Chadron State College Athletics

Groves was a high-scoring basketball player for the Eagles in the late 1940s and also set a record that still stands while playing football. A graduate of LaGrange, Wyo., High School, Groves served two years in the military before enrolling at Chadron State. He was the first Chadron State basketball player to score 1,000 points during his career. He also set Eagles’ the single-game scoring record of 38 points against Kearney State in 1947-48 when he was a junior. The record stood for 16 years. He led the team in scoring his final three years, averaging 13.4 points, 19.9 and 17.9, respectively. He tallied at least 20 points in 22 of the Eagles’ 41 games his final two years.
His football record is for the longest run with an intercepted lateral, 88 yards against Midland Lutheran in 1946. He also lettered in football in 1947 and ’48. After graduating in 1949, he was the manager of the VFW Club in Cheyenne for approximately 30 years and was extremely active in community affairs. He was among the founders of Drums Along the Rockies drum and bugle corps in Cheyenne, helped start what became the Special Olympics in Cheyenne, organized a Bill of Rights Essay Contest for sixth graders and helped plan a memorial park honoring Vietnam veterans. He died Aug. 11, 1999 at age 75.