50 Things on 50 Years of Big 5 Nov 14, 2005 by BOB VETRONE JR
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50 things on 50 years of Big 5 Nov 14, 2005 By BOB VETRONE JR. Whether the historic bits of information that your brain retains are implanted through tales told at your father's knee or through the magic of a rickety old typewriter or the hum of a threadbare newsreel, they are worth re-living, again and again . Therefore, here are the things you should know about the half-century of basketball the Big 5 has already unleashed. Fittingly - and almost impossibly - we'll try to keep them to 50 . 1. The agreement to have all five schools play doubleheaders at the Palestra - including a full round robin among them - was announced on Nov. 23, 1954. 2. At that point, Penn and Villanova had met only once, on Jan. 7, 1922. 3. "Impossible 20 years ago; improbable 10 years ago; inevitable five years ago; but incredible even today . " - Executive Sports Editor Leo Riordan in the Nov. 25, 1954 edition of the Inquirer 4. The first twinbill took place on Saturday, Dec. 3, 1955, as La Salle fell to Muhlenberg and Saint Joseph's beat Rhode Island. 5. The city series itself was christened 11 days later, when Saint Joseph's topped Villanova after La Salle's victory over Lafayette. 6. Saint Joseph's swept the first city series, 4-0, its first of eight 4-0 finishes. 7. Penn is second with five 4-0s. 8. Temple's run of five consecutive 2-0s looks nice on paper, but the half round robin (which lasted from 1991-92 through 1998-99) just didn't cut it for some of the purists. 9. Temple is tops with 23 city series titles, but 18 of those were shared. 10. Penn owns both the longest city series winning streak (12) and losing streak (also 12), tied with La Salle. The Explorers will try to snap that slide Dec. 22 at Villanova. 11. Temple's Guy Rodgers (1956-58) was named the Big 5's Most Outstanding Player for each of its first three seasons. 12. La Salle's Lionel Simmons (1988-90) is the only other outright three-time winner. La Salle's Ken Durrett won it three times, sharing one of them; Villanova's John Pinone had one by himself and shared a pair. 13. When 'Nova topped the Hawks, 72-62, on Feb. 28, 1981, it created a five-way tie for the city series title (as well as for last place, for that matter) with each team finishing at 2-2. 14. Among the many non-city series games involving the five schools was the 1971 NCAA East Regional Final at Raleigh, N.C., where Villanova laid a 90-47 thumping on an unbeaten Penn team to earn a trip to the Final Four. 15. When second-ranked Wichita State fell to Saint Joseph's in the championship game of the Quaker City Tournament in 1964, Shockers coach Gary Thompson vowed never to return to the Palestra. 16. He hasn't . yet somehow the building remains standing. 17. The Quaker City was an eight-team tournament held in December for 13 seasons starting in 1961. 18. Only twice did a Big 5 team not win the Quaker City title: a Wes Unseld-led Louisville team in 1966 and . 19. The 1968 South Carolina team, coached by Frank Maguire, which held the ball for 10 minutes at one stretch of the second half en route to a 62-59 win in the title game at the Spectrum. It was the Explorers' only loss of the season. 20. Holiday tournament basketball returned to the Palestra in December 1985 in the form of the Jostens Classic, sponsored by the company that makes school rings. It lasted four seasons and the titles were won by, in order: Temple, Saint Joseph's, Villanova and La Salle. 21. In the final 58 seconds of La Salle's 91-90 win over visiting St. Joe's on March 3, 2001, SJU junior Marvin O'Connor managed to score 18 points. 22. That was more than Temple (6) and Tennessee (11) scored in an entire game on Dec. 15, 1973. 23. Before he became the best tight end in the NFL, Tony Gonzalez was scoring 23 for California in a NCAA second-round upset of Villanova in 1997. 24. Definition of a good week: La Salle's Ken Durrett scored 45 in a win over fifth- ranked Western Kentucky at the Palestra on Jan. 16, 1971, poured in 40 at Niagara 4 days later and dropped another 40 at Lafayette on Jan. 23. 25. Greatest Palestra quote of all-time: "Trying to build another Palestra would be like trying to refilm Casablanca. " (Former Penn women's player Mikaelyn Austin.) 