La Salle University La Salle University Digital Commons La Salle Magazine University Publications Spring 1996 La Salle Magazine Spring 1996 La Salle University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/lasalle_magazine Recommended Citation La Salle University, "La Salle Magazine Spring 1996" (1996). La Salle Magazine. 207. http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/lasalle_magazine/207 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at La Salle University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in La Salle Magazine by an authorized administrator of La Salle University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HOW ARE SPEEDVS GUYS DOING?/^ hO Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from LYRASIS members and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/lasalle4019951996 won jS. CmiEOMTE ONTENTS Vy joy. »^l^^"1 /})• Ibc .\iiiiihers. Page 5 THE EXPLORERS AND THE NBA Five former La Salle players have tasted life in the National Basketball Association with W <:/rrt'» Siinlh. MIX vaiying degrees of success. Awiinl. Page 14 LA SALLE BY THE NUMBERS MLich of the Lini\ersity's colorful heritage can New Alumni Association be illustrated numerically. Preside)}!. Page 16 LEADERS ON AND OFF THE FIELD Joe Gillespie has achieved national recognition as the university's director of academic support sei"vices for student Robert S. Lyons. Jr.. '61. Editor athletes. George J. (Bud) Dot.sey, 'b9, Alumni Director ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OFFICERS AROUND CAMPUS Joseph H. Cloran, '61. President '62, Ne-w trustees, a Linique ne^w interdisciplinary Nicholas J. Lisi, Esq.. Executive Vice President '82, J. Patrick O'Grady. Vice President program in economics and international Robert L. Buck, '90, Treasurer studies, and a new home basketball court for Charles I. Quattrone, '72, Secretary the Explorers highlight recent announcements of campus acti\ities. lA S.\LLE (LI.SPS 299-940) i.s published quarterly by L.i Salle Universitv-. 1900 W. Olney Avenue. Philadelphia. PA 19141-1199. for the alumni, students. kiculrs'. and friends of the University^ Editorial and business offices are located at La Salle ALUMNI NOTES University. Philadelphia. PA 19141-1199. Changes of address should be sent at least 30 days prior A quarterly chronicle of some significant to publication of issue with which it is to take effect to the Alumni Office. La Salle Universitv. 1900 W. Olney events in the lives of La Salle's alumni as A\'enue. Philadelphia. PA 19141-1199. well as profiles of the president of the POST.VIASTER: send change of address to office new listed above. Alumni Association and a new associate dean Member of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). at use. FRONT COVER: Former E.xplorers in aclion (ficini left): Doug Overton. Tim Legler. Lionel Simmons. Kareem Townes. and Randy Woods. BACK COVER: La Sallc University alumni now reside in every state of the union, as these numbers Indicate. '"•'.'• .-VND ILLU.STRATION: Blake+Barancik Design /";R.'VP1T>-: Kelly & Massa Volume 40/ Number 2 LA SALLE Spring 1996 JUN 2 7 1997 How arc ^ Speedy's Guys »ri Nash, the then-Philadelphia 76ers general Johnmanager, had gone to the Palestra nearly a decade ago to watch all those NBA prospects wearing Carolina blue and the lone one named Lionel Simmons wearing La Salle blue and gold. Or so he thought. One of the stars who pulled Dean Smith's North Carolina Tar Heels within a game of the NCAA Final Four later that year was a junior shooting guard out of Carlisle, Pa., named Jeff Lebo. He was the son of a high school coach and had come to Chapel Hill with a reputation as the most fundamentally-sound player in the nation. And he did nothing in his four years there to invalidate it. Carolina won a hard-fought game over La Salle and first- year coach Speedy Morris that night. But when Nash saw- Sixers coach Jim Lynam at the office, he didn't talk abcuit Simmons or Kenny Smith or Joe Wolf or Dave Popson, MAAC Touniai}ie)it future National Basketball Association players all. championship. 