RIP Louie Orr | Page 6 | Syracusefan.com

RIP Louie Orr

Madbiker said:
Those Louie and Bouie teams provided so many great moments in SU basketball history. That win over Tennessee with the Bernie and Ernie show their freshman year in the NCAA tourney put SU hoops on the map nationally. RIP Louie. News of his passing brought tears to my eyes.
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Well, we had beat UNC in the tourney to get to the final four just 2 years earlier (Kansas St after) but I get your point.
 
"Orr was named a Vic Hanson Medal of Excellence winner in 1990 by Syracuse University. He was named to the Syracuse University All Century Team in 2000, and a Syracuse Letterwinner of Distinction in 2006. Syracuse retired his uniform along with Roosevelt Bouie's in February 2015.

Orr left Syracuse in 2000 to become the head coach of Siena College. He lead Siena to a 20-11 record, and tied for the MAAC conference championship in his first year. A hot commodity, Orr then became the head coach of Seton Hall University. In the 2002-2003 season, he lead the Pirates to a 21-10 record, and earned Big East Coach of the Year honors, becoming the first person to earn both all conference honors as a player and as a coach."

I watched every game of the LOUIE & BOUIE SHOW. What a combination. They complimented each other so well. His four year record with the team, 100 – 18. I can still see him rebound, he was so great in that skill.

Today is gray here as is my mind knowing we will not be able to track Louis basketball exploits anymore. It is down and sad in one way but happy and exciting in another knowing what he accomplished as a player and a coach in his lifetime and how many players benefitted from his mentorship. A true gentleman of Syracuse and all basketball.

All my best wishes to his family. God is with you and with Louis.
 
Man. I’m heading to a funeral tomorrow for the 4 year old daughter of some ministry colleagues who just passed from cancer. 4. Years. Old. With. Cancer… The loss is just hard to fathom, it doesn’t compute as a father of 3 with a 4 year old daughter as well. My Mom died from cancer too. Just hate it.

I’m genuinely thankful that Louis Orr was a man of God who gave his life to Jesus & lived by faith. It provides hope where it feels like none is to be found, especially in dealing with Cancer. Praying God’s peace & presence for the family as they enter into the mourning, lament, pain, sadness & loss. It hurts. But, Louis is now home & I want to celebrate a life well lived!

I just want to offer an opportunity to anyone if you’re searching for answers to questions about Jesus, the Gospel, Salvation/restoration, etc. Nothing’s out of bounds or silly, if you want to message me I’d be happy to engage in conversation with you. I can’t provide all the answers, but I’d embrace talking with you if you’re just processing or beginning to pursue these faith questions further.
 
JDubbin said:
Man. I’m heading to a funeral tomorrow for the 4 year old daughter of some ministry colleagues who just passed from cancer. 4. Years. Old. With. Cancer… The loss is just hard to fathom, it doesn’t compute as a father of 3 with a 4 year old daughter as well. My Mom died from cancer too. Just hate it.

I’m genuinely thankful that Louis Orr was a man of God who gave his life to Jesus & lived by faith. It provides hope where it feels like none is to be found, especially in dealing with Cancer. Praying God’s peace & presence for the family as they enter into the mourning, lament, pain, sadness & loss. It hurts. But, Louis is now home & I want to celebrate a life well lived!

I just want to offer an opportunity to anyone if you’re searching for answers to questions about Jesus, the Gospel, Salvation/restoration, etc. Nothing’s out of bounds or silly, if you want to message me I’d be happy to engage in conversation with you. I can’t provide all the answers, but I’d embrace talking with you if you’re just processing or beginning to pursue these faith questions further.
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J,

Thank you for being there for support. It made me feel better after I read what you had to say.

Sometimes I do not understand. If they can create a vaccine to prevent and help with Covid so quickly why can't one of those doctors or researchers come up with a vaccine for cancer?

Easier said than done, my guess.

Lost the wonderful woman I lived with for ten years to it. It was an exhausting six months taking care of her, but one of the things I am proudest of accomplishing. It is a dreadful disease.

