February’s Reunion Weekend Honors School’s First Academic All-American

By Press release submission

Feb 3, 2022

Colorado State University-Pueblo Athletics issued the following announcement on Feb. 3

When Colorado State University Pueblo stages a reunion for the school's basketball programs on February 18 and 19, the ThunderWolves will be recognizing their 1972 men's "Elite Eight" basketball team along Academic All-American Jim von Loh.

A member of the 1972 team, which was the first Colorado "College Division" team to reach the quarterfinals in Evansville, Ind., von Loh was the first of 23 individuals at CSU Pueblo to earn first-team Academic All-American honors. A Colorado native, von Loh received a honorable mention recognition in 1971 and was a second team pick as a senior in 1973.

"Not bad for a young kid from a small town in northeastern Colorado," said von Loh, who was recruited by Coach Harry "The Chief" Simmons out of Wiggins High School where he achieved All-State honors after leading his school to the state tournament twice.

"Following a successful high school career, I had a few offers to small colleges in the region," said von Loh, who played in 86 games for the then-Indians during his four-season career. "I chose to attend SCSC because one spring day in 1969, while I was working in the local grocery store, a distinguished-looking gentleman walked in, greeted the manager, and requested to see me," von Loh added.

Von Loh continued his story. "We leaned against one of the checkout carousels and he described SCSC and the basketball program to me and also explained his expectations from his basketball players," von Loh continued. "It made my decision to attend SCSC simple as he was the only college representative to make an effort to meet with me; yep, a visit from 'The Chief.'"

Von Loh, who plans to attend February's CSU Pueblo "Basketball Reunion" weekend, was a biology major where he amassed a 3.2 grade point average over 212 quarter-hours (1969-1973) and was voted by the department as outstanding graduating senior for 1973. "After finishing my degree, Dr. Neal Osborn recommended me for graduate study at the University of New Mexico," said von Loh. "I was accepted by Dr. Bill Martin a UNM, so it was all worth it."

Von Loh was born in Fort Morgan, which is 20 minutes (16.6 miles) east of Wiggins. "My mom (Julia) was a homemaker who raised nine children and I was the last," said von Loh. "My dad [William] was a farmer and grain elevator employee in Wiggins."

Married to the former Janice F. Girocco for 42 years, von Loh has one daughter. "My daughter, Tiffani, holds both a bachelor's and master's CSU Pueblo and has a Certified Medical Practice Executive credential," von Loh added. "Our grandson Blake is in his second semester of college and playing baseball in Tampa, Fla."

Von Loh is now retired and living primarily in Las Cruces, N.M. "I concentrate on plant, wildlife, and landscape photography while hiking and biking in the local Chihuahuan Desert environs," he noted. "I contribute my images and/or naturalist articles/topical videos to the New Mexico Native Plant Society, Black Range Naturalists, Pajarito Environmental Education Center, and to national/international online scientific databases."

Before retiring, von Loh had 45 years of professional participation after earning his degrees from SCSC and New Mexico (1977). "My career pursuits led me to live, for periods of time, in Albuquerque, San Diego, La Guajira, Colombia, Seattle, Aurora/Parker, Colo., and Las Cruces.

After playing in only six games as a freshman (1969-1970 season), von Loh earned more playing time as a sophomore where he averaged 7.0 points and 3.4 rebounds a game. His junior campaign was his best season with a 9.8-point, 4.5-rebound norms as the Indians posted a 19-9 record and advanced to the NCAA College Division "elite eight" after defeating Cal Irvine and Seattle Pacific in the West Regional at Massari Gym.

For his SCSC career, von Loh scored 654 points (7.6 average) and grabbed 324 rebounds (3.8 norm). "I didn't have the stats like Tatum, [Steve] Kidd, [Bill] Bekeza and [Dan] England, but I think I made up for that with my defensive play and credit Coach [Don] McIntosh for teaching and helping me execute the defensive techniques."

"If my memory is correct," said von Loh, "I had one of my best games in the West Regional championship game against Seattle Pacific with 18 points. I scored 29 points in the Regionals and made the All-Tournament team with Cal Tatum. What a thrill."

Coach "Mac" McIntosh, who replaced Simmons as the school's head coach after the 1979-1980 season, was "a kind, patient, but also demanding coach," according to von Loh. "To this day I hear his voice yelling across the court: 'Find your man! Find your man!'" Von Loh expanded, "by adhering to his defensive coaching principles and techniques, I was often able to become the guy that could effectively double-team, make the steal, block the shot, grab the rebound, and sometimes even change a game's tempo/momentum, or that could sometimes disrupt the opposing offense's rhythm, or that could disrupt/shut down a player's "hot hand."

As for playing in the first men's college basketball games at Massari Gym, von Loh said "we left 'The Pit' on the Orman campus and its hard wooden floor behind, walked onto that firm-but-springy and quiet Tartan surface, and was awed by the size, spaciousness, and brightness of Massari Gym."

