CENTAUR SEASONS: “We Are Now 1-and-0!” — Entry #22 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.

PREVIOUS GAME: Centaurs 89, Rutgers, South Jersey, 68, last night

NEXT GAME: Lehigh CCC, in three days

CENTAUR SEASON: 3-9

BUT WAIT, WE ARE REALLY NOW 1-AND-0!

At practice the day after the Wilmington game, that awful 88-52 drubbing, Coach Sabota was unusually forgiving. He told us that at Wilmington maybe he had expected too much of us. Fourth away game in a row. Long trip. Loss on loss. The refs. All that.

So, he told us to forget the previous 11 games. Our 2-9 record.

We have six home games now.

A full week to prepare.

It’s a whole new season, we’re really 0-and-0!

Let’s go from there.

We practiced hard all week.

AND LAST NGHT WE BEAT RUTGERS, SOUTH JERSEY, 89-68.

We are now 1-and-0!

(“We Are Now 1-and-0!” continues below)

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WELCOME TO CENTAUR SEASONS. “Losing is Kinda Bad for a Person” 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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Bobby Stormes played GREAT. P.J. Brennan had 17 points, Dave Glielmi 18, Bobby 20, Dennis Ramella and John Cooper 10 each, me 9.

As for my performance, Coach Compardo, our athletic director, told me after the game that I was the “physical leadership” out on the court. I was 4 for 4, with three taps and one LEFT-HANDED driving lay-up! Eleven rebounds. I understandably felt great. As did the whole team after the game.

One other thing. Chris Cashman threw a behind-the-back pass to Dennis Ramella. And then Denny missed the lay-up! But Cash threw a BEHIND-THE-BACK PASS. What a hotdog! No more will even be said about that.

Next up is Lehigh County Community in three days. Basketball has become fun again. I’m not gonna start, but I know I will play.

I just want to say this: I must show that Rutgers was not a FLUKE.

PREVIOUS GAME: Centaurs 88, Rutgers, South jersey, 68, last night

NEXT GAME: Lehigh CCC, in three days

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

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.