MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

Devil.... thanks so much for the compliment.....  if I know just a handful out there use this page for info because they care about the kids that play SLIAC hoops, then it makes it worth it for me...

Disappointing about Kindred and Leppard, in different ways.... I became aware of Leppard when he was a frosh off the bench who made a couple of giant 3's in Eureka's amazing comeback win over Fontbonne 2 years ago...  A very good player, smart, hard to understand what made him leave, unless he just couldn't take the mounting losses.  
A shame for Kindred with the injury, I hope he can heal and play again...

It is too bad for Eureka...  the one time I went up to see games there, it was a great atmosphere, and because I happened to be sitting with then commish Rich Meckfessel, I got to meet several college Admin, all of whom were obvious fans of hoops...  I hope the down season this year doesn't send the program in a spiral.  

pgkevin... some people do care, no matter how numb your mind becomes.....

[Denny McKinney]

Wild ending to BC v. C. Stl. Concordia hits the shot to tie with 2+ seconds to go. BC inbounds the ball and a Concordia player immeadiately dives on the BC player to foul him at 1.2. It was obvious the player thought they were still down by 1. Oops.

BC makes both up by 2. Desperation shot by Concordia player and he gets blind side by a BC player. NO Call. Game over.

Karma points I agree are useless. It just hit me the wrong way (or right way) when there was someone who took offense to the content of those two posts. Glad I didn't mention APU was located on Wilma Rudolph Blvd.

[Titan Q]

just wanted to say that i've been an avid reader the past few years and you guys who talk on here do a great job keeping people informed and expressing your opinions

I can't think of a poster anywhere on D3boards.com that is more valuable to a specific board than hopefan is to this one.  I hope all the SLIAC fans who lurk on this board appreciate his level of passion and dedication to the conference.

This is definitely one the boards I visit everyday...and that is because of what hopefan has created here.

[hopefan]

Geesh... another compliment...  I'm blushing!!!

[Denny McKinney]

Hopefan for President!!!!! 

[hopefan]

Denny   ... of the SLIAC!!!   

[Denny McKinney]

Sorry hopefan.... You have to be an AD of one of the conference schools.

#18 Memphis 70-68 OT @ home over Austin Peay. APU without leading scorer.

Since I'm feeling the Holiday Spirit..... A free peek at a chapter of my book intitled Memories of the Coach's Son........ Enjoy (I Hope)

Memories of the Coach's Son

He Remembered the Uniforms and Forgot Me!

VI

     This story took place in the late 60's.  Those were the days when the war in Vietnam was getting bad and long hair was the thing. However, not in Worden, Illinois, a town of about 500 counting railroad workers passing though on the daily train. The graduating classes from the high school numbered about twelve. The only activity in town was basketball. To this day, I believe we lived in a time warp there.

     The Trojans were playing in a holiday tournament in Paragould, Arkansas. It was a long school bus ride down there, with a caravan of cars following behind us. I swear the whole town must have come down with us. We filled up a Motor Lodge that weekend. It was owned by a very nice old couple. I say old, but to a ten year old that's a relevant term.   Anyway we were winning that year, and life was good.

     On Friday night we won the semifinal game, and celebrated with dinner. Then, back to the motel. My Grandma and Aunt Debbie made the trip with Dad, Mom, my little sis, Dena, and me. The kids were having a good time after the game, and all the grown ups had forgotten anything else that was going on any where in the world. They sat around the motel lobby and talked about the championship game the next night.

     Well, it was player bed check time, and Dad was getting the players in for the night.  "Big game tomorrow night", he'd say to each room full of boys. Pretty uneventful until Dad checked one of the boy's rooms, and found my Aunt Deb fully clothed hiding in the bathroom shower!  And, that's all I'm saying about that story.  It may show up again in another story.... that just depends on how good my Christmas presents are from good ole' Aunt Deb.

     The next nite we were getting ready for the fifteen mile drive from the motel to the game. Dad was on the school bus with the players, and Mom had the car with Dena, Grandma and Deb. I looked good in my shirt, tie and WHS blazer. See, I've been sitting on the bench right next to my Pops since I was about four.

