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Legends of the Pen: Basketball Home Courts
2/3/2011 4:52:51 PM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 13 Numbers and Letters | Dec. 23 Bowlitis| Dec. 12 A Bowl Awaits | Nov. 11 Nothing Comes Easy | Oct. 20 1970 Squad Had Great Turnaround | Oct. 1 The 1984 Team Was Special | Sept. 9 College Football Time At SU
Homeless, a basketball court six inches off the ground and resting on hundreds of jacks, to a football stadium in desperate need of an additional tenant.
Or how SU basketball went from rages to riches and crowds of 34,000 plus fans.
Post World War II found the Orange playing its home basketball games in Archbold Gym, not much more than an adequate practice facility. In January of 1947, a fire took care of a home court and for the next 15 years, "home" would be the Coliseum at the State Fairgrounds, (also the sometime home of the Syracuse Nats and where George Yardley became the first player to score 2,000 points in the NBA), at the Jefferson St. Armory or the War Memorial.
Syracuse football was going to bowl games in this time frame and had no indoor practice facility. So, thanks in a large part to George Manley of Norwich, Manley Field House was born.
It was built for less than three million and provided offices for the athletic department and a large dirt floor for the gridders of Ben Schwartzwalder to practice in bad weather and for when another bowl bid arrived.
Since basketball had been homeless for these many years, a plan was devised to install a 94 by 50 basketball court, supported by hundreds of jacks. The court ran East-West (think Drumlins or TC towards Comstock). Only problem was dust. But a home court had been created. And it seated 8,200.
Syracuse has finished the 1961-62 season with a 2-22 record and a new coach had been hired, Fred Lewis.
The first game in the new facility found Syracuse squeezing out a 36-35 win over Kent State with an audience of 3,069 on hand. Not exactly a shattering figure, but few knew that four seasons later, the Orange would would score over 100 points in 14 games and go to the East Regional final. Its leaders? A pair named Dave Bing and James Arthur Boeheim. A crowd of 7,105 watched the final home game.
Lewis departed after the 1967-68 campaign and Roy Danforth became the new boss. Roy was a captivating figure and brought a new excitement to the court. In the mid-seventies, a new floor was installed, new seating and a wild bunch of fans. Thus was born the "Zoo". The new court was in a north-south configuration and the seats came almost to the edge of the court.
Two NITs and four NCAAs later (the '74-75 gang became SU's first Final Four club). A year later, Danforth resigned and headed to Tulane. On a Saturday that orginally was going to find Boeheim heading to Rochester to interview for the University of Rochester head coaching job, by early afternoon, the man who has directed the Syracuse program since, became the newest leader.
In Jim's first four years, led by Bouie(Roosevelt) and Louie (Orr), Syracuse won 100 games and went to four NCAAs.
The Dome had opened in 1980 and ushered in a whole new era. But more than five or six dates a year were needed to justify this magnificant new facility. Why not move basketball in? Jim Boeheim was not the major champion of such a move. Syracuse had a powerful sixth man in the zoo and a true home court advanatage. Why give this up?
But by the time John Thompson uttered those famous words following a 52-50 win over SU that also snapped a 57-game win streak, "Manley Field House is officially closed", the decision had been made. A crowd of 9,521 had been on hand for the finale. (But actually one more game was to be played in Manley--a heavy November snow storm in 1994 had made it necessary to lower the roof so the George Washington contest was switched. Oddly, it resulted in another finale loss,111-104 to overtime.
A crowd of 15,685 was on hand to see SU beat Columbia in the first Carrier Dome contest. A year later, 23,913 became the first 20,000 crowd in a win over St. John's. By 1984-85, Syracuse averaged 25,870 for the year, in l989-90, 29,919, the season record. The first 30,000 game came against Georgetown in '82-83 (31,317).
There has been 69 30,000 crowds, with the Hoyas involved in 16 of them.
Kind of fun to go from homeless to Manley, to the Dome to near-yearly visits to the NCAAs.
Tuesday, October 13
Tuesday, October 13
Tuesday, October 13
Wednesday, October 07
