WLM | history
COWBOYS:
A World Class Documentary
I
By Kati Hime
Images courtesy American Heritage Center – Svenson-Ludwig Collection, and Allen Johnson
received a last-minute invitation
to attend the opening of Cowboys:
The Story of the 1943 World
Championship Team in March of 2014
in Laramie. I hurriedly made dinner
and childcare plans with Levi and
rushed down to the theater, curious
about this film that I was told was a
must-see. As a long-time Wyoming
Cowboys & Cowgirls Basketball
fan + history nut, I was hooked
– by the end of the night, I was
leaving with my own DVD which I
played immediately for Levi when I
returned home!
It took longer than I had hoped
to cover this story and the film,
produced by Allen Johnson and
Kim Komenich, son of renowned
1943 team member Milo Komenich.
If you’re a long-time Wyoming
basketball fan like I am, you’ll
remember names such as Fennis
Dembo and Eric Leckner, Reginald
Slater, Marcus Bailey and Theo
Ratliff. Of course, many readers are
going to scoff and say “Yeah, but
she’s forgetting the other names…
like Flynn Robinson, Charles
Bradley, Tony Windis…” Of course,
there’s one Wyoming name that is
known the world over to basketball
enthusiasts – Kenny Sailors,
inventor of the jump shot, College
Basketball Player of the Year 1943
and part of the 1943 Wyoming
championship team.
The University of Wyoming
Cowboy Basketball team in 1943 not
46
Wyoming Lifestyle Magazine | Spring 2015