Dunking With The Duke

Posted on April 12, 2021

August 2, 1952 and a group of young Canadians are in a rush to get to Messuhalli Olympic Basketball Arena for the gold medal men’s basketball game.

It’s the 1952 Summer Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland and the USA are prepared to take on the USSR for a 4 p.m. tipoff.

Earlier in the week, July 27, to be precise, Canada’s  men’s basketball team, coached by 24 year-old Paul Thomas, had been knocked out of the competition with a 81-65 loss to the Philippines.

Arriving prior to tipoff, Thomas and team, which was made up of members of the Tillsonburg Livingstons (Canada’s Senior A Men’s Basketball Champions) and a few all-stars including Winnipeg’s Carl Ridd and Roy Williams along with Bob Pickel from Vancouver, searched out a seating area.

Built in 1936 and expanded in 1952, the Messuhalli Olympic Basketball Arena was “crammed with 2,500 fans” said one newspaper report.

Crammed is perhaps a fitting description as capacity seating was listed at 2,000.

Thomas, who had been a four-time U Sports All Star at the  University of Western Ontario, earning him a tryout with the New York Knicks, spotted an open space on the sidelines.

His daughter Misty Thomas, who attended University of Nevada-Las Vegas where she was named at two-time All American in basketball, continues with the rest of the story.

“As you know my dad was the coach of the 1952 team and they were late arriving to the gold medal match,” said Thomas, who was a member of  Canada’s National Women’s Basketball team when they dribbled their way to a bronze medal at the 1986 World Championships and a fourth place finish at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

“ The place was packed but my father spied some open space on the floor and directed his players there.  Apparently everything got very quiet as they sat down and they noticed everyone staring at them.

“Turns out the reason there was some open floor space was because the Duke and his entourage were seated in the front row.”

Now…when Misty is referring to the Duke it is not in regards to legendary USA basketball coach Hank Iba, the “The Iron Duke of Defense”, who coached teams to NCAA championships in 1945 and 1946 along with Olympic medals in 1964, 1968 and 1972, but the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip.

“My father had unknowingly sat down directly in front of him which was obviously a major faux pas.

“The Duke took things in stride and invited everyone to stay put and enjoy the match.  Apparently he spent quite a bit of time asking my father about various tactics throughout the match and, as you know, my father certainly enjoyed teaching the Duke about the sport.”

The USA went on to claim gold in a low scoring 36-25 final while Paul Thomas explained the Dunk to the Duke.

Written by: Curtis J. Phillips