I hope you get through your funeral well tomorrow. Tell your daughter you love her every chance you get.
 
dollarbill44 said:
This is sad news, indeed. I first started following SU hoops with the Louis and Bouie show. I emulated him on the playground while none of my friends in ACC land knew who he was.
He was my first favorite player.
This sucks.
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Same here, Louie, Bouie, Marty Headd and Hal Cohen were my favorites, they began my fandom of SYR basketball. I remember waiting for Saturdays to watch the ECAC Game of the Week. Many times it was a SYR game from the Manley Zoo and it seemed like Marv Albert and Bucky Waters were always on the call. They started my addiction to SYR basketball that I can't shake 43 years later.
 
dasher said:
yes it was. I remember prof Wessel saying something about his life being interrupted because of fighting in the war and someone yelled yeah, which side. Got a great laugh.
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LOL. I remember him pointing up to talking students in the upper reaches of Stolkin ( it was huge, it was like a stadium grandstand) and saying in his thick German accent, "What's all that cocktail party background noise? Write a letter to your parents and tell them what a bad job they did bringing you up." He wore those strapped leather European sandals in the dead of winter with thick black hiking socks. I remember seeing him whack golf balls off plastic mats into nets in the Archbold basement. His astronomy course was supposed to be an easy "A" but I found it to be pretty hard, there was a lot of math in it figuring out speed and distance stuff. I struggled with it.
 
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Dinkyspond said:
LOL. I remember him pointing up to talking students in the upper reaches of Stolkin ( it was huge, it was like a stadium grandstand) and saying in his thick German accent, "What's all that cocktail party background noise? Write a letter to your parents and tell them what a bad job they did bringing you up." He wore those strapped leather European sandals in the dead of winter with thick black hiking socks. I remember seeing him whack golf balls off plastic mats into nets in the Archbold basement. His astronomy course was supposed to be an easy "A" but I found it to be pretty hard, there was a lot of math in it figuring out speed and distance stuff. I struggled with it.
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Exactly. I thought it would be easy. It wasn't.
 
From my series "From the Mists of Time" about the early days of my being an SU basketball fan, (1966-76):

"The trip to the final four had made Roy Danforth a hot property and at this point Tulane made an offer to the Syracuse Coach, who had played his collegiate ball under Fred Lewis at nearby Southern Mississippi. Danforth decided to take the job, not realizing perhaps that a job like the one at Syracuse might be not a stepping stone but rather the kind of thing one jumps TO. After some discussion and rumors of various coaches being selected to replace him, the University decided to offer the job to Jim Boeheim, Danforth’s long -time assistant who at the time was interviewing with the University of Rochester. I recall seeing a giddy Boeheim being interviewed at the Rochester airport, allowing as how he’d rather have the Syracuse job.

Late in the season a series of articles started appearing in the papers about what seemed like an amazing recruiting class for SU. There were articles on New York State’s leading scorer, (35ppg), Hal Cohen of Canton, NY. Another was on Cliff Warwell, who had grown up in New York City and moved upstate to Kandor, NY to average 30+ himself. Then there was Roosevelt Bouie, a big (6-10), athletic shot blocking center of the type we’d never had before, (Bill Smith being primarily an offensive player) from Kendall, NY, near Rochester. Finally there was a “sleeper”, a 6-8 kid from Cincinnati named Louie Orr everybody seemed to think was too skinny. A big question was whether these guys would come here, now that we had a coaching change. They all did, and they turned the program into something it had never really been before: a powerhouse.

You could see it the next season. In the center of the action was Bouie, like a great fish leaping from the sea, blocking shots, dunking the ball and grabbing rebounds. Meanwhile, Orr, moving like an eel, would slide around and through the defense for scores and rebounds. Warwell, (another guy who left due to playing time), and Cohen had more limited contributions off the bench. Byrnes, Schackleford and Williams completed an impressive starting line-up.

All though these years I have described, two teams kept blocking Syracuse’s path with their superior size, talent and depth. Louisville beat us 71-75 in 1967, 81-103 in 1972, and 88-96 in 1975. Maryland had our number in 1972, 65-71 and 76-91 then 75-91 a year later. They were just too big and too deep for SU’s scrappers to stay with for 40 minutes. But now we were ready to go head to head with them.

SU played the Cardinals on their home court in the third game of the 1976-77 season and the Terps on their home court in the ninth game. The Orange beat the Cardinals, who had the nation’s top freshman in Darrell Griffith, when one of our freshman, Cliff Warwell, scored on a twisting lay-up in the final seconds. (I still remember Joel Mareiness going nuts describing it.) Maryland, whom we have never defeated to this day, [but have twice since I originally wrote this], ended SU’s 8 game season opening winning streak, 85-96 in their Maryland Invitational. But the key was that SU was no longer outclassed by these teams. When we played them it was no longer David and Goliath but instead a battle of national powers. SU went on to begin the Boeheim era with a sparking 26-4 mark and a #6 final ranking in the polls. Not only had we arrived, but we looked like we belonged there."

