Category Archives: Sports

All All-Stars

Posted on by

Boston College basketball was in its first heyday during our years there. And part of it was the teams and opponents the Eagles played. The following is a collection of select opponents BC met during 1964-68. I’m sure there are those who would disagree with the selections, certainly the rankings, but I leave it to classmate Jim Kissane, captain of the 1967-68 basketball team: “What a great list!”

First team

Lew Alcindor — UCLA
The man known later as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Alcindor was the player of the time on the team of the time. In his only appearance against BC, in Madison Square Garden, January 1968, Alcindor scored 28 points and took down 17 rebounds, in the unexpectedly close 84-77 Bruins win. He was still recovering from an eye injury suffered two weeks earlier.

Bobby Lewis — North Carolina
Lewis led the Tarheels with 31 points to help end the Eagles’ dream run in the regional finals of the 1967 NCAA Tournament.

 

 

 

Bill Melchionni — Villanova
Scored 30 in the second round of the 1966 NIT to help the Wildcats knock the Eagles out of the tournament, 86-85.

 

 

 

Westley Unseld — Louisville
In the same tournament as Melchionni, Unseld kept Louisville in the opening game against BC with 35 points and 26 rebounds before fouling out in the triple-overtime Eagles win, 96-90.

 

 

 

Jimmy Walker — Providence
Three-time all-America and all-time BC nemesis, Walker led the Friars to a 3-1 record over the Eagles during our years, scoring 50 to beat BC in the 1965 Holiday Festival in Madison Square Garden.

 

 

Second team
Dave Bing — Syracuse
Sonny Dove — St. John’s
Matt Goukas — St. Joseph’s
Bob Lanier — St. Bonaventure
Mike Warren — UCLA

Honorable mention
John Warren — St. John’s
Larry Miller — North Carolina
Wayne Estes — Utah State
Mervin “The Magician” Jackson — Utah
Ken McIntyre — St. John’s

Tournament time

Posted on by

Headline atop the sports section in the February 24, 1967, edition of The Heights. Following the win over Providence, the Eagles were in the NCAA Tournament.

Throughout our years at BC, both the basketball and hockey teams finished their seasons in a tournament in March. Basketball was more successful, reaching national tournaments (NCAA or NIT) each year, while hockey played in two NCAA tournaments and four Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournaments.

Here’s a rundown by year, with links to articles in The Heights and the Boston Globe.

1965
This was hockey’s big year. BC had won the Beanpot in February and swept through the ECAC tournament in early March, defeating Dartmouth, Clarkson, and Brown, to win the conference tournament. The Heights‘ coverage of the win over Dartmouth, then known as the “Indians,” was a photo feature with the certainly currently politically incorrect headline, “Indians Scalped.” Ouch. The March 19 edition carried coverage of the rest of the ECAC tournament and previewed the upcoming NCAA games. In the April 2 Heights, there was a brief article about the opening win over North Dakota and later loss to Michigan Tech for the championship two weeks earlier.

Basketball finished its regular season by “clobbering” Holy Cross, 111-89, in the finals of the then-basketball Beanpot. The Heights noted that it was the first time Roberts Center had been sold out for a basketball game. BC was clearly a hockey school at the time. BC was also headed to its first National Invitational Tournament. Continuing the use of very active verbs in headlines, but in a different direction, the March 19 Heights reported “Redmen Crush B.C.’s NIT Hopes with 114-92 Win.” The opponent was St. John’s, another sports team nicknamed in reference to Native Americans.

1966
Hockey had a tough ECAC Tournament that year, losing to Cornell, 9-0, in the opener. The Heights used softer terminology in the article headline, “BC Bows in ECAC test.”

All-America John Austin in his last regular season game. Classmate Jim Kissane is #10.

BC basketball had finished the regular season as it always did, at least while we were there :), with a win over Holy Cross. This one was a little unusual, though. The Boston Globe article (BC-HCbrawl1966) called it a “brawl game,” as BC’s Willie Wolters and HC’s Greg Hochstein traded punches after fighting for a rebound and, according to the Globe, “were surrounded by at least 150 . . . players, fans, and what have you.”

The Eagles made their second consecutive appearance in the NIT and the March 13 opening game became a BC classic. The Eagles defeated Louisville and its all-America center, Westley Unseld, 96-90, in triple overtime. BC then lost a heartbreaker to Villanova, 86-85, with Wildcat Bill Melchionni scoring 30. Classmate Reid Oslin did the Heights‘ wrapup “Thrilling Games Highlight NIT.”

Classmate Bob Ryan was at the game. “Unseld had 35 points and 26 rebounds in our game. Doubt we win if he didn’t foul out in the OT. God, he even had lift. I did the game on tape recorder for re-play [on WVBC]. Wish I still had that tape.”

As a sign of the times, I was among the thousands of BC fans who listened to the BC-Louisville game on the radio. I was on a double-date and our dates were less than pleased, as I recall, with the guys’ rapt attention to the broadcast.

