75 Years of Wavemen: Rediscovering A Lost Basketball Season

When the calendar turned 75 years ago, Troy State Basketball was 2-2, preparing for a game against Craig Air Force Base in Selma.

The game was cancelled, though the airmen were scheduled for a return trip just days later.

Much like the Craig Field game, the 1947-1948 Troy State basketball season almost doesn’t exist.

The media guide’s timeline begins at 1950. Even the NCAA only has stats going back to the 1948-1949 season, meaning for all intents and purposes, Troy basketball exists within the last 74 years.

The 1947-48 Troy State squad, nicknamed the “Wavemen,” have existed just beyond the edge of record, until now.

The 1946 Troy State football team is almost as mysterious as the 1947-48 basketball squad, but its 4-4 record was the catalyst for change. Coach Albert Choate gave up his duties as football coach, and Troy hired Fred “Buddy” McCollum.

The June 29, 1947 article announcing his hire read “McCollum said yesterday he plans to put baseball, basketball and football back on a large scale at Troy.”

Suffice it to say he accomplished that, leading Troy to its first bowl game.

But his second task, after leading the Red Wave football team to a 5-4-1 record in his first year, was guiding the basketball squad. Two weeks and one day after the football team beat Florida State 36-6, Troy State returned to Tallahassee to start the basketball season.

The Seminoles fielded their first basketball team that year, led by Don Loucks. They ended up with a 5-13 record in what would be Louck’s only season.

The home team was victorious, beating Troy 57-37, but the Wavemen got revenge at home January 30, 1948. Neither of those games are reflected in the official media guide tally, but the more important takeaway is that Troy went 2-1 against Florida State in the span of two months and three days.

75 years later, the Trojans beat Florida State in Tallahassee for the first time. That coincidence is not lost on me, either.

The Wavemen swept a home-and-home series with Chipola College before heading to Spring Hill to end the 1947 calendar year. At the time, Mobile was unkind to Trojan teams.

The Jesuits kept its streak alive, beating Troy 49-40.

The calendar turned, and Troy headed up to Selma for a weekend series against Craig Field and the Selma YMCA. As mentioned, the Craig Field game was cancelled, and the Trojans dropped the Y game 37-45.

The Airmen came to Troy January 6, and the Wavemen evened their record with a 71-38 win. It was the most points Troy would score all season.

Over the next ten days, Troy State went 2-3, dropping games against Marion Military Institute, Fort Benning and the now-defunct St. Bernard College. The Wavemen swept Maxwell Field in a home-and-home series though.

The last two games, losses against Fort Benning and St. Bernard, quickly devolved into a five-game losing streak. The Wavemen dropped a home game against Georgia Southern, a game at St. Bernard, and the Selma Y’s return trip.

According to the Southern media guide, this wasn’t the first meetup between Troy State and the Georgia Teachers. Back in 1932, Troy State split a weekend home-and-home series with Southern.

The 1948 meeting doesn’t have a date, either. It’s listed simply by the season (1947-1948). Newspaper records of the time confirm that game happened on January 17, 1948.

The other two losses happened on the 19th and 21st, respectively, and with them, Troy was 5-9 going into the last week of January.

Another game against an Air Base, another game not played. Eglin Field was supposed to play in Troy on January 24, 1948, but the game was postponed and ultimately played in February.

The Wavemen took the opportunity to turn things around, ripping off a three-game win streak against the Selma Y, Florida State, and… the Montgomery Advertiser Journal.

That’s not a typo, and it wasn’t an exhibition. The Montgomery newspaper’s employees hosted a basketball team.

It’s by far the strangest opponent Troy has ever faced, and we haven’t even gotten to the Opelika American Legion yet. At least military and veteran-themed organizations have a history of athletic competitions.

Troy Post 70 just won the American Legion World Series, but well before posts hosted youth teams, they put together teams made of veterans. There’s some internal logic at work there.

I’ve never encountered a private business being competition, before or since.

Thankfully, Troy won that game, and the two after (including the Florida State rematch). Troy ended January with an 8-9 record. The Wavemen began February with a game against bowl game opponent and future rival Jacksonville State.

The Gamecocks’ media guide claims it as a home matchup, but newspaper records at the time say the game was played in Troy. Either way, Troy lost 29-32, and JSU picked up a three-game win streak across two sports.

Two days later, Troy traveled to the Opelika American Legion and won 36-34. Troy dropped the next two games, both at Livingston State (now West Alabama), wrapping up the first week with a 9-12 record.

Then the Wavemen started a hot streak.

Troy state finished the season on a 9-2 run over the last three weeks. It began with a win over Maxwell Field in Enterprise. Troy agreed to be part of a March of Dimes event, which could count as its first invitational appearance.

Troy won 46-29 before returning home, beating the Advertiser Journal squad and Marion Institute again, and evening up its record at 12-12.

The Wavemen dropped a game at Fort Benning the day before Valentine’s Day, then took a five-day break.

Troy picked up its season against three straight military groups. The Wavemen got revenge on Opelika’s Legion, beat Pensacola Navy, drove over to Eglin Field the next day, and won back-to-back games on the panhandle.

The 15-13 Troy State squad welcomed Spring Hill to Pike County, but the Wavemen couldn’t take down the Badgers, losing 55-66.

Eglin Field and West Alabama made the trip to Troy, but the Wavemen wiped out its last two opponents in the last three games of the season. Troy State finished with an 18-14 record, which by today’s standards is a good year.

For comparison, the 2016-17 Trojans went 18-14 before their conference tournament run and March Madness appearance.

The 18-14 record even dwarfs Buddy Brook’s 1950 squad just three years later. That version of the Red Wave went 3-15.

The argument of competition isn’t fair, either. The 1950 team may have lost to Auburn, Southern Miss twice and App State, but other opponents appear on both schedules: Spring Hill, Florence State, Livingston, Chipola and Jacksonville State.

This team was just better, and with a winning record so early on, this Wavemen team deserve a place in Troy basketball history.

Further evidence for that exists due to one player, a guard on this 1947-1948 squad…

And the half-namesake for Troy’s baseball field.

Chase Riddle is long overdue for his own digital monument here at the Wall, but this season is ultimately a footnote in the first half of his Trojan legacy.

Riddle played all three main sports—football, basketball and baseball. His career led him to glory on the diamond, but Riddle’s legend began on the 1946 Red Wave football team. He eventually earned Little All-American honors as a fullback.

But like records of this team, Riddle’s time on the court stays buried under his baseball and football achievements.

The 1986 and 1987 baseball national championships outshine anything Riddle did, even on the gridiron. Similarly, the Maestri years are the heart of Troy basketball lore.

But they both have roots somewhere. For the late Riddle, that’s his hometown in Columbus, Georgia.

For Troy basketball, it’s Fred McCollum, Chase Riddle, and the 1947-1948 Troy State Wavemen.