‘The Owl Without a Vowel’

He shoots. He scores! He scores again and again and ….

Sixty-nine years ago, Bill Mlkvy scored 54 consecutive points for his team in a game while playing for Temple University — an NCAA record that still holds true today.

Mlkvy, yes that is the correct spelling of his last name, was called “The Owl Without a Vowel” when he played college basketball for the Philadelphia-based school. He was made fun of as a child because of his last name.

After high school, legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp refused to draft him because he thought Bill was a jokester, as nobody could have a name without a vowel.

It turns out this nobody went on to become a somebody.

Mlkvy holds an arena full of awards. Besides his election to numerous Halls of Fame after his playing career was over, he was First Team All-State at Palmerton in 1948. In 1951, he was the National Player of the Year and an All-American at Temple, and led the nation averaging 29.2 points per game. The same year, he averaged 18.9 rebounds a game.

Perfection

on the playground

Mlkvy virtually grew up on the playground behind Lehigh Street in Palmerton. He recalled that something was very different one day when he stared up at both of the park’s baskets.

“I looked up at the rim and said, ‘What’s that?’ There were nets hanging from the rims for the first time ever.”

Mlkvy’s older brother, the late Bob Mlkvy, used an unorthodox method to help Bill improve his shooting.

“He put a blindfold across my eyes and told me to try to make a basket from where I was standing. He moved me back and around the court while wearing the blindfold, and I started to put my legs and my body into the shot instead of just my arms. From that day on, I got much better shooting from all around the court.”

School ball sellouts

When he was a boy, Mlkvy listened to Palmerton basketball games on the radio from his kitchen.

He would go into his basement and shoot a tennis ball into anything he could find and he’d shout, “Mlkvy shoots and scores!”

“I never lost a game in my basement,” he said with a laugh.

When he played for the Blue Bombers, Mlkvy remembered the excitement before the games even started.

“On Friday nights, people coming to the game would start getting in line around 3 o’clock,” he said. “There wasn’t an empty seat in the gym. The excitement got me ready to play my best for sure. I warmed up on a cloud.”

Mlkvy finished his career at Palmerton with 1,286 points.

The game

After his all-everything four years at Palmerton, Mlkvy went on to play for the Temple Owls.

On the night of March 3, 1951, he would set an NCAA scoring record that still stands 69 years later after he scored 54 consecutive Temple points in a game against Wilkes College.

“I didn’t start scoring until about five minutes into the game,” he said. “Then I put up 10 real fast.”

From then on, Mlkvy — who also had put up 43 against a vaunted North Carolina team — scored, and scored, and scored some more with two-handed set shots, hook shots, and layups.

Temple coach Josh Cody kept telling his team, “Get the ball to Bill. He’s having a night.”

Cody knew that Mlkvy could play every position, and that he could score from anywhere on the court.

Mlkvy’s scoring streak lasted until the middle of the fourth period.

When asked if he was double-teamed throughout his record setting spree, he laughed and nodded.

“Once they had four guys on me. I shot anyway, but I missed that one.”

He spoke of another point in the game when he got the ball just past half-court and a frustrated Wilkes defender pushed him so hard, he landed in a front-row seat at courtside.

“I shot from there, too,” he said. “That one went over the backboard.”

Thirteen of Mlkvy’s 73 points were made free throws. He single-handedly outscored the Wilkes team in the Owls’ 99-69 victory.

After the game, nobody seemed to make a big deal about what he had done.

“The culture was different back then,” he said. “A few people said, ‘Nice game’ to me. But that was about it.”

Going pro

Following his career at Temple, Mlkvy enrolled in Temple’s dental school, but he was soon told he was going to be the No. 1 draft pick of the Philadelphia Warriors.

While his girlfriend — who would later become his wife — sat in the car, he went upstairs in a building in the city and signed a five-year contract that stipulated he could stay in dental school, not have to practice, and play in only the team’s home games.

“My signing bonus was $1,200,” Mlkvy said. “After taxes, I made $900 that year.”

Mlkvy played well, but he was confronted with a dilemma: The Warriors wanted him to be a full-time player and quit dental school. Meanwhile, the Army had sent out his draft notice and he was still in dental school.

“I loved basketball, and to this day, I knew I could have played at that level for a long time.”

Eventually, Mlkvy made the tough decision to go in the Army, where he would spend time in Korea during the war and then finish dental school.

Reflections of a warrior

Mlkvy, the subject of a recent Sports Illustrated story, was not only a Philadelphia Warrior.

The word ‘warrior’ can also describe his long and illustrious life.

He was a basketball star in high school and college, and experienced the game at the professional level.

He was a soldier during the Korean War, and then a dentist in Yardley for 25 years.

As Mlkvy begins his 90th year of life, he is the lone survivor of a family of seven siblings.

He currently lives in Medford, New Jersey with his daughter. His brother Bob — a great basketball player in his own right — was a dentist in Palmerton for half a century.

“We loved to play the game,” Bill said, with one memory after another gleaming from his eyes. “I learned to be disciplined from a foundation of practicing all the time.

“This discipline carried me to study and get good grades, and to take care of myself.”

On one glorious late winter night at Wilkes College, he made basketball history — a record that even the superstars of today’s game who shoot three-pointers and dunks, will most likely never break.

He kidded about Wilt Chamberlain, who once scored 100 points in a game as a member of the Philadelphia Warriors in 1962.

“He had 20 more minutes than me in the pro game,” Mlkvy said. “Who knows how many I might have scored if I had that much more time?”

With all the records and accolades he achieved, he was asked which memory brings him his biggest smile.

“That’s easy,” he said. “My wonderful childhood at the playground in Palmerton.”