John Ashworth “Cat” Thompson Interview

Salt Lake City, Utah

February 1974

John Ashworth “Cat” Thompson Interview

Salt Lake City, Utah

February 1974

This document is a transcription of an interview with John Ashworth “Cat” Thompson conducted

by his son-in-law, C. Devon Sanderson, in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 16, 1974. This

interview was initially distributed as a cassette recording. In 2005 the interview was recorded as

an audio CD for preservation and distribution. This transcription was prepared in conjunction

with the audio CD. The contact for this project is Judy Anne Thompson Sanderson, 7466 South

Stone Road, Salt Lake City, Utah 84121. The telephone number is 801-943-7274.

2

This is an interview with John Ashworth

"Cat" Thompson All-American in basketball

for four years and player of the year in 1929

and a member of the famed Golden Bobcats

basketball team of 1927-29 at Montana

State College, Bozeman, Montana. Today

is February 16, 1974 and we are at 1681

Cloverdale Road, Salt Lake City, Utah. My

name is C. Devon Sanderson.

Sanderson: I'd like to begin Cat, by asking

how you got your nickname?

Thompson: Well, I received my nickname

as Cat Thompson from sports writers, I

suspect. They tabbed me that way. I had

several nicknames: Tommy The Terrible,

the Blond Dynamo, the Dixie Flyer, and the

Golden Whirlwind. But, one day there was a

group of people in the coach's office, Ott

Romney's office, and coach Romney made

the comment that I was not a human being; I

was a tree cat. That seemed to be the clue

to the newspaper writers to tab me Cat and

it was Cat Thompson from there on.

Sanderson: Cat, how was the game of

basketball played back at the time of the

Golden Bobcats? Was it any different than it

is today?

Thompson: Yes, there was some

difference. Well, take the ball for instance,

the ball was different than it is now. You

have a molded ball now; whereas, in the

olden days it was a sewed ball, a seam

sewed ball, and the ball was turned inside

out. It wasn't as true and it was a little bit

larger, too. It was sewed together after you

pumped the ball up and it made the ball a

little bit irregular, as far as round is

concerned. You would get a bad bounce

now and again, and I suppose, a bad

bounce off the basket and the backboard.

But, I think the main difference in basketball

then and now is the center jump being

eliminated after a basket. In our playing

time, no time was ever taken out from the

time the basket was made until you went

back and jumped center. Time ran all that

time. I suspect, there was many, many

minutes that you didn't get playing in the

game as compared to what you get now.

3

You see, that would make a lot of difference

in how many points would be scored,

because the time would be consumed just

going from the basket, after a goal was

made, back to the center to jump center.

So, it has changed in that respect. Of

course, it has changed in another respect in

so much as we are getting so many big, tall

boys in the ball game now. I don't know if

there was as many big, tall boys in the early

days as now, but certainly there wasn't as

many of them in basketball. We would run

into boys 6' 7" and 6' 8", and that was tall.

There would be only one, once in a while

that we ever ran into. Stretch Murphy, two

Stretch Murphys, back East and those were

the tallest boys. Vic Holt was playing for the

Cook Painters. He was a tall boy and there

were others, few others, but they were few

and far between.

Sanderson: What was the height of the

tallest player on your team?

Thompson: Oh, Frank was about 6' 2" or

3". Good jumper, though! Real good

jumper! All our people were good rebound

people, because they had so much spring

and they could get way up in the air. Our

team was good on rebounding. Although,

they were not what you would call a tall

team at all. It was very, very runty

compared to anything that you see on the

courts now.

Sanderson: Cat, as I read the numerous

press clippings and write-ups about you and

the Golden Bobcats, they talked about the

fact that you were very successful, even

though you were a short team for that age,

because of an innovation you made. What

was this innovation that allowed you to be so

successful, so highly successful?

Thompson: Well, I believe that the reason

why our team was so successful was that

we started a new era of fast-break

basketball and our success came from being

able to handle the ball quickly, fast, and

accurately. As a group, we were all fast

individuals, too. Our ball handling, I think,

was the key to the whole thing, and of

course our shooting. Our team, especially

the Ward brothers and myself, were

especially keen shooters and could hit 40%

out in the court, so we were fast, good

shooters and played fundamental

basketball. At this time of the game, most

schools were using what they call a zone

defense. It is outlawed in professional now.

