MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

Denny McKinney · November 07, 2013, 07:46:37 PM

GC 01 I had not heard that about the AB Arena plan for GC. AB did not donate a much as the Mabee Foundation but close. AB was very good to FC over the years. Several female members of the Busch and Greisedick families are FC Alumni. Along with Mary Sheondisit, Red's wife. The Red Sheondist Golf Tournament funded the athletic program for years. Red would have Stan Musial, Lou Brock, Shannon.... In attendance.

'01 was back in the good 'ol days. The DSAC was the place to watch a game. That's back when the team had two from Gibaults HS, Red Bud, Murpheysboro, Dupo and three pretty good catholic boys from Borgia. There were quite a few suds sold to those fans. Weekend nights were bands or DJ's and wrist bands for those over 21. Used be a few Illini boys come down from GC for weekends with friends. Dr. D's philosophy was, if the college kids were going to drink, she'd rather have them walk back to dorms, as opposed to out driving. And it would be packed during games. Heck the blueprints for the building were drawn out on bar napkins by Dr. D, Mel and Pops at the local Applebee's.

Back at the time it was built the AD had the vending machines and soda contracts, Pops had Coke removed from campus. Because Pepsi agreed to donate the big scoreboard hanging from the center of the arena and the original sound system. Mel Patton was the first baseman who left spring training with the Cards in like '68. And, before the first game the Birds acquired Orlando Cepeda. Mel became an atty., extremely smart money man. Halfway thru construction the builder came to Mel and said he hadn't taken into account the lockers for all those locker rooms. He said, Ok. As it turned out it saved the school like $30,000 cause Mel had a contract that included lockers.

Mel Patton was killed in a car accident in Columbia , Il. about 5 years ago. He got hit head on by a Drunk Driver. Pops has left us. Only Dr. D is still alive. She has lived just south of St. Pete Florida since retiring and is almost 90. She was an ex Nun when we met her, never did figure out how that worked. She will always be Aces in my eyes. The history of the making of FU Athletics will, before long, only be documented in my writings. GC 01 you have brought up great memories in my mind.

Denny McKinney · November 07, 2013, 09:37:11 PM

Saw Blackburn College bus pulling into Maryville campus about 6 pm. Wonder if Hopefan is over at his old stomping grounds scouting the Beavers?

hopefan · November 07, 2013, 10:03:45 PM

Quote from: Denny McKinney on November 07, 2013, 09:37:11 PM
Saw Blackburn College bus pulling into Maryville campus about 6 pm. Wonder if Hopefan is over at his old stomping grounds scouting the Beavers?

No, being wise and saving basketball nights for regular season games, forgoing the exhibition season

hopefan · November 08, 2013, 08:23:34 AM

Indeed Blackburn did play at Maryville last night... Maryville wins 86-55, but BC stayed close in the first half, only down 35-29 at half... Frosh Chris Davis led the Beavers in scoring with 15... BC was 4 for 16 from 3 point land, and had 22 turnovers, but surprisingly stayed even with Maryville on the boards... doesn't look like they got much from their bench, with a young starting 5....2 frosh, 2 sophs and a junior...

hopefan · November 08, 2013, 02:08:50 PM

Denny has been giving us history... here's a little more:

Current SLIAC coach's records

Chris Bunch Webster 2002 thru 13 167-119 (58.4%)
SLIAC Regular Season 127-43 (74.7%)
SLIAC Conf Tourney 3-8 1 NCAA Tourney appearance
Note - yet to have a losing record in the SLIAC Conf.. 11 years

Kevin Gray Spalding 1998 thru 2013 233-191 (54.9%)
SLIAC Regular Season 47-17 (73.4%)
SLIAC Conf Tourney 2-0 1 NCAA Tourney appearance
Note, last season was 1st Season Spalding was eligible for con, NCAA tourneys

Mat Mitchell Westminster 1998 thru 2013 207-178 (53.8%)
SLIAC Regular Season 122-104(54.0%)
SLIAC Conf Tourney 6-5 2 NCAA Tourney appearances
Note, after starting his career with 7 losing seasons in the SLIAC, Coach Mitchell now has a streak of 8 winning SLIAC seasons.. during the 8 seasons Westminster is 93-35 in conference games

George Barber Greenville 1999 thru 2013 172-184 (48.3%)
SLIAC Regular Season 106-106 (50.0%)
SLIAC Conf Tourney 0-1

Chip Wilde Eureka 2007 thru 2013 74-81 (47.7%)
SLIAC Regular Season 52-44 (54.2%)
SLIAC Conf Tourney 3-4
Note... Coach Wilde has taken Eureka to the SLIAC tourney in 4 of his 6 years, and they reached the finals 3 of the 4 times....

