Jim Willcoxon (2025) - CU Athletic Hall of Fame - University of Colorado Athletics

Jim Willcoxon

Induction:
2025
Class:
1939

One of CU’s first two All-Americans in basketball (with Jack Harvey the same year) … Known for his defense, Jim Willcoxon continued Coach Frosty Cox’s tradition of talented cagers … Willcoxon helped anchor the 1937-38 and 1938-39 Mountain States Conference championship teams with tough play on the defensive end: the Buffaloes were 29-10 over the two seasons, 20-4 in Mountain States (Big 7) play … He also led the Buffs to national prominence with strong showings on Cox’ East Coast road trips that were designed to showcase the CU program … His hard-nosed style of play earned him both All-Mountain States and All-America honors as a senior, when he averaged 9.8 points per game over 18 games, second on the team (CU’s team average was 45.4); he averaged a team-best 10.7 in 12 league games (rebounds, assists and steals were years away from being kept) … Scored a career-high 20 points as a senior in a 52-31 win at Denver … Averaged 5.7 points as a junior when he was a teammate of Byron “Whizzer” White and earned All-Conference honors (assists weren’t kept but several articles mentioned his passing skills in setting up teammates) … In the final game of his career, a 40-33 loss at Wyoming after CU had clinched the title, he actually was discharged from the hospital a day before as he was one of several Buffs who came down with flu, and checked into the game eight minutes in and finished it, scoring eight points … After graduating from CU, he played for the Phillips 66 Oilers on its national championship AAU team of 1940-41 … He then served in Navy during World War II as a commanding officer of an LCT (landing craft, tank) in the Mediterranean theater, leading his crew through five major invasions … After victory in Europe, he received orders to head to the Pacific, but was assigned to be an athletic officer coach for the amphibious training base in Little Creek, Va. … He would return to CU to complete his Master’s degree, and was an assistant coach for Frosty Cox during that time … He also was a high school coach in Kansas (both high school & junior college levels), and was a football and basketball referee, primarily for Big 7 Conference games … He soon joined the Equitable Life Insurance Co. for a long and successful career, based in three cities at one point (Kansas City, Albuquerque, Chicago) retiring as a regional agency vice president in 1983 … Married Boulder native Noma Burgner in 1941; they were married for 21 years before she passed away after a battle with cancer … He remarried in 1963 to Donna Holmes and they were together until he died; between the two marriages, he had four daughters, 12 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren … He was born July 14, 1918 in Coffeyville, Kan., where he attended high school and junior college, and passed away in Albuquerque on March 30, 1999 at the age of 80 after a two-year battle with cancer.