You see it occasionally in college ball today,

but not too much. Then they had the

percentage type of basketball that was

developed over in Oregon. Of course, that

type of ball lended itself to very little activity,

as far as moving the ball and getting the

score going. People enjoyed watching our

ball team, because we had so much action

going. We had the fast break, and while the

nation's average was 30 points per game,

our team averaged 60 points per game

against all opponents. That made it

interesting for people to watch. It's the type

4

of ball they play today.

Sanderson: And you were playing it back

then?

Thompson: Yes, that was down in 26, 27,

28, 29, and 30.

Sanderson: They speak of the Golden

Bobcats as a team from 1927-29. Of those

three or four years that the team was

together, was there a year that you played

better ball than any other year?

Thompson: Yes, I believe so. We were at

our full strength, I think, in the season 29.

That is when we were juniors. Frank,

Orland, and myself were juniors. Max

Worthington was a junior and Breeden was

a senior, the only senior on the team at that

time. We had been playing together three

years and we knew each other very well. I

contribute a good share of our ability to play

fast and long and well to the fact that all of

those people trained well. They were off-

season basketball trainers. They lived the

training rules the entire year-round. There

was no smoking and no abusing of the

training rules anytime during the season. It

was a year-round proposition for four years

that made the team good. We were very

much handicapped our senior year, the

fourth year, with the loss of Breeden. I think

Breeden was the most outstanding, perhaps

the greatest, guard that I ever knew in

basketball. He never did get the recognition

in basketball that he really deserved,

because he was a defensive man. You

know that scorers get the glory and the

defensive men really are over looked.

Sanderson: Speaking of scoring, didn't you

set a record in scoring that remained a

number of years at Montana State? I

believe it was a career high of over 1500

points that you scored at Montana State and

it stayed for over 30 years.

Thompson: Yes, I'm sure it was. I also set

a Utah state record in high school at the

State tournament one year. I scored 57

points in one single game in a State

tournament game. That stayed for a long,

long time. I think it was only in the last four

or five years that that record was beaten.

Sanderson: Did any special recognition

come to you or the Golden Bobcats in 1929?

Thompson: Yes, our team was slated or

picked as team-of-the year. It was actually

years later. I don't believe at that time that

they were picking a team of the year of the

early, early history. There was a lot of these

things that came up later. The Helm's Hall

of Fame and All-Americans were things that

were developed after our team was through

playing. Our team was selected, as they

went back through the records and picked

out the teams for the years, for 1929 as

being the team of the year. At that same

time I was elected to be the player of the

5

year by the Helm's Hall of Fame. I'm also

designated as such by the Basketball Hall of

Fame at Springfield.

Sanderson: You're enshrined in the

Springfield Basketball Hall of Fame at this

time aren't you Cat?

Thompson: Yes, that happened in 63. I

went back last spring to the inauguration of

the boys that was enshrined last year. I met

a lot of the old timers there and really

enjoyed seeing the Hall of Fame and the

enshrinement of all of the players. There

are as many non-players, coaches and

contributors enshrined there as there are

players. I was surprised there were not too

many players yet enshrined in there.

Sanderson: When they enshrine a person

into the Basketball Hall of Fame, what is

there at the Hall of Fame to tell people that

this person has been enshrined or

recognized in the Hall of Fame?

Thompson: Well, first of all there are kind

of pillars; I guess you would say, running

from the ceiling to the floor. This pillar is

lighted up from behind and your picture is in

there. It's quite a large picture and below

your picture is your history, your team

history and the like. Above your picture is

your name. Of course, they have other

displays. Some of the things that are

enshrined there are basketballs, etc. My

suit is enshrined there. They have it on a

dummy that's sitting there on the table with

my name and all there. It's things of

interest, you know, as far as basketball is

concerned and the history of the

organization.

Sanderson: You played a lot of teams over

the years when the Golden Bobcats were

together. Are there any games or

opponents, that you remember now, that

were particularly interesting or noteworthy

as you look back?

Thompson: Well, I think that perhaps the

most outstanding was the series with the

Cook Painters. I'm sure that's where we

gained most all our publicity for the Montana

Bobcats. The Cook Painters had finished in

national ranking and first place for three or

four years before this series was set up with

our Golden Bobcat team. They had won this

distinction as the National Championship not

for amateurs, but semi-pro amateurs. They

came out and we had two games at

Montana State College and then the third

game was played at Butte School of Mines

in Butte. Butte at that time was very active

in mining and they had a good crowd. There

were more people in Butte than any place

else, so we took that third game over there.

