The 1969-70 Bonnies do some reminiscing

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www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=386&dept_id=444921&newsid=15029942&PAG=461&rfi=9

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Vinny, you outdid yourself, what an excellent article.

And, as Dale Tepas said at the end:

“I honestly wish we could share all of this with the people of Olean and Allegany because they lived the dream with every player who ever put on the brown and white,” Tepas continued. “That’s just impossible but please let everyone know that we appreciated every roar, every pat on the back and all the support they gave all the Bonaventure teams. We often tell stories about games and the amazing support the community gave us. Pretty special.”
Special indeed.

I can think of a few hundred or more Olean residents that would have loved to have been in that room reminiscing with them ! It would have brought a tear to my eye too.

Thanks Vinny !!

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Here is a copy of the text, for archive purposes:

Dale Tepas can recall the day as if he were living it at this very moment.
He and his St. Bonaventure teammates strode into Olean with their heads held high and chests puffed out. The Brown Indians, as they were called in 1970, returned home from South Carolina to a hero’s welcome.
The people of Olean poured onto the Union-State Street intersection, proudly and loudly cheering their team. For one winter, one moment in time, the tiny city, the tiny campus in rural western New York, was the center of the college basketball universe. The Brown Indians were the best team in all the land, en route to the Final Four.

Last weekend, Tepas, and his old coaches and teammates were back on top of the world. Several members of that memorable team were back in Olean, back at St. Bonaventure, to unite once again.
“Although we may not talk to or see each other for months or even a year at a time,” Tepas said, “when we’re together it’s like it was just yesterday. You go through Olean and say, ‘Right there is where they had the podium when we came back from South Carolina.’”
Even though Bona fell short of the national championship, the ’70 team will long be remembered in the annals of St. Bonaventure basketball.
Walk around Olean or St. Bonaventure these days and you’ll still hear the question being asked, “What if ... ?”
What if Bob Lanier hadn’t collided with Villanova’s Chris Ford during the win that sent Bona to the Final Four. Lanier, who many believed to be the best player in the country (others argued for LSU’s Pete Maravich, Niagara’s Calvin Murphy or Purdue’s Rick Mount), spent the Final Four in a hospital bed in Buffalo, having surgery performed on his right knee.

“The knee injury that shook the basketball world,” is what The Times Herald’s Mike Abdo and Bob Davies wrote days following the tragic setback.
Without Lanier, the Brown Indians couldn’t match Jacksonville 7-footers Artis Gilmore and Pembrook Burrows. In fact, coach Larry Weise had 6-foot-5 Matt Gantt jumping center.
Billy Kalbaugh, the star point guard on the team, said his son witnessed an interview in which, years later, legendary UCLA coach John Wooden openly admitted doubts of defeating Bona. The Bruins were in the midst of 10 titles in 11 years but were between the dominant Alcindor-Walton eras in ‘70.
Weise was on hand for the reunion. His confidence in the ’70 team has never wavered.
“There were no questions in my mind or even in the players’ minds that had Bob not gotten hurt we would have won it,” he said. “It was just an inner-confidence we had in ourselves.”

“That hurt,” said Paul Hoffman, a gritty sophomore on the team. “I think we would’ve been champions without a doubt. Jacksonville never would’ve beaten us. UCLA would’ve been interesting but Bob was the best player in the nation. The only way he could be stopped was if he stopped himself.”
Hoffman was on hand for the reunion, as was Kalbaugh, Mike Kull, Greg “Bubba” Gary, Jim Satalin, Tom Baldwin, Paul Grys, Victor Thomas, Gene Fahey and many more.
Members of the team enjoyed dinner, golf, and simply reminiscing about old times.
“It was good. Nice and relaxing,” Gary said.

