Phillips 66ers

The Phillips 66ers (also known as the Oilers) basketball team was an amateur squad located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and sponsored and run by the Phillips Petroleum Company. The team, which began play in 1919, participated in the Amateur Athletic Union, the nation’s premier basketball league before the National Basketball Association. Between 1920 and 1950, some of the strongest basketball teams in the United States were sponsored by corporations, including Phillips 66, 20th Century Fox, Safeway Inc., Caterpillar Inc., and others.

The 66ers team was a perennial power in AAU basketball in the 1940s, and 1950s. The 66ers won 11 national championships at the AAU National Tournament between 1940 and 1963, including six consecutive AAU tournament titles from 1943 to 1948. In 1948, the 66ers combined with Adolph Rupp's "Fabulous Five" University of Kentucky team to form the U.S. team that won the Olympic tournament.

Phillips 66 also placed numerous players on the AAU's All-America teams. In the 1930s, these All-Americans included Jay Wallenstrom (1937) and Ray Ebbing (1939). In the 1940s, Phillips 66 All-Americans were Doc Lockard (1940), Joe Fortenberry (1940), Grady Lewis (1940), Hank Luisetti (1942), Bill Martin (1942, 1946), Jimmy McNatt (1943–1946), Gordon Carpenter (1943–1947), Fred Pralle (1944), Paul Lindemann (1945), Marty Nash (1946–1947), Bob Kurland (1947–1952), Cab Renick (1947–1948), R. C. Pitts (1948), Gerald Tucker (1949–1950), Roy Lipscomb (1949–1950), and John Stanich (1949).

External links

• ionOklahaoma.com
• The Association for Professional Basketball Research
• The Deseret News - Mar 26, 1945