1967
Glory days! Hockey finished third in the ECAC Tournament, beating St. Lawrence after “bowing” to that very strong Cornell team of the time, 12-2. But it was the basketball team that went higher/farther than any previous BC team, winning two games in the 23-team NCAA tournament and reaching the regional finals (now termed the Elite Eight) for the first time.

The Eagles, then ranked either #9 or #10 in the national polls, opened their first NCAA tournament against UConn in Kingston, R.I. The Huskies, beaten easily by BC earlier in the season, took advantage of the lack of a shot clock at the time to slow the game down. And, boy, did they. According to my article in the March 15 Heights (a special four-page edition on the tournament) — “Victory over U Conn sends BC to Maryland” — the Huskies took their first shot after holding the ball for two minutes and their second after holding it for another three-and-a-half minutes. The score was 7-7 midway through the first half. In this article in the Boston Globe (UConngame), Coach Bob Cousy called the game a “farce.”

“Here we had a chance to really do something for New England basketball with all this exposure and we got involved in a farce like this,” Cousy told the Globe‘s Will McDonough.

Next up was St. John’s and Sonny Dove. Classmate Kevin O’Malley wrote a BC-St. John’s preview in the March 15 issue. Classmate Bob Ryan looked ahead a little and wrote up a preview of potential BC opponents North Carolina and Princeton (Bill Bradley era).

The Boston Globe also did a brief preview of the St. John’s game, “B.C. Spawns ‘New Breed’ of Hoop Fans” (BChoopsfans_BGlobe) quoting then BC hockey captain Jerry York ’67 as saying, “These basketball fans are nuts.”

I don’t remember exactly why, but there are no Heights articles I can find about the St. John’s game and the subsequent game against North Carolina. The games took place on March 17 (another Rector’s Day) and March 18 at Cole Field House, University of Maryland. The Heights was not published until April 7. May well have been news that was just too old.

You can read about BC’s exciting 63-62 win over St. John’s in this Boston Globe article (BCStJohns_BGlobe). I remember watching the game on TV in the dorms and the result brought about a spontaneous “party” . . . but a limited one, as it was sans females. The next day’s game, against #4 North Carolina in the final of the Eastern regionals was anticlimactic. The Tarheels shot 56 percent (to the Eagles’ 40 percent) and won convincingly, 96-80. Here are the Globe‘s game article (BCTarheels_BGlobe), a Bob Cousy post-game interview (BCTarheelsbest), and interviews with players (BCTarheelspostgame).

“It feels funny,” Billy Evans told the Globe. “You play a whole season and then, in one night, you die. That game was all that mattered. Oh boy. I just can’t stop thinking about it.”

1968
Both hockey and basketball went to their respective NCAA tournaments. Such seasons! But, because of previous successes, the feeling overall was that both seasons ended disappointingly.

The Eagles won 19 hockey games, but lost to old nemesis Cornell in the ECAC finals and then lost the two games they played in the NCAA Tournament, to Denver, 4-1, and to the Big Red, 6-1.

BC basketball started the season ranked in the Top Ten, but dropped out after losing four out of five in December/January (see previous post re BC-UCLA). A six-game win streak to finish the regular season 15-7 brought them up against #3 St. Bonaventure and Bob Lanier in the NCAA Tournament opener on March 9. Bob Ryan wrote a preview. The Bonnies won 102-93. Classmate Tom Pacynski made his last game one of his best as an Eagle, scoring 13 points and grabbing five rebounds.

Bob Ryan wrote an overview of basketball at BC while we were there in a column in the March 19, 1968, Heights — “The Hoop Scene.” Bob called BC basketball “a first class program run by first class people involving fine student athletes to represent BC.” A fitting end to four exciting seasons.

Providence!

Posted on by

What classmate and sports writer Bob Ryan calls “still the all-time most significant basketball game ever played on the BC campus” took place on this date in 1967.

The game between BC and Providence College had been much anticipated and ballyhooed. As the Boston Globe preview (BCProv_preview) said, “This is the game the whole East, not merely New England, has awaited all season.” The game had been sold out for 6 weeks and was to be televised by not one, but two, television stations — Channel 12 in Providence and Channel 38 in Boston — and broadcast over WCOP radio.

The Eagles entered the game with a 14-2 record, but had lost to Fordham 81-85 only a week earlier. Providence was 16-4 and led by Jimmy Walker, twice consensus first-team all-America (1966 and 1967) and BC nemesis. Walker had scored 50 points against the Eagles in the 1965 Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival, leading the Friars to a 91-86 victory. Providence had beaten BC in all three of the previous games between the two when we were freshmen and sophomores.

Ryan had written the game preview in the February 17, 1967, Heights. While suggesting that Providence was more than a one-man team, he also praised Walker. “You don’t stop him. If he is to be stopped at all, he stops himself. . . . There is, of course, no better college ballhandler. Or player, for that matter.” Classmate Reid Oslin wrote up an interview with captain Willie Wolters ’67 and classmate Jim Kissane, while classmate Tom Sugrue penned an appreciation “Jim Walker: just amazin’.” Classmate Kevin O’Malley wrote a column analyzing the situation surrounding a possible NCAA bid for BC.

