sign in sign up
<<
Home , Ivy League, Jack McCloskey

MARCH MADNESS

38 MARCH | APRIL 2016 THE GAZETTE What’s more frustrating than playing men’s in the same era as ? Winning the University’s fi rst offi cial Ivy championship the year after he graduated, and then being kept out of postseason play because of a fi ght between the League and the NCAA. Fifty years later, Penn’s 1965-66 squad still wonders what might have been.

MISSED

BY DAVE ZEITLIN asketball, as it usually does, surrounds Stan Pawlak C’66 as he settles into a corner table at the New Deck Tavern Bon the last Saturday before Christmas. Behind him, on the TV, Virginia is playing Villanova—a team that, back in his playing days for Penn a half-century ago, was on the other end of one of his favorite wins. And just as soon as he’s done with his lunch, he’ll walk the couple of blocks to the to call a Penn hoops game on the radio. The game itself is not especially appealing—Penn is hosting Division III Ursinus (who they’ll beat 73-66)—but that doesn’t deter Pawlak, who’s never been in it for the glory. One of his favorite things about calling games—which he’s been doing for several decades—is joining the players and coaches on weekend bus trips in the dead of winter to Ithaca or Hanover or any of the other freezing, unglamorous stops on the Ivy League road tour. “Is it comfortable on the bus?” he says between bites of a corned-beef Reuben. “No. But it wasn’t 50 years ago either.” Fifty years. PENN ATHLETICS

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE MARCH | APRIL 2016 39 Sometimes he has a hard time wrap- For Pawlak, the sting remains 50 years Edgar Wideman C’63 Hon’86 [“Wideman ping his head around just how long it’s later—and the decision makes even less on Campus,” Jul|Aug 2000], which won 19 been since he played his final basketball sense than it did then. “It’s funny,” he says. games and a piece of the Big 5 champion- game for Penn. He likes to say that he “The person I am now? I wish I were that ship. But “we scared the hell out of them,” doesn’t expect today’s players to know a person then. Someone with experience. Pawlak recalls. thing about him because, well, what did Someone that’s been around the block two Despite being on the other side of that he know about the 1915-16 team during or three times. If I was that person, I would scare, McCloskey surely enjoyed seeing his senior year? be sitting on Jeremiah Ford’s desk saying, his new recruits take it to his veterans. But Pawlak—one of the best players ‘How can you do this to us? How can you After all, luring some of those guys to ever to wear a Penn uniform—is short- do it? What point are you trying to make? Penn hadn’t been easy. changing himself. The 6-foot-3 small An ideal? You’re not the one not playing. Neuman was set on attending forward remains etched in the program’s We’re the ones not playing.’” University, which then had a strong record books, having scored more career With time, the snub has also become Division I program. It wasn’t until visit- points (1,501) than all but seven other harder to deal with for Charly Fitzgerald ing Penn “as a courtesy” and shaking Quakers, despite having only three sea- C’66 GEd’69 WG’83, the shooting guard hands with McCloskey between games sons of varsity play (freshmen had their and defensive specialist on Penn’s cham- of a Big 5 doubleheader that he changed own team back then). And longtime Penn pionship team. his mind, realizing he needed a tough fans are well aware of the electrifying Fitzgerald still can’t get enough college and “truthful” coach to take the next partnership he honed with classmate basketball. He’s a season-ticket holder— step after often getting mixed messages Jeff Neuman W’66 WG’67, a crafty point and sometimes sneaks into practices—at at Altoona High. guard whose style was ahead of its time. the , where he “His presence was so powerful that I Less well-known, at least in its entire- worked in development for 28 years just said, ‘Man, I want to play for this ty, is the story of how Pawlak’s college before retiring last year. Like millions guy,’” says Neuman, calling it one of the basketball career—and those of Neuman of Americans, he’s enamored of the NCAA most important meetings of his life. “He and the other seniors on the 1965-66 tournament, in which UVA has been a was tough and he was involved and he squad—ended: with one of the most epic fixture in recent years. would look you in the eyes and there was wins in program history being overshad- But it sometimes pains him to follow something so authentic about him. With owed by a political tug-of-war between March Madness knowing he should have