“Everybody had stories to tell,” said Satalin. “Of course, we had some good times. We talked about our time at Bonaventure, deciding to go to school there and why we all would make the same kind of decision today.”
“It was great to see everybody,” said Kalbaugh. “I was disappointed Bob couldn’t make it, but (NBA) Commissioner (David) Stern needed him so he couldn’t get away.”
In addition to Lanier, a special assistant to Stern, Gantt and Pete Wisniowski were also missing from the festivities. Gantt had family obligations while no one has been able to locate Wisniowski.
Additionally, several members of the 1977 NIT championship team also reunited over the weekend for the first time since the magical run to Madison Square Garden. In attendance were current Rhode Island and former Bona coach Jim Baron, Essie Hollis, Glenn Hagan and Jim Elenz, among several others. Satalin was head coach and Kalbaugh an assistant for the ‘77 team that defeated Houston for the title.
“We spent a lot of time sharing some old war stories,” Satalin said of the two teams.

The reunion was the fourth for the Final Four team. The first came here in 1995, then in 2000 at Syracuse and at Bona two years ago.
“The initial reunion was started from a conversation Bob Lanier had with a couple of us,” Tepas said. “Although not his exact words it was something like, ‘Hey we are not getting younger and we should think about getting together to renew our friendships and just have some fun together again.’ But honestly we are never far apart.”
To a man, above everything else, a unique togetherness was the greatest single factor in the Brown Indians’ run to the Final Four and the reason they nearly knocked off Jacksonville without their 6-11 All-American in the lineup. Key bench players like Kull, Grys and Tepas harbored no hard feelings toward playing limited minutes and playing second fiddle to the stars, Lanier, Kalbaugh and Gantt.

“We had terrific chemistry. There were no egos,” Kalbaugh said. “We’d get the ball down low to Bob and if they double or triple teamed him, he’d pass out to one of us for an open shot. If they guarded him head up, he scored. Larry didn’t try to complicate things too much. We all understood what he wanted. We were well-coached.”
These guys were best friends — always hanging out together away from basketball — and many of them still are. Most of them e-mail or talk over the phone to this day.
“In school we did a lot of things together and being together from Oct. 15 through March is a lot of time to bond and forge everlasting relationships, which we have,” Tepas said. “Every time I leave these guys, and SBU as well, I leave a little part of me and that hurts. But I get it back the moment I return or see them all again.”

Tepas said the plan is too have a reunion every two years on campus.
“It’s a great way to remember the past and look forward,” Satalin said. “We’re not young anymore but this keeps us young in spirit.”
Many members of the team have retired or are close to it. Kull spent many years working for the state at the Buffalo Airport. Hoffman taught Social Studies in the Genesee Valley school district for 32 years. Grys has retired as manager of IBM in Rochester. And after a long stint as athletic director at Bona, Weise retired in 1992, spending his winters in Florida and summers in Pittsford.
“I don’t get along with snow anymore,” the coach said.
“Every morning I tee off at either Hole 2 or 10 at Six-S (golf course in Belmont),” Hoffman said.
Satalin resides in Syracuse and is the director of the highly successful Coaches vs. Cancer program, as well as acting as head of Atlantic 10 basketball officials. Kalbaugh also works with Coaches vs. Cancer but out of Greensboro, N.C. while Tepas is vice president of human resources for Hartford Life in Montgomery, Pa.

