A Behind-the-Scenes Look at SU Basketball Games: John Mason

This season thousands of fans will gather in the Carrier Dome 21 times to cheer on their beloved Syracuse men’s basketball team. While Gerry McNamara is hitting three-pointers and Terrence Roberts is performing high-flying slam dunks, Carrier Dome and Athletic Department staff work behind-the-scenes to make sure that the game goes on flawlessly. Some of these people sit courtside and are directly involved with the game. Others are tucked away in corners of the Dome and don’t see a minute of the action on the court. Regardless of their role, this group works tirelessly to make sure that every fan’s experience in the “Loud House” is a memorable one.

John Mason, Official Scorer

By Scott Hammer

Syracuse legend Jim Boeheim is in his 30th year as head coach of the men’s basketball team. For many fans of SU basketball, it would be hard to imagine anybody but Boeheim on the sidelines of the Carrier Dome.

But one member of the Syracuse basketball tradition has been a fixture on the sidelines for just a little bit longer.

John Mason, the official scorekeeper for Syracuse men’s basketball games, is in the midst of his 35th season in that role. From his courtside seat, Mason has been witness to SU’s evolution from a regional treasure to a national powerhouse. Along with 35 years of exciting basketball action, he has compiled a lifetime of memories and friends through his work at the Carrier Dome.

A lifelong resident of the Central New York area, Mason is a graduate of Albany State University. He took a job as a math teacher at Greene High School and volunteered to be the scorekeeper for the school’s basketball team. He first saw the Orange play in person in 1970, attending a game with Greene’s head basketball coach.

“I went not so much because I wanted to see the Syracuse game but because I figured I ought to get to know the coach if I was going to be helping him,” Mason said.

Regardless, he was instantly hooked on SU basketball.

“I absolutely loved it,” Mason said of the atmosphere at the game. “The coach that I went to that first game with ended up not going to another game that year, but I went to every one.”

Toward the end of the year, Mason approached a Syracuse assistant coach to inquire about becoming scorekeeper.

The following season (1971-72) Mason began as the scorekeeper for the freshman team, traveling with it for away games. When the varsity squad reached the NIT that year, Mason and a friend decided to buy tickets for the SU game at Madison Square Garden. Before the start of the game, Mason noticed an Orange assistant coach walking up the stands in the direction of where he was sitting. Sure enough, the coach asked Mason if he would keep the official scorebook.

“It was unreal,” Mason said. “Here I am, on my first trip to the Garden, walking across the court to take my seat at the scorer’s table.”

That was just the first in a long line of memorable experiences for Mason. He vividly recalls some heated exchanges between Boeheim and former Georgetown head coach John Thompson, “back before they were as friendly as they are now,” Mason notes.

“I remember the look on Coach Thompson’s face when he received a technical foul from three referees simultaneously,” he recalled.

In addition to regular-season Syracuse games, Mason has also had the best seat in the house for several post-season tournaments and NCAA Regional events held at the Carrier Dome. One of the fondest memories from his tenure as scorekeeper came in the championship game of the 1981 BIG EAST Tournament, that was held in Syracuse. Leo Rautins knocked down a long jump shot in the waning moments to lift the Orange over Villanova in three overtimes.

“It really shows how the years have gone by, now that I’m penciling (Leo’s son) Andy into my scorebook,” he said.

As the program has grown in stature and success, Mason’s commitment to his work has grown along with it. A resident of Greene, he continues to make the hour-long drive on Interstate-81 to the Carrier Dome. Only once in 35 years has the torrid winter weather of Central New York caused him to miss a game.

“It was about twenty years ago, and I made it halfway to the Interstate before I had to turn around,” he says. “One other time I would have been late, but the start time of the game was delayed because St. John’s bus couldn’t make it up the hill.”

During his later years as a high school teacher, Mason began teaching basic computer literacy courses. But don’t let that fool you – Mason has remained true to the same method of scorekeeping he began with in 1970.

“Nowadays, it seems that everyone else has to have a computer monitor in front of them to do their jobs,” he says, pointing down the long row of journalists and statisticians that join him at the scorer’s table. “I always have hopes that there’s a place for a guy with a pencil and scorebook. I may be the last one left, but that’s the way I’ll always do it.”

Syracuse University Athletics

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at SU Basketball Games: John Mason

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