Those young forwards Jim Boeheim is currently trying to bring along to make this year's team a formidable one could do well to watch film of Louis Orr playing the position. Jim could just point to it and say, "That's what we need!" He could also point to the person Louis was off the court and say the same thing.
 
SWC75 said:
From my series "From the Mists of Time" about the early days of my being an SU basketball fan, (1966-76):

"The trip to the final four had made Roy Danforth a hot property and at this point Tulane made an offer to the Syracuse Coach, who had played his collegiate ball under Fred Lewis at nearby Southern Mississippi. Danforth decided to take the job, not realizing perhaps that a job like the one at Syracuse might be not a stepping stone but rather the kind of thing one jumps TO. After some discussion and rumors of various coaches being selected to replace him, the University decided to offer the job to Jim Boeheim, Danforth’s long -time assistant who at the time was interviewing with the University of Rochester. I recall seeing a giddy Boeheim being interviewed at the Rochester airport, allowing as how he’d rather have the Syracuse job.

Late in the season a series of articles started appearing in the papers about what seemed like an amazing recruiting class for SU. There were articles on New York State’s leading scorer, (35ppg), Hal Cohen of Canton, NY. Another was on Cliff Warwell, who had grown up in New York City and moved upstate to Kandor, NY to average 30+ himself. Then there was Roosevelt Bouie, a big (6-10), athletic shot blocking center of the type we’d never had before, (Bill Smith being primarily an offensive player) from Kendall, NY, near Rochester. Finally there was a “sleeper”, a 6-8 kid from Cincinnati named Louie Orr everybody seemed to think was too skinny. A big question was whether these guys would come here, now that we had a coaching change. They all did, and they turned the program into something it had never really been before: a powerhouse.

You could see it the next season. In the center of the action was Bouie, like a great fish leaping from the sea, blocking shots, dunking the ball and grabbing rebounds. Meanwhile, Orr, moving like an eel, would slide around and through the defense for scores and rebounds. Warwell, (another guy who left due to playing time), and Cohen had more limited contributions off the bench. Byrnes, Schackleford and Williams completed an impressive starting line-up.

All though these years I have described, two teams kept blocking Syracuse’s path with their superior size, talent and depth. Louisville beat us 71-75 in 1967, 81-103 in 1972, and 88-96 in 1975. Maryland had our number in 1972, 65-71 and 76-91 then 75-91 a year later. They were just too big and too deep for SU’s scrappers to stay with for 40 minutes. But now we were ready to go head to head with them.

SU played the Cardinals on their home court in the third game of the 1976-77 season and the Terps on their home court in the ninth game. The Orange beat the Cardinals, who had the nation’s top freshman in Darrell Griffith, when one of our freshman, Cliff Warwell, scored on a twisting lay-up in the final seconds. (I still remember Joel Mareiness going nuts describing it.) Maryland, whom we have never defeated to this day, [but have twice since I originally wrote this], ended SU’s 8 game season opening winning streak, 85-96 in their Maryland Invitational. But the key was that SU was no longer outclassed by these teams. When we played them it was no longer David and Goliath but instead a battle of national powers. SU went on to begin the Boeheim era with a sparking 26-4 mark and a #6 final ranking in the polls. Not only had we arrived, but we looked like we belonged there."

Those young forwards Jim Boeheim is currently trying to bring along to make this year's team a formidable one could do well to watch film of Louis Orr playing the position. Jim could just point to it and say, "That's what we need!" He could also point to the person Louis was off the court and say the same thing.
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Interesting stuff Steve. JB was the recruiting assistant on Danforth’s staff so he was the contact with many of these same players so the continuity of naming him the coach, really secured these kids to SU. He was known for a long time, a coach who could evaluate underrated talented recruits and have them blossom at SU. Louie otherwise was headed to his local college Xavier in Cincinnati.

Rosie Bouie was the only real highly heralded gem of that first class.Everyone wanted him - he was a national recruit unlike Louie. Devo’s podcast with Rosie tells his recruiting story. If Danforth had stayed, it leaves some serious doubt whether he’d have come to SU. It’s a good one.

 
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