As the Globe‘s game article (BCProv67) reports, it appeared that Walker had indeed stopped himself, at least in the first half. Walker had only 11 points at halftime, while classmate Steve Adelman, who, the Globe said, “was throwing the thing in from everywhere but the dressing room,” had 21 points halfway through.

Captain Willie Wolters scores on Providence

Walker opened the second half with 6 misses, not scoring until 6 minutes in. The Eagles were leading by 17 points when Terry Driscoll fouled out. Walker then got hot, while BC went cold, and the Friars trailed by only 4 with 7:02 left. With less than 4 minutes to go, Providence even led by 3. But the Eagles came back to lead 83-82, with Kissane holding the ball in the backcourt, pressured by Providence players, for what seemed an eternal 9 seconds before heaving it downcourt at the buzzer. (The Globe carried an article on that ending “Eagles’ Kissane Gets Rid of Ball in Time” [BCProvKissane]). Ecstasy then ensued among BC fans as Coach Bob Cousy was carried off the court by his team.

Walker finished with 33 points, 22 in the second half. Adelman had cooled off in the second half, but led the Eagles in scoring with 31 points. Kissane added 14 points, while Driscoll and Wolters were also in double figures.

Kissane recalls the game this way: “That was one of the most fun games I ever played in!  Roberts Center was absolutely jammed and those days we walked up from the locker rooms and through the lobby to get to the court. Everyone was cheering and yelling as we went single file through the crowd to get on the floor. By the time we were taking layups, I felt like I could jump over the basket I was so pumped up!

“At halftime, we had a good lead, but Frank Power, an assistant coach, kept saying ‘It isn’t over, stay focused, they are too good.’ How right he was! I stepped in on Walker and took a charge, which was his 4th foul, early in the second half. [Providence coach] Joe Mullaney never even thought for a minute to sit him down and he played the rest of the game at 15 minutes into the second half with 4 fouls. He was amazing!

“The place went nuts when we won. I do remember after the game the coach telling me I did a great job on Walker and then coach Magee came over and said ‘Yeah great job! You held him to 30!!!’ (Editor’s note: actually 33 :) ) Oh well. It sure is a great memory.”

The win put BC in strong contention for an invitation to the NCAA tournament. It also made for a great Saturday night!

First . . . and best . . . Beanpot

Posted on by

MVP John Cunniff ’66 is at right, future BC coach Jerry York ’67 at left.

On this date in 1965, the Eagles won their 3rd straight Beanpot title, beating BU 5-4. It was, however, the only Beanpot crown BC would win during our years at BC. As the Syracuse football game in 1964 was our first and best football game, our first Beanpot was also our best.

The game article in the February 19, 1965, Heights refers to the “computer” used by the Boston Traveler (!) to predict a Terrier victory. John Cunniff, the best BC hockey player of our era, was the (super?)human who led the Eagles to the win.

BC fell behind BU, 2-0, early in the 2nd period. Then, as the Boston Globe (BCBU1965) reported, BU goalie Jack Ferreira “made like Dick Stuart,” letting a shot by BC’s Bob Kupka bounce off his glove into the net. BC tied the score less than a minute later on an assist from Cunniff. Later in the period, Cunniff scored a short-handed goal. The teams entered the 3rd period tied at 3 goals each.

In the 3rd, Cunniff deflected a shot from Jim Mullen past the BU goalie. Less than 2 minutes later, BC’s John Moylan stole the puck at the BU blue line and sent a slap shot into the net for what would prove to be the game-winner.

BC goalie Pat Murphy was superb, making 42 saves, 19 in the final period.

A column by the Globe‘s Bud Collins (BudCollins_Cunniff) described what he termed the “madness” of the Beanpot. “The hypertensive roar when Bob Kupka started the Eagles’ scoring in the second period would have shattered windows in the Soviet embassy in Washington if the wind had been right.” Leading “madman, according to Collins, was Cunniff. “It is ever dangerous for Cunniff to make his people so insanely happy.”

John Cunniff receives congratulations from BU players on being named 1965 Beanpot MVP.

Cunniff was named MVP of the 1965 Beanpot, repeating his 1964 MVP award and becoming the first player to be named MVP in successive years. It was 39 years before that feat was repeated.

‘No one worked harder’

Former Heights sports editor, sports information director at BC for 23 years, BC administrator for 41 years, BC sports historian, and classmate Reid Oslin recently wrote this appreciation of John Cunniff:

“No one worked harder in Coach John ‘Snooks’ Kelley’s exhausting practices than John Cunniff, a young man who grew up in a poor family living in a three-decker home on East 2nd Street of South Boston. ‘You never had to motivate John,’ said his brother Ted of the two-time collegiate All-America player who was BC’s all-time leading scorer (151 points in 75 games) in his 3-year varsity career (1963-66) and later became an Olympian, professional player, and NHL head coach.

“As a youngster, Cunniff never had the advantage of playing organized hockey, but would never pass up the opportunity to improve his skills by playing in the one of the frequent pick-up games going on in Southie’s playground rinks.

