by Aargh » February 18th, 2011, 2:13 pm
Cleo Littleton went to East High in Wichita, where the basketball coach was Ralph Miller. WSU offered the coaching job to Miller and Littleton came along to play with his coach. Ralph Miller was the guy who put together WSU's nationally-ranked top 5 teams in the '60's. When Miller left to go to Iowa, Gary Thompson took over and got WSU to a F4 in the NCAA's. Others in that F4 included the John Wooden-coached UCLA Bruins, and Princeton, led by a guy named Bill Bradley (who I think has retired from the US Senate by now).
That gives an idea of the time frame when Littleton played at WSU. I believe he was a repeat All-Valley selection in both basketball and football. He's got a boatload of records at WSU in both football and basketball.
Littleton was just a bit too early for pro basketball to be a good option. I think he may have played a bit with the Globetrotters, but there wasn't much future for a black basketball player coming out of college in the late '50's. He ended up owning a gas station in Wichita. That's probably why no one has heard heard of him - unlike Chet Walker and some of the other early MVC greats who had pro careers after college.