Gonzaga faces TCU Sunday evening for a trip to the Sweet Sixteen in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. In the long history of Gonzaga basketball, the Zags have only defeated TCU once. Well, heck. Austin College has done that.
Gonzaga’s consensus All-American Drew Timme is attempting to lead his squad to an elusive first national championship in his final season at Gonzaga. For most of America, Drew Timme is one of the top basketball players in the college game. But for Austin College folks? Timme is just a downstream product of a bunch of Kangaroos.
Timme was baptized by Reverend Clayton Oliphint of First United Methodist Church-Richardson. Rev. Oliphint is an All-American wide receiver for the 1981 National Champion Kangaroos. Timme and Owen Allen have a shared history in north Texas youth sports; Owen is the son of Roo Meredith Clayton Allen. Owen Allen is the top rusher in Southlake Carroll football history and will be playing D1 football next year. Timme was coached at a young age by Bill Ucherek II, who starred for AC basketball during my days in Sherman.
But by far the most important tie? Drew Timme is the grandson of Roo legend Jerry Bishop.
Jerry Bishop QB’ed the Kangaroos from 1962 to 1965, demolishing AC passing records. By the time of his graduation in 1966, Bishop held the AC records for passing yards in a game (495), season (2,246), and career (5,992). The 495 yards in the air in 1963 against East Central University (OK) was an NAIA record, which earned Bishop a much coveted “Faces in the Crowd” shout out in Sports Illustrated magazine.
The St. Louis Sporting News wrote about Bishop near the end of his AC career. The Sporting News compared Jerry Bishop favorably to an NFL QB star at the time, and also suggested………against all odds……….that the NFL might actually spend a precious draft pick on the football player from little Austin College:
“’Bishop looks a lot like Johnny Unitas,’ one visiting [NFL] scout said. ‘He comes out from under the center, sets up in the pocket, and throws with the same kind of motion.’ Bishop still says that Johnny Unitas is his favorite. ‘He’s the best,’ Bishop says. ‘I used to try to copy some of his movements.’”
Floyd Gass, the Kangaroo Coach, can only smile at such talk. ‘I don’t think you could compare Jerry with Unitas,’ Gass said. ‘But I’ve had a few people tell me he walks like Unitas. He can throw the ball equally well long or short. Jerry’s got a strong arm and an accurate one. He has poise, patience, and the confidence that is required of a good passer.’”
“Bishop is not on scholarship at Austin College. ‘We have no type of athletic scholarship,’ said Gass. This situation caused Gass to do a bit of sweating after Bishop’s freshman year. Prominent alumni of two major colleges contacted Jerry. ’Jerry turned them down,’ Gass said, breathing a sigh of relief for the thousandth time. ‘He made the decision himself. He decided he liked to throw the football and wanted to stay with our type of offense.’”
Like many outstanding AC athletes, the NFL proved to be just a bridge too far. Jerry Bishop just missed being drafted by an NFL franchise. That near miss might in part be due to his loyalty to little Austin College, to whom he gave four exceptional years after spurring interest from larger schools that could have boosted his standing. Bishop entered the coaching and administration ranks in the Dallas area, raised a family, and is currently enjoying the athletic exploits of his grandchildren.
One of those grandchildren, Drew Timme, could have bolted for the NBA after a few outstanding seasons. But like his grandfather, Timme has given Gonzaga a loyal four years. He’s an icon at the Spokane school. This year, his last, will close the Gonzaga chapter of his story. Many of us Roos would love to see that chapter end with Gonzaga’s first national championship.
But this is the NCAA tournament, where you gotta play them one game at a time. The first order of business is a win against TCU on Sunday evening. In order to send good Roo vibes towards the Zags and the family of Jerry Bishop on Sunday night, I’m sharing two articles alongside a picture of Bishop holding up the Gonzaga banner: (1) the 1964 Sporting News article featuring Austin College’s Jerry Bishop, and (2) a 1923 news article reporting a TCU basketball loss………to Jerry Bishop’s Austin College.
Go Zags.
https://vault.si.com/vault/1963/11/18/faces-in-the-crowd
https://www.nytimes.com/…/gonzaga-ncaa-tournament.html
https://theathletic.com/…/gonzaga-ncaa-tournament-drew…
