SAM BURTON - INDUCTEE #9
hall of fame fast fact:
Sam Burton was known as "Sad Sam" in his coaching days because of his dour expression on the bench. "He's sit on the sidelines and he's have the most miserable look on his face, like he was really in pain," his daughter said. "Yet, he really loved a good joke."
Sam Burton
Sam Burton’s West Texas State basketball teams of the 1920s and early 1930s compiled amazing records. Burton learned to coach from reading.
Burton, who was born in Weatherford, Oklahoma and eventually moved to Erick, Oklahoma, played baseball and football as a young man. He was an all-conference guard on the University of Oklahoma’s football team.
Burton joined the West Texas State Teachers College staff in 1921 when he was asked to coach football, basketball, track, and baseball. A Burton-coached Buffalo team never lost more than five games in a season. The average height of his 1932-33 team was nearly 6’5”. That team went 20-4.
Burton believed the perfect college basketball team would be composed of boys who had played together since they were in the fifth grade.
Burton was in the initial 1987 class of the WTAMU Hall of Champions.
Sam Burton died in 1933 and was the first PSHOF member inducted posthumously.
