SWC75
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High Hopes
The most popular games of the 1966-67 season, outside of the St. John’s confrontation, had been the freshman games that preceded the varsity encounters. For years I have been an advocate of having double headers in the Dome with the men’s and women’s teams or of having a junior varsity for players not good enough or not ready for the varsity. It was always fascinating to come into Manley and see a game already going on while the stands filled up, especially when the stars of that team might be the stars of next year’s varsity. In 1966-67, we had a freshman team that might have beaten the varsity. It featured a smooth 6-8 center, Wayne Ward, who would be our answer to the Sonny Doves and Mel Daniels of the world. There was also Ernie Austin, a high scoring guard from Washington DC who was a cousin of former BC All-American John Austin. Ward averaged 20 points and 20 rebounds a game, (actually 19.8/16.1) while Austin averaged 30.0 points a game for the freshman who won all 16 games they played. The two biggest games were against the Niagara freshmen, who were led by Calvin Murphy who was producing an incredible 50 points a game, (48.9) as a frosh. These games were so anticipated that people were actually seen leaving after them and skipping the varsity game. SU won both of them, with the combined weight of Ward’s and Austin’s numbers overcoming the incredible scoring of Murphy.
(I’ve since been able to look up the newspaper articles on those games. SU won the one in Manley Field House 108-96, before a record crowd of 7,105, holding Murphy to a season-low 38 points, (he had scored between 43-66 points in every game), while Austin scored 32 and Ward had 21 points and 19 rebounds. 6-4 Bill Case also had a big game for SU with 25 points and 16 rebounds. A 6-5 lefty named Steve Schaefer scored 28 and had 22 rebounds for Niagara. In the return match, SU won again, 106-101. Murphy scored 46 but Ward had 36, (they didn’t note the rebounds), and Austin 28. Case had only 15 and Schaeffer didn’t play for some reason. In both games Niagara led at halftime, 48-45 and 49-48. SU caught them and pulled away down the stretch, overcoming a 71-83 deficit with a 35-18 run in the second one. We now have entire games that wind up with the half-time scores of those games. They scored the ball in those days.)
In 1967-68 the varsity had four of five starters returning, losing only Dean, who would obviously be replaced by Ward. Then Steve Ludd left the team to concentrate on his studies. He knew that Austin was going to become the “2” guard on this team with Ward at center, joining Harper, Hicker and Cornwall in a team that would surely be superior to their predecessors.
Meanwhile, another great class had been recruited by Fred Lewis and his chief assistant, Roy Danforth. It contained a true “aircraft carrier”, 6-11 Bill Smith, who, according to Sports Illustrated, Lewis “compared favorably to (Lew) Alcindor”, (now known as Kareem Abdul Jabbar). Beside him was a high scoring 6-7 forward, Bob McDaniel and another good prospect, 6-5 Bill Finney. The frosh backcourt contained 6-0 distributor Tom Green and a local product, John Unger, from our high school in North Syracuse. This team averaged 98 points a game, losing only to nationally ranked junior college Broome Tech. Smith scored 21.0 a game and got 13.6 rebounds. McDaniel topped that with 24.8 a game and 16.1 rebs. Finney scored 18.3 with 7.4 rebs. Green averaged 14.0, (I don’t have the assists but they must have been considerable.) Unger averaged 9.0.
Harper, Hicker and Cornwall were seniors but SU was looking at a line-up of Smith at center, surrounded by Ward and McDaniel, with Austin and Green in the backcourt for 1968-69. This was an era when the average center was about 6-7 and the average forward 6-4. We were going to go 6-8, 6-11, 6-7. Take that, Sonny Dove! Our team was going to look like a church, with the large steeple supported by flying buttresses. All you had to do was open the doors of Manley and see all the people who would come to see them.
This led to serious dreams of the ultimate ambition in college basketball at the time: to be the team that had the honor of losing to UCLA for the national championship. In those days, everybody knew before the season began who would win the title: that was UCLA’s by birthright. The glamour dream was to get to play them in the finals. Duke, Michigan, Dayton, North Carolina, Purdue, Jacksonville, Villanova, Florida State, Memphis State and Kentucky got that honor in the Wooden years, almost the equivalent of a national championship in other eras. You were “the Best of the Rest”. Imagine if Syracuse could have made that list? But we never got close. Instead, we went in a very different direction.