McCloskey, it was like, ‘Man, this is a the National Collegiate Athletic Asso- once been a part of it, alongside his fellow guy you’d run through a wall for.’” ciation and the Ivy League. Fresh off the seniors and their hard-charging coach, Hellings, a 6-foot-9 center from Bucks program’s first official Ivy champion- Jack McCloskey Ed’48 GEd’52. “Every year County, was also close to going elsewhere— ship, the Quakers were denied the oppor- at tournament time, I feel that twinge,” famed hoops coach Lefty Driesell, then at tunity to take their rightful place in the Fitzgerald says. “I would be dishonest if , was hot on his trail— NCAA tournament. I didn’t say it. It’s something that’s always before being persuaded by McCloskey and And why? Then-athletic director Jeremiah left undone. It was a goal and an aspira- top assistant coach Ed’53 to Ford II C’32 G’42’s refused to comply with tion. It’s a once-in-a-life opportunity. come to the Ivy League instead. He proved a new NCAA rule requiring all student- “And it just went by.” to be a critical piece of the puzzle, starting athletes to maintain a minimum grade alongside Pawlak and Neuman for most point average of 1.6. While in practice THE CHAMPIONSHIP CORE of his four years at Penn and doing the that would not have been a problem for dirty work of grabbing rebounds and, like Penn’s players, the University’s beef was bout three-and-a-half years before Fitzgerald, playing solid defense—even if that the national organization should the drama of the 1965-66 season he didn’t always look the part. not determine institutional policy. The Aunfolded, Jeff Neuman confi- “He was so unorthodox,” recalls Decker rest of the Ivy League shared this view— dently sauntered off the Palestra floor, Uhlhorn C’69, who worked for many but Penn’s team was the one that got stopping on his way to the locker room years for Penn Athletics and was on the sacrificed to principle. to playfully rib McCloskey. freshman basketball team in 1965-66. To varying extents, Pawlak and the other “We’re gonna beat you.” “His knees were going one way, elbows players sympathized with the League’s Neuman was then the point guard on were going another. But he was a force. resistance to the rule—a regulation that Penn’s freshman team. And along with He was a hell of a role player. And I think author and former Daily Pennsylvanian classmates Pawlak, Fitzgerald, and John one of the most underrated players was sports editor Dan Rottenberg C’64 describes Hellings CE’66 GCE’67—the future core Charly Fitzgerald. He did everything—in as “well-intentioned but really stupid.” But of the 1965-66 championship squad—he the trenches, score when he needed to everyone agrees that it was a shame that was showing off all of his considerable score, stop the guy who needed to be they were caught in the middle of a battle talents during the annual freshman vs. stopped. He truly was the glue.” they never wanted any part of, especially varsity game. Those two players were certainly vital because Penn’s own academic standards In the end, the freshmen lost—barely—to because, as Hellings says, “If we had five were higher than what the NCAA was try- Penn’s very good 1962-63 varsity squad, led guys like Jeff and Stan, we probably ing to establish anyway. by Rhodes Scholar and future novelist John wouldn’t have done as well.” That’s not

40 MARCH | APRIL 2016 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE a knock against Neuman and Pawlak; Neuman “the perfect player for me.” It the NBA.” Lance Laver C’66, the basket- it’s just the reality that there wouldn’t also helped that he had a vast array of ball team’s manager as well as the DP be room on one court for any more offen- moves, including a head fake that often managing editor, agrees. He remembers sive superstars. And that’s exactly what left defenders reeling. “I don’t think peo- honoring Pawlak with the newspaper’s they were: superstars. ple thought I was gonna do what I did,” player of the year award and announcing, Those who watched Neuman play say Pawlak says. “I really believe that with “I now present this award to a player he was doing things with a basketball— my whole heart. If you look at me, I was who, if he were three inches taller, would behind-the-back passes, flashy dribbling— a 6-3 guy who at that time wasn’t really a be on everyone’s All-American list.” that were almost unheard of at the time. good shooter, not real fast, couldn’t jump Pawlak’s nose for the basket, Neuman’s (Hellings remembers him taking some real high, didn’t look that athletic.” playmaking ability, Hellings’ rebounding, criticism for this, but Neuman insists Fitzgerald, who once