Wat Misaka Honor Boy At Weber

Mother Barbers To Keep Sons In School

OGDEN -- (AP) -- Mrs. Tatsuyo Misaka, 208 25th St., can hardly wait until her "Blitz Kid" Wat Misaka, 18, Japanese-American born, basketball star of University of Utah team, gets home.

Mrs. Misaka is supporting Wat and his two brothers, Tatsumi and Osamu. Ben F. Misaka, the father, died in 1939, and since then Mrs. Misaka has been operating the barbers shop. She wants all of her sons to get fine educations and has struggled to that end.

Honor Student

Wat graduated from Ogden High in 1941 and attended Weber College on a scholarship. An "A" student, Wat also obtained a scholarship for University of Utah, where he is enrolled in the Utah school of engineering.

He played basketball at Central High and Ogden High in Ogden and later was an all-conference performer at Weber College. Back in 1942 he was named the standout individual player of the intermountain junior college tourney and rated a first-team cage post for good measure on the All-Stars. He was one of the best scholastic players in all Region 1 basketball history and was one of Dick Kapple's mainstays here.

Two More

Tatsumi, the second son, is a student at Central High, and Osami, the youngest, is enrolled at the Grant School.

The present world war has handicapped many Japanese-Americans, but this Ogden athlete is known as the "Sparkplug of the Utes" and some say he rates all-American in press selections.

U. of U. Casabaman

Wat Misaka, a nisei member of the NCAA basketball champions, the University of Utah Utes, played basketball at Central and at Ogden High was later was an all-conference performer on the Weber college team. He was named the outstanding individual player of the intermountain junior college tournament junior college tournament back in 1942. He also landed a first string position on the all-star list that year.