“Cunniff, whose family could not afford skates until he was a teenager, worked tirelessly with ankle weights and body weights and even practiced shooting a weighted puck to build up his endurance and skill. His mother insisted that he go to Boston’s Don Bosco Trade School to learn a work skill, but when he realized that he might have a future in college hockey, Cunniff took a post-graduate year at New Prep in Cambridge, a school that not only sharpened students’ academic skills, but produced dozens of Division I hockey players. He came to BC without benefit of a hockey scholarship, but that situation did not last long when Kelley realized the immense skills and work ethic of his new recruit.

“Cunniff was assigned to a line with crafty center Phil Dyer of Melrose and Rhode Island product Jim Mullen, another goal-scoring sniper. The trio became known as the ‘Production Line’ for their steady offensive output, but Cunniff was the definite leader.

“’He could change speeds like no one else,’ said linemate Mullen. ‘If he saw an opening, no one could catch him.’

“Cunniff was especially impressive in the Beanpot Tournament spotlight. The Eagles won rare back-to-back championships in 1964 and 1965 as the quiet man from Southie tallied 4 goals and 9 points in the two tournaments.

“Following the 1964-65 regular season, the Eagles advanced to the ECAC championship with consecutive playoff victories over Dartmouth, Clarkson, and Brown. The championship earned BC a slot in the NCAA Championship playoffs held at the new Meehan Arena at Brown. ‘I was the only non-Massachusetts kid on the team,’ recalled Mullen, who was from nearby Warwick, R.I. ‘When I came to BC, I had dreams of playing for a national championship in Minnesota or Denver. Where did I get to go? The city where I was born.’

“With the powerful scoring line of Cunniff-Dyer-Mullen, the top-scoring line in all of college hockey that year, and some acrobatic goaltending by Pat Murphy, a superb athlete from Wellesley, Mass., the Eagles were ready for the semifinal game against North Dakota. The star of BC’s 4-3 victory that night, however, was a young sophomore center who not only showed a nice scoring touch on his two goals, but the leadership skills that would eventually carry him to an even loftier place in the college hockey profession: Jerry York.

“In the championship game played on March 20, the Eagles were stonewalled by Michigan Tech, 8-2, a team lead by their talented goaltender, future Chicago Blackhawk and Hockey Hall of Famer Tony Esposito.

“As a senior, Cunniff was sidelined when blindsided by a vicious hit from Brown’s rugged forward Dennis Macks. The collision separated Cunniff’s shoulder and put him on the bench for eight games –and nearly ignited a riot in the packed McHugh Forum that night, as Eagle hockey fans were horrified at the mayhem inflicted on their star player by the rough-and-tumble Macks.

“Cunniff continued his impressive hockey accomplishments long after graduating from the Heights. He was a member of the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team that competed in Grenoble, France, and later played professional hockey for the WHA’s New England Whalers. A great student of the game as well, he twice assisted Herb Brooks on the Team USA coaching staff (in 1998 and 2002) and was head coach of the New Jersey Devils from 1989 to 1991. He died from cancer at age 57 in 2002. He was inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003. His Boston College sweater is retired and hangs in a place of honor in the Conte Forum rafters.”

Oslin is also the author of three books on Boston College football and co-author (with Tom Burke) of another on the history of Boston College hockey.

The ‘Zoo’

Posted on by

1966 Sub Turri photo

On this date, 52 years ago, BC played St. Joseph’s in basketball. St. Joe’s was in its heyday, at last one of them, in those years, and was ranked #8 in the country. The Hawks came into Roberts Center with a 10-4 record to meet the Eagles, then 9-4. According to the account in the Boston Globe, St. Joe’s pulled away in the second half to beat the Eagles, 107-89.

The Heights printed its first issue that February on the 11th. As was its wont, the sports section focused more on games coming up, less so on what had happened previously. There were brief articles about the basketball wins over Holy Cross and UMass that had taken place within the week before, but nothing about the two games, both losses, before that with St. Joe’s and #6 Providence.

Nothing in the sports section about the St. Joe’s game per se, but a lot in the overall issue of the paper about what went on at the game. Those in attendance — “a capacity audience,” according to the Globe — and a national television audience were introduced to the “Class of ’68 Zoo.” Think of a coarse, vulgar, perhaps inebriated relative showing up at a family gathering, and that’s kinda how the Zoo was described in The Heights . . . and many more times than once.

Page 1 — “Campus Groups Censure St. Joe’s Game Crudity”
Page 3 — “Cousy Calls B-ball Incident Tasteless, Isolated Action”
Page 6 — The lead editorial “Student Banners — A Proposal,” as well as letters and a cartoon
Page 9 — Letters to the editor from two former Heights sports editors — Hank Steadman and Moke Pados

Coach Bob Cousy

When an icon like Bob Cousy calls you out, that’s a pretty big deal. “BC fans ‘can’t be anything but ashamed’ of the actions of some fans at that game,” according to the interview. While he described those acting badly as a “minimum number of fans,” he said he regretted that a national television audience saw BC in a way that would have been misleading. There were also two potential recruits in the audience with their parents, he said, and he had a practical concern about the effect on them.