told The Daily and Fitzgerald’s defense formed the central McCloskey had “not a qualm about it.”) Pennsylvanian that it was “senseless to elements of arguably one of the best class- And Pawlak knew just where to go to want to shoot with Jeff and Stan on the es in Penn basketball history. “It was a good receive those passes, especially on Penn’s team,” insists that if Pawlak had been mix,” Hellings says. “We all recognized that, brutally efficient fast breaks, and to put 6-7 or 6-8, he “would have been a star in once we started playing with each other.” the ball in the basket once he did. After He also credits McCloskey’s coaching. “We setting the freshman team scoring record, were all a little strong-minded, but Jack was he went on to lead the team in scoring as a sophomore (16.7 points per game), junior (21.5) and senior (23.2). “His motion was strong and sure,” says Neuman, who was no slouch at scoring himself, averaging 16 points per game in his three varsity seasons. “He really could get in position, and I had the abil- ity to get the ball to him. We just knew what each other was doing. It was a strong relationship.” The two were never friends away from the gym, and haven’t stayed in touch since college, but Pawlak agrees that the pair- ing always worked on the court, calling

(Clockwise from top) Stan Pawlak, John Hellings, Jeff Neuman, and Charly Fitzgerald. PENN ATHLETICS THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE MARCH | APRIL 2016 41 able to meld the group into a good team,” York Knicks, and a long career in poli- But that rough loss in the ice-cold Ithaca he adds. “At the end of the day, we all had tics—Penn’s battle-hardened seniors armory set up the ultimate drama, which differences in personalities and talent but headed into the 1965-66 season with took place in the friendlier confines of the it just kind of fit together.” high expectations. Palestra just three days later—March 1, There was only one problem: Bill Bradley. They were determined not to repeat the 1966—when Penn finally figured out a way fate of the senior-laden 1962-63 Penn team, to beat Princeton to capture the program’s GETTING OVER which blew its chance at McCloskey’s first first official Ivy League championship. (The THE (PRINCETON) HUMP Ivy title after getting stunned by Columbia league hadn’t been formally established at home in the season’s penultimate game. when Penn came out on top in 1953.) Led ollowing productive freshman “I remember Stan and myself talking about by 18 points from Neuman and 15 from campaigns from Pawlak, Neuman, that and saying, ‘Let’s not let that happen Fitzgerald (“I jammed a finger and I wasn’t Fand company, as well as the grad- to us,’” Fitzgerald says. “If we have a chance myself,” Pawlak recalls), the Quakers earned uation of Wideman and several key var- to win in our senior year, we’re not gonna a hard-fought 56-48 victory. sity players, it was clear from the start let down.” Considering the stakes, the opponent, of the 1963-64 season that, as Neuman Neuman had a similar, albeit slightly the history, and the location, few Penn- puts it, “We were gonna be the engine of less nuanced, perspective heading into Princeton games—or any Penn games, this thing.” But with only one upperclass- their much-anticipated senior seasons. really—have matched this one. And the man who was a key contributor—guard “I believe I felt, ‘If we don’t win it this Quakers reacted accordingly, cutting Ray Carazo C’64—the Quakers, perhaps year, it’s ridiculous,’” he recalls. down the nets and carrying their coach predictably, struggled early on. “‘Bradley’s gone, for goodness sake. off the floor after being mobbed by fans. Neuman still remembers how “depress- What’s the excuse?’” But even during the celebration, there ing” it was to lose five straight games Boosted by the inside presence of was an ominous undercurrent. early in the season before the Quakers junior Frank Burgess W’70 and sopho- In the first paragraph of his New York opened Ivy play with a momentous 70-69 more Tom Mallison C’68, the Quakers Times report of the game, Gordon S. overtime win over Yale. For Neuman, who notched impressive city wins over Jr. wrote: “Pennsylvania won its first Ivy hit the game-winning foul shot in the Villanova and La Salle. But it wasn’t League basketball championship in 13 final seconds, that win was “a big step” for Penn and even led to some tears of joy in the locker room. “This was really a unique But looming down the road was perhaps the best player in all of . situation, and the Ivy League The first time the Quakers played nem- esis Princeton during the 1963-64 cam- paign, they actually held the