Road Trip: Madison, Wisconsin

[landerjp]

Hey everyone. I finally got some time to write about my trip to Wisconsin to see the Bonnies in the WNIT.

I posted it to bleacherreport. com. bleacherreport.com/articles/195216-senior-road-trip-following-the-bonnies-to-the-wnit/show_full

With the tremendous support we saw for the ladies at the end of the season, I hope you get a chance to read it.

Here's a preview...

"At half time, I couldn’t take it anymore. The Bonnies trailed by 14. Things did not look good for St. Bonaventure’s chances, and I wanted to stand. I sat the entire drive to Madison. I needed some time on my feet. I worked hard to convince the other three that sitting down was bad karma for the Bonnies. They were annoyed, too, and asked me where I wanted to sit.


We moved to the end of the court, opposite of the SBU bench. We tried to stand on the floor behind the empty media table, but a security guard asked us to sit in the seats of the first row. We reluctantly complied. This time, the only Badger fans behind us were 10 rows back, so we stood, cheered and chanted “Defense!”


Things were swell until we found a problem with our new seats. They were adjacent to the UW pep band..."


ENJOY!

-Jeff

[bonnieshoops]

thanks for the read, great stuff.

[fjs64]

Thanks. I did watch the game on the internet feed, and I did see you guys. Thanks for being there.

Of course, I have a story also. The facts have been probably altered due to time, but close to accurate. Over this past weekend (reunion weekend), one of the attendees and I related our versions.

It was sometime in March of 1964. The Bonnies had finished the season at 16-7, and they were invited to the NIT (back then all the games were at MSG). They were scheduled to play Army (coached by Bobby Knight) Saturday afternoon. Going to the game was a spontaneous thought, with 7 of us in my roommates 1955 Pontiac convertible (standard shift on the floor).

I had pulled an almost all-nighter studying for my Economics exam on Friday at 1pm. After the test I went back to the room for some sleep. Around 4 pm a bunch of the guys were talking about the game and woke me up. Before I knew it, we said we were going, and planned to leave around 5. The plans were vague, we would drive to NYC (before I86, and before RT 17 became a four lane highway) and stay in the lobby of the hotel the Bonnies were staying in. Of course we didn't know what hotel that was.

Anyway, cramped in the Pontiac, we left. Sometime around mid-night or 1AM, we arrived in Manhattan. Parked the car, and started trying to figure out what hotel. We went to one hotel and asked if the Bonnies were there, he said no, but suggested the Hotel Manhatten, as many sport teams stay there. So we go to the hotel, and that was where they were staying. It was around 2 or so, so we sat in the chairs in the lobby with sleep on our minds. Well, we were thrown out. So we walked around Manhatten for a while, then got back in the Pontiac, and slept the night.

We got some awful weird looks that morning, 7 guys coming out of a Pontiac. I'm not sure how much sleep we got, but it was some. We walked around, made a decision that we would look for a hotel, and spend Saturday night in the city. Money of course was not something that we had, so we had to be on the frugal side. We found a hotel (if that's what you call it), it cost $3 per person (this my my memory in action). The hotel was either the Hotel Commodore or the Hotel Chesterfield. We had to move the beds from the hallway into the room, you can get a good idea of the type of place we were at. I think we slept a bit, and then we walked to MSG.

This was the old Garden, not the new one that you are familiar with. I think we bought the tickets, I don't think anyone bought them for us. I think the game started around 4. The team was led by Fred Crawford, and the often injured Miles Aiken. John Mahonchak was the other senior on the team. Bob Barnek, Roger Bauer (I saw him this weekend at the reunion and Baron induction) and John Riley were also key members of the team.

The game was close, but the results were not what we hoped for. Army, led by Mike Silliman (sic) beat us 64-62. Now time to cheat......looking in the Bonnies Basketball yearbook.... Aiken scored 30, Crawford 14 and Mahonchak 9 (for some reason Barnek did not play), the game was on March 15th.

[fjs64]

Con't.....

After the game, we headed back to the hotel, I think. Then we went out for a limited financially night on the town. I know we spent some time wandering around 42nd street. The memories of this evening are very vague, hopefully it is the 45 years.

Anyway, we headed back to Bona's sometime on Sunday. I am trying to remember who went on this bona venture....Dennis H, Mike C (it was his Pontiac), me (Frank S), Pat M, Tom R, Larry O, Tony B.....

Thanks for your article, I hope you enjoyed listening to my memories. It is stories and memories like this that we will never forget, look, even 45 years later it is remembered.

[mangham]

wow Frank. $3 bucks a person.........the good old days!

