Sox's specialty, but there were few 
     players who stayed the course at old Balch Fieldhouse who 
     didn't make eye-catching improvement.
       Sox was a low-key recruiter. A big night out on the town 
     for a visiting recruit was dinner at John's Pied Piper, a 
     trolley car-sized diner across the street from the Sink on 
     Pennsylvania.
       But Walseth's pitch was good enough to land the likes of 
     Wilky Gilmore and Jim Davis, key hands on the early clubs, 
     from basketball hotbeds of Connecticut and Indiana. And good 
     enough to bring to Boulder one summer Brooklyn's Connie 
     Hawkins, the Dr. J. of his era. Off-the-court problems 
     involving the Hawk's brother precluded his enrollment
       The Meely-Tope-Mitchell-Coleman-Wedgeworth group stacked up 
     with any in the nation, and also included 7-3 Ron Smith of 
     Pueblo, who lasted only one varsity semester but contributed 
     to the '69 title. His CU squads understood the team concept 
     and always made the extra pass leading to the best possible 
     shot.
       His title teams had plenty of in-state players, debunking 
     the still-held theory you can't win with local talent--All-
     American Ken Charlton and Eric Lee from Denver South and Milt 
     Mueller from Cheyenne Wells in '62-63, then Mitchell (Thomas 
     Jefferson), Wedgeworth (Manual) and Smith (Pueblo Centennial) 
     in '69. Sox's great coaching job may have come with a non-
     title team--the aptly named ``Deliberate Dwarfs'' of 1966-67.
       They finished 10-4 in the Big Eight and played Kansas in 
     what amounted to the title game in early March in Lawrence. 
     It was a guard-oriented bunch (in-staters Lynn Baker, Pat 
     Frink, Mike Rebich, Chuck Williams and Karl Tait), with 
     Kermit McMurry (6-8), Steve Rowe (6-6) and Bobby Bauers (6-5) 
     the only inside players. With three starters on the bench 
     with injuries in mid-January, the '66-67 Buffs upset Kansas, 
     62-59, at Balch in one of the school's biggest upsets.
       Sox's teams won many key games on the road, but the then-
     maniacal crowds at Balch made the home games in the early and 
     mid-1960s as good a show as this state had athletically.
       Sox didn't get much use out of his suit jacket on many 
     nights, with his coat often flying into the stands after the 
     first disturbing call.
       Around the Big Eight, his self-deprecating humor was a huge 
     hit and an asset in leading opponents to underestimate his 
     teams.
       Two years ago at the CU Sports Hall of Fame induction 
     ceremonies, Sox, the last of six inductees on a night which 
     was, let us say, dragging, brought down the house with 20 
     minutes of one-liners, mostly poking fun at himself. It was 
     worthy of a Las Vegas act. Jay and David would have been 
     jealous at the laughs he drew.
       Sox, of course, did more than coach the men's basketball 
     team at CU. As an undergrad, he was an outstanding shortstop 
     for three years, good enough to earn a pro baseball contract.
       Four years after leaving the men's team, he returned to 
     coach the Lady Buffs, enjoying a wildly successful four-year 
     run that included 43 straight home wins in one span.
       To this day, the players from the Lady Buff days worship 
     Sox in the same way the ex-Buffs do.
       This is a difficult day for Lisa, (Van Goor), ``Beaner'' 
     (Sandy Bean), Bomber (Bauers), ``Bake,'' Chuck and hundreds 
     of others in his extended family.
       But the memories of the days under one of the game's great 
     teachers will never fade.
                                  ____


