SWC75
Bored Historian
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I was in Barnes & Noble today, picking up my Lindy's and Athlon preseason football magazines when I notice Bud Poliquin's book, "Tales from the Syracuse Orange Locker Room", was on the sports shelf. This book first came out in 2003 as "Tales from the Syracuse Hardwood". An updated version with the Title "Tales from the Syracuse Orange's Hardwood" came out in 2014and this third version, (without the possessive 'Orange'), came out in 2017. I had the first one but Bud sent me a complimentary book of the 2014 addition with the note "Steve, I hope that you, one of the 4 smartest guys in Syracuse, enjoy this book. And I also hope you don't find too many mistakes in it.' I don't recall who the other 3 smartest guys in Syracuse were but I certainly enjoyed the book. That last comment was a major error by Bud. I took it as a challenge. I called into his show and congratulated him on having only 4 mistakes in 206 pages. He took that with good humor but was surprised by it. He insisted that Larry Kimball had carefully checked everything in the book and nobody knows more about SU sports history than Larry Kimball. He asked me to send him a letter citing the mistakes and he'd have them checked out. Here is what I came up with:
Page XIV, third full paragraph, last sentence: “There were the two trips to the Sweet 16, (in 2009 and 2010), the two trips to the Elite Eight, (in 2011 and 2012) and the trip to the Final Four (in 2013).”
The 2010-2011 team lost to Marquette in the Round of 32.
2011 NCAA Basketball Tournament
Page 35, fourth full paragraph, second and third sentences: “Indeed, in the history of Syracuse basketball, there has been only one season in which two different Orangemen averaged 20 points or more per game. And that was in 1963-64, when (Dave) Bing and (Chuck) Richards formed a wondrous one-two punch.”
Bill Smith and Greg “Kid” Kohls also formed a wondrous 1-2 punch during the 1970-71 season.
Syracuse Orangemen Basketball 1970-1971
Page 49, fourth full paragraph, second sentence: “You see, in the finals of the East Regional that year, the Orangemen could manage but 81 points—what a shame, huh?---against Duke and lost by seven.”
We lost by 10 points, 81-91, to Duke.
Syracuse Basketball 1965-1966 Game Results
Page 89, second full paragraph, first sentence: “And that wave—which transported the Orangemen past LaSalle, (in overtime), Kansas State and North Carolina, (again in overtime) in NCAA Tournament play- carried them to Southern California. “
We played North Carolina before Kansas State and the North Carolina game was not an overtime game.
Syracuse Basketball 1974-1975 Game Results
I got the 2017 edition today, (which includes tales from the 2016 Final Four run), and here is what I found:
On page XV it says "There were two trips to the Sweet 16, (in 2009 and 2010), the trip to the Elite Eight (in 2012), the trip to the Final Four (in 2013).
On page 35 it says "Indeed, in the history of Syracuse basketball, there have been only two seasons in which two different Orangemen averaged 20 points or more per game. And the first of those was in 1963-64, when Bing and and Richards formed a wonderous one-two punch."
On page 49 it says "You see, in the finals of the East regional that year, the Orangemen could manage but 81 points - what a shame, huh? - against Duke and lost by 10."
On page 89, it says "And that wave - which transported the Orangemen past Lasalle (in overtime), North Carolina and Kansas State (again in overtime), in NCAA tournament play - carried them to Southern California."
This 2017 version of the book covers the 2016 run, talks about Adrian Autry's elevation to 'Associate Head Coach and Jim Boeheim's loss of that 1,000 wins. (I found no errors there, thankfully). Red talks about the impact of having played basketball in 8 different countries after his playing career here: "I can tell you that idea of travel being a great educator is 1,000 percent true. And it's helped me on my job. You have people coming into the team from different backgrounds. They see things differently. They've done things differently. You know, you tend to think that everybody thinks the way you think or sees things the way you see things. But they don't. If not for being in Europe and other places, I'd probably be thinking just one way. I've seen the world so I can process things differently and know there are different ways to attack things. I've learned different languages. I've learned different points of view. And, absolutely, I've learned different basketball."
I'll end with some comments I made on Bud's book back in 2014, which are still true.
But those are quibbles. I urge every Syracuse fan to purchase this book. I’ve always said “The past is a series of presents and the present is living history we are privileged to witness.” Thanks to Bud’s book, those past presents have been presented to us to experience, through the eyes of those who witnessed it. And the visual images Bud creates are fascinating:
YOU ARE THERE sitting with Muhammed Ali watching Dave Bing take on Bill Bradley and Rick Barry in the 1963 Hurricane Classic.
YOU ARE THERE as Bill Smith and his entire family take on the referee and the West Virginia fans in Morgantown in 1970.
YOU ARE THERE as the normally even tempered Mike Lee punts the ball into the rafters of Manley Field House and Roy Danforth and his coaching staff comically try to distract the refs like it was the WWF while the fans retrieve the ball so Mike won’t be thrown out of the game.
YOU ARE THERE as Danforth strides past an amazed Jim Valvano to direct the cheers of the Manley Zoo with his team up 55 points on Bucknell.
YOU ARE THERE when Jim Boeheim outfits his golf team in shirts he stole from the football team.
