PALM DESERT, Calif. — Former Iowa State men’s basketball player and All-American hurdler Ray Wehde died on Tuesday, Jan. 13 at the age of 102. A celebration of his life will take place on March 7 at Deep Canyon Tennis Club at 11 a.m.
He led the Cyclones in scoring three times: 1942-43 (7.8 points per game), 1946-47 (8.3 ppg) and 1947-48 (9.0 ppg). With his twin brother, Roy, the Wehdes led the Cyclones to a 14-4 record which culminated in the 1944 NCAA Final Four.
“When we went in ‘41, we were not even recruited!,” his brother Roy shared in a 2024 interview. “We didn’t have enough money. In those days it was different. Ray and I decided we would go to Iowa State and learn the dairy industry business. So, we walked into the coach’s office in Ames and we told him we would like to go to Iowa State which caused a lot of excitement for the time but recruiting was different in those days. We all lived in the West Stadium dorm. We were there when the war broke out.”
Ray and Roy, being twins, have lived a very similar life since birth. In fact, their senior quote as seen in The Moo (Holstein’s yearbook) reads “One-half of Us, Inc.” for Ray and “The other half.” for Roy. The brothers went to get their physicals for the military at the same time.
“When we went to get our physicals in ‘41 for the military, it was kind of funny, Ray and I were in line, we stripped down and they put a number on us. We got about halfway through, we saw that we mixed up where we were in line, so we changed places,” Wehde said. “Ray’s eyes were not as good as mine at that time. The three (including Gene Oulman) of us made a deal where if we did not make the officer training program at the time, we would all join the regular Navy. As it turns out, they listed the names, they listed Ray and Gene and not me and I thought ‘Son of a gun neither one of them passed their physical’ but then they told me I was the one who didn’t pass they physical. I was shocked! They told me I didn’t pass the eye test. Well, I could come back and take it again but Ray and Gene already had their papers. What happened we decided, when we changed places all of my descriptions and physical attributes were on Ray’s card and his were on mine. I had to pass for Ray. I came back and did it over.”
“When we graduated from college, they gave us another physical to see if anything got worse,” Roy added. “We were standing stark naked next to each other, I had a broken nose from football in high school and they looked at Ray’s nose, no problem there. Ray had a little scoliosis of the spine, a little curvature there. They were going up and down my back and they couldn’t find anything. I have a little bit of a hammer toe on one, and they looked at Ray’s feet and nope. We went out of there as two perfect specimens! *chuckles* When we got our permissions to be naval officers, they called me up and they had just one question ‘How did your eyes go from 16/20 to 20/20?’ I told them the truth that I was studying my butt off and that I was tired the first time.”
Iowa State opened the 1943-44 season against the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks on Dec. 4, and the Cyclones won 31-29. The Cyclones went 13-3 during the regular season, losing to Minnesota in the second game, losing at Iowa Pre-Flight and dropping a home game against Oklahoma.
In the postseason, the Cyclones traveled to Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium, which opened nine years prior, 1935.
Against Pepperdine, Wehde fouled out with fellow starter Gene Oulman. He contributed four points in the win.
In the Final Four game against eventual national champion Utah, a 40-31 loss, Wehde tallied five points on two field goals and a free throw.
Following the basketball season, the Wehde brothers joined the track and field team and finished as an All-American.
“We both ran the high and low hurdles for Iowa State,” Roy Wehde said. “We won the conference that year in 1944. Ray was better than I was, he got fourth at the NCAA in the high hurdles. He also played in the marching band for a little bit, the bass horn.”
In basketball, he was a two-time first team all-Big Six Conference honoree in 1943-44 and 1946-47. Wehde captained the 1946-47 Cyclones. In the season finale against Kansas, a 56-44 win at the Armory on Feb. 28, Ray contributed 18 points.
Wehde was the first Cyclone drafted by the National Basketball Association, as the Boston Celtics selected him in the 1948 BAA Draft.
In 1971, Wehde was inducted into the Iowa High School basketball Hall of Fame, 30 years after the twins took Holstein all the way to the state final, where they fell 31-26 to Davenport.
In 2010, Wehde was inducted into the Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame.
His son, John, posted a picture from Dec. 14, 2025 of his father on Instagram.