“. . . [A]side from the incidents,” he said, “this was the best support we’ve ever had for a game here.”

The Heights editorial said the St. Joseph’s game had “undoubtedly the most enthusiastic crowd in many years to attend a Boston College athletic event. It also was undoubtedly the most tasteless . . . ”

Team member and classmate Jim Kissane recalled: “We were sophomores for that game and, to tell you the truth, I was much more interested on what was going on while I was playing than what was going on in the stands. I don’t really remember it being so bad as we read about the next day! I was used to playing in front of hostile crowds and my focus was on stopping St Joe’s very good players. We had great fan support during those years mostly from the dorms. Some of the signs were very rude, but I didn’t notice them while I was playing. We beat them the next year in the Palestra and that was a very tough place to play, with the fans right on top of you.”

Classmate Reid Oslin said the TV announcer for the game was legendary Philadelphia radio/TV personality Les Keiter. Rowdy BC fans, Reid said, pelted Keiter with beer cans and trash as he tried to do his pre-game stand-up intro. (That could have influenced some of the tone of his telecast.)

The “Zoo,” as classmate Tom Sugrue recalls, was formed to try to create a “hostile environment” for BC opponents similar to those faced by the Eagles at such schools as St. Joe’s and St. John’s. “I think the original intention was in good fun and was meant to change the reputation that Roberts Center was not a particularly difficult place for visiting teams to play,” Tom added. “This night, however, it clearly got out of hand. Alcohol played a role no doubt — a lot of the Class of ’68, myself included, came to the game pretty oiled up. Unfortunately, some of the signs were offensively profane/dirty, as were some of the chants. And throwing stuff on the court at opposing players is never cool.”

As for the actual game . . . BC center Willie Wolters committed four fouls in the first half, which ended with St. Joe’s leading by only one, 44-43. Wolters had a double/double in that half (11 points, 10 rebounds) and several blocked shots, but he sat on the bench when the second half started. Cousy did not put Wolters back in until five minutes had gone by, but Willie picked up his fifth and disqualifying foul only 22 seconds later. With Wolters sitting, “the Hawks had a field day hitting the B.C. hoop,” reported Bob Monahan in the Globe. St. Joe’s outscored the Eagles, 63-46, in the second half. Overall, the Eagles shot poorly, making only 32 of 82 from the floor.

All-America John Austin scored 34 points for BC and sophomore classmate Steve Adelman put in 30.

As classmate Kevin O’Malley observed, “That was a memorable St. Joe’s team. Matt Goukas and Billy Oakes at the guards, and Cliff Anderson the 6’4″ center was a leaper who was shorter than the two forwards, Tom Duff and Marty Ford. Dr. Jack Ramsay was the genius on the bench, and we took some advance heart from the fact that Goukas had a bad case of the flu, but he played fine and the Hawks gave us all a lesson. BC was on the move, but we weren’t on a level to compete with this savvy, well-coached group of seniors.”

With the loss to St. Joe’s, BC had lost two straight games to top 10 teams. They did not lose again that season until the quarterfinals of the NIT, when Villanova beat them, 86-85. The Eagles finished 17-5 with their last win of the season the historic, thrilling triple overtime victory over Louisville in the NIT opening round. But that’s another story.

LewCLA

Posted on by

Fifty years ago today, January 27, 1968, the Eagles played UCLA in basketball at Madison Square Garden, New York City. It was an opportunity for BC fans to see their team play the most storied college basketball team . . . and player . . . of the time.

BC’s Terry Driscoll ’69 in a jump ball with Lew Alcindor early in the BC-UCLA game. Also in this Sub Turri photo, classmates Jim Kissane (10), Steve Adelman (44), and Jack Kvancz (24).

The Bruins simply dominated the college basketball scene in the mid-sixties, and into the mid-seventies. When we were freshmen, UCLA went 28-2 and won their second consecutive national championship. Among those 28 wins was one over BC, 115-93, on December 19, 1964, in Los Angeles. The following year, 1965-66, was an awful one in Bruins terms. Ranked #1 preseason, they were 18-8 and unranked at the end of the season. There were portents, though, that year of things to come. UCLA’s freshmen team, in a preseason scrimmage, had defeated the varsity, 75-60.

Scoring 31 points and pulling down 21 rebounds in that scrimmage was 7-foot-2-inch Lew Alcindor, who had played his high school ball at Power Memorial in New York City. (In 1968, Alcindor converted to Islam and began using the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar publicly in 1971.) Joining Alcindor as freshmen were Lynn Shackelford and Lucius Allen, who would also play in the 1968 game against BC.

When Alcindor and the other freshmen joined the varsity in 1966-67, the run was on. Thirty and 0 that year and national champions. The Bruins started the 1967-68 season with 13 straight wins, bringing a 47-game win streak into what was billed as the “Game of the Century” on January 20, 1968. UCLA played the undefeated and #2-ranked Houston Cougars, and their great player, Elvin Hayes, in the Houston Astrodome.

