THIS CENTAUR SEASONS POST ISN'T MEANT TO EMBARRASS TOM SHIRLEY.  I SUSPECT IT MIGHT. TOM WAS A FOUR-YEAR-CENTAUR, TWO YEARS BEHIND ME. HE DIDN'T PLAY MUCH. “I went to Allentown thinking I’d play a lot,” he told me. “I guess I assumed that because it was a small school that they stunk, and of course I thought I was pretty good. And of course I came to realize that I wasn’t very good and the guys on the team weren’t all that bad.” Though unlike guys who thought this cornfield college … [Read more...]

CENTAUR SEASONS on HoopsU.com recently unveiled a never-before-heard nearly two-hour audio interview with UCLA basketball coaching legend John Wooden. Conducted in 1991, my conversation with the coach covered a lot of territory. So here only on HoopsU.com is a handy playbook to get you straight to the sections of the interview where Coach Wooden offered specific coaching tips and observations from his long career in basketball. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone ... PART TWO (5:16): Talent matters, … [Read more...]

You know me, Steve, I was an intense puppy.” Meet Bob Koch. Centaur co-captain. Class of 1969. Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales. This CENTAUR SEASONS encompasses the A.C. graduating years ’69 through ’74. Six years of schooling, seven years of seasoning. For reasons I’ll speak of in future posts, these years constitute the college’s first real, tangible,  identifiable “era.” We share much in common, we of those classes, and I think we can all take credit for getting A.C. off … [Read more...]

Welcome to a very special CENTAUR SEASONS here on HoopsU.com: the opportunity to listen to a  brand-new interview with the legendary UCLA basketball coach JOHN WOODEN.  Here's the story of this interiew, an explanation as to why you’re reading about it here on CENTAUR SEASONS at HoopsU.com, and and how to listen to this new Coach Wooden interview. On the Saturday afternoon of May 18, 1991, I interviewed John Wooden, the legendary and then-retired basketball coach of the UCLA Bruins, for a … [Read more...]

What I remember best is the never-ending dread. The first day of basketball practice. From the time I rolled out of bed (whenever), sat through class, hung out in the lounge, pretended to study in the library, ran into teammates and exchanged grim, doomed looks, and hurried through an early dinner in the cafeteria – I knew it was out there waiting, inevitable and unavoidable. Now they call it Midnight Madness now. Then it was just the first day of practice. Allentown being Allentown, … [Read more...]

THIS "LEGENDS OF THE FIRST" HERE ON HOOPSU.COM APPEARED ORIGINALLY ON THE BLOG CENTAUR SEASONS UNDER THE HEADLINE "LEGENDS OF THE FIRST: THE ORIGINAL CENTAURS ORIGINAL GIFT." CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE CENTAUR SEASONS WEBSITE. The future is not a gift; it is an achievement. Every generation helps make its own future. This is the essential challenge of the present.”  -- Robert F. Kennedy, 1962* I have mentioned this before but it bears repeating. By the time I arrived at Allentown College … [Read more...]

This "Finding Little Allentown in the Big College Basketball Picture  (Part 2)" originally appeared on the website CENTAUR SEASONS. In yesterday's  "Finding Little Allentown in the big College Basketball Picture (Part 1)” here at HoopsU.com, we looked at the Centaurs’ first three seasons – ’67-’68, ’68-’69 & ’69-'70 – and where the half-man/half-beast fit into the bigger college basketball picture of the day, dominated as it was by the UCLA Bruin. Today we’ll take a quick look at the … [Read more...]

This "Finding Little Allentown in the Big College Basketball Picture (Part 1)" post on HoopsU.com appeared originally here at CENTAUR SEASONS with the same headline.  To go to the CENTAUR SEASONS home page, click here. When I graduated from Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales I was in the school’s sixth graduating class.  But in Centaur years that was basketball season No. 7 – 1967-68 to 1973-74. In the universe that was college basketball, these years were dominated by four … [Read more...]

This "Reasons for the Seasons" post on HoopsU.com originally appeared on CENTAUR SEASONS with the title "CENTAUR REASONS: Why Playing for Allentown College Was My Chance of a Lifetime." I didn’t play basketball in high school, to begin with. And from that one sentence can now flow all the rest of CENTAUR SEASONS. I didn’t pay basketball in high school. I was on the freshman team at York Catholic High School, in south central Pennsylvania, but only because everyone who tried out made the … [Read more...]

Welcome to the opening tip here at HoopU.com of CENTAUR SEASONS, a “memory blog” of my years playing basketball for Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales in Center Valley, Pennsylvania. This post can also be viewed at CENTAUR SEASONS. Today I attempt to explain why we Centaurs went to Allentown College in the first place, and why we played basketball for a brand-new school that seemingly had so little to offer. These days, to get to DeSales University, you need first to get to the … [Read more...]