The first team inducted into the Westfield State University Athletic Hall of Fame when teams became eligible for recognition in 2017, the Westfield State Teachers College 1950-51 men’s basketball team set a standard for winning percentage which has never been broken.

 

Fueled by an incoming class of men bolstered by who had returned to school on the GI Bill, Westfield State posted a 15-2 overall record – so good that the team scheduled to play the Profs in the final game of the season did not even bother to show up for the contest!  The .882 winning percentage stands as a school record today, 66 years later.

 

While 1950-51 is the first varsity season in the school’s record books, the Owls had played intercollegiate basketball games since the 1930s.  The team actually went winless for a full season two years prior, making the strong 1950-51 season even more spectacular in retrospect.

 

The team was most commonly referred to as the “Profs, Blue Blazers, or the Blue and White,” predating the Owls nickname.

 

Professor Ed Kosior was in his first year as head coach of the squad, which averaged over 70 points per game as Ed Tenero, Pete Stathis, Bill Miller, Len Collamore, and Chet Symancyk usually comprised the Owls starting five.  Symancyk and Collamore have both been named to the Westfield State Athletic Hall of Fame as individuals.

 

The team set a record with 60 points in a half against Worcester Junior College, which stood until the 1970-71 season.

 

The 15-2 season was listed by the Converse Basketball Year book as being the 8th best record in the nation that year, with Columbia, Kentucky, and West Virginia Tech listed as having fewer losses, while Westfield also was recognized as one of the national leaders in scoring margin, averaging more than 16 points per game more than their opponents.

 

Symanczyk finished as the team’s leading scorer at 16.1 points per game, followed by Stathis at 14.6, Tenero at 12.1, Collamore at 11.1, and Miller at 8.2 points per game.