We were successful in winning two out of

three of the Cook Painters. They beat us

four points the first game. Then we beat

them pretty handily, six to ten points, in the

second game. Over to Butte I think we beat

them twelve points on the neutral floor over

6

there. They went right back and finished

their season without losing very many

games, if any, and finished first place in the

national playoff in the tournament again that

year. We had won from them two out of

three games and they had Vic Holt and Red

DeBarnardi and a string of exceptionally fine

college players that had assembled with

their group. So, looking over the history of

the Cook Painters and considering the fact

that we had been very successful in beating

them two out of three games, I'm sure this

made our national rating jump pretty high.

Sanderson: They were a semi-pro team,

AAU Champions, as you had mentioned.

Which of the collegiate teams was your

greatest rivalry?

Thompson: Well, the team that gave us the

greatest amount of problems was Utah State

College. They had an outstanding team

there for four years. While we were making

our history, they had a good team too. It

was a good competition and they really

pressed us every time we played. Glen

Worthington, Nielson, and Red Wade,

players like that, that were really, really

outstanding. Hod Sanders, maybe you

heard of the potato king, well, old Hod was

on that team, too. He was one of their main

stays. Utah State really, really made it

interesting for us all the way through. While

Utah was playing more of a zone defense,

Vattle Peterson's famous defense. We were

always successful with that, because we'd

get a few points ahead, five or six points

ahead, and make them disrupt their system

by having to come out after us. We weren't

favorable among the fans here in Utah when

we would start our stall against their zone;

but nevertheless, they were forced to come

out after us and we could easily than go in

on them, because our team was fast and

could out maneuver them. BYU had some

real outstanding players there. Elwood

Romney was an All-American nominee from

down there and Goodwin and some of the

other boys at that time. They were good ball

players, but they still didn't have the right

finish on their ball games to be able to win

any. I don't think Utah in the four years won

a game from us and BYU never won one,

but the Aggies did win some.

Sanderson: They had a difficult time

defensing you. I understand there was a

situation which eventually resulted in the fact

that your team had zippers sewed into their

basketball trunks instead of just having

buttons. What kind of an incident or defense

created the need for Montana State to

change their uniforms?

Thompson: Well, that was when we were

playing Utah State up at Bozeman,

Montana, one night. Dick Romney made

some remark that, if their guard could get

me off balance and get me riled up or

something like that, it might throw me off my

game. Dick, I think, just unwittingly

remarked that maybe catching me by the fly

7

of my pants, as the ball went up, might be

the thing that would disrupt me and throw

me off my game. Well, it was early in the

first half of the ball game that I didn't have

any buttons left on the front of my basketball

pants. I complained to the officials

vociferously about the maneuver and finally

they did watch the procedure. At half time

Red Wade had about three fouls on him.

You know we were only allowed four fouls in

those early games. That was one of the

things that made it a little tiny bit rougher to

stay in the ball game. You had to play a

little cleaner than you do now. You've got

one extra now. But anyway, I wanted my

coach to let me get some pins and curve

them like fish hooks, you know, and put in

my pants at the half time. He wouldn't let

me do that. I told him just one catch like that

would take care of this Red Wade guy and

we would be free from him. He wouldn't let

me do that, but the following year we had

the zippers put in our pants and forgot the

button deal.

Sanderson: Cat, you were a good athletic

in practically any of the sports that you

undertook both in high school and college.

What made you want to play basketball or

how did you get started playing basketball?

Thompson: Oh, I started basketball when I

was in the grade school in LaVerkin. Do you

know, Devon, I was never on a hardwood

floor until I went to high school. I was over

15 years old and never stepped on a

hardwood floor in my life. I played outside

on the dirt in the city square all those years.

We played Hurricane, Toquerville, and those

other places that had grade schools then.

We all played outside and we were able to

play outside, because the weather is such

down there that you can be out the year-

round. We didn't have any courts inside at

all, and I never saw a court until I went to

Dixie High School. I wanted to play

basketball and we had baskets put up in the

yard. My cousin had one and I and my

brothers had one at our house. We use to

practice shooting baskets a lot. Then we'd

get together and play under the basket and

just kept wanting to play. When I got to

Dixie, and got into High School down there, I

got acquainted with the coach and it was

easy to get in on the floor and stay there

until he got ready to go home. I spent lots

and lots of hours shooting baskets on the

gym floor. That's how you get to be good;

you practice a lot. President Grant, when he

came down in our country one time spoke of

this. I remember I was only about ten years

old, but I remember what he said about

whatever you wanted to do. He said, "What

you persist in doing becomes easy for you to

do. Not that the nature of the thing has

changed, but your ability to do has

increased." That was the key that I'd been

looking for, up to that part of my life, and I

said, "Well, that's it! You just practice, and

practice, and practice and, if you practice

enough, why it is easy for you to do." That's

the way it seemed to be with the basketball

8

shooting, if you practiced enough, why, it

was easy for me to put the ball in the hoop.

