La Salle Basketball History Podcast Episode

[theneumann64]

Hi everyone,

I mentioned this a few months ago, but the sports history podcast I do with my brother, called “Hello, Old Sports” is doing a few episodes about sports at our alma maters (my brother went to Boston University so we’re doing an episode on their hockey program as well).

Our first of 2 episodes on La Salle basketball history is out now. This one cover the history of the school, the beginnings of the program, and up until the early 1960’s. The majority of this episode is an interview with David Grzybowski, who wrote the Tom Gola book a few years back.

Link to the episode is here and I’d love it if some people here would check it out. It’s also available on iTunes and that kind of stuff. This is just something we do for fun in our free time, so I’m sure there’s some slight factual errors or mis-pronunciations, but I think it came out well overall. Let me know if you listen to it and have any feedback. Part 2 will probably come out sometime next week and I’ll be sure of post it here.

player.captivate.fm/episode/f48a60d0-0178-479f-b730-483cdd9f064c/

[theneumann64]

And a link to David’s book
m.barnesandnoble.com/w/mr-all-around-david-grzybowski/1128591632?ean=9781439916797

[broderickpresident]

My ‘hot take’ on la Salle history is that the 1954 team was actually the worst of the 4 Gola teams

Also, Larry foust’s jersey should be retired yesterday

Look forward to giving a listen

[broderickpresident]

Giving a listen now. I study basketball history quite a bit so will try to clear up any questions you pose on the pod.

First of all, thanks for giving props to Foust. He's easily the most deserving player not currently in the Hall of Fame. He, Bosh, Wade, Dirk, Vince and Pierce are the only retired players with 8+ All-Star selections not in the Hall of Fame. Obviously all of the others will be inducted in Springfield when the time comes

You mention how La Salle fans say when we won the NIT in 1952 it was stronger than the NCAA but that when we won the NCAA in 1954 it was better and how that sounds like a lie.

It's actually not. I recently finished 'Miracles on Hardwood' a new book about the history of Catholic college basketball. It has great stuff on the 50s, 60s and 70s before the nausea-inducing shit about Rollie and the Big East.

the 1952 NIT is cited as the strongest field the tournament ever had (La Salle had to beat 4 top-15 teams in succession to take the crown). It was also the final year teams could compete in both the NIT and the NCAA Tournament. La Salle defeated St John's on its home court in the NIT. The Johnnies then went to the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the championship game. In fact, several of the teams La Salle beat in the NIT were selected for the NCAA Tournament and Loeffler got a note in the locker room after beating Dayton that he'd made the committee look bad by winning the NIT and not getting an invite.

La Salle did have it's chance to prove itself after the NIT, though. As part of the Olympic trials, La Salle and NCAA champ Kansas were invited to participate. Kansas beat La Salle 70-65, with 6'9" Clyde Lovellette (huge for the time) dropping 40 on us. However, La Salle was playing without Jackie Moore (who would go on to win a ring with the Philadelphia Warriors), a valuable big man and rebounder who Wilt Chamberlain cites as one of his earliest idols and teachers. Have to think that with Jackie Moore La Salle wins that game and is the 'TRUE' national champion

In 1953 La Salle and many other power schools actually CHOSE to play in the NIT rather than the NCAA because it was more prestigious and kids on the east coast preferred to play at MSG near family. We lost a controversial nailbiter in which Gola and Moore (arguably their 2 most important players) were severely limited by injuries and were held out for most of the first half as La Salle fell behind. If you can believe it or not, Gola was so hobbled that he (the NCAA's all-time rebound leader) didn't grab a single rebound! I think this 1953 team was La Salle's best ever and could have won the NCAA or NIT (whichever they chose) were it not for the hobbled stars.

In 1954, La Salle had lost much of the core of those great 1952 and 1953 teams but they had college basketball's best player in Gola. By 1954, conferences mandated their champs play in the NCAA over the NIT, so La Salle (and many others) had no choice. 2 notable missing teams were independent Duquesne (who elected to play in NIT) and Kentucky (who was suspended from postseason play). The NCAA was easily the better tournament field that year, but La Salle had a relatively 'easy' path (only facing 1 ranked team, NC State) to the championship due to upsets elsewhere in the bracket. We had lost at Kentucky by 13 that year, but that was a true road game. We had beaten Duquesne the year before and would lose to them by 2 the next season.

So 1954 was truly the first year that the NCAA Tournament was 'THE' tournament. Many very good to great teams would continue to play in the NIT for awhile, but the NCAA tournament was clearly the best to win from 1953 or 1954 onward. In 1952, La Salle's NIT win was more impressive than Kansas's NCAA win and the Explorers almost certainly beat the Jayhawks if Jackie Moore suits up

[glorydays]

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

[broderickpresident]

On Raftery:

Raftery was the #1 recruit in the country (like Gola) coming out of St. Cecelia's in New Jersey. He was supposed to be the next Gola. He'd broken Tommy Heinsohn's NJ HS scoring record. Played great for our freshman team and had a pretty strong sophomore year. Suffered a pretty bad back injury and some point and was never quite the same in his final 2 seasons, leading to an ultimately disappointing career.

[theneumann64]

Thanks! Additional info is always great. I try to learn as much as I can before each episode (and in most episodes my brother is far more knowledgeable about the topic going in so he leads, but this was an obvious exception since I went to La Salle and he didn't), but there's usually things I miss or have wrong.

[broderickpresident]

Really enjoyed the pod. Thanks for doing

[theneumann64]

Thanks. Second one should be out at some point this week. I would've loved to drop in some audio clips (think Southwest Philly Floater) but after a dozen or so episodes of doing that, the guy who runs our Podcast Network started freaking out about getting in copyright trouble so he told us not to do it anymore.

[glorydays]

It took a couple sessions but finished the podcast. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I heard most of the history before but it was good to hear it fairly sequentially. My Lord, Harding was a horse’s butt. His demeanor and feud with the Inquirer’s Frank Dolson put an unnecessary spotlight on the program. The loss to Columbia in the opening round of the NCAA in ‘68 was one of my biggest disappointments as an Explo fan.

[explorerguy]

Attended that game at the University of Maryland if I am not mistaken.

[glorydays]

Apr 7, 2021 19:42:49 GMT -5 explorerguy said:

Attended that game at the University of Maryland if I am not mistaken.

Yes, the old Cole Field House.

[23won]

Nice work on the podcast. Enjoyed it!

[theneumann64]

Thanks./My brother is slacking (busy with work and real-life) so Part 2 won't be up until early next week, but it shouldn't be too much longer.