26. Austin is currently filming a documentary titled "The Palestra: Cathedral of Basketball. " (Check out its progress at www.palestradocumentary.com) 27. The women's Big 5 began with the 1979-80 season and they have played a complete round robin every season ever since. 28. Greatest pass in Big 5 history would be freshman - freshman - Lonnie McFarlan feeding John Smith for the game-winning layup as St. Joe's shocked top-ranked DePaul, 49-48, on March 14, 1981. Smith and Bryan Warrick led the Hawks with 12 apiece. 29. Myth-breaker: It was not the only assist of McFarlan's collegiate career. 30. When Princeton overcame a huge Penn lead and earned a stunning 50-49 comeback victory on Feb. 9, 1999, at the Palestra, 74 of the points were scored on the East basket. 31. Yeah, the 1985 NCAA title game was fun, but we'll forever remember this one: Villanova 68, Georgetown 67, Jan. 31, 1983. Following his 27-point, 22-rebound performance, Ed Pinckney gets dragged out of the Palestra locker room to do the postgame radio interview, and does so surrounded by hundreds of fans leaning in as though he were a 6-foot, 9-inch E.F. Hutton. 32. Villanova is ranked fifth in the preseason AP poll, as they were prior to the 1982-83 season. 33. Since the AP began a preseason poll in 1961, only two Big 5 teams have started the season higher: Villanova 1995-96 (No. 3) and Saint Joseph's 1965-66 (No. 4). 34. Little-used Steve Donches came off the bench to hit a 29-footer and lift St. Joe's to a 71-69 win over Villanova on Jan. 16, 1966. (Three days later, Donches went scoreless in a loss at St. John's.) 35. The two Holy War rivals met in a 1971 NCAA Tournament game at the Palestra, with the Wildcats beginning their run to the championship game with a 93- 75 victory. 36. Another 'Nova-SJU NCAA Tournament meeting seemed set in 1982. The Wildcats had a first-round bye, but the sixth-seeded Hawks were upset by Perry Moss and Northeastern, 63-62. 37. Two days later, the Huskies proceeded to take Villanova to triple overtime before the Cats prevailed, 76-72. Freshman Eddie Pinckney had 12 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and three steals for the Wildcats. 38. On Feb. 4, 1995, in Providence, R.I., Penn's Matt Maloney torched Brown for a school-record (still standing) 10 three-point field goals in an 95-83 victory. 39. Two hours later, at the Civic Center, La Salle's Kareem Townes lit up visiting Loyola, Ill., with a school-record (still standing) nine three-pointers in a 92-71 win. 40. On March 26, 1988, two Big 5 teams were on the doorstep of the Final Four. But Duke outlasted Temple, 63-53, and Oklahoma sprinted by Villanova, 78-59. 41. The third- through seventh-career leading scorers in Saint Joseph's history (Craig Amos, Tony Costner, Cliff Anderson, Maurice Martin and Norman Black) are separated by nine points. 42. In 2000-01, when Villanova's Michael Bradley led Division I with a 69.2 field- goal percentage and Gary Buchanan was tops in free-throw percentage at 94.2, it marked the first time the same school had the leaders in those two categories. 43. Simmons owns the NCAA Division I record for consecutive games scoring in double figures (115). 44. Temple's Owl Without A Vowel (Bill Mlkvy) played before the Big 5 was formed, but his brother Bob was at Penn from 1958-61. Either could have taken a thing or two from . 45. Villanova's Hank Siemiontkowski and Tom Sienkiewicz. 46. One thing you might remember from John Chaney's first NCAA Division I Tournament victory in 1984: Terrence Stansbury drilling a 22-footer at the buzzer to upend St. John's, 65-63. 47. One thing you might not remember about it: Chris Mullin - making free throws at a 91 percent clip that season - missing the front end of one-and-one with eight seconds left and the score tied at 63. 48. Second greatest Palestra quote of all time: " . Where 100 people sound like a thousand, where a thousand sound like 10,000, and where 10,000 sound like nothing you've ever heard before." - Dallas-based writer Joe Rhoads, 1985 49. Tom Piotrowski, not so much for he did at La Salle, but for setting a record in his 18-game NBA career with Portland that never will be broken: Career free-throw percentage, 100 percent (6-for-6). His middle name: Tracy. 50. Well . we told you it would be impossible. We have so many more and and we're sure you do, too. So starting Monday, the Daily News will publish "Big 5 Memories" on its scoreboard pages each weekday through the NCAA Final.