PHIL SHANNAHAN
Basketball, 1963-67
Inducted January 25, 1992
 
Phil Shannahan came to SMS from Branson as a member of the Bears’ outstanding freshman recruit group in 1963 for Coach Eddie Matthews, and, before he graduated, Shannahan would play a major role in one of the longest stretches of sustained success in SMS basketball history.  He was a member of teams which won the first two of what would become a string of five consecutive MIAA titles, the longest string of championships in league basketball history.  A four-year letterman for the Bears, Shannahan became a regular as a sophomore as SMS was 15-8 and finished second in the MIAA.  He averaged 10.4 points a game and led the team in field goal percentage at .515.  The Bears won MIAA titles for Coach Bill Thomas in each of Shannahan’s last two SMS seasons, and Shannahan was again a starter on those ballclubs, frequently drawing the defensive assignment on the opposition’s top scorer.  He averaged 6.4 points on the 19-6 SMS team in 1965-66 as the Bruins followed their conference championship with a runner-up finish in the NCAA Division II regional.  A year later, Shannahan was a co-captain as the Bears put together a 23-5 season.  SMS swept to the title of the regional tournament and advanced to the NCAA finals in Evansville, Ind., where the Bears beat Valparaiso and Illinois State before losing by three points to Winston-Salem in the Division II national title game.  Shannahan again led the club in shooting accuracy with a .525 figure as he averaged nearly 10 points a game.  Shannahan finished with 676 points and 316 rebounds in his 77-game SMS career, and he wound up with a .496 career field goal percentage.