Matt Palumb to be Enshrined into Greater Syracuse Sports Hall

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[cto]

Congratulations, Matty. One of the real "good guys" at SU!

 

[Faegan]

Congratulations, Matty. One of the real "good guys" at SU!

YES HE IS!

 

[Cheriehoop]

Congratulations, Matty. One of the real "good guys" at SU!

Poor Matt was the basketball referee for the game when I blew out my knee. He was so nice, so upset. I wish I could say I was doing something fantastically athletic when it occurred but I had just chased down a girl on a fastbreak deflecting a pass she was making out of bounds. I was guarding the girl inbounding the ball under her basket, turned to make sure the defense was set, that I was taking a good angle preventing a pass in the paint - when my knee just buckled and I fell like a sack of potatoes. Poor Matt was holding the ball to give the inbounder right in front of me when the snap heard round the world occurred. (well close to the world ) I was in agony but very embarrassed wondering what I did to end up a crumpled mess on the gym floor when he ran over, yelled to the bench asking for a towel - NOW! I didn't know why a towel but just prayed I could get up, get to the bench, so the game would continue, all eyes were off me and I could get back in the game after a short rest.

Matt took the towel, put it over my knee telling me not to look at it while shooing the players standing around me away. It was then I realized I had blood running down covering my knee and that the ref, Matt, must have thought it was a gruesome compound fracture. I felt badly for him and to ease both our minds, I laughed and said , I'm okay, please don't worry, the blood is from some rakings that a player with monster fingernails kept giving me while bringing up the ball which by the way that you didn't call. We both laughed. When I said I heard something , he said he heard it too. I felt badly because his face seemed to reflect my pain. Ended up I had a partial ACL tear, total MCL tear and my patella had slid to the side where the MCL had torn. Was 39 years old and it was my first injury ever. Matt was a very nice guy, good ref, who I always wanted to thank for being so concerned. Despite coming back to play later the next season and playing 11 more years, I never saw Matt again on the court or maybe I just didn't recognize him. Glad to see him get this recognition.