Saint Francis University Athletics

Sharpshooters of the early 1960s nudged college basketball to more of a modern wide-open attack and brought a new formula to winning and, in guard Ed Winters, Saint Francis had a formidable weapon and like former Frankie teams and later ones, too, his were known for their guard-dominant play.

Recruited out of Western Pennsylvania at a time when it was a region especially rich in basketball talent, Winters, from Sharon, and backcourt mate Calvin Fowler, who hailed from Pittsburgh, were a tandem no one who followed the game could easily forget once they took up starting positions on a team that featured the likes of Joe Aston, Bobby Jones and Wilbur Trosch along the front line.  With the graduation of guard Jack O’Malley, Winters exploded out of the shadows his sophomore year. “If the three-point shot had existed back then, there’s no telling how many points he would have scored,” Trosch would recall.

His scoring numbers held steady throughout his entire varsity career as he put up more than 1,000 shots and his average peaked at 20.5 points per game his junior year and 16.4 his senior season.  To gain some appreciation for what he and Fowler meant to their team, consider that they were the only starting backcourt in the nation to feature two 1,000-point scorers during the 1961-62 season.