Quaker Oats: How to Star and Play Winning Basketball

In the 1940s and early 1950's, the Quaker Oat company of Chicago Illinois published a free pamphlet discussing the game of basketball. A national board of college and high school coaches were assembled and participated in the publication. The pamphlet covered the basics of passing, shooting, individual and team offense and defense along with basic plays with diagrams. Included in later editions were action shots using college basketball players. At least one edition included a section on girls basketball.

Quaker Oats

Given top billing was one of the coaches who was listed as author. Persons who earned this honor included Henry Iba, John Wooden and Harry Combes. Although perhaps no other coach was as prominent as Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, who apparently was given top billing on the initial edition of the pamphlet and oversaw the expansion of the depth and topics covered. The 1952 edition, under Henry Iba's name, contained the exact same text as the 1951 edition under Rupp. (Even years later, editions under John Wooden's name had different introductory wording and slightly altered sections, but much of the text and the captions were verbatim from earlier editions published under Rupp's name.)

Some may not realize that Rupp had a long history of promoting the game of basketball to youth. He published a number of articles in magazines such as Scholastic Coach and authored booklets targeted specifically toward youth basketball. He also was supportive of the "Biddy" basketball movement and was a founder of the "Junior Pro" basketball organization, both which tried to make the game of basketball more amenable to young players in order to get them to start the sport at an earlier age than they otherwise would.

Rupp was on the cover of the Quaker Oats pamphlet at least between 1945 and 1951. It was during this period that the publication evolved from a 12-page pamphlet in 1945 into a 31-page booklet. Additions made to the early text included descriptions of Rupp's 'Figure-8' offense, parts of which are sometimes used today, set plays from the 'Fast Break' (another key part of Rupp's offense) along with discussions of conditioning and other topics. Also included were descriptions with play diagrams of the single-pivot and double-pivot offense. (the latter an offense that Rupp was instrumental in developing in the 1930s.)

Oats are an important parts of every growing boy's morning !

(JPS Note: If anyone has additional information about these or other Quaker Oat pamphlets, please let me know.)

Below are some reprints of these pamphlets:

1945 - How to Play Winning Basketball

1947 - How to Play Winning Basketball

Unknown Year - How to Star in Basketball

1951 - How to Play Basketball

Return to Kentucky Wildcat Basketball Page.