One indication of how long ago this was is that this was the first regular season college basketball game to be televised nationally. And it was not on a major network, the only such networks being NBC, CBS, and ABC at the time. The UCLA-Houston game was televised on a syndicated network, TVS. One hundred and twenty stations around the country signed up for the event.

Eight days before the Houston game, in a game against Cal, Alcindor suffered a scratched cornea in his left eye. He missed the next two games and spent several days in the hospital receiving treatment. His first game back was against Houston.

In front of 52,693 fans, Houston’s Hayes scored 29 points in the first half against UCLA, finishing with 39, and Houston won the game 71-69. Alcindor scored a way-below-average 15 points.

We started by mentioning the BC game. Whatever happened to that? Well, the UCLA-Houston game had set the stage the week before the BC game took place. UCLA came into Madison Square Garden to play Holy Cross, then coached by Alcindor’s high school coach, on Friday night, defeating the Crusaders, 90-67. So UCLA was on a one-game winning streak when they took the court with the Eagles.

Oddly enough, the Eagles had had a similar week. They lost to St. Joseph’s the previous Saturday and defeated LeMoyne handily two days before.

As the record shows, UCLA beat BC, 84-77. But, as classmate Bob Ryan, who later went on to a 40+-year career as a sportswriter with the Boston Globe and who has been described as “the quintessential American sportswriter,” demonstrated something close to that status even in his article in the February 2, 1968, edition of The Heights: “Eighteen thousand people came to Madison Square Garden last Saturday night to see an execution. They stayed to see a great ball game.”

Proud Refrain was able to contact three classmates on the basketball team to get some of their recollections from the game.

Jack Kvancz, starting guard: “We had a very short scouting report for that game. Usually [then-BC coach Bob] Cousy was very thorough, but this time it was pretty much ‘Do not drive on the big fellow.’ Early in the game, I brought the ball up and I beat Lucius Allen, quite easily, so I go to the basket. And I score a layup. I’m thinking ‘Maybe Cousy got this wrong. I can do that anytime.’ A little while later, I bring the ball up and I beat Allen again. I notice, though, Allen starts running the other way, toward their basket. I go up again and I see this big hand. Alcindor didn’t “block” the ball, he caught it, and then he threw it down the court to Allen for an easy layup. I learned that lesson.”

 

Jim Kissane, starting forward, had an interesting comment on a sartorial issue: “I remember walking into Madison Square Garden and passing the UCLA team. We had on our ugly maroon blazers that we traveled in, which had been made for the football team. You can imagine how those fit! We were all long and skinny and the blazers were all wide and short. UCLA looked like they stepped out of GQ magazine or the Mod Squad, long leather coats and even a few hats. We should have known we were in trouble right then!

“We had played in Madison Square Garden many times but this was different,” he added. “The noise level was incredible and there was standing room only.The first half seemed to fly by and they were as good as advertised. They couldn’t miss and we were in a good size hole at halftime.The second half, we made a huge comeback and played much better. If memory serves me, we were down four with the ball and two-three minutes to go, eventually losing 84-77.”

Tom Pacynski, reserve center/forward: “The game was the red letter game on our schedule and I recall that the aura of the Garden was amazing. It was like looking through a cloud when looking to the high seats. I recall playing against Lew in the second half and coach Cousy wanted us to play ‘physical.’ Lew didn’t like physical play and, as a result, became frustrated and eventually fouled out (editor note: the only time in his college career). The memory for me that stands out most was my ‘air ball’ from the foul line.
“We played well, but not quite well enough. I recall Billy [Evans] and Jack [Kvancz] easily handling the UCLA press and [Steve Adelman] (my college roommate) lighting it up with his jumpers.”
Tom scored 16 points in the game, which may have been a season high for him.
UCLA went on that season to win the national championship without losing another game. Indeed, they gained revenge in the NCAA tournament semifinals, defeating the Houston team that had beat them, rather easily, 101-69.

Ryan and classmate Kevin O’Malley broadcast the BC-UCLA game on WVBC. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to hear a tape of that now?

Holy Cross – then . . . and again!?

Posted on by

1966 Sub Turri

If it was Thanksgiving weekend when we were students at BC, it was also BC-Holy Cross football . . . except once. While the first three BC-HC games took place on the traditional Turkey Saturday, the 1967 game was the following Saturday, December 2. (That season started late. First game wasn’t until September 23. Not sure if it was just calendar or something else.)

BC-HC football was also the season finale. There were only eight or nine bowl games back then — the iconic Rose, Sugar, Cotton, and Orange bowls, along with the newer and lesser Tangerine, Liberty, Bluebonnet, Sun, and Gator (and occasional Pasadena) bowls. Only 18 teams made it to bowl games then, far fewer than the 80 teams that will play in bowls this season. Most of the teams playing in bowls in the Sixties were southern schools with the Pac-8 and Big 10 meeting in the Rose Bowl. (After the 1943 Orange Bowl, the Eagles didn’t play in a bowl until the 1982 Tangerine Bowl.)

