- Member of the Loras 1,000 point club, dropping in 1,411 points in only 77 games.
- Averaged 17.9 points and guided the Duhawks to a 24-5 record including a trip to the 1947 NAIA National Tournament.
- Named to the 1947-48 First Team Converse All-American Team, averaging 20.5 points per game and leading the Duhawks to a 23-8 season.
- Returned to the courts for the 1945-46 season after missing four and a half seasons while on military service during World War II
Stories
I was discharged from the United States Marine Corps on Christmas Day 1945 and returned to Dubuque on December 30. At that time I had no idea that I might be going back to college, much less playing basketball. The Reverend Daniel B. Coyne, athletic director, and Coach Vince Dowd, along with numerous other sports enthusiasts, talked me into registering for the second semester and joining the basketball team.
When I returned to Dubuque in 1945, I had two children, one I saw for the first time. He was 10 ½ months old. When I agreed to go back to college I would not accept an athletic scholarship or help of any kind from Loras. I did not want to be obligated in any way, so I enrolled on the G.I. Bill, which underwrote all my educational expenses. My family was compensated in the amount of $125 per month and I was able to get a job as athletic director at the Dubuque Boys Club, which paid me $100 per month. That’s the total amount of money my wife and I and two children had to live on until I graduated in January 1949.
I was never really a “normal” student. What with working 25-30 hours per week and playing basketball, about the only people at Loras that I got to know were my professors and the students sitting next to me in class. During the basketball season I worked evenings 6:00-10:00 at the Boys Club and 4:00-7:00 on game days. Study time became quite a challenge.
We were scheduled to play St. Mary’s of California, a team that had lost only by a point to the Iowa Hawkeyes the previous night. I was working my regular game day shift at the Dubuque Boys Club, 4:00-7:00 p.m. on that day. I did not own an automobile at the time so when I closed up the gym where I worked, I ran from Ninth and Iowa Streets up to the Loras Fieldhouse. This was my regular routine on days that we had a game.
When I got to the Fieldhouse, I went to the back door that opened up into the bowling alley area and to the locker rooms where my uniform would be all laid out for me by Doc Kammer, the long-time trainer/handyman and a very special friend of mine, who took a personal interest in me and made my life at Loras so much easier. This back door entry let me get to the locker room without having to fight the crowds that usually congregated at the front entrance to the Fieldhouse.
But, for some reason, Doc forgot to unlock the back door and I had no alternative but to run around to the front entrance where people were lined up two and three abreast all the way back up to Alta Vista Street and south toward Keane Hall. There was a police officer at the door doing his level best to keep people in line and from sneaking around him at the slightest opportunity. I pushed my way through the crowd up to the police officer and told him that I had to get in the building right away, that I was already late and that the teams would be on the floor warming up for the game. I told him I was a member of the Loras team and that my name was Mickey Marty.
That excuse for getting in ahead of everyone else was probably not what he wanted to hear just then and he said very gruffly, “Yeah, and my name’s Santa Claus.” Some of those in line were making their objections known. One gentleman, whose name I never found out, came up to the officer and said, “I really think you should let this young man in because we all want to see him play tonight, and yes, I can vouch for the fact that he is Mickey Marty. “The officer then let me squeeze by him and, as he patted me on the back, he said “Get a bucket for me tonight.”
The back door to the Fieldhouse was unlocked from that day forward.
I also worked 12:00-6:00 p.m. on Saturdays. If it hadn’t been for my wife, I never would have made it to graduation. She was s fantastic home manager and was constantly encouraging me when things got a little hectic. I took summer school classes each summer that I was in college and there was very little time for recreation of any kind.
I had decided that I wanted to be a coach and teacher so I pursued that course of study. I played the second semester of the 1945-1946 season and the next two full seasons. With my graduation coming up in January 1949, I decided not to play the first half of the 1948-1949 season because I didn’t feel that it was fair to be a part of the team for half the season and then drop out half way through. Incidentally, I got a lot of flack for that decision. I graduated cum laude with a degree in economics; and my family and I headed for Mason City, Iowa, to my first teaching/coaching assignment at St. Joseph’s High School. We had four children by now.
There was an awful lot said and written about me during my playing days and it has continued even up to now. But there is something I want to say in all sincerity and humility. I honestly never felt that I was anything more than an average small college player who was fortunate to have returned to college at a time when there were some really outstanding players at Loras. Several of these players, like Looper Lynch, Dave Wareham, George McNally, Paul Proctor, Jack Joyce, and Don Sullivan, were all ex-servicemen like myself. I feel that the maturity of these fellows contributed to putting together a pretty cohesive unit that had a fair amount of success. We each had a job to do and we did it pretty well most of the time.