Todd Creal MacMurray 2007 thru 2013 62-92 (40.3%)
SLIAC Regular Season 48-48 (50.0%)
SLIAC Conf Tourney 1-3

Mike Bushong Principia 1985 through 1990 2011 thru 2013 48-128 (27.3%)
SLIAC Regular Season 0-32 (0.0%)
Note : Principia joined the SLIAC after Bushong left coaching in 1990 - expect that 0 fer SLIAC streak to end this season....

Steve Schafer Fontbonne 2011 thru 2013 12-37 (24.5%)
SLIAC Regular Season 9-23 (28.1%)
Note : Expect things to swing favorably this year.....

Jason Baribeau Blackburn 2011 thru 2013 9-41 (18.0%)
SLIAC Regular Season 6-26 (18.8%)

GC Panther 01 · November 08, 2013, 02:33:46 PM

SIU-E 97-GC 61 in exhibition last night,45-22 at the half. Not sure you take much away from that, it just is what it is.

Smallest guy on the court, Mumphard finished with 17pts and 5 ast.

Saturday exhibition vs Wash U I believe I saw a 10am start, not sure what the story is there, but as a player I hated any game that started with A.M on the tip.

Denny McKinney · November 08, 2013, 02:40:27 PM

GC 01 - If your in the area stop by the game tomorrow nite. You'll see a lot of familiar faces. John Thomas and Jeremy Nagel from Gibault HS, Reggie Tillit from Murpheysboro, Steve King, Blake Cundiff and Jason Holdmierer all from Borgia. Those would be from your Era.

Denny McKinney · November 08, 2013, 02:49:59 PM

Just a little FC History Hopefan. Tried to answer all your questions and then GC 01 , and I, started talking some good old times.

My early SLIAC Final Four prediction: Not in any order. WC, EC, FU and WU. Expect to see Mac and SC right there but don't know enough about them.

GC Panther 01 · November 08, 2013, 04:00:48 PM

Denny, I'd love to, recognize alot of those names and we had some great battles at each place. Unfortunatly I live 3 hrs away and work in the grain industry so I will be working this weekend trying to get this neverending harvest wrapped up.

GC Panther 01 · November 08, 2013, 04:32:22 PM

Hope, remind me what year did they restart the SLIAC tourney, seems like the last one I remember before they dropped it was 1998?

hopefan · November 08, 2013, 04:38:07 PM

Last year of tourney was 1998-99... in that era, all 8 teams went to tourney...tourney restarted in 2004-2005 season, with 4 team format. There is an abundance of info on SLIAC standings stats records tournament results etc on SLIAC.Org.... in the archives section....

GC Panther 01 · November 08, 2013, 07:42:14 PM

Thanks, couldn't remember if I was a frosh or soph that last year. We ended up winning the tourney at home over Fontbonne by 1 point, after entering the tourney as a 5 seed. Everyone in the gym thought we were running a play to get Barry Payne a shot from a sideline in bound with under 7 seconds to go. Ended up running a stunt with him and getting the ball to a first year soph Mark Giertz who hit the shot from the wing for the win. Giertz only ended up getting to play 3 years after transferring from Blackburn, they wouldnt grant him a waiver after he had played in 1 exhibition contest there.

Unfortunately there was no auto NCAA bid back then, and even though we came close a couple times we never ended up in the dance.

Denny McKinney · November 08, 2013, 09:23:42 PM

GC '01 - You had to go to '98 Tourney. #5 beat #7 in the Championship. I'm glad that game was not for an AQ. Could of got Messy. Haha. Good GC team that year. FC had their PG die in practice in Mid December. Took us all the way to tournament time to figure things out after that. Wow. We're digging deep now.

Dad spent 5 great years at Worden HS in Worden, IL. I saw most of the farm land in the Illini State. Huge respect for you farmers. Tough life. Great HS basketball in those small towns. Remember FC's Duane Roth. He was 1st Teamer out of Lebanon Ill. He grew up on a dairy farm. We all went with Duane to put up hay one fall, on his Dad's dairy farm. Never Again. Huge Respect for Our Farmers!!!

hopefan · November 08, 2013, 11:09:06 PM

Drury beats Webster 87-63... Box score is pretty ugly... Webster beat badly on boards, 27 turnovers, no Aaron Griffin? Ahmad Smith leading scorer 17 points, next is Kevin Miller, back after a four year hiatus with 13.

Denny McKinney · November 08, 2013, 11:24:53 PM

That's Great News for Miller. It will interesting to see him play. Was a very solid big man in HS. Could be a good fit.