great Bill really did stand up to the Bradley to 18 points—well below his aver- age—with an aggressive box-and-one NCAA in ways that no member defense. But the Tigers still easily won both of their matchups with Penn that do anymore.” season—and the following one, too—en route to back-to-back outright Ivy League always smooth sailing. Early in the Ivy years tonight but found itself in the posi- championships. As a senior in 1964-65, season, they lost to a Bradley-less tion of possibly being like the pretty girl Bradley was named national player of the Princeton. Later, after reeling off seven who was all dressed up with nowhere to year and led the Tigers on a stunning run straight conference wins, the Quakers go.” The Ivy League’s objection to the to the Final Four, before scoring a then- fell to Cornell in their final road game. NCAA’s GPA requirement, which had been record 58 points in an NCAA tournament The Ivy League’s New York road trip— passed two months earlier, was well doc- consolation game against Wichita State. when teams travel from Columbia to umented. And the NCAA had made it clear “I remember reading the Wichita coach Cornell or vice versa between games—is that failure to comply, in writing, with the saying, ‘We’ll let Bradley get his 30,’” a notoriously brutal 225-mile slog, and new legislation would result in exclusion says Fitzgerald, who typically matched may have played a role. Fitzgerald from NCAA championship events. up against Bradley. “After trying to keep remembers not sleeping at all after The uncertainly lasted for a couple more him from getting the ball for so long, I Penn’s 15-point win over Columbia the days as the Ivy League presidents and said to myself, ‘Oh my God, he doesn’t night before facing the Big Red. And NCAA officials tried to negotiate a solu- know what he’s doing.’ And Bradley had Cornell’s old gym at was an tion. The Quakers, who were scheduled to 58 points. You don’t let Bradley get his excruciating place to play in. “A big play Syracuse in the first round of the 30, or he gets 58.” armory,” Pawlak recalls. “An ice-cold NCAA tournament in Blacksburg, Virginia, The Quakers had gone 10-4 in the Ivy place with no one watching the game. even held a practice after beating Princeton, League in both 1963-64 and 1964-65. You could hear the hockey fans yelling and McCloskey flew to Buffalo to scout With Bradley gone—to Oxford, the New from three buildings away.” Syracuse. But the players could sense

42 MARCH | APRIL 2016 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE the outcome. “I could tell there wasn’t the TWO SIDES OF THE STORY “They were not only good basketball play- normal intensity of practice,” Fitzgerald ers but they had a sense of humor,” he says. recalls. “It was highly suspicious.” Adds ack McCloskey knows the feeling. “One time I mentioned to them that we Neuman: “It was kind of a ghost town.” McCloskey is 90 now, and when were going to be the best. And that became Their intuitions proved to be correct. Jhe picks up the phone he makes a theme with them. One day, they said, ‘Hey After McCloskey delivered the message two things clear right away. The first is Coach, do you still want us to be the best?’ that his team wouldn’t be going to the that he doesn’t hear very well anymore I said, ‘Yeah, of course I do!’ If they did NCAA tournament, the team’s five seniors— and can’t remember as much as he used something else, they’d say, ‘Hey, was that Pawlak, Neuman, Fitzgerald, Hellings, and to. The second is that he’s looking direct- the best, Coach?’ It was fun. It was great.” Bob Auchter W’66 (who has since passed ly at a framed picture of the 1965-66 The fact that that Quaker team—despite away)—went to Smokey Joe’s for a beer. Penn basketball team, which hangs on being “the best” in the Ivy League that “I just saw it as a gross injustice,” says his living room wall in Georgia. season—never got to test themselves Uhlhorn. “To think you had to sit behind “I forget things,” he says. “But I’ll never against the top teams from across the the Bradley team for two years, and then forget that.” country pains McCloskey to this day. His when you get your chance and you can McCloskey had a great career in basketball animosity toward the Penn administra- really shine and get on a major stage and after leaving Penn—including a wildly suc- tion, specifically athletic director Jerry then someone takes it away for basically cessful stint as general manager of the Ford (who passed away in 1997), also political and institutional fighting …” from 1979 to 1992 that includ- remains. He says that Penn’s disqualifica- He trails off, his irritation seeming to ed two NBA championships—but he says tion from the NCAA tournament made grow with each word. that team holds a special place in his heart. him decide to leave his alma mater—where he had played football, basketball, and baseball in the 1940s—before he had Moment of triumph: The Ivy champs celebrate—before learning that their season is over. PENN ATHLETICS

