ORIGINALLY WRITTEN THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1972 Tomorrow is our first game – Lehigh County Community College – first of 17. We’ve practiced for six weeks now, having started on October 16. We have never beaten this team. We will tomorrow. Sounds like perfect jock talk, doesn’t it? Well, I think we will. We should. They’re a two-year school, we a four. I think we are too good a team to be playing them. We must beat them if for no other reason to prove to ourselves that we have improved … [Read more...]
“A HISTORY OF THE EVENTS OF THE ALLENTOWN COLLEGE’S 1972-1973 B-BALL SEASON, AS CHRONICLED BY, AND WITH THE PERSONAL MEMOIRS + OCCASSIONAL [SIC] PHILOSOPHISING OF THE AUTHOR, ONE STEPHEN J. McKEE”
JUNIOR YEAR at Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales I kept a detailed diary of the entire 1972-1973 Centaur season. [SEE TITLE ABOVE.] One-hundred-and-forty-six bus-bounced, hand-scratched pages in a reddish-brown Royal Composition notebook. A blog before its time. Starting later today, November 30, 2012, CENTAUR SEASONS will post these entries in real time, all season long, 40 years later to the day. JUNIOR YEAR I roomed with Dave Glielmi, in 311 Tocik Hall. Dave and I went everywhere … [Read more...]
CENTUAR SEASONS: History Was Made of This
SOPHOMORE YEAR. NEW SEASON. NEW COACH. NEW PROMISE. NEW PURPOSE. We only had five guys, fellas … He pressed us the whole way, fellas … Subbed five at a time, fellas … AND HE STILL ONLY BEAT US BY ONE, FELLAS! Preseason started on October 15. From the start that’s what our new coach, Jack Sabota, screamed at us. Every day, practice in, practice out. That, and this too: And he beat us by 70, fellas … Pressed us the whole way, fellas … Subbed five at a time, fellas. BEAT US BY 70! BEAT US … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: Schedule Me This
EVERY SEPTEMBER, BACK AT SCHOOL, IT WAS ALL BRAND NEW AGAIN. EVERYTHING. EVEN AS PART OF BEING THERE WAS A RETURN TO THE OLD AND FAMILIAR. One of my first rituals once I was back at Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales in Center Valley was to get myself to Billera Hall. To smell the place again, to stand in the lobby again, to peer out at the court again. I’d breathe the place in again, and I’d be home. ("Schedule Me This" continues below -- ) * * * * … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: The Bus Won’t Move? We Moved the Bus. Part Three of a Metaphor in Three Parts
WHEN LAST WE SAW THE CENTAURS ON THIS MULTIPART MOVE THE BUS METAPHOR, THEY had slowly rolled from Center Valley, Pennsylvania, to Cape May, New Jersey, in an old yellow school bus painted blue and red, for an away game against Shelton College. They’d arrived only minutes before tipoff, played (and won!) the game, then hopped back on the bus for the trek home. Along the way they had to push the bus twice around a Jersey traffic circle to jumpstart the engine (with everyone then running to get on … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: The Bus Wouldn’t Move? We Moved the Bus. Part Two of a Metaphor in Three Parts
THE STORY THUS FAR: AT THE TIME I DIDN'T GRASP THAT IT WAS THE PERFECT METAPHOR. I DO NOW. My first road trip freshman year at Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales was to Shelton College, in Cape May, New Jersey. We left Center Valley, Pennsylvania, at three in the afternoon, everyone piled into our blue-painted old yellow school bus with ALLENTOWN COLLEGE in red block letters on the side. By the time we got back, at maybe four the next morning, we had gotten lost, pushed the bus to … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: The Bus Wouldn’t Move? We Moved the Bus. Part One of a Metaphor in Three Parts
AT THE TIME I DIDN'T GRASP THAT IT WAS THE PERFECT METAPHOR. I DO NOW. My first road trip freshman year was to Shelton College, in Cape May, New Jersey. We left Center Valley at three in the afternoon, everyone piled into our blue-painted old yellow school bus with ALLENTOWN COLLEGE in red block letters on the side. By the time we got back, at maybe four the next morning, we had gotten lost, pushed the bus to get it started any number of times, yelled at the bus driver to keep him awake and … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: Forgetting/Remembering Freshman Year
THE LESS SAID ABOUT ME AND BASKETBALL MY FRESHMAN YEAR, THE BETTER. AT LEAST ABOUT ME AND BASKETBALL. Who was I kidding? Not me. I made the team – became a Centaur – because the top of my haircut was six feet eight inches north of the hardwood on the Billera Hall court at Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales in Center Valley, Pennsylvania. End of story. Six-feet-eight-inches tall, maybe 165 pounds. Yikes. And as the guys on the team quickly pointed out, for hands I had metal crash can … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: The “Devine” Presence
It is said that John Wooden (the dominant coach of the dominant team during this CENTAUR SEASONS era) never left the state of California on a recruiting trip. It is further considered that Coach Wooden never sullied his hands in the swampy backwater that is college recruiting (even as many roll their eyes at this very thought). Meanwhile, the school that in 1974 broke Bill Walton's UCLA stranglehold on the NCAA title banner, North Carolina State, had first to endure a one-year tournament ban for … [Read more...]
CENTAUR SEASONS: The First Rivalry
IN THE HBO MOVIE "LIVE FROM BAGHDAD," MICHAEL KEATON PLAYS A CNN PRODUCER WHO EARLY ON TELLS A CNN HIGHER-UP THAT WHAT THE NETWORK NEEDS TO BOOST flagging ratings is a good war. The year is 1991, and soon enough Iraq invades Kuwait and then the U.S. invades Iraq. CNN has its war and with it a ratings bonanza. Comparing sports to war is often foolhardy, so I’ll tread lightly. When the Centaurs took the court for its first collegiate season, in 1968-69, everything lay out there ahead of them. … [Read more...]