Centennial Moments: Price Brookfield

In honor of 100 years of Iowa State men's basketball during the 2007-08 season, cyclones.com will publish weekly "Centennial Moments," featuring brief stories on former Cyclone players, coaches and teams. Check back at cyclones.com for more "Centennial Moments." Be sure to click here to see this week's video vignette, commemorating Cyclone legend Gary Thompson.

Price Brookfield

One of the most interesting characters in the rich history of the Iowa State men's basketball program is Price Brookfield. More often than not, his name is not included among the best that ever played here. However, historians from the brief period Brookfield was a member of the Cyclone team will tell you there was no one better.

The year 1944 was tumultuous with war ravaging Europe and the Pacific. The majority of young males in the United States were not worried about getting their education at that time, they were serving their country in its time of need. It was no exception at Iowa State, as enrollment dropped significantly during the war years. Because of it strong engineering program, ISU was one of several schools that offered Naval training programs. Naval cadets could train under ISU's V-5 and V-12 engineering program and the Naval trainees were eligible to participate in athletics for the Cyclones regardless of age or previous college graduation. Brookfield was one of several servicemen who joined the Cyclone basketball team under these conditions.

Brookfield, a native of Friona, Texas, was not your normal student. At 23 years old, he enrolled at Iowa State in January after the 1943-44 Cyclone team already had four games under its belt. Brookfield was a consensus All-American basketball player in 1942 while completing his eligibility at West Texas A&M University. He soon began playing professional basketball with several minor league teams in the south before enrolling in the Navy to help his country in need.

His addition to the Cyclone squad immediately gave ISU a great chance to succeed in the Big Six Conference race. At 6-4, Brookfield was an extremely skilled and versatile player. He showed up just in time before the train left for Lincoln, Neb., on Jan. 8, for ISU's second conference tilt against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The rest they say is history.

"I think Brookfield was one of the best all-around players to ever play at Iowa State," said Bob Mott, an all-Big Six performer for ISU in 1945, who saw a number of Brookfield's games. "He was an amazing talent. He could play three positions. Brookfield shows up for his first game in January of 1944 and had not met anybody. He had never practiced with the team and hadn't met Coach Menze. He gets there to board the train to Lincoln for ISU's first conference game vs. Nebraska and scores 18 points in the first half. Coach Menze doesn't even play him in the second half. He could do things at that time that no one had seen before."

With Brookfield in the lineup, the Cyclones stormed through the league by claiming their third of four Big Six titles under head coach Louis Menze. Brookfield led the team and ranked second in the Big Six in scoring at 11.6 ppg en route to first-team all-league honors.

The Des Moines Register picked Brookfield as the Big Six's best scoring, dribbling and ballhandling center. The Register noted in its selections that, "Price Brookfield, though listed as a center, sometimes did not even jump at the start of the halves. He roamed the floor with more grace and agility of a forward and guard than a center both on offense and defense."

Brookfield and the Cyclones were not done with their season yet. NCAA selected ISU as one of its eight teams to participate in the national tournament. The Cyclones traveled to Kansas City and defeated Pepperdine, 44-39, to advance to what is now known as the Final Four. The Cyclone season ended when Utah downed the Cyclones, 40-31, in the semifinals.

The 1943-44 season will go down as one of the best in school history thanks to Brookfield. After serving his military duty, Brookfield went back to playing professional basketball, including a brief stint with the Waterloo (Iowa) Pro-Hawks, a member of the Professional Basketball League of America (PBLA). Brookfield then became the first Cyclone to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season with Indianapolis Jets (1948-49) and the Rochester Royals (1949-50). Brookfield died at the age of 85 on April 17, 2006.

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Centennial Moments: Price Brookfield

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