Roy Danforth

[Symphony Steve]

During my time on the Hill, football was in decline, but hoops rose out of the ashes. Roy Danforth was the reason. I remember getting to see a couple of practices at Manley, and Danforth had a ball scrimmaging with the players. I didn't know then that disappointments like 'Jazzy' McDaniels would give way to Dennis Duval, Kid Kohls, Bill Smith, Mike Lee, Bob Dooms, Marc Wadach and Rudy Hackett during my time there, and that we'd become a really exciting team. One of my RA's was Bill Case, a former captain who was one of the nicest people I met at SU.

Got to thinking about Danforth, and read this old article in the Philly Daily News:

http://articles.philly.com/1986-02-19/sports/26089500_1_roy-danforth-tulane-basketball-program

It got me to wondering whether SU has reached out to Roy (he's still alive) and whether there has been a rapprochement with Roy. He sure deserves it. He made that team the sports highlight of my years at SU. I still think of him with fondness.

 

[obliterata]

Danforth resurrected the program and put Syracuse on the national map. An 8-year run: no post-season the first 2 years then 2 NITs followed by 4 NCAAs in a row including SU's first Final Four. If he was not as successful as he was there's no telling what shape the program would be in today, maybe we're another BC or Providence.

 

[TexanMark]

I hope SU brings him up for a game...he was the guy who got this rolling again after Andreas/Lewis

 

[Shark58]

the old regime shoulda retired a "Danfourth" jersey

 

[tipphill]

Danforth resurrected the program and put Syracuse on the national map. An 8-year run: no post-season the first 2 years then 2 NITs followed by 4 NCAAs in a row including SU's first Final Four. If he was not as successful as he was there's no telling what shape the program would be in today, maybe we're another BC or Providence.

i believe fred lewis began the revival, and danforth took it to the next level

 

[cliftonparksufan]

the old regime shoulda retired a "Danfourth" jersey

May the Forth be with you:

 

[sutomcat]

During my time on the Hill, football was in decline, but hoops rose out of the ashes. Roy Danforth was the reason. I remember getting to see a couple of practices at Manley, and Danforth had a ball scrimmaging with the players. I didn't know then that disappointments like 'Jazzy' McDaniels would give way to Dennis Duval, Kid Kohls, Bill Smith, Mike Lee, Bob Dooms, Marc Wadach and Rudy Hackett during my time there, and that we'd become a really exciting team. One of my RA's was Bill Case, a former captain who was one of the nicest people I met at SU.

Got to thinking about Danforth, and read this old article in the Philly Daily News:

http://articles.philly.com/1986-02-19/sports/26089500_1_roy-danforth-tulane-basketball-program

It got me to wondering whether SU has reached out to Roy (he's still alive) and whether there has been a rapprochement with Roy. He sure deserves it. He made that team the sports highlight of my years at SU. I still think of him with fondness.

Good idea. Do it while Roy is still alive and JB is still the HC, when it will have the most meaning.

 

[obliterata]

i believe fred lewis began the revival, and danforth took it to the next level

Yes, you could say Andreas revived the program as well as Lewis and actually all the previous coaches - Lewis inherited a 2 and 22 team!

What I like about Danforth is 1) unlike all his predecessors, he's the only coach that didn't have multiple losing seasons and 2) he's the only one who passed the torch to the next guy with the program in excellent shape.

 

[HoustonCuse]

During my time on the Hill, football was in decline, but hoops rose out of the ashes. Roy Danforth was the reason. I remember getting to see a couple of practices at Manley, and Danforth had a ball scrimmaging with the players. I didn't know then that disappointments like 'Jazzy' McDaniels would give way to Dennis Duval, Kid Kohls, Bill Smith, Mike Lee, Bob Dooms, Marc Wadach and Rudy Hackett during my time there, and that we'd become a really exciting team. One of my RA's was Bill Case, a former captain who was one of the nicest people I met at SU.

Got to thinking about Danforth, and read this old article in the Philly Daily News:

http://articles.philly.com/1986-02-19/sports/26089500_1_roy-danforth-tulane-basketball-program

It got me to wondering whether SU has reached out to Roy (he's still alive) and whether there has been a rapprochement with Roy. He sure deserves it. He made that team the sports highlight of my years at SU. I still think of him with fondness.

I had no idea he was still alive.

As an aside, there is a pretty neat time capsule in the related articles on that page - about Dion Waiters committing to SU at age 15. Reading the article it would seem the whole thing would be a trainwreck, but he turned out to be one of my favorite players ever.

 

[tipphill]

Yes, you could say Andreas revived the program as well as Lewis and actually all the previous coaches - Lewis inherited a 2 and 22 team!

What I like about Danforth is 1) unlike all his predecessors, he's the only coach that didn't have multiple losing seasons and 2) he's the only one who passed the torch to the next guy with the program in excellent shape.

he passed the torch in excellent shape because lewis laid the ground work ---lewis 65-66 team avg over 100 pts per game and opened the door with bing and dare i say it, walk on boehiem

 

[orangedave]

i believe fred lewis began the revival, and danforth took it to the next level

I agree. If the only thing he ever did was bring in Bing and Boeheim he should be thanked. That, however, is not all he did.

 

[tipphill]

Yes, you could say Andreas revived the program as well as Lewis and actually all the previous coaches - Lewis inherited a 2 and 22 team!

What I like about Danforth is 1) unlike all his predecessors, he's the only coach that didn't have multiple losing seasons and 2) he's the only one who passed the torch to the next guy with the program in excellent shape.

sorry that is just very wrong

 

[Ringostar57]

Danforth was Fred Lewis' assistant...and freshman team coach. Lewis coach during the Bing era that turned the BBall program around. Danforth's first year 68-69 he went 9-16 next year 12-12 uh ha. Love the way history that i lived through gets rewritten. Danforth had his downs before he had his ups.

