Frazier International History Museum

Dale Barnstable grew up in Antioch, IL, where he was a gifted athlete (all-state for basketball and football) and student (class valedictorian). But he had to put his future plans on hold when he received his draft notice upon graduation. He received extensive combat training all over the U.S., then shipped out of Camp Kilmer, NJ in the 71st Infantry Division, dodging U-boats, and a prolonged case of seasickness, along the way. He arrived in LeHavre, France, where his division was inspected by General Eisenhower himself.

He later fought in the Battle of Bitche, then moved east to Steyr, Austria with the 71st, meeting the Russians there to finish the fight against the Germans. He recalls how sad it was that the German prisoners of war included 12-year-old boys and 75-year-old men – that is how desperate they had become. But he soon discovered an even worse horror of the war.

"I am not going to be able to talk about this, so I’ll just tell you that we did liberate a holocaust camp and that was...I can’t talk about it ... but the camp had been vacated by the SS troops and they were the ones who took care of it. If there is somebody in this world who disputes the fact that there was a holocaust, I can tell you there was. I was there and I saw it."

During the occupation, the military kept up the troops’ morale with baseball, football and basketball leagues. Barnstable picked right up where he left off in high school, playing on his unit’s teams and winning the championship there.

He was then recruited by several college coaches, including Adolph Rupp at the University of Kentucky – he chose to play at UK, and went on to win back-to-back NCAA championships.