“I’m proud of what these fellows have done since they left school,” Weise said. “They’re successful and have nice families. I’m proud of them.”
Yet all find time to think about “What if ... ?” at least once a day.
“Good memories,” Kull said of the reunion. “Then again, you start thinking about the Final Four too much.”
“I really think about it every year on Selection Sunday,” Weise said. “It all comes back to me. The excitement of that particular day where everyone has a chance to win it all ... that’s exciting.”
Saturday night, the players and coaches (Weise, and assistants Fred Handler and Bob Sassone) sat around and talked. So did team trainer, Dick Gigliotti, Don McLean, the voice of the Brown Indians, and Times Herald beat reporter Chuck Ward.
The conversation didn’t revolve around “What if ...?”, but rather, moments like the city-wide rally after returning from South Carolina, down-right funny instances, and stories of friendship that will last a lifetime.
By the end of the night, Gigliotti was brought to tears. “What if ...? was the furthest thought from any of their minds.
“The hardest part about what was a terrific weekend was Sunday morning saying good-bye to friends and school,” Tepas said. “Although we’re not separated by great distance, we know it will be a few years until we’re all back together again. And honestly that stinks. We have such a good time together. And that was why we were so successful as a team.
“I honestly wish we could share all of this with the people of Olean and Allegany because they lived the dream with every player who ever put on the brown and white,” Tepas continued. “That’s just impossible but please let everyone know that we appreciated every roar, every pat on the back and all the support they gave all the Bonaventure teams. We often tell stories about games and the amazing support the community gave us. Pretty special.”
Special indeed.
(Vinny Pezzimenti is a sports writer for The Times Herald)

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Here's another reunion-related article:

Bona’s NIT champs are still special

08/12/2005

Column: PEZZIMENTI


I never quite knew what my old journalism professor Pat Vecchio was saying when he described former St. Bonaventure basketball standout Glenn Hagan as “smooth.”
Then came Saturday, with Hagan in town for a reunion of the 1977 NIT championship team. The 50-year-old former guard who endured a long recovery from a drug addiction, walked gingerly — almost limping — toward the Archbishop Walsh gym.
Once Hagan had the ball in his hands he quickly made a few 20-somethings look as if they were the ones who were 50, however. With elusive spins to the basket, sharp bounce passes between defenders and quick bursts up the court leading fast breaks it was apparent, Glenn Hagan was indeed “smooth” and so much more.
Hagan’s raspy voice mirrored the bounce of the ball. Never ending bating of opponents, talking trash as he buried a deep jumpers.
Essie Hollis, one of Hagan’s former Bona teammates, watched from the sidelines and laughed. “I met him in 1973 and he hasn’t stopped talking since,” Hollis joked.
Then Hollis, clearly not as nimble as he once was, decided to run a game. Or in his words, “walk one.”
The old friends went head-to-head like it was 1977 again, only they made it slow-motion for all of us to enjoy.
For those who never saw Hollis star at Bona, his son, Damien, gave us a glimpse into the past. The highly regarded Damien drilled perimeter jumpers and threw down a few highlight dunks.
No wonder the lengthy 6-foot-8 senior-to-be at Tarvella J.P. High School in Coral Gables, Fla. has drawn interest from schools like Indiana, North Carolina State and, of course, St. Bonaventure.
Still, Hagan dogged Damien, calling him “soft” and “weak.”
The afternoon of pickup basketball also involved Jimmy Baron Jr., the son of Jim Baron, the point guard for the ‘77 team and former Bona and current Rhode Island coach.
The younger Baron will join his father at URI this winter as a freshman after a fine season at Worcester Academy of the ultra-competitive New England Prep League. Jimmy, a sharp-shooting guard, averaged 27 points, including a 30-point outing against South Kent School, which boasted players such as NBA draft pick Andray Blatche and Bona freshman-to-be A.J. Hawkins.
The next generation is upon us but it is also a reminder of the talent on that ’77 team.
The team will always be ranked behind the 1970 and 1961 squads, but statistically speaking, the NIT champs were a special collection. The team boasted no All-Americans like Bob Lanier or Tom Stith, yet perhaps no other Bona team can rival the roster from top to bottom.
Greg Sanders is the school’s all-time leading scorer, Hollis ranks fifth, while Hagan and Delmar Harrod were also career 1,000-point scorers. Additionally, Hollis ranks second all-time in career rebounds and Hagan third in assists.
And remember, those numbers were compiled pre-shot clock, pre-3-point line era.
(Vinny Pezzimenti is a Times Herald sports writer.)