'I told Jimmy, 'You could take Tim Legler and put him on North Carolina and take Jeff Lebo and put him on La Salle and everybody would be " saying what a great player Legler is and it's a shame Lebo's not as good, Their professional Nash recalled. careers have extended That was Januaiy 1987. from Australia to Yakima Now hit the fast-forward button and let it take you to the summer of 1995. By now Nash and Lynam have their same titles, but are with the Washing- but the biggest surprise ton Bullets. And Lynam is looking for a shooting guard to back up Calbert Cheaney, who has played so well that he has allowed the Bullets to trade is the best three-point Rex Chapman. shooter in the world Jimmy said he wcnild like to get someone who could shoot a three- l^ointer," Nash recalled, i said, 'Well, you know who the best three-point shooter in the world is.' He said, 'Reggie Miller.' And I said, 'Well, maybe, i")ut with what I've got to spend, how about Legler?' And Jimmy said, Y'eah, Tim Legler would be good. That's just the kind of guy I'm looking By Frank Bilovsky, '62 for.- SPRING 1996 page 1 In between the two Nash-Lynam conver- had worked so long and so hard for the sations, Legler had become a professional respect I didn't feel I was getting." basketball nomacl. He had finished his It was also his second high point of the La Salle career in 1988 with 1,699 points, month. Nine days earlier, his wife Jennifer but wasn't drafted by the NBA. So he (Snyder, '89), a former La Salle women's joined the minor league Rochester basketball star, gave birth to the couple's (Minn.) Flyers for the 1988-89 Continental first child, a daughter, Lauren Nicole. Basketball Association season. At the end of the year, the team moved to Omaha "Emotionally that week was crazy," Legler and Legler went with it. .said. A lot of Creighton University undergrads For him, winning the three-point compe- earned their degrees in less time than tition was the culmination of what he "He wants to Legler spent in Omaha. Fi\'e long years, already had proven by leading the NBA punctuated with short-to-moderate NBA in three-point shooting percentage for get out of stints at Phoenix (1990), Denver (1991), virtually the whole season. By the end of Utah (1992), Dallas (1993), and Golden February', his average was a lusty 51 State (1994). There were also pre-season percent, -^hich was actually higher than there badly. camp appearances at Minnesota (1990) his overall field goal percentage. and Washington (1991) during that He wasn't the only one thrilled by his San period. Six years in Antonio accomplishment which earned But at least Legler had proven that Nash's him a $20,000 check. For Speedy Morris, Sacramento theory was valid in his 1987 conversation suffering through the worst season in with Lynam. Lebo never played in the Explorer histor)', it was a chance to see NBA. one of his pros grab the NBA spotlight is enough." and make it shine on him alone for the And on February 9 this year, Legler first time while the nation watched. proved Nash's 1995 reasoning was just as correct. That night before a national And for Speedy's other pros, it was a television audience in San Antonio's symbol of hope—a message about the Alamodome, Washington Bullets shooting potential rewards of hard work and guard Tim Legler officially became the patience. best three-point shooter in the world. "It's amazing, " Morris was saying shortly journeyman wins shootout," was the afterwards. "He's persevered so much to headline in the New "\'ork Times the next accomplish what he's accomplished. It's day. The stor>' pointed out that Legler terrific. He deserves all the good things had routed Orlando's Dennis Scott, 20-14, that have happened to him." in the finals of the three-point competi- For Lionel Simmons, the college Player of tion held in conjunction with the NBA the Year in 1990 and a fine NBA player All-Star game. for his first four years with the Sacra- For Legler, it was "one of the greatest, if mento Kings, it was a message that not the greate.st highlight of my career so maybe his career will get back on track. far. I looked at it as maybe being more The L-Train missed the first six weeks of important than a lot of guys because I the 1994-95 sea.son after a knee opera- page 2 LA SALLE tion. Since then, he has rejected with the Clippers been reduced to a backup role and has been out of is not the worst thing in the Kings' player rotation most of this season, even the world. Legler was though he is playing with a four-year, $17 million released by the Minne- contract. sota Timberwolves, for "He wants to get out of there badly, goodness sake. said Morris, who talks often to And for Kareem Townes, Simmons. "He sold his house out 95, Legler's six years in there. Six in Sacramento is years the CBA should give him enough." the patience to wait his For Doug Overton, '91, who used short stints in the turn in Yakima. Washing- CBA and Australia as a ton.