With a bigger facility and more seating, von Loh said "the attendance was larger each game, and at times the roar was deafening during games - it definitely made my chest vibrate a little. Back then we wore Chuckie Taylors' (Converse All-Star shoes) with gum rubber soles that grabbed the Tartan like an octopus. It took a while to become used to stopping so rapidly, however the floor's springiness did make it easier to jump. The ball bouncing on Tartan made a muffled sound which initially caused everyone to dribble with more force, resulting in some waist-high return heights (great for ball-hawking on defense). It actually became a little fun to dive on loose balls with that forgiving, springy surface, as well!"

Von Loh said his most gratifying moment in four years of SCSC basketball came late in his senior season when SCSC hosted the Air Force Academy. "We finally played the Falcons in our house - Massari Gym. We were locked-up in a defensive battle and their big forward (Rick Nickelson) had scored 17 first-half points. At half-time I received the assignment to shut him down by denying him the ball (fronting defense) and with help from all my teammates, he rarely touched the ball and did not score in the second half. The one play I remember well was a pass (from a guard driving the lane) to him (set along the baseline) which I intercepted in the air and just carried it out-of-bounds. So, not only did we record our first ever win against the 'Zoomies' (48-43 before 4,600 fans), but we also gave the 'Chief' his 600th career coaching win."

In an article in the school's student newspaper, Mike Saladino wrote "Nickelson became a grounded flyer as Jim von Loh held him to nothing."

As for the first game at Massari Gym when the Indians defeated Adams State 79-66 on December 2, 1971, von Loh said he remembered "the loud crowd, the quiet bounce of the ball off the springy floor surface, and while taking warm-up up shots, hoping I wouldn't miss the rim/backboard completely due to my depth perception in the facility's wide-open spaces."

Von Loh continued his story: "During the game only one brief sequence comes to mind when I retrieved the ball on defense after punching it away or on a shot block then seeing Kidd wide open down-court. I fired it to him and saw him sky - from my vantage it looked like his eyes were at rim-level, his elbows way above, and I thought he's going to dunk (which wasn't legal back then due to a rash of shattered backboards), but he just dropped it through for two! It was always a treat to watch Steve jump, effortlessly - like someone launched from a trampoline. I believe he could tap the top of the small square above the rim with both hands at 6'4" tall, especially on that Tartan surface."

When asked about being a student-athlete, von Loh said his approach "was pragmatic and with pride. I needed both parts to succeed in-time and in-life. Although I didn't know it then, I compartmentalized the two demands, focusing on basketball, strategies, and team during practices, travel, and games and focusing on classwork/classmates in the biology department, and professor's assignments at other times. During the winter quarter, when possible, I reduced my class-load, usually to 12 or so credit hours and took additional classes in the fall and spring quarters, along with some summertime extra-credit participation."

Von Loh said, "There were a lot of late nights and weekends to read and study, resulting in a sacrifice to having an active social life, so that part of my four years at SCSC was limited. Some professors understood and allowed me to take exams prior to travel, some classmates allowed me to borrow notes for missed classes, and for major exams three or four of us did the classic all-nighter cram sessions. I was fortunate that my memory retention mechanism was highly visual, and I was good at making rhymes and puns to recall the gross memorization material. And yes, there was that German work ethic thingy."

When answering the author's question for this article, von Loh said "thank you for remembering the exploits of a bunch of skinny young guys from 50 years ago! I also have a water-color painting of my baseline drive against Washburn University in the new Massari Gym by Dr. Paul Ihrig. My thought is that his beautiful art belongs in the University rather than being passed along to my heirs who may or may not appreciate the time and the heartfelt emotions."

The bottom-line for von Loh was that "being on the basketball team defined me as a young person from a small rural place, suddenly living in an urban environment I didn't understand. It allowed me to be part of something larger than myself and elevated my self-esteem. Just as important, it paid for the education that would inform my future (and I actually liked cafeteria food)!"

CSU Pueblo basketball will host a reunion for all past teams Feb. 18 and 19 while the men's and women's teams host Western Colorado Univeristy and Fort Lewis College.

CSU Pueblo's First Team Academic All-Americans

1972 - Jim Von Loh, Men's Basketball

1983 - Dan DeRose, Football

1983 - Kathy Meehan, Volleyball

2003 - Jonathan Picarsic, Men's At-Large (golf)

2009 - Jason Fobes, Baseball

2011 - Lee Meisner, Football

2012 - Brandon Kliesen, Football

2013 - Kacy Griffin, Volleyball

2014 - Saul Shrom, Men's At-Large (tennis)

2015, 2017 & 2017 - Corbin Feenstra, Football

2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019 - Derrick Williams, Men's Track/XC