Always the final game and against Holy Cross, the age-old rival from nearby Worcester, the Friday night before the game featured a rally, the most expansive of the year. In our first couple of years, at least, the rally consisted of a parade of vehicles “adapted” to be floats carrying large signs (some of which carried somewhat profane language, as at right). The parade would leave the area in front of McHugh Forum, proceed east down Beacon Street to Cleveland Circle, and return via Commonwealth Avenue to Upper Campus. (Permits? We don’t need no stinkin’ permits!)

The promo in The Heights for the 1964 rally promised “fiery speeches” and a bonfire in which the floats “will go up in flames and smoke.” I was home, in Western Mass, that Friday and didn’t attend the rally, so I cannot confirm the existence of a bonfire. We welcome any recollections of that rally, or any other Holy Cross rally.

That November 24, 1964 issue of The Heights (published on a Tuesday) also carried an edition of The Infidel, a purported edition of a Holy Cross student newspaper. The lead article announced that Holy Cross had once again sought to forfeit the game against BC because of “fright.”

In 1964, the Eagles avenged a shutout defeat (9-0) the previous year by winning another low-scoring game 10-8 to finish the season 6-3 (best season record while we were there).

Team, fans, everybody leave the field at Alumni Stadium following 1964 win over Holy Cross. Caption in The Heights: “On to the Victory Dance!”

As sophomores, we saw classmate Brendan McCarthy, playing his first varsity season, win the O’Melia award as top player in the BC-Holy Cross game. McCarthy’s 139 yards on 20 carries and 1 touchdown (on a very muddy Fitton Field) led the Eagles to a 35-0 rout of the Crusaders.

Preceding the 1966 game, Heights sportswriter and classmate Bob Ryan (retired Boston Globe sportswriter and 4-time national sportswriter of the year) penned a column for the November 18 issue entitled “Cross Game Ain’t What It Used To Be.” In it he opined that, at least that year, the BC-HC rivalry was better on the hardwood, i.e., between the Eagles’ and Crusaders’ basketball teams. Holy Cross, however, decided to make it a rivalry that year, securing their only victory over BC while we were students, 32-26, in a “wide-open finale.”

Heights sportswriter and classmate Reid Oslin, in his article on the 1967 BC-Holy Cross game, called Fitton Field “The World’s Coldest Place.” Oh, I remember that one! The Eagles won 13-7 and quarterback and classmate Joe DiVito took home the O’Melia Award.

We played Holy Cross in football four times while we were students. In basketball, BC and Holy Cross met eight times on the court, twice each year. The greater frequency, and probably the ability to see players up close, made the basketball rivalry seem more intense. You could really see “villainry” in the opponent, cf. Keith Hochstein. By the way, BC’s record against the Cross in our years — 7-1.

We’ll talk more about BC and Holy Cross in basketball in coming weeks.

The last BC-Holy Cross football game was played November 22, 1986. BC won 56-26 in its eighth-straight victory in the series. The Eagles had won 17 of the last 19 games in the series. The Crusaders had won two games in 1977 and 1978 by a total of six points.

There is, however, a next BC-Holy Cross football game. In January 2014, it was announced that BC and Holy Cross had agreed to a two-game series, both at BC, in 2018 and 2020. Those games, instead of completing the regular season for each team, will be in early September. What do you think of the renewal of this series? Is it again a “rivalry”? Or is it a restatement of Bob Ryan’s 51-year-old column — “Cross Game Ain’t What It Used To Be”?

‘Ivy Envy’

Posted on by

Heights sports editors sometimes think alike, I guess. In October 1966, I wrote a column in the Heights entitled “Ivy Envy,” in which I extolled the virtues of football played in that league. The following year, Reid Oslin, previously sports editor, penned a column with the headline “Ivy Eagles?” and he went a little further, suggesting BC should consider emulating the league.

Both columns may have been inspired by mediocre football records for the Eagles in each of our junior and senior year seasons. Reid and I, however, had another perspective as well. We also had been classmates in high school and a fellow high school classmate, Gene Ryzewicz, was the all-Ivy running back and later quarterback for Dartmouth, then called the Indians.

Gene Ryzewicz leading Dartmouth players into Harvard Stadium, 1966.

As my column back then mentioned, the UPI New England coaches’ poll in October 1966 placed Harvard #1 and Dartmouth #2. BC was ranked 6th. Sixth . . . in New England! I attended the Harvard-Dartmouth games in 1965 and 1966. Those games were fun to watch. Football was less “professional” back then (the NFL was way short of being the center of American sports attention) and Ivy players, at least some of them, were as good as the better players at BC and other major teams.

Even now, some BC fans are not fans of the direction BC athletics has taken, i.e., joining the ACC. The feelings become stronger when BC teams are not especially competitive in the conference. Maybe the Ivy approach is no longer among the possibilities for BC, if it ever was, but the concerns about an institution that claims high academic standards competing with institutions, particularly public ones, with admittedly lower standards are not likely to disappear.

