Memory Lane 1970-71 season

[Deleted]

The board seems to be in lull right now. Not much going on and not much to comment about. So, I thought I would take a trip down memory lane. Neumann did a thread about the 05-06 season. 

So I thought I would talk about the 1970-71 season, my sophomore year. We all remember the 68-69 team that went 23-1 but was on probation. Gola had taken over as coach for that season and he was also the coach for the 69-70 season.  The team had lost some talent from the 23-1 team, mainly Larry Cannon. But added Bobby Fields as a JUCO transfer for the 69-70 season. The team still has Durrett and Fran Dunphy for that season. In 69-70 the team finished 14-12 despite Durrett averaging 24 points, Dunphy 18 and Fields 16. Gola had gotten the team past probation but realized that he wasn't a coach.  The team hired Paul Westhead to take over in 70-71. 

He had been an assistant at St Joe's.  Interestingly, at that time, he also taught English classes when he came to La Salle.  He use to like to quote Shakespeare. 

That period was the golden age of the Big Five.  All games were played at the Palestra.  It's hard to believe but La Salle used to average around 5,000 attendance at that time.  It was also a very good time for the other teams as well.  Penn finished 29-1 in 70-71.  Dick Harter was the coach and the team was led by Craig Littlepage and Dave Wohl.  Villanova went deep into the NCAA tournament and was led by Howard Porter.  St Joe's had a good team that finished 19-9 and was led by Mike Bantom.  Temple has a so-so season finishing 13-12.  They were still being coached by Harry Litwack at the time.

We were picked to finish last in the Big Five that year.  Dunphy had graduated.  The main addition to the team was Jim Crawford who was a sophomore. 

But Westhead showed that he could coach.  The starting line-up was Durrett at 6'7' at center.  Crawford was 6'6'.  Ron Kennedy was 6'5'.  That was the main front line.  Fields at 6'3' was the SG. The point guard was Greg Cannon. Cannon was the shorter less talented of the Cannons. He was not a scorer but was the floor general. Westhead put in a set game plan and it worked. Durrett averages over 27 and 12 rebound per game. Fields really came on average more than 23 points per game.

The team took off.  At the end of 17 games we were 15-2. Our only loses coming to Penn and Syracuse.

I remember 3 games especially during that season. The first was a game against Western Kentucky. We use to play them often back in those days. Western Kentucky has a stud 7'0' center named Jim Mc Daniels. He has a very good game against our small team scoring something like 25 points and grabbing 20 rebounds. But Durrett had a game. He scored 45 points and we went on to win by 15.

The second game I remember was the 17th game of the season. We were smashing Canisius by something like 20 points. It was the middle of the second half.  Durrett came down on his leg and fell to the floor. He had to be helped to the bench. He was really never the same again. He tried to come back but wasn't able to.

The last game that I remember was the next game after Durrett's injury against big bad Villanova with Howard Porter. We were without Durrett. The team came out and played one of the most amazing and inspired games I ever remember witnessing. Fields scored 30 points.  Kennedy who wasn't much of a scorer got 17 and we went on  to beat Villanova 73-69.  The team was 17-2 at this point.

Unfortunately, they couldn't maintain without Durrett.  They finished the rest of the season 3-4 and had to settle for the NIT.  They lost in the first round.

[lasalle69bestever]

I was at the Western Kentucky Palestra game. One of the things about Durrett getting 45 points was that McDaniels blocked his first shot. Obviously, Doorett was such a competitor that it had no affect on him whatsoever.
My other biggest game of note regarding a Palestra opponent against La Salle was Calvin Murphy's first visit playing for Niagara. He put on a Bill Bradley-like performance as far as elevating a middling team. I remember the BB magazines really hyping the appearance of Murphy and Rick Mount of Purdue for their first seasons. I think there was also a third one, but the name escapes me. IMO, Murphy's game (40++ points) remains the single most impressive display I ever saw against La Salle. (I might be dreaming this, but I seem to remember it included a baton twirling display by Calvin. Between games?)

BTW, I could be wrong but I thought Jim Crawford was 6'4" - 6'5".

[theneumann64]

Thanks for starting another one of these. If anyone has good ideas for future installments, send me a message. Would love to do a bunch of these.

[23won]

Really good stuff Espresso. I watched the Nova game on a little black and white TV - I was a young pup back then. I remember how loud the crowd sounded on the telecast and the post-game interview with Big Al Meltzer, where guys were going nuts, especially Fields.

