CENTAUR SEASONS: "It’s 2 a.m. and I’m Battling Some Kind of Bug" — Entry #17 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 56, Philadelphia Pharmacy 71, six days ago

NEXT GAME: at Spring Garden College, tomorrow

CENTAUR SEASON: 2-6

I’m battling some kind of bug. Came on me last night at practice. Feel terrible now. It’s 2 a.m. Exhausted, but can’t sleep.

Well, as promised last time, a little bit about Jerry Fleming. Flem said that he never felt worse about a ball game than he did last week at halftime of the Philly Pharmacy game. Total and complete frustration. At one point he was standing with his back to everybody in the locker room. Said later he was crying he was so angry. As he said when we entered the locker room at the half: “These guys are slapping us in the face.”

(“It’s 2 a.m., and I’m Battling Some Kind of Bug” continues below)

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WELCOME TO CENTAUR SEASONS. “It’s 2 a.m., and I’m Battling Some Kind of Bug ” 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.

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But last year’s Pharmacy game was a different story completely. Nip and tuck the whole way. Nobody able to get control of the game. Tony Mazzeo, a senior guard, fouled out. Then Dennis Ramella fouled out with about 1:24 left. Coach looked down the bench. No more guards. But wait, down at the end of the bench sat the little-played Jerry Fleming. Coach called for Flem. Coolly he rose, as if he had déjà vu knowledge of the task before him.

Eighteen seconds left, score tied, 62-62. The crowd is frantic. Foul called on No. 54 white.*

Pharmacy goes to the line. Through all the minds of the Allentown players surely passed this thought: Pharmacy was still in the game due to their foul shooting.

He shoots. He misses! Dave Glielmi gets the ’bound. He immediately and wisely calls for a time out. Fourteen seconds show on the clock. Coach, possibly overwhelmed by the import of the moment, seems at a loss as to what to do. Tony Mazzeo gives him a reassuring pat on the back. His confidence is found. The play is set.

A.C. inbounds the ball. Long pass crosscourt from Flem to Steve McKee. Steve throws to senior forward Jerry Wilkinson, who promptly dribbles the ball deep into the left corner, Meanwhile, Steve and Bob Hoeffner have set up together at the foul line. Wilkie passes to Steve. Seven seconds remain. Steve spots Flem running across the lane. He passes. Six seconds left. Flem gets the ball, turns, pumps. Five Seconds remain. He shoots. He banks it softly off the glass. It’s … good! Four seconds remain. Pharmacy calls time, but everyone knows the game is over.

Little-played reserve-guard Jerry Fleming has won the game, the biggst win in school history.

Like Tony Mazzeo said, it shoulda been a Big 5 game at the Penn Palestra!

[For another CENTAUR SEASONS take on this famous Pharmacy game, click here.]

PREVIOUS GAME: Centaurs 56, Philadelphia Pharmacy 71, six days ago

NEXT GAME: Spring Garden College, tomorrow

1972-73 CENTAUR SEASON Schedule and Results:

12/1 — 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 — 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

2-3 — at Messiah College

2-6 — at Wilmington

2-13 — RUTGERS, S. JERSEY

2-16 — LEHIGH CCC

2-20 — MESSIAH

2-22 — NORTHAMPTON CCC

2-24 — PHILLY PHARMACY

2-27 — BAPTIST BIBLE

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.