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A Night to Remember

February 8, 1965: Aggie power-forward Wayne Estes breaks the Nelson Fieldhouse scoring record by pumping in 48 points to graze past another USU record for all-time points scored. Fans chant his name as teammates carry him off the court.

During the game Estes complained to Coach Ladell Andersen and team doctor John Worley of numbness in his hands and arms. Worley examined Estes at halftime and could find nothing wrong.

"I told him he looked fine and I'd check him again on Monday. At that point he'd already scored nearly 30 points," Worley says.

During the second half Estes continued his rampage. "I told the team to feed it to Estes, that he'd take care of us tonight," Andersen says.

After the game, as the 6-foot-6-inch star left to celebrate with friends, Worley remembers thinking, "What a big, handsome kid. He's got it all." Worley also recalls, "For some reason I noticed what he was wearing. He had on a soft blue Cashmere sweater. I remember thinking how alive he looked that night in that sweater."

Later that evening Worley was called from a party to assist at the hospital. Somebody had crashed into a telephone pole.

Heading home from a party with his wife, Andersen noticed a crowd of people and ambulances gathered on the side of the road, and he decided to stop to see what all the commotion was about. Walking toward the crash site, "I remember someone saying, 'Coach, it's Estes,'" Andersen recalls. "I said, 'Well, he's alright, isn't he?' The answer was a muted no.
Andersen's heart raced. "I loved that boy. He was like a son to me."

He had personally recruited Estes from an impoverished mining town in Montana. Estes was a discus thrower and center on the high school football team, so the coach assumed he'd be recruiting for one of those sports. But that's not what Estes had in mind. "Coach, all I want is to play basketball." More