CENTAUR SEASONS: “A history of the events of the Allentown College’s 1972-1973 B-ball season, as chronicled by, and with the personal memoirs + occassional philosophizing of the author, one Stephen J. McKee’ — all 145 handwritten diary pages, all 29 inputted posts.

Posted March 6, 2013

Our 1972-1973 Centaur Season — subject of (deep breath) “A History of the Events of the Allentown College’s 1972-1973 B-ball Season, as Chronicled by, and with the Personal Memoirs + Occassional Philosophizing of the Author, One Stephen J. McKee” — ended on February 27 with a 72-67 victory over Baptist Bible College.

That rare victory brought our record to 6-and-11. But in our last six games, all at home, we were 4-and-2. When you play on a team like the Centaurs, you take what you can, where you can, and be happy with it. We were 6-and-11. We lost nine in a row.

BUT WE CLOSED OUT THE SEASON 4-AND-2! Yes we did.

(” … All 145 Handwritten Diary Pages, All 29 Inputted Posts” continues below)

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WELCOME TO CENTAUR SEASONS. ” … All 145 Handwritten Diary Pages, All 29 Inputted Posts” here on HoopsU.Com appears also on CENTAUR SEASONS, a “memory blog” of the half-good, half-bad, all-new Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales Centaurs in Center Valley, Pennsylvana. Steve played for the Centaurs 40 years ago. The blog is available at CENTAUR SEASONS and here on HoopsU.com

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Every basketball season tells its own story. The 145-page handwritten, bus-bounced diary of our 1972-1973 season transposed into 29 blog entries. It played out over 91 days, from November 30, 1972 to February 28, 1973. We won two games in 96 hours, didn’t win again for 71 days, won four of six in the final two weeks (say it again!).

Here is the Centaur story of ’72-’73, chapter and verse, in the books, complete …

#1: ‘TOMORROW IS OUR FIRST GAME’ November 30, 1972

#2: ‘FIVE HOURS TO GAME TIME’ December 1

#3: “WE WON! … I STUNK” December 2

#4: ‘I HOPE WE BLOW THEM OFF THE COURT’ December 3

#5: ‘I FOULED OUT EARLY’ December 4

#6: ‘MY RESPECT SOARED FOR THAT MAN’ December 5

#7: ‘FIRST HOME GAME!’ December 6

#8 ‘WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN’ December 7

#9: ‘WE ARE ACHIEVING’ December 12

#10: ‘EXAMS AT 1 & 5, GAME AT 7′ December 16

#11: ‘LONELY AND DEJECTED’ December 17

#12: ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS: I CAN’T GET ANY WORSE’ December 18

#13: ‘WE CAN TURN THE SEASON AROUND’ January 18, 1973

#14: ‘I CRIED FOR 15-20 MINUTES’ January 21

#15: ‘COACH SAID HE HASN’T LOST FAITH IN ME’ January 25

#16: ‘THESE GUYS ARE SLAPPIN’ US IN THE FACE!’ January 26

#17: ‘IT’S 2 A.M., BATTLING SOME KIND OF BUG’ January 30

#18: ‘… AN AMAZING MAN’ January 30

#19: ‘SEVEN LOSSES IN A ROW’ February 2

#20: ‘ONE DISASTER AFTER ANOTHER’ February 4

#21: ‘WE GOT BEAT BY 36′ February 7

#22: ‘LOSING IS KINDA BAD FOR A PERSON’ February 8

#23: ‘WE ARE NOW 1-AND-0!’ February 13

#24: ‘WE CAN FINISH 8-AND-9!’ February 20

#25: ‘I STARTED!’ : February 22

#26: ‘WE ARE ALL UP FOR TONIGHT’S GAME’ : February 24

#27: ‘THEIR COACH SAID WE PLAYED THEM THE BEST’ February 26

#28: ‘WHERE GLORY DOES NOT STAY’ February 27

#29 ‘AND THEN WE ALMOST LOST THE D–M GAME!’ February 28

About
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Steve McKee

Steve McKee is the author of CENTAUR SEASONS, a memory blog about his basketball-playing days at Allentown (Pa.) College of St. Francis de Sales in the early 1970s (a good excuse for using his college yearbook picture -- though there's NO excuse for that mustache and hair!).

CENTAUR SEASONS can also be found at www.centaurseasons.com. The centerpiece will be the posting in "real time" of the diary that Steve kept of his 1972-1973 junior-year season, beginning on November 30. Prior to that (and after), Steve will be posting regularly about his freshman, sophomore and senior seasons, as well as about what it was like to be there at the beginning to help get a struggling college basketball program off the ground.

Steve was the original writer of The Wall Street Journal's popular sports blog, "The Daily Fix" in 2001-2002, and was even dubbed "The Unwitting Father of the Sports Blog" by Gelf Magazine, the online publication of the "Varsity Letters Reading Series. Steve was the Journal's sports editor for its original Weekend sport section and was involved in all of the Journal's Olympics coverage, Winter and Summer, from 1996 through 2008.

He is the author of three books, most recently "My Father's Heart: A Son's Reckoning With the Legacy of Heart Disease," which he is adapting as a one-man show. For his first book, "The Call of the Game," Steve traveled the country in search of sports events -- including the famous N.C. State Wolfpack victory over "Phi Slamma Jamma" of the University of Houston. For his second book, COACH, among the 150+ coaches Steve interviewed are/were college basketball coaches John Wooden (UCLA), Pat Summitt (Tennessee), Frank Layden (Niagara), Bobby Cremins (Georgia Tech), P.J. Carlesimo (Seton Hall), Bill Guthridge (North Carolina), Abe Lemons (Texas), Stan Morrison (USC), Kathy Rush (Immaculata), Jim Satalin (Duquesne), Charlie Thomas (San Francisco State), Butch Van Bredda Koff (Princeton), Bill Whitmore (Vermont) and LaDonna Wilson (Austin Peay).

For more, you can click on www.steve-mckee.com, where you can find a TODAY show appearance and an NPR interview.