                  Woelk: CU Notches a Victory for Sox

       No doubt about it, Sox would've liked this one.
       A raucous crowd, the Colorado Buffaloes on the run and the 
     Missouri Tigers on the ropes.
       Certainly, Wednesday night's 83-70 Buff victory was a 
     fitting tribute to Sox Walseth, who died Wednesday morning 
     after a long battle with cancer.
       CU coach Ricardo Patton and Walseth had developed a close 
     relationship over the years. Walseth never pushed himself on 
     the program, but was always there when Patton needed a little 
     advice, or simply a friendly word of support. As Patton's 
     time on the job grew, so did his friendship with Walseth.
       So Wednesday night, Patton did what he could to return the 
     favor. As the Buffaloes were celebrating their win, Patton 
     took the public address system microphone, quieted the crowd 
     and the band, and awarded the game ball to Walseth's wife, 
     Joan.
       ``We lost a great treasure today,'' Patton told the hushed 
     crowd. ``Sox Walseth meant a lot to this team, this program, 
     this university and this state.''
       Maybe it's just coincidence, but at his post-game press 
     conference, Patton talked about establishing a better 
     relationship with his players--something that was always a 
     strong point of Walseth's.
       The issue came to a head following the Buffs' blowout loss 
     at Kansas on Sunday. After the game, they sat at the Kansas 
     City airport for nearly four hours, waiting for weather to 
     clear in Denver so their plane could take off.
       The Buffs took the time for a heart-to-heart talk--and 
     Patton listened.
       ``Those guys helped me become a better coach,'' Patton 
     said. ``I thanked them after the game. ``Sometimes you have 
     to listen to the kids. Win, lose or draw, the players have to 
     feel like the coaches are behind you.''
       The Buffs were certainly a different team on Wednesday.
       Instead of the disjointed bunch that fell apart in a matter 
     of minutes at Kansas, they were a cohesive unit that pounded 
     the Tigers into submission.
       Not that the Tigers didn't put up a fight for a half. For 
     the first 20 minutes, Mizzou answered every Colorado thrust. 
     A 12-7 CU lead became a 12-12 tie. A 23-14 Buff lead became a 
     23-23 tie.
       At the half, CU was clinging to a four-point lead, and 
     there was certainly no guarantee that Patton's bunch would 
     protect that edge over the last 20 minutes.
       But Patton has also taken to heart another page from 
     Walseth's book--protecting the home court. Nobody knew the 
     importance of that more than Walseth. His teams were always 
     tough in Boulder--and at the Events Center, he was a perfect 
     43-0 as coach of the CU women's team.
       It was just over a year ago that Walseth told the Daily 
     Camera, ``Everybody's on Ricardo's rear end, but not me. . . 
     . I'd hate to play him in Boulder, I'll tell you that.''
       You can add Mizzou's Quin Snyder to that group. While 
     Snyder's Tigers struggled in the second half, the Buffs 
     turned it up another notch. Eight minutes in, Colorado had 
     bumped its lead to 13. Four minutes later, the margin was 19. 
     And, although the Tigers attempted to make it semi-
     interesting down the stretch, the outcome was never in doubt 
     over the last 10 minutes.
       ``Sox is smiling,'' said CU senior associate athletic 
     director Jon Burianek, a 37-year veteran of the Buff athletic 
     department. ``He always really enjoyed beating Missouri.''
       Wednesday's game was a crossroads for the Buffs. A loss 
     could have sent them spiraling downward, eliminating any hope 
     of an NCAA Tournament berth.
       But today, they're sitting at .500 in the Big 12 with 
     Baylor coming to town on Saturday. There's renewed hope in 
     the Buff locker room, and a new understanding between the 
     coach and players.
       Long after the game had ended Wednesday night, Patton 
     fought back tears as he talked about Walseth. The Buffs, he 
     said, won a game and lost a friend.
       ``I'm gonna miss him,'' Patton said.
       A sentiment echoed by folks all over the Boulder Valley 
     this morning.
       But, you can also bet on one thing: Sox would have liked 
     this one.
                                  ____


                 [From the Daily Camera, Jan. 30, 2004]

                               R.I.P. Sox

       You didn't always have to go begging for a crowd to watch a 
     college basketball game in Boulder, and a lot of people think 
     Russell ``Sox'' Walseth had something to do with that.

[[Page E168]]

       When the University of Colorado Buffaloes men's basketball 
     team played in creaky, sweat-spiced Balch Fieldhouse, raucous 
     silver-and-gold partisans routinely turned out, and longtime 
     coach Walseth's scrappy squads seldom disappointed.
       Under Walseth from 1956 to 1976, the CU men's squads 
     captured three conference titles--including their last, in 
     1969--and three NCAA invitations in an era when they were 
     much harder to come by.
       And from 1980-83, he coached the CU women, winning two 
     conference championships and orchestrating an astounding 43-
     game home-court winning streak.
       But what's most impressive was that he did it all with 
     plenty of home-grown talent. Few players under his tutelage 
     failed to improve.
       Personally, he was beloved by many who knew him from as far 
     back as his playing days for the Buffs in the 1940s. He was 
     blunt, friendly and colorful, and his friends have literally 
     hundreds of tales to tell about him. Sox Walseth died 
     Wednesday of cancer at home in Boulder. He was 77.

                          ____________________