Orangeyes
R.I.P Dan
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For you graybeards out there, the Cincinnati-Xavier brawl last Saturday afternoon might have brought back memories of a West Virginia-Syracuse fight that took place at the Field House in 1970.
This humdinger got started when Syracuse center Bill Smith slugged a referee after being whistled for his fifth foul, triggering a bench-clearing brawl that also saw fans pour out of the stands onto the floor. The game was stopped with 1:01 still showing on the clock and West Virginia leading 94-84.
State police had to escort Syracuse out of the arena, and instead of returning to the Holiday Inn where the team had been staying, it was decided that they should continue on to Pittsburgh to stay somewhere near the airport before catching a flight back to Syracuse the next morning.
“(Syracuse coach) Roy Danforth apologized over and over for that,” former West Virginia coach Sonny Moran recalled. “We were good friends and we remained good friends. He was so embarrassed that his kid would do that.”
There is an account of that WVU-Syracuse game in the book Roll Out of the Carpet: 101 Seasons of West Virginia University Basketball, available in bookstores everywhere.
MSN
Bill Smith's career totals
This humdinger got started when Syracuse center Bill Smith slugged a referee after being whistled for his fifth foul, triggering a bench-clearing brawl that also saw fans pour out of the stands onto the floor. The game was stopped with 1:01 still showing on the clock and West Virginia leading 94-84.
State police had to escort Syracuse out of the arena, and instead of returning to the Holiday Inn where the team had been staying, it was decided that they should continue on to Pittsburgh to stay somewhere near the airport before catching a flight back to Syracuse the next morning.
“(Syracuse coach) Roy Danforth apologized over and over for that,” former West Virginia coach Sonny Moran recalled. “We were good friends and we remained good friends. He was so embarrassed that his kid would do that.”
There is an account of that WVU-Syracuse game in the book Roll Out of the Carpet: 101 Seasons of West Virginia University Basketball, available in bookstores everywhere.
MSN
Bill Smith's career totals