The most popular games of the 1966-67 season, outside of the St. John’s confrontation, had been the freshman games that preceded the varsity encounters. For years I have been an advocate of having double headers in the Dome with the men’s and women’s teams or of having a junior varsity for players not good enough or not ready for the varsity. It was always fascinating to come into Manley and see a game already going on while the stands filled up, especially when the stars of that team might be the stars of next year’s varsity. In 1966-67, we had a freshman team that might have beaten the varsity. It featured a smooth 6-8 center, Wayne Ward, who would be our answer to the Sonny Doves and Mel Daniels of the world. There was also Ernie Austin, a high scoring guard from Washington DC who was a cousin of former BC All-American John Austin. Ward averaged 20 points and 20 rebounds a game, (actually 19.8/16.1) while Austin averaged 30.0 points a game for the freshman who won all 16 games they played. The two biggest games were against the Niagara freshmen, who were led by Calvin Murphy who was producing an incredible 50 points a game, (48.9) as a frosh. These games were so anticipated that people were actually seen leaving after them and skipping the varsity game. SU won both of them, with the combined weight of Ward’s and Austin’s numbers overcoming the incredible scoring of Murphy.
(I’ve since been able to look up the newspaper articles on those games. SU won the one in Manley Field House 108-96, before a record crowd of 7,105, holding Murphy to a season-low 38 points, (he had scored between 43-66 points in every game), while Austin scored 32 and Ward had 21 points and 19 rebounds. 6-4 Bill Case also had a big game for SU with 25 points and 16 rebounds. A 6-5 lefty named Steve Schaefer scored 28 and had 22 rebounds for Niagara. In the return match, SU won again, 106-101. Murphy scored 46 but Ward had 36, (they didn’t note the rebounds), and Austin 28. Case had only 15 and Schaeffer didn’t play for some reason. In both games Niagara led at halftime, 48-45 and 49-48. SU caught them and pulled away down the stretch, overcoming a 71-83 deficit with a 35-18 run in the second one. We now have entire games that wind up with the half-time scores of those games. They scored the ball in those days.)
In 1967-68 the varsity had four of five starters returning, losing only Dean, who would obviously be replaced by Ward. Then Steve Ludd left the team to concentrate on his studies. He knew that Austin was going to become the “2” guard on this team with Ward at center, joining Harper, Hicker and Cornwall in a team that would surely be superior to their predecessors.
Meanwhile, another great class had been recruited by Fred Lewis and his chief assistant, Roy Danforth. It contained a true “aircraft carrier”, 6-11 Bill Smith, who, according to Sports Illustrated, Lewis “compared favorably to (Lew) Alcindor”, (now known as Kareem Abdul Jabbar). Beside him was a high scoring 6-7 forward, Bob McDaniel and another good prospect, 6-5 Bill Finney. The frosh backcourt contained 6-0 distributor Tom Green and a local product, John Unger, from our high school in North Syracuse. This team averaged 98 points a game, losing only to nationally ranked junior college Broome Tech. Smith scored 21.0 a game and got 13.6 rebounds. McDaniel topped that with 24.8 a game and 16.1 rebs. Finney scored 18.3 with 7.4 rebs. Green averaged 14.0, (I don’t have the assists but they must have been considerable.) Unger averaged 9.0.
Harper, Hicker and Cornwall were seniors but SU was looking at a line-up of Smith at center, surrounded by Ward and McDaniel, with Austin and Green in the backcourt for 1968-69. This was an era when the average center was about 6-7 and the average forward 6-4. We were going to go 6-8, 6-11, 6-7. Take that, Sonny Dove! Our team was going to look like a church, with the large steeple supported by flying buttresses. All you had to do was open the doors of Manley and see all the people who would come to see them.
This led to serious dreams of the ultimate ambition in college basketball at the time: to be the team that had the honor of losing to UCLA for the national championship. In those days, everybody knew before the season began who would win the title: that was UCLA’s by birthright. The glamour dream was to get to play them in the finals. Duke, Michigan, Dayton, North Carolina, Purdue, Jacksonville, Villanova, Florida State, Memphis State and Kentucky got that honor in the Wooden years, almost the equivalent of a national championship in other eras. You were “the Best of the Rest”. Imagine if Syracuse could have made that list? But we never got close. Instead, we went in a very different direction.
