Super Bowl Sunday

[ppittin]

The Super Bowl is a few short weeks away and every year at Super Bowl time I am reminded of the first Super Bowl.....January 15, 1967.
On that day Niagara and St. Bonaventure played basketball in the old Aud in Buffalo in front of a packed house. Few cared about the stupid bowl game. Everybody was there to see Murphy take the center jump against Big Bob Lanier. Murph won!!!
I was there and my parents came in from Rochester to see the game. A friend of my father called Bucky was with them. In the fourth quarter Bucky was adamant that they leave so they could go somewhere to watch the Super Bowl. My mother was PISSED. She came to watch Murphy!! Over the years, on every Super Bowl Sunday she threw that in my father's face......"Why did we have to leave??? I wanted to see Calvin play!!" They have both passed now, but I'll bet that on Super Bowl Sunday she will again remind him that they missed the end of the basketball game.
BTW the program cost ten cents and I still have it. Is there a trophy case somewhere that would like the program??
Oh, I'll save everyone the trouble....Green Bay beat Kansas City and Niagara lost (something that my SBU friends often remind me of).

[Truthful]

Like most games that season , it was the freshman game that generated the most interest . Two of the three best freshmen in the nation going head to head , a stark reminder of the dramatic decline of NU basketball over the years . Of course Pistol Pete Maravich was regarded as the best freshman . I don't recall the outcome , but I would venture to guess that NU lost both the freshman and varsity game . Incidentally , it's very interesting how the three Vincentian basketball programs have declined big time . Coincidence or poor leadership ?

[MICKEY]

Sometimes I wonder if Niagara hasn’t been cursed, like the Curse of the Bambino or the goat owner at Wrigley Field. The question is who did it and how do we exorcise it. May be we can ask Nancy Pelosi for help.

[phillyeagle]

Bob Lanier was not heavily recruited or well regarded until after his freshman year. I would love to see the scores of Murph's freshman year. That was a hell of a team with Murph, Brown, Shafer and Malfetti.
I always thought that Niagara would have been well served with a Murphy/Maravich game. Imagine a game at the Garden in NYC with a National TV audience. NU had one of those " once in a lifetime" chances for national publicity and while they had a number of high profile games, there could have been more.

[jhart]

Don't forget the third of the three M's, Rick Mount of Purdue.

[Truthful]

Rick Mount was the first high school player to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated .

[ppittin]

My initial post has certainly taken a much different direction than intended.
Why have Vincentian schools sunk so low....cursed?? Bad decisions?/
From Google:

"the Jesuits had three goals: to establish highly disciplined schools, to propagate Catholic beliefs through missionary work, and to combat Protestantism. The Jesuits quickly became the militant arm of the Papacy and the Catholic Church."

my interpretation: Jesuit education and basketball fortunes are awesome---they realize that a highly disciplined school has highly disciplined basketball program, that provides resources to pay for missionaries to combat Protestantism.

[jhart]

Wow Pity!
I've served on the board of Jesuit apostalates to compliment my nine years of Vincentian schooling and find your observation curious.

[le]

Excellent story about the first Super Bowl Sunday. I’m somewhat younger than you guys who were enrolled at NU during the Murphy era…My recollection of the first Super Sunday was my Dad attempting to rig a UHF antenna in our attic to view the game from NBC Hartford… As mentioned , NU missed several golden opportunities to make a lasting impression in the national market. If a kid from NW CT was adequately impressed with NU’s “brand “ in the mid 70’s , the window of opportunity was still open . Unfortunately, the ECAC , North Atlantic and MAAC never provided NU the opportunity to launch into national prominence as the Big East did for similar sized schools.

[NUEagle]

Ppittin: I’d be happy to take that program off your hands and add it to my collection in my fan cave….just let me know. Thanks!