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE MARCH | APRIL 2016 43 another job lined up. “I had to leave the sion was the “only choice” because the year there’s a championship in some- University, because I’d get in trouble with NCAA’s position was “inflexible, inap- thing and you get to go to the NCAAs. [Ford]. I’m an Irishman. I would have had plicable and unnecessary for the league” But this was really a unique situation, trouble.” Though he was soon hired by and was just another in a series of “fool- and the Ivy League really did stand up Wake Forest, where he coached from 1966 ish contrivances by a group of power- to the NCAA in ways that no member to 1972 before beginning his NBA career, hungry men whose commitments to tele- colleges do anymore.” “I had nowhere to go at the time,” he says. vision and material benefits in general Rottenberg, who played football at Penn, To coach a team for a decade with one have often marred its true duty to the sympathizes with the players and allows goal in mind and then have it snatched betterment of intercollegiate athletics.” that it was “sort of a shame it happened away at the moment of achievement (That assessment may sound eerily pre- the one year [when] Penn won the Ivy would be maddening for any coach, let scient to many people.) League.” But he’s always been a passion- alone one as ambitious and tough-mind- Most important, Ford had the backing ate defender of Ford, who was instrumen- ed as McCloskey. But while his former of Penn’s then-President Gaylord tal in making sure Penn was included in players understand his anger, it’s impor- Harnwell Hon’53. According to the DP, the formation of the Ivy League in 1954. tant to note that some of them—at least Penn could have played in the NCAA One well-known impact of that decision at the time—expressed some pride that tournament had Harnwell renounced was to ensure the end of big-time football Penn and the Ivy League did not capitu- Ford’s telegram. But instead he provided at Penn, which led to Ford “becoming a late to the NCAA. And the issues at hand, a statement to further explain Penn’s pariah among the sports alumni,” says of course, went a lot deeper than a simple objection to the NCAA rule, declaring Rottenberg, whose Fight on, Pennsylvania: feud between Ford and McCloskey. that it was intended for student-athletes A Century of Red and Blue Football covers Writing in The Inquirer in on financial aid and thus should have the history of the sport at Penn up to 1984. the wake of the controversy, legendary no bearing on the Ivy League, where ath- Many alumni never forgave him for that; sports columnist Frank Dolson W’54 stood letic scholarships are not given. For the a year after the 1966 NCAA basketball up for Ford and came down hard on the same reason, he also balked at another spat, they engineered his dismissal. NCAA’s executive director, Walter Byers. piece of the NCAA’s legislation, which “What I respected about Jerry Ford is he According to Dolson’s column and other stated that an athlete is not eligible for really saw the big picture,” Rottenberg says. newspaper accounts, the NCAA and the a scholarship as a freshman if he doesn’t “And that big picture is: What is the mis- Ivy League had at one point reached a com- have a predicted GPA of 1.6 based on his sion of this institution? The mission is promise that entailed the conference’s high-school academic credentials. education … He was in this position where eight schools sending telegrams to NCAA In his own statement, Princeton’s he was keenly aware of Penn’s vulnerable headquarters stating that certain aca- President Goheen laid out the Ivy League’s situation within the Ivy League. Everyone demic, admissions, and student-aid infor- objections to the rule, writing that there else sort of took that for granted.” mation would be provided to the NCAA. were three cardinal issues: “(1) Do you But Ford, Dolson wrote, “suspected the believe that athletes should be treated dif- NOT GETTING THEIR DUE compromise was really a trap” and sent ferently than other students? (2) Do you Byers a telegram that flatly stated: believe that an athletic organization a cold night in January of this “Pennsylvania will not comply with the should seek to determine academic policy? ON year, Stan Pawlak heard his 1.6 