 

[obliterata]

Lewis coached SU for 6 years with 2 being losing seasons, including his last, and made one NCAA tournament.

Dave Bing is arguably the greatest SU player of all-time and had a tremendous senior season as did the team that year. Lewis deserves a lot of credit for getting Bing and for having such a high-powered offense in '65-'66. In '64-'65 SU went 13-10 and missed the tournament, I don't think that's a very good record considering. No doubt, Lewis left the program in better shape than when he took over but on-the-court success could've been better.

Danforth had no Bing. He inherited a losing program from Lewis, turned it around, and kept it headed in the right direction with 4 straight NCAA tournaments before he left. Danforth did so well that Coach Boeheim didn't have anything to turn around.

 

[tipphill]

Lewis coached SU for 6 years with 2 being losing seasons, including his last, and made one NCAA tournament.

Dave Bing is arguably the greatest SU player of all-time and had a tremendous senior season as did the team that year. Lewis deserves a lot of credit for getting Bing and for having such a high-powered offense in '65-'66. In '64-'65 SU went 13-10 and missed the tournament, I don't think that's a very good record considering. No doubt, Lewis left the program in better shape than when he took over but on-the-court success could've been better.

Danforth had no Bing. He inherited a losing program from Lewis, turned it around, and kept it headed in the right direction with 4 straight NCAA tournaments before he left. Danforth did so well that Coach Boeheim didn't have anything to turn around.

i do not disagree that danforth did a great job, lewis put su back on the map and made danforths job a little easier---

 

[longtimefan]

Lewis coached SU for 6 years with 2 being losing seasons, including his last, and made one NCAA tournament.

Dave Bing is arguably the greatest SU player of all-time and had a tremendous senior season as did the team that year. Lewis deserves a lot of credit for getting Bing and for having such a high-powered offense in '65-'66. In '64-'65 SU went 13-10 and missed the tournament, I don't think that's a very good record considering. No doubt, Lewis left the program in better shape than when he took over but on-the-court success could've been better.

Danforth had no Bing. He inherited a losing program from Lewis, turned it around, and kept it headed in the right direction with 4 straight NCAA tournaments before he left. Danforth did so well that Coach Boeheim didn't have anything to turn around.

If SU doesn't get Louie and Bouie, all of the momentum of '75 and '76 would have been lost. And the story is, if Danforth were still here, no Bouie for sure.

 

[72Cuse]

he passed the torch in excellent shape because lewis laid the ground work ---lewis 65-66 team avg over 100 pts per game and opened the door with bing and dare i say it, walk on boehiem

I think it was 99.9 Somebody (I forget his name) missed a layup at the end of the game that would have put them over 100+ per game.

 

[PeteCalvin]

Good idea. Do it while Roy is still alive and JB is still the HC, when it will have the most meaning.

I think Roy was laying low from SU afraid that the lurking NCAA stormtroopers might shake him down for wins too.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Danforth had no Bing. He inherited a losing program from Lewis, turned it around, and kept it headed in the right direction with 4 straight NCAA tournaments before he left. Danforth did so well that Coach Boeheim didn't have anything to turn around.

Danforth was 45-90 at Tulane after being 148-71 at SU (193 - 161 career coaching record) and gave up coaching 5 years after leaving SU to become Tulane's AD.

Fred Lewis was 91-57 at SU. Lewis quit because he wanted to take SU to the next level and was having big problems with the administration in doing it. He won at Southern Mississippi (89-38), SU (91-57), Hawaii(21-2). I couldn't find his coaching record at Sacramento State but after coaching, he ended up their AD and died there in 1994.

A Bud Polquin article on Fred Lewis republished from a 1989 article in 2013. Sad he never got his due.
http://www.syracuse.com/poliquin/index.ssf/2013/03/poliquin_syracuse_basketball_d.html

Interesting Philly article with Coach Danforth in 1986 whether he had regrets. http://articles.philly.com/1986-02-19/sports/26089500_1_roy-danforth-tulane-basketball-program

Would be nice if we recognized Roy soon, he's 79 years old now.

Forgot to mention that Fred Lewis not only recruited Dave Bing but he also hired Danforth and JB as coaches.

 

[obliterata]

Danforth's Tulane record isn't very good which is surprising considering what he did at SU. At SU he could do no wrong, he took the program to a new level with 6 straight post-season bids 4 of which were the NCAA with the FF in '75. As I mentioned previously he only had one losing season - his first - when he took over after Lewis' second sub .500 season and he left SU on a winning note.

The program was in the worst shape when Lewis took over after losing 41 games the previous 2 seasons including 27 Ls in a row. He did a great job reviving it and as you pointed out was quite successful at his future destinations. The 13-10 squad with a junior Bing and the final losing season are hard to figure out.

It's a shame SU didn't/hasn't honored them both, thanks for the info.

 

[SWC75]

People think we never won a game before Jim Boeheim became the coach. The resurrection of the program begins with Lewis, with a temporary but painful set-back at the end of this tenure. Then Danforth took over and pushed it forward again, (not unlike Scott Shafer taking over after Doug Marrone and having to start over again in some ways). Then Danforth, a southerner, left for what seemed like a big opportunity at Tulane and Jim, with Jake Crouthamel, the Dome, the Big East and ESPN, took it to an elite level. We went from a regional power to a national power.

http://www.orangehoops.org/RDanforth.htm