First and best

Posted on by

Flutie had his “Hail Mary” against Miami. Bill Cronin will always have “the catch” against Syracuse. Sub Turri photo.

On this date in 1964, members of the Class of 1968 attended their first Boston College football game, at least as BC students. For me, it was the first ever and, to me, the best game I saw while a student at BC. And it’s top 10 among all the BC football games I’ve seen.

BC played Syracuse. The Orangemen were ranked in the top 10 pre-season and featured two future hall-of-fame running backs — Floyd Little and Jim Nance.

It was a nice September Saturday. Lots of excitement and cheering and a card stunt performed by the freshman class. At least, I remember being among freshmen training for it and doing it. I don’t know if other classes were involved. I also don’t remember ever doing it again. And don’t remember seeing any photographic evidence it happened. Anybody else remember?

Something worked for the Eagles. We’ll let classmate Reid Oslin (A&S), former BC Sports Information Director and BC sports historian, tell the story in an article he prepared for a reunion of that 1964 team.

“Boston College – like almost every college team in 1964 – opened its schedule on September 19. ‘Back then, college football teams could not even start football practice until after Labor Day,’ recalled Charlie Smith, an end on the ’64 club who would captain the BC team the following year. ‘Double sessions started the day after Labor Day and you had your first game three weeks later.’

“Smith noted that college football was a far different game back then. Not only were all fields made of natural grass, and Alumni Stadium was a wooden bleacher-type structure that held but 26,000 fans – but most players were expected to play BOTH offense and defense.  Specialists were few and far between – BC’s kicker of the day was Marty DiMezza, a hulking guard who kicked placements in between his blocking assignments.

Dick Powers (70) flanks an upended Syracuse player on the approach to Floyd Little. Sub Turri photo.

“The Syracuse team came into the opener ranked No. 9 in the national polls. And why not? The Orangemen had a dream backfield of Jim Nance and Floyd Little – each of whom would go on to a starry pro football career. (Freshmen running back Larry Csonka and a wingback named Tom Coughlin [editor’s note: BC football coach 1991-93] did not play in the game for SU.)

“The teams battled back and forth throughout the game, with the tough BC defense yielding but 2 touchdowns to the high-octane Orangemen. BC quarterback Larry Marzetti threw a 26-yard scoring pass to Bob Budzinski and fullback Don Moran bulled into the endzone from 4 yards out to give the Eagles a 14-7 advantage in the 4th quarter.

QB Larry Marzetti is tackled by Syracuse. Note the “height” of the Alumni Field stands. Sub Turri photo.

“Late in the game, Syracuse quarterback Wally Mahle scored on a 1-yard plunge to pull the Orangemen even at 14-14. BC got the ball on the ensuing kickoff with time slipping away, and BC coach Jim Miller mulled the possibility of running out the clock and escaping with an unexpected tie [editor’s note: no overtime then]. On the sideline, team captain Bill Cronin yelled to Miller, ‘Are we going to try to win this thing or not?’

Coach Jim Miller expresses his affection for Bill Cronin.

“In the meantime, Marzetti was driving the team up the field. With just seconds remaining and the ball 55 yards away from paydirt, Marzetti called his own play and lofted a ‘Hail Mary’ to Cronin, a lanky former high school basketball star from Reading, Mass., who leaped into the air to make the catch. Syracuse’s two deep defenders, Charlie Brown and Mahle, collided as they tried to defend Cronin. The SU players fell to the ground and Cronin caught the ball unimpeded, staggering into the endzone for the winning score just as the old Alumni Stadium analog clock circled to zero.

“Delighted fans, led by the BC Band, raced out on the field. The wooden goalposts were torn down. BC had a victory for the ages.”

Other recollections
Steve McCabe (A&S): “Coming to BC, I didn’t know a lot about college football, but I did know that Syracuse was a powerhouse with a great coach and was known for graduating great running backs like Ernie Davis and Jim Brown. I was in heaven when we won that game, and always felt that although the football season was a ton of fun, that first game was the highlight of our four years of football, and it was all downhill from there. I don’t remember any of the details, only that we won. Twenty years later, we were fortunate enough to have the ‘Hail Mary’ pass enter sports legend and to see it played over and over during subsequent televised BC games. BC football made me an advocate of ‘big time’ football at Rutgers, where I met my wife, and where my son David attended. It can change the fortune of a school for the better, as I believe Doug Flutie’s game did for BC, and it can be done without sacrificing academic standards. Just as important, it can make Fall a lot of fun for a campus town and its students and graduates.”

Tom Sugrue (A&S): “That was an amazing game — a great way to start our ‘careers’ as BC sports fans. Of course, we lost the next weekend against Army — I was at the game. I was so excited from the Syracuse win, I went home the next weekend and convinced my Dad to go up to West Point with me. So this too was a good lesson for 50+ years of BC fandom. As soon as they lift you up, the bottom can fall out! :)”

Here’s the article about the game that appeared in the next Friday’s Heights. There are other articles and columns related to the game in the same issue.