Story from 1943 edition of The Sagamore

For the first time the College was represented at the National Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament at Kansas City, and for the first the College won a national athletic crown. Although the Indians went into the tourney as decided "dark horses," as one of the players observed, "We showed them who had the light."
 
Nine members of the College hoop squad and Coach C.P. Harris received diamond student gold basketballs in commemoration of the fact that they had reached the highest pinnacle of intercollegiate basketball. As 1942 marked the first year that the Redmen were entered in the national meet, it also marked the first year that two teams from the same state went to the finals of the tourney in which teams from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the border to the gulf were represented. And strangely enough, both teams, Cape and Maryville, were members of the same conference – the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
 
During the regular season, the Maryville Bearcats and the Cape Indians had battled it out for the MIAA title, with the Braves winning the deciding game by a score of 37-28. The final tournament game was just as close a battle with the teams running neck and neck until with only seven seconds of the game remaining, Cape's veteran guard, Jack Behrens, shot from the middle of the floor to send the ball swishing through the net and put the Harrismen ahead, 34-32, as the final whistle blew.
 
On their way to the final round and the national championship, the Redmen had to eliminate some of the nation's top-ranking teams. They drew up the curtain on the meet by defeating Dakota Wesleyan University, 50-30, in the first game. Following this, the locals romped over Westminster College, champions of the Missouri College Athletic Union, to the score of 36-33. In the next two games, however, the Capemen had a tougher time, as they were forced into an overtime period to defeat East Washington State, 57-51, and came from behind to defeat Murray (Ky.) State, 38-36, in the semifinals.
 
Two of the Indian hoopsters were selected on the All-American basketball team picked at the tourney and were awarded gold watches. They were Jack (Pug) Russell, scrappy forward, and Jack (Tex) Klosterman, stellar guard, who was named a co-captain of the mythical team. Other members of the All-American team were Eddie Johnson of Maryville, co-captain and forward; Henry Menefee, North Texas State, center; and Joe Fulks, Murray, guard.
 
After opening the 1942-43 basketball season in a rather discouraging fashion, losing the first four games, the College Redmen went on to the greatest hoop season in the history of the College by winning 19 of their remaining 21 contests to cap the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association title for the second time, and to win the National Intercollegiate crown.
 
The outstanding thing in the success of the 1943 Indians was not the play of any individual, but rather the unusual spirit of cooperation and sportsmanship shown by all of the members of Coach C.P. Harris' squad. Every man on the first five, however, was a star in his own right, each winning a place on either the first or second All-MIAA team selected at the close of the season. In additional there were very capable substitutes, as was very vividly shown in the final game in the national tourney when a leg injury kept Jack Russell, All-American forward, on the bench. Then it was that freshman Mort Harris and sophomore Dave Radcliffe divided the chores at Russell's post, and the Capemen won the national title with their All-American forward on the bench.
 
As has been said there were no real individual stars, and that is one reason that the Sagamore staff felt that this year it would be much more appropriate to use a series of team pictures rather than individual shots of the players, as is usually done.
 
Coach Harris' starting lineup included five lettermen from the 1942 team – Jack (Pug) Russell and Captain Rolla Anderson at the forwards; Carl Bidewill, center; and Jack (Tex) Klosterman and Jack Behrens, guards. In addition to these men, he had two more veterans in Dave Radcliffe and Bill Gohen. New faces on the roster included Mort Harris, Vernon (Sis) Landgraf, Don Richardson and Ray Melton.
 
During the season, the Harrismen met a variety of opposition including service teams and independent teams in addition to the intercollegiate opponents. Outstanding among the non-college adversaries was the strong team from the Naval base at Memphis, Tennessee. The Navy outfit was composed almost entirely of stars from the larger universities and met the Braves in two games. Cape won the first at Houck Field House, 54-47, but the Sailors reversed things on their homecourt and stopped the rampant Redmen, 57-52.
 
The Indians made a clean sweep of conference competition, winning two games each from Rolla, Warrensburg, Springfield, and Maryville. Kirksville cancelled its two scheduled contests. Maryville's Bearcats proved the most serious threat to the Cape chances, and were the preseason favorites for the crown, but the locals defeated the 'Cats twice in the conference and once at the national tourney.
 
Only one team that met the College hoopsters this season failed to feel the sting of Indians arrows, and that team was Western Kentucky which defeated the Indians in the opening game and didn't play them again. Consolation for this defeat came when Murray defeated Western 41-28 – Cape defeated Murray twice.