Basketball playing math majors divide and conquer

The equation was simple for the 1981 math department intramural basketball team: more teamwork = more baskets = more wins.

"We were a finely tuned team of basketball playing math students poised for battle," said Leif Ormseth, '81, player and coach for the undefeated team. "We won with teamwork, discipline, and the advantage that comes from being really underestimated."

The team consisted of students Ormseth, Thomas Fields, '81, Nicholas Walker, '81, Kenneth Conner, '81, Francis Degnin, '81, and professors Pat Keef and Vic Kaiser. They finished season play with a 10-0 record and eventually beat the Beta House team for the "B" division championship.

"In terms of talent, we were not the best team. We had to develop much better teamwork in order to win," said Degnin. By rotating players and distributing the ball, the team maintained a balanced offense. And of course, as mathematicians, "we always took the high percentage shots," explained Fields. "We won the final game in double overtime."

The math team's success story has continued off the court as well. Ormseth is now a lawyer at Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe in Seattle; Degnin is teaching and finishing his doctorate in philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Fields is a consulting actuary with Aon Corporation in North Carolina, and Walker is employed as a technical fellow at Boeing in Seattle. Conner manages private equity and venture capital investments for Lombard Investments, Inc., in San Francisco. Kaiser retired, and Keef is dean of the faculty at Whitman.

The team played intramurals for only one year, but the mathematicians put two and two together and learned something about athletics. "Everyone can contribute in different ways," said Fields. "It isn't about winning so much as it is about encouraging each other to enjoy playing."