GLOW OF GLORY, PART 3: Phillips 66ers left legacy of happy nights at Adams Gym

(Note: Following is the final part of a feature on the memories of local resident Joe Robertson of the Phillips 66ers basketball team from the 1950s.)

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More than 70 years after it sprang to being, the Phillips 66 Adams Gym is still a palace of gritty sports competition and activities in Bartlesville.

But, its era of glory — as the homecourt of the Phillips 66ers basketball team — has long faded into memory and yesteryear’s nostalgia.

The 66ers last stormed the court in 1968 before their storied history reached its graceful end.

But, the recollections of the 66ers teams and its players persist — both in the minds and hearts of those who watched and knew them, and as part of Bartlesville’s effulgent sports legacy.

One of those who still remembers is Joe Robertson.

While his teenage years unfolded throughout the 1950s, Robertson devoted himself to the team and to following the high-powered hoopsters — most of them college All-Americans and good share of them NBA draft picks — that comprised the 66ers rosters.

In later life, Robertson enjoyed getting to know 66ers’ star Arlen Clark — a slender 6-foot-9 battler who had excelled at Oklahoma A&M — on a personal level.

“He and I got to be friends,” Robertson said. “We bowled together and we played bridge together. … He was a heck of a nice guy.”

Clark had made an indelible impression during his senior year at A&M, when the Aggies upset the University of Kansas and its titanic star Wilt Chamberlain.

“They held Wilt Chamberlain to his lowest point total (13 point),” Robertson said. “Arlen would have guarded him. He told me that ‘Coach Iba had one guy standing on his (Chamberlain’s) right foot, he had one guy standing on his left foot and I had my knee in his back.’”

Clark not only led the NCAA in free throw shooting but set the record (which still stands in 2022) of hitting 24-straight charity tosses in a game.

Robertson also stood in awe — but more like terror, in one instance — of players on visiting teams.

One night, a team sponsored by an oil company out of Colorado visited the Adams Gym to play Phillips.

“They had two seven-foot guys on the same team. … Their coach was 6-foot-11,” Robertson said. “Right after the game, I would have been 12, my friend and I walked downtown, it was not very late. We were doing what teenagers do, looking into the windows at May Brothers at shirts, slacks and sweaters. Suddenly, out of the darkness of the alley by May Brothers come these giants. I’m telling you my buddy and I were scared to death.”

But, the massive trio turned out to be three players from the Colorado team.

Robertson recalled one special season (1952-53) when Phillips boasted a Twin Towers powerhouse in the paint — college player of the year Clyde Lovelette of from Kansas University and two-time All-Big 10 center Chuck Darling out of Iowa.

“Lovelette was lazy,” Robertson said. “I remember a lot of times he didn’t run back on defense. He had this little fade jump shot. Darling was a grinder. He just played tough all the time.”

With Lovelette and Darling on the roster, Phillips recorded a 50-5 record, won the NIBL national title and finished second in the national AAU tournament.

Darling would play another four seasons with Phillips and would be a three-time AAU All-American.

Meanwhile, at the end of the 1953 season, the 6-foot-9 Lovelette left Phillips and began a 12-year career in the NBA, with the Minneapolis Lakers, Cincinnati Royals, St. Louis Hawks and Boston Celtics.

He was part of three NBA championship teams (Laker, 1943; Celtics, 1963 and 1964) and was named an NBA All-Star four times (1956, 1957, 1960, 1961).

Lovellette’s pro career stats sparkle — 17.0 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 1.6 apg; his jersey (No. 16) has been retired by the University of Kansas.

Such were the caliber of players Robertson saw come across the stage of greatness in the 1950s with Phillips.

He became friends with the Likens brothers.

Robertson and his wife became a bridge club member with former 66ers player Jim Spivey, while they lived in Durant at the same time as Clark.

“Arlen Clark had some gold around one of his teeth,” Robertson recalled. “He said ’It was that (expletive) Spivey. I was going up for a rebound and he put an elbow out and knocked my tooth out.’”.

Robertson also appreciated 66ers player Al Bunge. “There was one time when he was the greatest player at Maryland, until Len Bias came around,” Robertson said. “I got to know him well. I went to see some games with him. … He was a first-round draft choice of the Warriors. He told me that ‘They came to me and offered to pay him $6,000 as a first-year player.’ He decided the offer from Phillips, with a guaranteed job after basketball, was better. They (the Warriors) raised the money to $7,000 but he stayed with Phillips.”

Many of the 66ers’ heroes of Robertson’s youth are gone.

Collectively, the 66ers burrowed into the hearts of hundreds of Bartlesville youth and adults to sow lasting happy memories. They warmed up a lot of cold winter Friday’s with a sizzling, entertaining brand of basketball that brought a community — people from all walks of life — together in a common interest.

Not a bad legacy that.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Focus on history of Phillips 66ers