Wil Walter, Member of CU's 1955 Final Four Team, Passes Away
BOULDER ? Dr. Wilbert (Wil) Walter, one of five seniors on the last University of Colorado basketball team that made it to the NCAA’s Final Four, has died in Mount Pleasant, S.C. He died on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at the age of 76.
“We called him the Cowboy because he was from Wyoming. Cowboy Walter,” teammate Jim Jochems recalled Thursday. “He was a highly intellectual, the team brain, straight A’s. We knew then he’d be one of the few in the day to go on and earn two or three more degrees. And then he taught for over three decades, which was pretty neat.”
Walter was a three-year letterman under coach H.B. Lee, primarily a reserve performer who saw action in 38 games those seasons. His best season was his junior year in 1953-54, when he scored 33 points and had 19 rebounds, helping CU to a 10-2 record in Big 7 Conference play. He played in six games as a senior the following year, when the Buffaloes were conference champions and advanced to the Final Four in the NCAA tournament. There, CU lost to a Bill Russell-led San Francisco team, the eventual champion, but the Buffs defeated Iowa in the consolation game to finish third in the nation.
After earning his B.S. degree in Organic Chemistry in 1955, he remained in Boulder and worked as an assistant coach for CU’s freshman and varsity basketball teams while earning another bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy and his master’s in Medicinal Chemistry by 1958. Only then did he finally leave the Rocky Mountain area, earning a Ph D. in 1961 from the University of Connecticut in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry.
Dr. Walter was a Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Dakota (Fargo), the Medical University of Tennessee (Memphis), and the University of Mississippi. He joined the faculty of the Medical University of South Carolina in 1968, and became Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biology and Pharmacology at MUSC in 1971, and continued in that capacity until his retirement in 1993, when he was named Professor Emeritus. He also served on the Isle of Palms City Council for 4 years, and was a past Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and Zoning Committee.
Jochems had a few stories about his former teammate.
“He lettered, but for some reason, the school had run out of jackets,” he said. “Either he never remembered to grab one while he was coaching or there were never any extra. Fred Casotti (sports information director) remembered that, and at one of our later reunions, he presented Cowboy with one. There were tears in his eyes when he finally got it.
“Cowboy was probably the ninth or 10th man on our Final Four team, so he didn’t play in many games, but was pivotal to our success in practice,” Jochems continued. “In those days, sometimes you didn’t have enough players to scrimmage in practice, but he was a good rebounder and a decent shot. One of our better free throw shooters (he was 17-of-24, or 71 percent, as a junior).
“I do remember he hated traveling on trains. We had to take one once to Chicago and he was miserable. Of course basketball players are tall, he was like 6-2 or 6-3, and he was adamant that berths on trains were no place for athletes.”
Dr. Walter is survived by his wife of 23 years, Margaret Satterfield (Peggy) Walter of Mount Pleasant, S.C.; two sons, Michael and Wayne, two daughters-in-law and one grandchild, in addition to four stepchildren and six step-grandchildren. He is also survived by a brother, Adam, and sister-in-law Doris of Torrington, Wyo.
Visitation will be Saturday, February 6, from 4-6:00 p.m. at McAlister-Smith, 1520 Rifle Range Road in Mount Pleasant, with services at 2 p.m. on Sunday (February 7) at All Saints Lutheran Church, also in Mount Pleasant. Interment will be in his native Lingle, Wyo., where he was born Nov. 16, 1933. In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to All Saints Lutheran Church, 2107 Hwy 17 North, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464.
Walter is the second CU letterman from the 1950s to die within the last week. Last Friday, Tom Brookshier passed away in Philadelphia; he was a two-sport start at Colorado (football, basketball) before working in broadcasting after his playing days. He was 78; Walter and Brookshier were on campus together for two years and no doubt crossed paths regularly.