Vareh 22, 1946

Ens. H. D. MeSpadden

Ue Se Se Roche (DS-197)
c/o Fleet Post Office
San Francisco, California

Dear Sparky: .
ihe |

J

me IT am very much delayed in answering your fine letter of
the Sth of January 1946, It was a grand letter and I certainly did enjoy
it.

' { am happy if we contributed to your success in the Navy
with some of that, Jayhawk fire and drive, I knew that nothing would stop
you onee you got started and it dodésn't take you very long to do that.

Of course, by now you have heard of our season that was
finished Monday nighte It was a pretty rugged grind all the way to the end.
For the first half of the season Charlie had to earry the load almost entirely,
but in the last four gains, with Ray back and Schnelly rounding into shape, we
presented the opposition with a fairly healthy’Kansas basketball team, We
played our best game against Iowa State here and sincerely regret that we did
not play the same type of game against Oklahoma A & M last Monday. Of course,
‘we are all disappointed that we could not turn the tables on the Aggies, but
we feel that the season was pretty much a success as it stands.

Kurland was just a little too tall for Charlie to handle
and we had no one else who wuld come close to doing the job. Our offense
sputtered and stammered all night and we only hit 19 percent of our shots,
aside, from missing ten free throws and three setups. We are not making exe
cuses because the Aggies have a great team and one that is well coached and
that has played together for several seasons. It is my opinion that they
will win the National N. C. Ae As for the second straight year in the coming
week. ;

It is sort of nice to settle back down to a fine afternoon
of golf after the long grind. Since this year's team will return next year,
we are anticipating having a pretty‘fair country ball club. With a few of
you fellows still to regurn, we should have much better reserve strength,

I have conveyed your regards to Gene Barr. He asked to be
renembered to you when I wrotes He helped considerably with the team during»
the year, although he did not play in too many games, He has a wonderful
attitude and is a great fighter, like most of the veterans we have seen who
have come back.