That win was huge given the absence of KD from the game and also since Nova more than "went deep into the NCAA tournament." They blew out previously undefeated Penn in the East regoinal final (and nearly doubled the score on Penn - 90-47) and came the closest of any team I can remember in beating UCLA in the championship game during their dynasty streak.

Durrett had a style and grace like no other. You can put him on the same level as Brooks and L Train, but he had a cooler style and when the shirt-tail came out of his uniform it was a classic thing to behold. Those were the glory days indeed.

[Deleted]

Thanks espresso.

The 70-71 team is my all-time favorite La Salle team. Bobby Fields and Ken Durrett are numbers 1a and 1b on my list of favorite players. The "12" in my poster name is in reference to Bobby. I played in industrial and Dept of Rec leagues from my teens to my mid-40's and I always wore 12 because of him.

That team was the perfect example of the sum being greater than the parts. Westhead did a phenomenal coaching job. Durrett and Fields were elite players, Skyman Crawford was very good, and Ron Kennedy, Greg Cannon, Bob Walsh, Bill Michuda, and John Maull all filled in and played their roles. Durrett played all 5 positions. I remember teams trying to play a box and one on him and Westhead put him at the point to keep him involved in the game. Miami of Florida tried it and Kenny dropped 40 on them. He was just a special, special player. If he hadn't hurt his knee, that team could have made a NCAA run and he would have been a NBA all-timer.

[Fastchuck]

70-71 was my senior year with lots of great memories. 69, the C Murphy game you are thinking of was during the 67-68 season. He set a palestra record with 52 points. One thing we talked about after the game was that Fatty Taylor appeared to be playing good defense. Murphy had to work for his 52. If there had been a 3 point line Murphy would have scored about 75. He did his baton twirling routine before the game and warmed up by shooting jumpers from mid court. Murphy may have scored 40 against us during the 70-71 season but Durrett scored 40 on their home court.
Another thing to mention is that the 2 teams mentioned above, WKU and VU went on to the final four. They were both later stripped of the wins because McDaniels and Porter had signed with agents. It shows the quality and guts of that undermanned team.

[olneyman]

Following up on the comments made by some of the other "mature" members of the Board, Western Kentucky was ranked #5 when they came into the Palestra for that game. We were coming off victories over Miami, Georgia, Boston College, Tulsa, Temple, and Creighton. After that win we climbed into the ratings at #15 and climbed as high as #10 before KD got hurt against Canisius on February 10' 1971. The La Salle-Nova game on February 13 remains one of my favorite games of all time. It was our first game without Durrett and not too many were giving us a chance. The Nova fans were shocked. Our next game was against Duquesne, led by the Nelson twins. Duquesne was ranked around #10 at the time. The game was part of a Palestra doubleheader, with Nova in the first game. In a show of their class,, the Nova cheerleaders actually led the sizable contingent of Duq fans that came in for the game in cheers against La Salle. We lost that game by 9 points and not having KD bit us that day and for the remainder of the season. Durrett came back for the NIT opener against GA Tech, but he basically played on one leg, and we lost by 3, ending the season. Kenny did not win POY awards like Gola, Brooks, and Simmons, but he was regarded highly enough that he was the 5th pick (if my memory is good) in the NBA draft. He could do anything on the court, and in an era when bigger guys did not routinely do much dribbling, he was skilled enough to grab a rebound, head out with the ball and run the middle on a fast break. Great memory.

[theneumann64]

www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/la-salle/1971.html

For reference- link to team page for that year on basketball reference.. Team went 20-7 it says here.

[Deleted]

Thanks for adding some great details. The mind get foggy after so much time. Sadly, Durrett died at only 52 in 2001.

[23won]

I thought Durrett went 4th overall to the NBA. I checked it out and that is the case. Some other fun facts about aho followed Ken in the draft:

Mc Daniels went 19 spots after Durrett

Porter went 28 spots after Durrett

This is with the bum knee and all.

Also on the sad front, Porter had his (NCAA MOP) and Nova's records vacated for signing with an agent early and died at 58 from a brutal beating. Gory life details are here:

www.twincities.com/ci_6802392

Sad stuff.

[thelasallelunatic]

Wasn't he picking up a hooker and they beat him to death? If I'm wrong regarding the circumstances, I whole-heartedly apologize...I remember being very confused (obviously saddened) by what was going on. I believe this was 10 years ago or so...

[23won]

Lun

That's what the article in the link said.

