Don Burns was a Guard for the UConn Huskies from 1954 – 1957. He’s a member of the UConn Basketball All Century Ballot, was a member of three consecutive Yankee Conference Championship teams, two National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament teams, and one National Invitational Tournament team. I met Don in August 2005, where he reflected on his collegiate, and post-collegiate basketball, and career memories.

Don began playing basketball as a youth. His interest in playing at UConn became clear when he was at The Bulkeley School in New London, CT. He played on the basketball team along with Art Quimby and Gene King, two players that later went to UConn. With this talented pool of players, Bulkeley won the State Championship, and the New England Championship. The Bulkeley School closed so Don finished high school at New London High School where he enjoyed winning another New England Championship. UConn, along with other schools, was interested in Don. He chose UConn so he could stay in state, and he was looking forward to joining his former high school teammates, Art and Gene. “I planned to live, and work in CT, and thought a UConn background would surely help.”

Don’s first year at UConn, he played on the freshman team (in the 1950’s you couldn’t play varsity your first year). “I was fortunate to play on a freshman basketball team that did very well, and had a couple of outstanding players on that team, Bobby Osbourne and Fran Quinn. While Don was a freshman, the varsity team beat the Holy Cross College at Holy Cross. It was a huge win.” That was the year that Holy Cross College had Togo Palazzi and Ron Perry, and all those good players. We happen to beat them at their home court, and UConn just took off from there.” The following year Don was on the varsity team, and again the team was outstanding. The highlight of that year was playing at Madison Square Garden in the National Invitational Tournament. “We played against St. Louis, and I think we set the record for scoring.” During Don’s junior year, when he was playing in the Miami, Florida Tournament, still happy about it today, he said, “We won that tournament even though Pittsburgh, who also played in the tournament, had one of the best players in the country.” When Don was a senior, the game he remembered most was in the NCAA Tournament, UConn lost but they played against Temple University who had some of the greatest players Don ever saw on their team. Don said during his own basketball career he was known more as an assist man than a scorer.

While at Uconn, Don also played baseball for four years. A memorable baseball experience was during his senior year, when he participated on the first team that played in the college world series in Omaha, Nebraska. UConn had to play Springfield College to decide which team would go on to Nebraska. UConn wasn’t expected to be playing in this game, and it turned out to be on the day that Don was getting married. After getting married, Don and his new wife left the reception to go to Springfield to play in the game. UConn won and went to Omaha. They lost in Omaha but Don said, “It was still a thrill to have gotten that far.”

Talking about UConn sports, Don remembered it like it was yesterday. We looked through a scrapbook that his mother kept for him. The articles may be a little discolored, but the memories were fresh. The scrapbook also included game passes Don received for his parents to attend games, and the postcards Don sent while traveling. Don shared one of the postcards for this website.

After graduating from UConn with his Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Education, and being a member of the Reserved Officers Training Corp program, Don was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, and went to Fort Benning, Georgia, to Infantry Officers School. He served seven-and-a-half years in the active reserves. While in the reserves, Don went to the Columbia University, and earned his Master’s Degree in Education. His first teaching, and coaching position was at E.O. Smith High School in Mansfield, CT (right near the UConn Campus), and in addition he coached the freshman UConn basketball team. “We had a good team that year. I remember Dom Perno, Billy Della Sala, Alan Ritter, and Ed Slomcenski were just some of the players on that freshman team I coached.”