Double Trouble

Four years ago, the small Jesuit school in the Pacific Northwest was not even a minor-league basketball power. Seattle University's team played in its own small gymnasium against obscure junior college teams, rarely rated a line outside the local papers. This year the team is the toast of Seattle, nationally ranked (16th) and a top-drawer drawing card in basketball from coast to coast. There are two good reasons for Seattle's sudden upsurge in popularity and prestige: Johnny O'Brien, the nation's alltime scoring champion (TIME, Jan. 5), and his twin brother Ed.

Scorer & Feeder. In a game where human skyscrapers usually grab the spotlight, the little O'Briens (5 ft. 9 in., 160 Ibs.) are a refreshing exception. Johnny is the scorer, Ed the "feeder." Playing on a team that specializes in an all-out "fire-horse" offense, Johnny is able to score with every kind of shot--hooks, jumps, tip-ins, lay-ups--and equally well with both hands. When Johnny is "double-teamed," i.e., when the defense guards him with two men, Ed, a deadeye long-range shooter, pops in baskets from the outside.

Last week, returning from a ten-day tour of the East, Seattle won both games in a home series with Gonzaga University, brought its season's record to eleven victories against two losses. "Johnny O," as Seattle fans affectionately call him, ran his four-year total up to 2,713 points. Averaging more than 27 points a game so far this year, Johnny O needs only 287 points in 18 remaining games to hit an amazing 3,000 for his four-year career.

"Man of the Year." Born in South Amboy, N.J., the O'Briens decided to go to Seattle in the summer of 1949, when they met Coach Al Brightman, who doubles as Seattle's baseball coach. Scouting a semi-pro baseball tournament in Wichita, Kans., Brightman was taken with hard-hitting Shortstop Johnny (last year's average: .433) and Outfielder Ed (.431) of the South Amboy team.* When Brightman heard that the twins were also good basketball players, he made them a scholarship offer (free tuition and $75 a month for living expenses).

The twins, majoring in commerce and 'finance, hold up the scholarship end well enough. Their current grades: three As and a B apiece. They have been upholding their athletic reputations even better since the first day they walked into the gym. Their biggest thrill: a charity game last year when they handed the famed professional Harlem Globetrotters their first defeat in 77 games, with Johnny scoring 43 points.

Last week Johnny was named Seattle's "Man of the Year," and at a big civic dinner, with the governor in attendance, Johnny took over the mike to explain how such a little fellow could be so good. Deliberately feigning a strong Jersey accent, Johnny grinned: "Well, foist youse baffle 'em wit science and den youse have a brudder like mine."

* So is the Pittsburgh Pirates' General Manager Branch Rickey, who has already made them a professional baseball offer.

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