[2nddev]

Loved the NYC story Frank. It reminded me of a trip to Buffalo for a 1971 or 1972 little three game. Desperate for a place to sleep and shower after a long night of drinking diet coke, we ended up in a "Y" at 6 a.m. It was so bad that I refused to take my shoes off, and I wouldn't even sit on a chair or the bed. I tried to sleep leaning on a wall. The only positive was that it was warm as it was brutally cold outside. I think that the Bonnies lost the game to Canisius. This was not my favorite road-trip.

[jim62]

That was a good road trip story, Frank.
One of mine wasn't a road trip to a game but a story anyway.
As you know, not many of us had cars back then and I sure didn't.
I think at the time there were only 5 of us from Pittsburgh and only 1 had a car.
If he wasn't going home, the rest of us had no ride.
My trips back home to Pittsburgh usually involved hitchhiking both ways and were all interesting.
One time I was headed back to campus on a very snowy night and I was stuck in Butler, PA and not many cars on the road so my prospects weren't good at all.
It was about 10:00 at night and pretty cold out there.
A city policeman pulled up and asked where I was from, going to, etc.
Told him I'd just been home for the holidays in Pittsburgh and was headed back to campus.
At this point there was about 6" of snow on the ground and it was still coming down pretty hard.
He felt sorry for me out there on a terrible night.
He told me to throw my suitcase in the police car and get in.
He took me to the Butler city jail where they fed me some hot food, gave me a secluded cell to sleep in with the door open, fed me breakfast in the morning and drove me to the outskirts of town the next morning so I could continue on back to campus.
Luckily for me, the snow had stopped by then and there was more traffic on the roads.
Those were lots of fun, interesting trips.

[fjs64]

Nice story Jim. Didn't you go to the NCAA game in Greensboro in '61. That would be a good story, especially the hose job on the game.

[jim62]

Frank, I wish I had gone to that game.
Couldn't afford it.
Although the ride back would have been the pits.
No, I stayed on campus and bit 10-penny nails into thumbtacks.
That game was one of the worst homers I've ever seen.
Throwing towels at our players as they were running down the floor, rabid fans shaking the goal while we shot free-throws and the refs just standing there.
The outcome would have been different if it had been played in the Armory.

[cyril baptiste]

bones mckinney and billy packer..the south was an ugly place then.

[az63]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fsj64, jim62 & cyril,

I posted this on 3/28/08. Thought the thread merit a revisit!!!


Frank,
I was at the game. It was during my sophmore year.

I also went to the first game of the NCAA tournament in the Garden vs Rhode Island which we won.

When we came back to campus from the Rhode Island game, 6 of us decided we were going to follow the Bonnies as long as they stayed in the tourney. So we piled into an old '52 Chevy, or Ford, and headed down to Charlotte without tickets and with $38 between us. Coach Donavan got us free tickets. And we all stayed in one room of a flea-bag hotel.

Bones McKinney did indeed start a fast break, however I remember it as after a made Bona hoop which went through the net and bounced right to McKinney who inbounded it to start the break. The benches were behind each basket and we were sitting behind, and above, the Wake bench so I had a very good view of the play. I had the opportunity to introduce myself to Billy Packer at an NCAA pre Final Four meeting in Denver in 1990 and brought up that play. At the time he was got very defensive and said it never happened - glad to see his memory is coming back.

Another big play was when Tom Stith went to the line for 2 shots in the second half. A cameraman was sitting on the basket support and was causing the backboard to move by shaking the support with his legs. Tom called it to the attention of one of the refs who blew him off and told him to shoot the ball which he did & missed the first shot. Every point counts in a close game!!!

We got into a pretty heated argument with Bones down on the floor while waiting for the Bonnies to exit the locker room after the game. He was a fiery guy.

Stayed for the next game - they did consolation games in those days - and saw the Bonnies beat Princeton.

Headed back to campus the next morning with some great stories but know for sure we got screwed in Charlotte.

P.S. Those were the days when you were allowed 3 cuts in each class and then you started to lose "quality points". That trip hurt my GPA. If I knew the Bonnies would be going to the tournament I would have saved those cuts!!!!!

[jim62]

az63:
Yes, the 3 cuts and you're out rule and the Saturday morning classes certainly did curtail much "weekend wondering" by most of us.
But, in looking back at those days, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
It was an experience in which we were very fortunate to have participated.

[mikebossy22]

Jun 10, 2009 12:33:37 GMT -5 az63 said:

P.S. Those were the days when you were allowed 3 cuts in each class and then you started to lose "quality points".

Those days still exist to an extent. I'm sure I'm not the only recent grad on here that had a B+ turned into a C due to Father Vacco's Religious Texts attendence policies.

[jim62]

Back in "our days", if the number of unexcused cuts were greater than the number of credits for the course, you received an "F" for the course.
That pretty much made for a good reason to get to classes.