031 - Wes Bialosuknia
B_ _L_S_KN_ _ … Would've puzzled Wheel of Fortune fans … Didn’t need to buy a vowel—had plenty … Pronounced bal-ah-SOOK-nee-ah … Dubbed the Typographical Terror by sportswriters who were afraid to spell it. Mr. B for those who wouldn’t dare … Misspelled more often than he’d misfire … Long name, longer range … Need proof? Also answered to the Poughkeepsie Popper, the Long-Range Bomber, the Mad Bomber … They all fit … “He was the only player I’ve coached who I gave the green light to shoot.” UConn coach Fred Shabel said. “He was the greatest collegiate long-range shooter.” … College teammate Tom Penders: “Wes could catch and shoot as well as anyone I ever saw.” … Sportswriter John Flanagan: “I don’t care who was guarding him, how big or how fast they were—one or two fakes and Wes was gone.” … Opponents noticed, too. Rutgers’ Jimmy Valvano, assigned to guard him for the first time, got a pregame scouting report: “great shooter, good-looking guy.” Reaction? “I didn’t know whether to guard him or ask him for a date,” he cracked … Should’ve guarded him—put up 34 on 15-of-21 shooting ... Still holds the school’s all-time scoring-average marks—single season 28.0 a night (’66–67), career 23.6 … Only player to average more than 20 points in each of his three varsity seasons … Fastest Husky to 1,000 points—47 games … Set UConn record for most 30-point games in a season with nine—a mark that stood 44 years until Kemba Walker broke it in 2010–11. His 17 career 30-point games? Still the standard … Feb. 4, ’67: Dropped a (then) school-best 50 vs. Maine. Same day the ABA was born … Before his time? Try light years … More than half his buckets would’ve counted as threes today … No telling what his totals would’ve looked like had the NCAA adopted the three-point rule while he was launching bombs … Led UConn to a 56–18 record over three varsity seasons—three Yankee Conference titles, two NCAA tourney trips … Senior season, ’66–67: All-New England, All-Yankee Conference, UPI Little All-American, and the Huskies’ first-ever Scholastic All-American … ’67 Drafts: Fourth-round pick by both the Hawks and Oaks—the rival leagues bidding against one another for talent for the first time … Oakland GM and league co-founder Dennis Murphy: “We’re going all-out to sign our draftees.” … Weren’t kidding. Inked him to a three-year, no-cut, $55K pact to play for crooner Pat Boone’s Oaks … Signing bonus? A brand-new yellow Jaguar XKE convertible that went 0-to-60 in under seven seconds. Or about as long as it would take him to launch one of his patented one-handed 30-foot bombs … “The Hawks weren’t willing to match Oakland’s offer, and besides I wasn’t impressed with their representatives or organization.” … Years later, called out the ABA’s business model: “We finished in last place. Sometimes we played before crowds of 150. I used to scratch my head and wonder why they were giving me all that money when there were no fans.” … Ranked second in the league in three-point percentage (.397)—but didn’t have enough attempts to qualify … Sank a record nine straight threes over a five-week stretch …
Late in the season: Competed against the Amigos' Les Selvage in the first-ever three-point shooting contest—percentage leader vs. leader in made threes. The prize? A camera. Exact details hazy, though probably March 15, '68 in Oakland, televised back to Anaheim via KTTV. The Popper wins it, 15 baskets to 6—including 8 in a row …
Career-best 29 vs. Houston on March 20, before 1,449 at Sam Houston Coliseum … Year two: Cut after a dozen games despite the no-cut contract. Never got off the Oaks bench—coach Alex Hannum focused on winning a title with Rick Barry on the squad after a year layoff … Wasn’t a work ethic issue: First player out for warmups before a game; last player off the court after practice. Catch, release, repeat … Left the Bay Area behind. And the Jag, too—sitting in a shop with an $800 repair bill he couldn't pay … Spent the remaining two years playing on weekends for Hartford of the Eastern League, with the Oaks picking up most of the tab—until they went bankrupt … Three-sport standout at Roosevelt High—led the Presidents to the Section One championship as a senior in '63 … Born Wesley John Bialosuknia, June 8, 1945, in Poughkeepsie (six vowels, too), NY … US Army Reserve, ’67-73 … After the ABA: Worked in the circulation department at the Hartford Times and Bristol Press. Ran youth camps … Roosevelt High HOF in ’00, UConn All-Century Team in '01, UConn Huskies of Honor in '07 … Died October 23, 2013, at 68, after a lengthy battle with cancer … Case? CL_S_D.
Sources: Central New Jersey Home News, 2/24/1967 [surname means white dress in Polish], Connecticut Post, 12/27/1964 [deadly from 20-30 feet out], Daily Courier, 1/12/1968; Daily Freeman, 8/16/1967 [three sport star @ Roosevelt]; Hanford Sentinel, 8/16/1967; Hartford Courant, 12/17/1964 [This man has to be the best shooter Connecticut has had in the modern game], 12/26/1964 [also called him Bailey back home], 1/21/1965 [bah-lah-SOOK-nee-ah], 2/4/1965 [put up 34 on 15-of-21 shooting in first meeting against Rutgers], 3/4/1967 [Hawks draft quote; Shabel: “He has the ability to score in fast company.”], 8/16/1967 [signed three-year, $55,000 no-cut deal with Oaks; after college toured with college all-stars, averaged 32 a game with a high of 74], 3/21/1976, 1/23/1977 [one-handed bombs], 4/4/1983 [Valvano joke], 1/21/1990 [Shabel quotes; green light; greatest collegiate long-range shooter], 12/27/1996, 6/13/2000 [Roosevelt trio honored], 4/1/2011 [UConn single-season and career rankings], 10/26/2013 [Obituary; Poughkeepsie Popper; US Army Reserve (67-73)]; Long Beach press Telegram, 3/15/1968 [final televised game of season; KTTV, Channel 11]; Meriden Journal, 2/21/1966 [Dirtiest player in. the game]; Oakland Tribune, 4/3/1967 [Oaks fourth-round pick], 4/4/1967 [Dennis Murphy: “We’re going all-out to sign our draftees.”], 8/16/1967 [signed with Oaks], 2/11/1968 [first player out for warmups]; Pittsburgh Press, 4/25/1971; Poughkeepsie Journal, 3/7/1962 [Roosevelt High; junior season], 8/16/1967 [5th leading scorer in country], 3/31/1968 [3-point contest between Bialosuknia and Selvage], 5/30/1971, 10/26/2013 [Obituary; Flanagan quote]; Reporter Dispatch, 3/11/1963 [Roosevelt wins state title; averaged 23.3 in tourney]; Tucson Citizen, 9/29/1967; http://www.uconnhooplegends.com/menslegends/BialosukniaWesley.html [Averaged 28 as a high school senior; worked at Hartford Times, Bristol Press]; https://foxsports979.iheart.com/content/2020-05-04-uconn-legend-the-poughkeepsie-popper-wes-bialosuknia/; foxsports979.iheart.com [worked for the Hartford Times and the Bristol Press]; Vecsey, X.com DM, 1/1/2026. Special thanks to Peter Vecsey for info re the abandoned Jag. And to Tariq Jabbar, whose post on X.com re the Poughkeepsie Journal article from March 31, 1968, referenced the first-ever three-point contest.