CENTAUR SEASONS: "And Then We Almost Lost the D–M Game!" — entry #29 from "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”

This CENTAUR SEASONS post was written 40 years ago today.

PREVIOUS GAME: Centaurs 72, Baptist Bible College 67, final game

CENTAUR SEASON: 6-11

Our last game of the season, against Baptist Bible College, we designated “Senior Night.”

Bob Hoeffner, Joey Thompson, Bobby Stormes, Dave Glielmi, Gary Cacciatore and I decided to arrange some sort of special event for them. Well, to make a long story short, we decided to buy desk plaques, then trophies, then the desk plaques. That’s it in a nutshell.

The desk plaques have b-ball medallions and plates with “Cash,” Denny,” “Flem” and “E.J.” on it with “70-73 CENTAURS” underneath it.

(“And Then We Almost Lost the D–M Game!” continues below)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

WELCOME TO CENTAUR SEASONS. “And then we Almost Lost the D–M Game!” 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. Forty years ago Steve kept a diary of his junior-year season. A blog before its time then, “A History of the Events …” is now an e-diary at CENTAUR SEASONS and here on HoopsU.com

* * * * * * * * * * * *

We also made up “Senior Night “programs. I was in charge of that. I put A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young” on the cover, and inside I had to write something praising each of the graduates.

E.J. Brookes, three-year manager, was written with no sweat. I’ve known for a long time the appreciation I’ve felt for his voluntary services as manager and dedication to A.C.

Dennis Ramella, co-captain and the school’s first 1,000 point scorer, was even easier: “Let his achievements speak for themselves.”

Chris Cashman, co-captain who blew out his ankle THE FIRST DAY OF PRESEASON PRACTICE and never really got it back, was hard because there was so much I wanted to say, and I had only eight half lines to do it. But what I wrote I think more than adequately sums up the way I feel about Cash, a young man of irreplaceable character

Jerry Fleming, a sometime starter as a sophomore but basically played onto the bench over his next two eyars, was the hardest of all. Before I finally came up with the best tribute, I must have attempted eight, nine approaches. But what I finally wrote I think really is honest and truthful in its approach, as it spoke of a guy “who did not make many public contributions to the team”

Bobby Stormes asked Coach to start the seniors. Joey had signs made up, Gary got the plaques and I got the programs, and Allentown College of S. Francis de Sales Senior Night was underway, Tuesday, February 27, 1973.

And then we almost lost the d—n game!

We both went scoreless for the first five minutes. They had lost a championship game the night before in their Christian College league, but they weren’t down about it at all. Then Flem hit a jumper from the top of the key. It was really weird. The only thing I could think of when I saw him shoot was – “What’s he shootin’ for?” I kept thinking of all the times he got in in the final seconds of games and would do NOTHING but shoot. Well, he made two, I made four, he made two, and I made two.

We got up ten but then gave most of it back and at the half we were up just 34-32. Then they pressed to the start the second half, we fell apart, and next thing we know we’re down 47-42. Somehow we figure things out.

We finally won, 72-67.

Roommate Dave Gliemi had another of his big nights, 16 points – 12 in the second half, when we really needed them — and 11 rebounds. John Cooper had another of his good games (which have played me onto the bench most of the season!), 13 points, with nine of those in the second half. (Hey, I had eight points.)

Senior Dennis Ramella had 14 for the game and 1,075 for his career. Senior Jerry Fleming had his six that got us out of the gate. Senior Chris Cashman, a starter for once, finished with four.

And we all finished at 6-and-11. But in Coach Sabota’s “thirds season” we finished at 4-and-2. That’s something, at least. Something to take to next year. MY senior year.

PREVIOUS GAME: Centaurs 72, Baptist Bible College 67, final game

1972-73 CENTAUR SEASON Schedule and Results:

12-1-72 — at Lehigh CCC — W/81-71 — 1-0

12-4 — at Northampton CCC — W/87-50 — 2-0

12-6 — EASTERN BAPTIST — L/73-75 — 2-1

12-12 — SPRING GARDEN — L/54-66 — 2-2

12-16 — PHILLY BIBLE — L/72-79 — 2-3

1-18-73 — at Baptist Bible — L/82-84 — 2-4

1-19 — WILMINGTON — L/56-71 — 2-5

1-25 — at Philly Pharmacy — L/56-71 — 2-6

1-30 — at Spring Garden — L/64-69 — 2-7

2-3 — at Messiah College — L/47-76 — 2-8

2-6 — at Wilmington — L/52/88 — 2-9

2-13 — RUTGERS, S. JERSEY — W/89-68 — 3-9 (but 1-0!)

2-16 — LEHIGH CCC — W/81-76 — 4-9 (but 2-0!)

2-20 — MESSIAH — L/58-64 — 4-10 (but 2-1!)

2-22 — NORTHAMPTON CC — W/86-65 — 5-10 (but 3-1!)

2-24 — PHILLY PHARMACY — L/61-79 — 5-11 (but 3-2!)

2-27 — BAPTIST BIBLE — W/72-67 — 6-11 (but 4-2!)

About
Latest Posts

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.