legislation.” Yale sent an identical (3) Do you believe that a student with a low name called over the Palestra loudspeaker telegram, prompting the NCAA to declare grade average should automatically be and walked to the middle of the court. In both schools ineligible for postseason debarred from participation in sports and honor of the 60th anniversary of the Big 5, competition. And although Ford was from financial aid, no matter his academ- each of the member teams—Penn, Villanova, “tagged as the man who upset the agree- ic potential?” Goheen continued: “If your Saint Joseph’s, Temple, and La Salle—invit- ment by an act of defiance,” his action answers are ‘yes’ to these three questions, ed former star players to represent each of was “vindicated” when Robert Goheen, you will support the NCAA’s rule. If your the last six decades of Philadelphia basket- Princeton’s president and de facto head answers are ‘No’ then you will understand ball. Pawlak was Penn’s honoree for the of the Ivy League on the issue, said that why it is impossible for the Ivy Group insti- 1960s, waving to the fans during a timeout the other six schools would back Penn tutions to accept the 1.6 legislation.” He of a Big 5 doubleheader, but he says he and Yale, presenting a united Ivy front. went on to note that a single GPA standard wouldn’t be surprised if many of them had “It’s easy to get lost in a welter of senti- for every college was unrealistic, and that forgotten what decade he played in. ment; to lose sight of the real issues,” it could prevent athletes from attending “A lot of people, they know I played for Dolson concluded. “It took courage on schools with more challenging academic Penn, but they think I played for the Dave Ford’s part to make what had to be, at the programs—like, perhaps, the Ivies. Wohl-Corky Calhoun team,” says Pawlak, time, a difficult—and unpopular—move.” “To me, that was sort of the Ivy League’s referring to the renowned 1970-71 squad Neuman was quoted in an article in the finest hour, really,” says Dan Rottenberg, that had a 28-0 regular season record old Philadelphia Bulletin as saying that the who had covered Penn basketball a cou- before getting stunned by Villanova in players “were kind of happy the Ivy didn’t ple of years earlier for the DP, and whose the NCAA tournament [“Almost Perfect,” back down.” And brother, Bob Rottenberg C’66, was sports Mar|Apr 2011]. “They can’t go back” any wrote an editorial positing that the deci- editor during the 1965-66 season. “Every further than that.

44 MARCH | APRIL 2016 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Pawlak believes that the 1965-66 Quakers of the college athlete. Back then, almost that the Ivy League would leave or be get “overlooked a little,” surely in part all of Penn’s players were multi-sport expelled from the NCAA, within two years because they didn’t get their chance to athletes. Pawlak threw the discus for the the 1.6 rule was amended sufficiently for make a run on the national stage. He prob- track team. (He also washed dishes for the Ivies to come into compliance. ably has a point. In the annals of Penn four years in the dining hall.) Once, when According to an article in the January basketball, the teams from the 1970s— he asked a professor what he could do 30, 1968 Cornell Daily Sun, the provision including of course the 1978-79 Final Four to get his grade up, he was advised to requiring student-athletes to maintain squad—get the most appreciation, with the “quit basketball and track.” a 1.6 GPA in college was repealed while Jerome Allen-Matt Maloney teams of the Fitzgerald remembers a similar inter- the clause that necessitated “predict- mid-1990s, which enjoyed some memo- action with a teacher, who wanted him ability” of a 1.6 GPA for incoming stu- rable NCAA tourney moments in their own to get a written excuse from the dent-athletes remained. The NCAA has right, not far behind. to miss a seminar the day Penn was maintained standards for high school Aside from a mention (1966 Team—NCAA scheduled to play in the NCAA tourna- students to receive athletic scholarships Bid Spurned) on a wall-mounted timeline ment. (As it turned out, he was able to ever since, although the 1.6 rule was abol- inside the Palestra, Penn’s first Ivy League attend.) And a couple of days after the ished in 1973 in favor of a 2.0 GPA stan- championship team hasn’t gotten much hoops season ended, he and Neuman dard, which later gave way to the more recognition. And no ceremony marking its both headed off to baseball practice. balanced Proposition 48, which also 50th anniversary was planned. McCloskey was their coach. factors in standardized