     All the fans from our town were loaded into their cars.  I always ride in the bus with Dad. We gotta talk basketball you know.  Dad grabbed the bag of uniforms and said, "Son, you want to run the key up to the desk?"  I grabbed the key and took off. I wanted to say good bye to the nice couple, and it seemed like an important job. I said my good byes to the folks, and headed for the bus and my seat behind Dad.

     The darnedest thing happened when I walked out of the lobby door. I looked down the two lane highway and all I saw was tail lights. The whole parking lot was empty. No yellow school bus. No family Ford Falcon. No cars period. They were gone!

     It was just dark, and the glow of the Motor Lodge neon sign lit up the front steps nicely, so I sat down to wait. The nice lady came out and said, "Young man, do you want me to call the Sheriff and have him go get them back here." I said, "No, thank you, they will be back in just a second.  Dad will miss me."  Well, I sat there for a little while, and the man and his wife back came out.  She said, "Son, my husband can drive you over to that high school." I said, "No, really, they'll be right back".

     In the mean time the bus was pulling into the Paragould High School parking lot. And the gym was packed. Championship night! My Mom got out of the car and said, "Honey, do you have Denny with you".  Dad said, "No, I thought he was with you. I've got the uniforms though."  I told you they would miss me. To tell you the truth I thought it would happen a tad bit sooner, though.

     Of course, Dad couldn't drive back to get me as the game was going to be starting. And, Mom never missed any of Dad's games.  So my favorite player Dennis Vazzi's Dad drove all the way back and got me. When Mr. Vazzi drove up, I told the lady, "See I told ya they'd miss me." I jumped in the car and we headed to the game.

     To make this long story much shorter, let's just say I got to the gym just before the game started. I marched over to the bench and got to work. Dad and I coached one heck of a game, and little Worden won another tournament. I learned a very important thing that night back when life was easy. From then on I made sure I was the one carrying the bag of uniforms.



     

[Gregory Sager]

Wild ending to BC v. C. Stl. Concordia hits the shot to tie with 2+ seconds to go. BC inbounds the ball and a Concordia player immeadiately dives on the BC player to foul him at 1.2. It was obvious the player thought they were still down by 1. Oops.

BC makes both up by 2. Desperation shot by Concordia player and he gets blind side by a BC player. NO Call. Game over.

A win's a win, but it's not a good sign when a team made up of grad students takes you right down to the final buzzer.

just wanted to say that i've been an avid reader the past few years and you guys who talk on here do a great job keeping people informed and expressing your opinions

I can't think of a poster anywhere on D3boards.com that is more valuable to a specific board than hopefan is to this one.  I hope all the SLIAC fans who lurk on this board appreciate his level of passion and dedication to the conference.

This is definitely one the boards I visit everyday...and that is because of what hopefan has created here.

Ditto, to both paragraphs.

BTW, great story, Denny. I'll definitely buy your book when it comes out.

[hopefan]

First of all... Denny... I loved it..... great story..... Reminds me of the time when my son was playing for Eureka High School, and I had to quickly drive from Eureka to North St Louis to pick up a starter for a big game because he hadn't been waiting when the taxi came to get him, and they wouldn't send another..... Coach Kennedy was ready to say the heck with it, but I saved the day....

Anyway... I've got one for you old head fans, and it happened today!!!!!  I'm off this week and am cleaning out our basement... I'm going through a stack of material from my coaching days at RPI and happen upon the holy grail.... well kinda....  actually 2 intriguing items..