And YOU ARE THERE when Bud types sentences like this one on page 94: “As such, if they, (Roosevelt Bouie and Louis Orr), weren’t the finest pair of Orangemen, long term, in the history of the Syracuse basketball program, well, then perhaps a bear’s bathroom fixtures aren’t covered in bark after all.”
www.barnesandnoble.com
(My book says 'Orange' but has the same picture of the 2016 team on the cover. Amazon has it but my attempt to link to them failed.)
Page XIV, third full paragraph, last sentence: “There were the two trips to the Sweet 16, (in 2009 and 2010), the two trips to the Elite Eight, (in 2011 and 2012) and the trip to the Final Four (in 2013).”
The 2010-2011 team lost to Marquette in the Round of 32.
2011 NCAA Basketball Tournament
Page 35, fourth full paragraph, second and third sentences: “Indeed, in the history of Syracuse basketball, there has been only one season in which two different Orangemen averaged 20 points or more per game. And that was in 1963-64, when (Dave) Bing and (Chuck) Richards formed a wondrous one-two punch.”
Bill Smith and Greg “Kid” Kohls also formed a wondrous 1-2 punch during the 1970-71 season.
Syracuse Orangemen Basketball 1970-1971
Page 49, fourth full paragraph, second sentence: “You see, in the finals of the East Regional that year, the Orangemen could manage but 81 points—what a shame, huh?---against Duke and lost by seven.”
We lost by 10 points, 81-91, to Duke.
Syracuse Basketball 1965-1966 Game Results
Page 89, second full paragraph, first sentence: “And that wave—which transported the Orangemen past LaSalle, (in overtime), Kansas State and North Carolina, (again in overtime) in NCAA Tournament play- carried them to Southern California. “
We played North Carolina before Kansas State and the North Carolina game was not an overtime game.
Syracuse Basketball 1974-1975 Game Results
I got the 2017 edition today, (which includes tales from the 2016 Final Four run), and here is what I found:
On page XV it says "There were two trips to the Sweet 16, (in 2009 and 2010), the trip to the Elite Eight (in 2012), the trip to the Final Four (in 2013).
On page 35 it says "Indeed, in the history of Syracuse basketball, there have been only two seasons in which two different Orangemen averaged 20 points or more per game. And the first of those was in 1963-64, when Bing and and Richards formed a wonderous one-two punch."
On page 49 it says "You see, in the finals of the East regional that year, the Orangemen could manage but 81 points - what a shame, huh? - against Duke and lost by 10."
On page 89, it says "And that wave - which transported the Orangemen past Lasalle (in overtime), North Carolina and Kansas State (again in overtime), in NCAA tournament play - carried them to Southern California."
This 2017 version of the book covers the 2016 run, talks about Adrian Autry's elevation to 'Associate Head Coach and Jim Boeheim's loss of that 1,000 wins. (I found no errors there, thankfully). Red talks about the impact of having played basketball in 8 different countries after his playing career here: "I can tell you that idea of travel being a great educator is 1,000 percent true. And it's helped me on my job. You have people coming into the team from different backgrounds. They see things differently. They've done things differently. You know, you tend to think that everybody thinks the way you think or sees things the way you see things. But they don't. If not for being in Europe and other places, I'd probably be thinking just one way. I've seen the world so I can process things differently and know there are different ways to attack things. I've learned different languages. I've learned different points of view. And, absolutely, I've learned different basketball."
I'll end with some comments I made on Bud's book back in 2014, which are still true.
But those are quibbles. I urge every Syracuse fan to purchase this book. I’ve always said “The past is a series of presents and the present is living history we are privileged to witness.” Thanks to Bud’s book, those past presents have been presented to us to experience, through the eyes of those who witnessed it. And the visual images Bud creates are fascinating:
YOU ARE THERE sitting with Muhammed Ali watching Dave Bing take on Bill Bradley and Rick Barry in the 1963 Hurricane Classic.
YOU ARE THERE as Bill Smith and his entire family take on the referee and the West Virginia fans in Morgantown in 1970.
YOU ARE THERE as the normally even tempered Mike Lee punts the ball into the rafters of Manley Field House and Roy Danforth and his coaching staff comically try to distract the refs like it was the WWF while the fans retrieve the ball so Mike won’t be thrown out of the game.
YOU ARE THERE as Danforth strides past an amazed Jim Valvano to direct the cheers of the Manley Zoo with his team up 55 points on Bucknell.
YOU ARE THERE when Jim Boeheim outfits his golf team in shirts he stole from the football team.
And YOU ARE THERE when Bud types sentences like this one on page 94: “As such, if they, (Roosevelt Bouie and Louis Orr), weren’t the finest pair of Orangemen, long term, in the history of the Syracuse basketball program, well, then perhaps a bear’s bathroom fixtures aren’t covered in bark after all.”
Tales from the Syracuse Orange Locker Room: A Collection of the Greatest Orange Basketball Stories Ever Told|Hardcover
Orange is a state of mind for fans of Syracuse University basketball. Think Orange and images of greatness appear, from Vic Hanson in the Roaring ’20s through Carmelo Anthony in the 21st century. Think Orange and the sounds of glory are heard, from old Archbold Gym to the gleaming Carrier...
(My book says 'Orange' but has the same picture of the 2016 team on the cover. Amazon has it but my attempt to link to them failed.)
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