Sanderson: Cat, you wear glasses now,

but as I look at most of the press clippings

from the time that you were playing with the

Golden Bobcats, I never see any glasses.

Did you wear glasses when you played ball?

Thompson: No, I never wore glasses until I

had coached for four, five, or six years.

While I was coaching there (We had a very

small score box across the gym floor from

where the coach and the team was sitting.),

after four or five years, I got so I had to ask

the boys what the score was over there all

the time. I couldn't read it carefully. It was

blurry, so I decided then, I guess, that I

better get glasses at that time of my life.

Sanderson: Did you have good vision

when you were playing basketball with the

Golden Bobcats?

Thompson: Oh, I think so. I don't think that

there was anything wrong with my vision.

Although, I have a little different theory

about shooting baskets than anybody else. I

contend that a player should learn, and a

coach should teach, his boys to arch the

ball. I think that everything is in the arch of

the ball. You don't shoot at the basket; you

lay the arch up in the air out in front of the

basket, and if you do a good job of arching

the ball will fall in the basket. You don't

shoot at the basket. If you shoot at it, why

you're hitting it too hard or its going too far or

the like. I use to like to shoot going right

straight down the middle. If you arch it too

far, it will hit the backboard and fall in. If you

arched it just right, why it just hit the net and

it went down through the bottom.

Sanderson: You mentioned coaching.

Where did you coach?

Thompson: Oh, I coached at Livingston,

Montana at Park County High School. I

coached the basketball team for eleven

years. I also coached football and track

there for eleven years. I was their only

coach really and truly. I had all the sports

and it was really quite a deal to handle all

the sports and keep them all going. But,

basketball was our long suit at Park County

High School. We never finished less than

fourth place in the State in the eleven years.

Really only one year were we less than

fourth place in the State playoffs, so we had

a terrific record at the Park County High

School. It might be interesting for you to

know that at one time, after I had coached at

Park for four years, that at Bozeman at

Montana State College there was seven

Park County High Rangers on their squad of

fifteen and their was three at the University

of Montana all at the same time on their

college basketball team.

Sanderson: Where else did you coach?

Thompson: Well, I coached at Idaho Falls

9

for four years and then I went into business.

We met with quite a bit of success in Idaho

Falls. We won the State Consolidation

Tournament; I think it was the first year

there. We failed to make the State one-

year. Then we won the State the third year.

The fourth year I was there, we were second

place--we missed it by one point. Then, I

went into business.

Sanderson: Were there any players who

met with success at the college level from

your Idaho Falls High School Tiger teams?

Thompson: Yes, we had four good boys.

We had a Jorgensen boy, we had Benson

Allen, we had Roland Minson, and there was

one other. I can't think of his name right at

the moment. But, we had four boys in four

years that made the college ranks and they

were all good boys, too. I'm sorry to say

they haven't had that success since. We've

had a lot of good ball players, but they

haven't been so successful in making the

college teams after they get of high school.

I contribute this a lot to the fact that coaches

when they get big boys, good boys, they use

them for postmen too much. Then when

they get on to college, they find that they are

no taller than anybody else on the team at

college and they have done nothing except

be a post man and had the ball thrown to

them and turned and put it in the basket. In

high school, this was successful for them,

but they couldn't dribble, they couldn't pass,

and they were not good defensive men. In

order to be an outstanding man in college,

you have to have all the fundamentals well

at hand. Your size doesn't contribute that

much to your basketball in college. You

have to have all the fundamentals down

well.

Sanderson: What type of business did you

go into after you left coaching?

Thompson: Oh, I went into a sporting

goods store and an office supply store. We

handled office supplies--the Remington

Rand line along with a lot of other machines

and office supplies. We were in business for

twenty years in that department.

Sanderson: Did you develop any resources

for coaches in the area of equipment repair

and scoring and these kinds of things as you

worked in your business?

Thompson: Well, before I left the coaching

business, I developed a basketball

scorebook that is still nationally distributed

and many, many players or coaches and

schools use it. Radio broadcasters

especially like it, because it is a rapid

scoring book. During the Second World

War, when we could not get molded rubber

basketballs, I developed a patching kit that

was used to patch the molded rubber

basketballs that we had to make last.

The End