First... my first year of coaching was the 1973-74 school year.... my first two years out of school I was in Admissions at Pitt, where I built up a friendly relationship with Buzz Ridl, the head Bball coach, as well as Johnny Majors, who came to Pitt while I was in my 2nd year...  yes, indirectly (I admitted them), I was responsible for Tony Dorset, and Billy Knight of hoops fame.  Anyway I moved on to RPI to coach in 73-74, and back then, if you were an NCAA coach, you joined the NABC (National Association of Basketball Coaches), and therefore you received a ticket for the D1 Final 4.  That year, Bill Walton led UCLA vs David Thompson and NC State into the semis in Greensboro....  Al McGuire and Marquette was in the other semi... vs Kansas...  Well old heads will remember that NC State won a thrilling OT game vs UCLA..  After the game, I run into Pitt's Coach Ridl, and he asks me if I'd like to join him and his assistant at the Sunday Morning Fellowship of Christian Athletes Breakfast, where he would be speaking... for a first year assistant coach at the College Division level, this was quite an invite, and I quickly accepted...  At the breakfast, I'm sitting at a round table of 8, next to Coach Ridl, and who comes and sit next to me... the key note speaker, John Wooden!!!!!   and across from me is Ray Meyer!!!  So, I have the morning paper with me, build up some courage, and ask Coach Wooden to sign it...  he does, right on the article describing his big loss.....   Lo and behold, here it is, in my basement, amongst my RPI statistics and scorebooks and newspapers!!!!!  Greensboro Daily News, March 24, 1974, With John Wooden UCLA, signed on the front of the Sports Section!!!!!

The other thing I found was a program from the D3 hoops regional that RPI was in the next year, 1974, 1975...  the first and second rounds at Brockport, NY...
This was the first year of Division 3, and I have a program from what was likely the first D3 tournament game ever played!!!!!!

Now then, not sure if either of these items would fetch me enough to buy a cup of coffee, but ahhh the memories.......

[Gregory Sager]

Y'know, if you scanned that program from the '75 Brockport State regional and wrote your recollections of the opening game and sent it with the scanned file to Pat, it'd make a great story for this site. The opening night of the very first D3 tournament? That's a great story just waiting to be written.

[Denny McKinney]

Hopefan - Coach Wooden was very approachable.

Back in Dad's Mo Bapt day's he did a coaches camp at Clayton HS. My Dad workrf it with him and Coach Wooden used Dad's mo Bapt players for deminstraions. After the first session he told the players he's autograph and give us all a copy of his book.

During the lunch break he got the call his wife had become ill. Immediately flew home and Dad did the afternoon session.

About two weeks later there was a delivery at Mo Bapt. A box containing 20 signed books from Coach Wooden. Nice Man. Dad and Mom shared a booth with him and his wife for breakfast. At the Final Four the year after he retired.

[hopefan]

Denny...  I hope the wooden story with the books also makes your book... that's another great story....

[dansand]

Great stories Denny. This is a favorite website of mine, highlighting Illinois high schools that no longer exist due to closing or consolidation. Lots of interesting stuff and I'm sure they'd appreciate anything you could add to the Worden page.

http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com/index.html

Links to pages for nearly 1,100 schools are on the left.

Best wishes to your dad.

[hopefan]

Webster nips Sewanee 59-57    The box is up on Sewanee site....   Drew Moore doesn't play, but jarrod Huskey is back ... Willie Trimble leads all scorers with 15, very balanced after that....  Stats say Webster outrebounded Sewanee 46 -27, and Scott Restoff had 14 rebounds... a fantastic job!!!!  Good road win, game ended with missed free throws by both teams, must have been a gut wrencher....
Another bad night from the line for Webster...  10-23, Huskey 0-4... must get better  I can see it now, hack a husk.  

I heard the Moore injury is not a tear, just a very painful heal spur situation... hope he'll be back that first week in January

[Denny McKinney]

Thanks Guys

dansand - Thanks contacted site. Good times at Worden. 7 years 5 District Champs.
Believe Dad was like 147-32. The great player they mentioned Vernon Harris. Played later for Dad at Mo Bapt. JV player. Vern was a 6' post player. Dad had the state all time leading scorer (at that time) Dave Hesi 6'7 post. Dad had D1 offer if he brought Dave. He let Dave choose to go to John Brown and is now a lawyer.

Dad had to players at FU who's fathers played for him at Worden.

Another Chapter. The year we went up state to elite 8, we had a caravan and 2 students dribbled the 62 miles.