WELCOME TO A SPECIAL EDITION OF CENTAUR SEASONS HERE ON HOOPSU.COM. CENTAUR SEASONS IS CURRENTLY IN OFF-SEASON MODE, WITH PLANS TO TIP OFF A NEW BLOGGING YEAR AROUND THANSKGIVING. BUT A RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT AT 'ALLENTOWN COLLEGE OF ST. FRANCIS DESALES UNIVERSITY' IN CENTER VALLEY, PA, WARRANTS THIS HOOPSU.COM BREAK-IN BULLETIN. Posted September 18 Geez, what a big deal it was! College students return every fall to old friends, old haunts, new classes -- and a new football season. So it … [Read more...]
About Steve McKee
CENTAUR (OFF) SEASONS: A dozen ways to read the 97 posts in the scorebook thus far — until a new roster begins taking the floor in the fall
Welcome to CENTAUR (OFF) SEASONS! If you're a regular CENTAUR SEASONS reader here on HOOPSU.COM (thanks for coming back!) or you just dribbled onto the site for the first time (welcome aboard!), herewith for the summer break are a dozen different mix-and-match ways to access nearly all of the 97 CENTAUR SEASONS posts written during Season I. New and original posts for CENTAUR SEASONS' Year II will tip off in the fall. I look forward to seeing you then. But, please, don't go away now: THE … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: In a ‘Carnival of Opportunity,’ One of Our Own Shines in an All-Star Game
Posted on May 14, 2013 My junior year at Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales -- forty years ago this year -- we Centaurs ended our season at 6-and-11. A brutal campaign, as chronicled here at HoopsU.com, it boasted, so to speak, a nine-game losing streak and defeats by ... 2 ... 12 ... 7 ... 2 ... 15 ... 15 ... 5 ... 29 ... 36 ... 6 and 18 points. (Click a number, any number, to read about each at CENTAUR SEASONS. Time for just one? "I CRIED FOR 15-20 MINUTES" tells all you need to … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: From an Unexpected Source Comes an Unexpected Assist
Posted May 3, 2013 I figured out why your blog and book will be a winner. Well, I am certainly glad someone has! (And yes, one of the goals I've been shooting for with this blog is to find the book in these Centaur Seasons.) Those dozen italicized words that tip-off this particular CENTAUR SEASONS post here on HoopsU.com were written in an email to me by a friend, Kathryn, who pens her own blog at RAGGED RECOVERY. Kathryn was reacting -- quite viscerally, you'll see -- to an … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: Six Degrees of Michael Bantom (part 2 of 3) — Film maker Rory Karpf’s “Silver Reunion” and the 1972 U.S. Olympic Basketball Team
Posted on April 26, 2013 This post, like the two before it on CENTAUR SEASONS and here on HoopU.com -- Micheal Bantom of the ill-fated 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team and his sudden appearance at Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales’s 1973 Spring sports banquet (This is the most unusual experience of my entire life), and the answer he gave to a question about why the U.S. team refused the silver medal after losing 51-50 to the Soviets in a still-debated finish (I would proudly wear the … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: Six Degrees of Michael Bantom (part 2 of 3) — The 1972 Olympic basketball gold medal he did not receive and the silver medal he did not earn
Posted on April 24, 2013 On a Thursday evening in early May in 1973 Mike Bantom – he of St. Joe’s College, the Philadelphia Big 5, and the ill-fated 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team and its disputed loss to the Soviets in the gold-medal game – appeared seemingly out of nowhere as the guest speaker at our Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales Centaur sports banquet. He handled his duties with aplomb – as written about here in this previous CENTAUR SEASONS post. Subbing at the last … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: Six Degrees of Mike Bantom (part 1 of 3) — When the Philadelphia Big 5 and the Olympics came to (Allen)town
Posted on April 19, 2013 Last week here at HoopsU.com a CENTAUR SEASONS post proffered “Six Degrees of Refereeing,” about the longtime and well-respected basketball official Jody Silvester. Jody whistled some of our home games at Billera Hall in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, but eventually he worked the big rooms – Madison Square Garden, the Palestra, two NCAA championship games – as a ref in the Atlantic 10, Big East and BIG 10. Today here on HoopsU.com CENTAUR SEASONS' six degrees is … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: Attempting to Connect We Centaurs to the 1972 Munich Games, Suddenly a Reminder of All That Hasn’t Changed ….
Posted on April 16, 2013 Yesterday, while I was working on today's CENTAUR SEASONS post to be available here on HoopsU.com, my wife, Noreen, yelled up to me: "Bombs at the Boston Marathon." I put aside what was going to be today's post. Though the irony is worth noting: Today's post was going to connect the early-Seventies Centaurs of Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales to the 1972 Munich Olympics, the Summer Games where terror first struck a sporting event. Instead, there's … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: The Forgotten Centaur(ette)s — That they won no games doesn’t matter; that no one knows they played them does
Posted on April 9, 2013 A recurring theme here at CENTAUR SEASONS exclusively on HoopsU.com has been the idea that Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales in Center Valley, Pennsylvania -- the school brand-new, we students its only resource – offered a uniquely interesting education to those lucky enough to have been there in the late ’60s, early ’70s. If something needed to get done, we had to do it. Anything, it seemed, was possible. The story of the Centaurettes first-ever women’s … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: ‘Six Degrees of Refereeing’ — The one guy who ran with the Centuars and made it to the big time …
Posted On April 8, 2013 To start this CENTAUR SEASONS post -- brought to you here on HoopsU.com -- we need first to go to Madison Square Garden. It is the mid-1980s. I am there watching a St. John’s basketball game. The whistle sounds, and I follow the ball as it gets thrown to the ref. Wait! I know that guy! The referee! I mean, I know who he is. His name comes immediately. Jody Silvester. He used to ref our Centaur games at Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales. The game in the … [Read more...]