[glorydays]

My memory is hazy but there was an incident at the game with Marshall at the Palestra in December of 1970.
Marshall's FB team was tragically lost in a plane crash in November of 1970. A group of Marshall students brought a big Marshall flag to every away basketball game in memory of the victims.

At the game at the Palestra (December 1970)some overenthusiastic LaSalle gents snatched the flag and a near riot ensued. I believe that there were no broken bones and that it all ended in handshakes.


digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=basketball_media_guides


It looks like the 70-71 media guide was published without a complete schedule.
I remember the Explos getting waxed by Penn before the Christmas break.

[talkinbball]

This was also my soph year. Great memories throughout this thread so will just add some random comments.

My recollection is that Durrett actually hit his knee on the Canisius guy's head to cause the injury.

There was no dunking allowed in the game at that time. In the Villanova game, Ron Kennedy (who was not known for his offense) made 3 baskets by basically holding the ball over the rim and dropping it in which was acceptable.

When we won the Villanova game, I took part in the only "Court Rushing" I ever personally remember taking part in. Part of this recollection is that, after I actually got on the court, I did not know what to do. Others were carrying players around on their shoulders (my buddy was carrying Fields) but, lacking that, it was just a lot of milling around and yelling.

We lost to Georgia Tech (Rich Yunkus was their "big gun" both literally and figuratively. He stood around 6'11") in the NIT at the Garden in a very frustrating game with Durrett playing on one leg. We almost got in a fight with the security people.

In an away game at Albright, during the course of a blow out win, a ball rolled right past Fields and went out of bounds, when he was not paying the slightest attention to the game at the time and appeared to be staring at a female in the stands.

If you were part of it at the time, it almost goes without saying that Durrett and Fields are also my two all time favorite players. (One of my rare "Touches with Greatness" is that one time I was in a dorm room with Kenny D. smoking ......)

[23won]

Phillies Blunts

[baab]

That team would have been really, really good if Bill Pleas had been able to stay eligible. He would have been a junior I think. I saw a couple of his games in '69-70 on Ch. 17 and the guy was a beast around the basket. I didn't realize this but it looks like he averaged 16 ppg and 12 rpg on a very good Detroit team after he left LaSalle.

[5036crestview]

I saw Billy Please make the dumbest but most spectacular play ever. As you probably remember he could jump incredibly high. On one play he jumped so high that he actually reached inside the basket and pulled the ball out of the net and  over the top of the rim. I'm not making it up. 

[big5vet]

I was at the Western Kentucky game too. You all have recaptured some great memories. My only addition would be that the game was the best I had ever seen, on TV or in person by KD. What a player.

[las71]

Also at the Western Kentucky game. My recollection was that besides McDaniel they had another big guy and Durrett was having trouble getting open. Westhead called a time out and after that he had Durrett bring the ball up and given that freedom he exploded from there. Having a point forward was a new concept at that time. Both Westhead and Durrett were ahead of their time.

[broderickpresident]

For an idea of how special Ken Durrett was, look at his statistics in the 8 games leading up to his injury against Canisius
Attachment Deleted



That comes out to 34.0 PPG and 13.8 RPG on 52.5% FG and 83.1% FT during an 8-game stretch in which the team went 7-1 and knocked off the 5th-ranked team in the country

Almost certainly the best 8-game stretch of individual brilliance in program history. Such an unfortunate ending to his career

[talkinbball]

Not sure exactly why this was brought up but anytime we can bring back the players and memories of that team I am definitely in favor of it. (Noticed in looking through this that I responded in length above so will let it go at that).

[gymratlsc72]

Apr 5, 2019 7:23:55 GMT -5 las71 said:

Also at the Western Kentucky game. My recollection was that besides McDaniel they had another big guy and Durrett was having trouble getting open. Westhead called a time out and after that he had Durrett bring the ball up and given that freedom he exploded from there. Having a point forward was a new concept at that time. Both Westhead and Durrett were ahead of their time.

This is one of my favorite 'moments' EVER as a La Salle fan ... when Westhead introduced college basketball to the full breadth of Kenny Durrett's talents and the 'point forward' concept (not sure we knew to call it that at the time). From that point forward (pun intended), the rest of that game was FANTASTIC, as we saw a display of skills we had never seen before! It's rare that you get to see an exact demarcation point when a player 'takes it up a level' in their game, but it was certainly true in this instance.

You are correct, Westhead and Durrett were truly ahead of their time. There were NO centers or forwards that could cover Durrett once his full skill set was on display.