WALT O'CONNER

1938-41

All-American as a senior after leading Valley in scoring.

Walt O’Connor – Walt O’Connor was a starter and floor leader for the championship team.  The press dubbed O’Connor as “Wee Walt” because he was not quite 5 feet, 10 inches tall.  Even at that height, he was taller than most of the Melrose starters, except Jim Thynne.  He was a 17-year-old senior when Melrose won the championship.  O’Connor played forward or guard, depending on the situation, and served as the team captain.  O’Connor scored 31 points in the State Tournament, and was named to the all-tournament basketball team and the first team of The Des Moines Register’s all-state team.

O’Connor went on to play at Drake University, where he earned seven letters in three different sports.  He played basketball, football, and baseball, and was named the Outstanding Iowa Amateur Athlete while at Drake.  His Drake basketball coach wondered why they called him “Wee Walt,” since O’Connor was taller than the coach.  While playing at Drake and on the way to a game at Tulsa, the team stopped in a restaurant in Pittsburgh, Kansas.  In the restaurant, the Drake coach introduced O’Connor to James Naismith, the inventor of basketball.

O’Connor was a college All-American in basketball, and went on to play minor league baseball in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization after college.  In his first minor league at-bat, O’Connor got a hit against Warren Spahn, who would later have more major league wins than any other left-handed pitcher!  In 1943, his professional baseball career was interrupted with his participation in the service of his country during World War II.  In 1970, Walt O’Connor was inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association (“IHSAA”) Hall of Fame.  He was an outstanding athlete.

Walt O’Connor made the news again on St. Patrick’s Day in 1997.  O’Connor was driving his car in Des Moines when his heart stopped.  Ironically, a basketball coach and a restaurant employee who knew cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or “CPR,” resuscitated him.  The newspaper story at the time noted that while at Mercy Hospital, O’Connor was retelling the tale of his at-bat against Warren Spahn when his nurse rushed into the room.  She was trying to find out what he was doing.  When she found out that he was reminiscing, she ordered him to stop by telling him, “it’s making your heart race on the monitors out there.”