They say that history has a way of repeating itself.

The general consensus is that the University of Dayton men’s basketball team is on the verge of something great. Many believe that Brian Gregory is ready to build on the tremendous work Oliver Purnell did in resurrecting the UD program from the laughingstock of college basketball to a perennial Atlantic-10 power and regular NCAA Tournament competitor. The Flyers are about to take off. Which can lead a fan to wonder… what must it have been like when the Flyers took off for the first time some 50 years ago?

Clete Oberst knows. As basketball season dawned in 1948 and Tom Blackburn was in his second season at the helm of a UD program that had begun to turn a corner, Clete was a bright-eyed freshman on campus. Having heard that UD was a good place to go to school and that they had a promising basketball program, he had hitchhiked from Owensboro, KY, with friend Dave Ford and enrolled at Dayton.

“At that time it was a 14-hour bus ride… now a 4 1/2-hour drive,” says Oberst. One day Clete saw what he was looking for: a sign announcing freshman basketball tryouts. Full of confidence, and unaware that some 200 young men had already worked out that fall for Coach Blackburn, Oberst attended tryouts and played his way into a spot on the freshman team (At the time, frosh were not eligible for varsity play.).

The men on that 1948-49 freshman team would later give Dayton its first national recognition and begin a remarkable record of more wins than any other college program over the next two decades. Oberst made the most of his situation as he became a starter on a freshman team which boasted the likes of Pete Boyle, Chuck Grigsby, Don Meineke, and Junior Norris. That talented group went on to win the Ohio AAU tournament and competed in the National AAU tourney in Oklahoma City.

As the freshman team was collecting wins that season, Blackburn’s varsity squad was turning in the first winning season (16-14) for UD since the end of World War II. The future was looking bright for the Flyers. The future was looking bright for Clete Oberst.

But Oberst was a player ahead of his time. His overhand free throws and one-handed jump shots did not sit well with Coach Blackburn. Says Oberst, “I was probably UD’s first jump shooter and one-handed free throw shooter. But Blackburn did not like either and told me not to shoot them. It was his way or the highway. [It was] like playing tennis against a good player and having to serve underhanded.” Oberst’s cutting-edge style earned him a trip to Blackburn’s bench where he spent much of the next two seasons.

The Flyers would go on to post a 24-8 record in 1949-50 including a 16-0 record at home – one of only two seasons ever in which the Flyers won every home game. Oberst even earned a start in front of his hometown fans in Owensboro when Dayton played Evansville there that season. That same year also brought the opening of the new University of Dayton Fieldhouse. No longer would UD have to play games at the Fairgrounds Coliseum or, in at least one case, the Oakwood High School gymnasium.

Oberst remembers it like this. “Watching the Fieldhouse go up was great. I used to sit at the front of the building and watch the workers throw red hot rivets that would then be placed in the steel beams. When the UD Fieldhouse opened it was, to us, like the Taj Mahal. What a luxury to walk to practice and games.”

The 1950-51 season did not get off to a promising start. The Flyers were upset by Central Missouri State 50-47 on their new home floor. After six games, UD’s record stood at 3-3. But a 12-game win streak began and the University of Dayton had taken off and were soaring to new heights. Clete, meanwhile, had become the best sub, the best practice player, the best supporter he could be. Did he think about transferring? Absolutely. He always knew he had the talent to compete with the best.

A native son of Owensboro and son of a grocery store owner, Clete fashioned quite a high school career for himself. He was honorable mention all-state his final two years in high school. As a junior, he led his St. Joseph’s team to victory against future NBA Hall-of-Famer Cliff Hagan’s Owensboro High team. The win snapped Owensboro’s 20-game win streak as Oberst scored 21 points to Hagan’s mere six.

He knew he could have played – and started – somewhere else. But Clete Oberst had other important things to accomplish in school. And in life. Unlike many players today, he realized that he had a future beyond basketball. He also knew that, in the spring of ’51, this bunch of Dayton Flyers was on the cusp of something special. After a 76-73 loss to Youngstown State, UD ran off nine straight wins and was selected to play for the first time in the National Invitation Tournament. At that time, you may recall, the NIT was a much more prestigious tournament than was the NCAA tournament. Clete and the Flyers headed to Madison Square Garden along with 15 other teams. Wins over Lawrence Tech, Arizona, and St. John’s (in a virtual home game for the Redmen that Dayton won in overtime) landed UD in the Championship game against BYU. But Roland Minson and BYU proved to be too much for the Flyers as they fell 62-43.

Oberst played in that Championship game in ’51. He had a taste of what it was like to compete against the best that college basketball had to offer on the sport’s grandest stage. And he still had one season of eligibility remaining. But the bends in the road of life can seldom be seen coming.

As Tom Blackburn was mulling over his roster before the 1951-52 season, he was excited at the prospect of having freshman recruits eligible for the first time. He called Oberst into his office.

“My last year, they were bringing in guys like John Horan, Jack Sallee, Chris Harris, and Don Donoher,” Oberst recalls. Coach said, ‘I need another spot. I also need a manager.’ I knew what the situation was, and I said, ‘Tom, does the manager make all the trips and have a scholarship?’ He said, ‘Yeah,’ and I said, ‘Where are the keys?'” Clete was rewarded by being part of a Dayton team that went 28-5 and became the only Flyer team to compete in both the NIT and NCAA tournaments in the same postseason.

So what did the future hold in store for Clete Oberst beyond basketball? He wed his high school sweetheart Betty Hayden in a marriage that produced seven children. He served his country in both the Korean War and Berlin Crisis. As Director of Development at three different universities including the University of Dayton, he helped raise a total of approximately $100 million for education. He also spent twelve years as Director of Planned Giving at UD and started the first UD President’s Club. He is enjoying retired life with his second wife Dee (Betty passed away in 1990) and remains a proud member of the Flyer Faithful.

The Oberst tradition at UD that was started by Clete was carried on proudly by the youngest five of his and Betty’s seven children. Tom (class of ’80), Gail (’81), Matt (’86), Jeff (’88), and Dave (’90) all graduated from Dayton. Jeff was an outstanding UD baseball player while Dave was an All-American for Mike Kelly’s football Flyers. In addition, the family established an endowed athletic scholarship – the Cletus E. and Betty A. Oberst Family Scholarship – which is designated for UD athletics and is to be used as the athletic department determines. It is currently being used as an annual scholarship for a baseball player.

Is history about to repeat itself at the University of Dayton? Are we seeing a return to the glory days of the 50s and 60s? Is this current crop of Flyers on the verge of something special? Perhaps so. And maybe, just maybe, there’s a Clete Oberst in the middle of it all.

[Originally written by Pat McGraw]