test scores. Hellings, who lives in Texas, has only “In today’s world, if [a conference winner] Of course, the Ivy League has always been back to campus a couple of times didn’t go to the NCAA tournament, there maintained its own, higher, standards since graduating, and hasn’t seen his old would be protests, there would be a back- for admission. And Penn, too, has its teammates since their 25th reunion. But lash,” Pawlak says. “It would be a big story academic requirements—made evident he still laughs about the old running joke on ESPN. When we were there, that was it.” recently when sophomore guard Antonio they had: “We take solace in the fact that There were some repercussions. Not Woods was declared ineligible in January we can proudly say that if we’d been in only did McCloskey bolt, but Pawlak due to “insufficient academic progress the damn tournament, we would have won claims that Penn also lost a big recruit to under University policy.” it. We claimed the title that year. At the Princeton, future NBA all-star Geoff Petrie. Knowing all that, Pawlak concedes that 25th reunion, we claimed the NCAA title.” And the Quakers struggled for the next the Ivy League’s objection to the NCAA Had they actually played, it may have couple of seasons before beginning their trying to dictate uniform standards was taken “a miracle” for Penn to win its first- decade of dominance in the 1970s. “correct.” But he still feels like more could round game against a loaded Syracuse Pawlak speculates that not getting a have been done to find a compromise, team that featured future star Dave Bing, chance to play on the national stage may considering that his was the only basket- who averaged a whopping 28.4 points per have hurt his chances to make an NBA ball team ever affected by the dispute. game, and Syracuse’s current coach, Jim roster. “I was always the last guy cut,” “We weren’t even [given] a thought,” Boeheim. “But there’s no telling,” Helling he says. Instead, he enjoyed a fruitful Pawlak says. “What was best for us never says. “We had a few miracle games against career in the Eastern Professional entered into anyone’s mind. I mean, how some of the Big 5 teams.” Basketball League (later renamed the can you not let us go?” “They might have beaten our brains Continental Basketball Association) Still, Pawlak’s bitterness about the in, but who knows?” adds Pawlak. “It before getting into coaching. situation has never affected his attitude would have been fun.” What Pawlak found most upsetting toward his alma mater. That much is It’s a testament to the magic of the about the situation 50 years ago was that clear when you see him on press row at NCAA basketball that the former it unfolded without Ford ever talking to the Palestra, smiling as he watches the players still think about what could have the players, who put up little resistance sport that opened so many doors for happened. But the tournament is differ- because they didn’t think there was any- him—even if one big one was forever ent now than it was 50 years ago. It was thing they could do. (They did later get sealed shut. 22 teams, not today’s 68. There was no a letter of apology from President “The best thing I ever did was picking wall-to-wall March Madness coverage on Harnwell, Fitzgerald says, which was Penn and staying in the area,” Pawlak TV. No ESPN bracketologists or Internet “little consolation for not having played says. “I mean, if you want to write a betting pools. So when the Ivy League in the tournament.”) And the lasting dream story, we get into the tournament winner didn’t go to the NCAA tournament impact of Ford’s big stand never seemed and we beat Syracuse.” just a year after the previous Ivy cham- entirely clear to them, either. He pauses to think about it some more, pion had made it to the Final Four, it A few other Ivy League teams were ruled visions dancing in his head of what it didn’t generate anything like the kind ineligible for post-season play in 1966 could have been like to play just one more of national attention it would today. and 1967, but none were as high profile college basketball game, 50 years ago. Television coverage wasn’t the only as Penn hoops. (Princeton did compete Or maybe two, or three … difference. The tournament itself wasn’t in the 1967 NCAA tournament, winning “Yeah,” he continues softly, “that would as glamorous—the NIT was still a big a game while it was there.) And although be a dream story.” ◆ deal at the time—and neither was the life there was some posturing to the effect Dave Zeitlin C’03 writes frequently for the Gazette.

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE MARCH | APRIL 2016 45