Orangeyes
R.I.P Dan
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With BC coming into town tomorrow night a memory flashed in my head going back to 1986.
That year Orange Onions entered the Onondaga County Free Throw Shooting Contest aka as 'The Milk Shoot' sponsored by Byrne Dairy. Qualifying took place in various towns. Onions entered in the Town of Onondaga which held their contest at St. Michael's gym on Seneca Turnpike.
Quite a few kids showed up and one in particular stood out from the rest and it wasn't OO. This kid was sturdily built and was warming up from half court. At one point he made 10 in-a-row from there. Sort of kiddingly I said to Onions, lets get out of here, what's the point? All the while knowing the lads father was standing next to us. The boys father said how old is your son? I responded 12, he said my son is 13 so they are in different age categories.
Onions and this kid went on to win their divisions. I later learned that this kid was none other than Charlie Lockwood the future four-time SU Lacrosse All American. In 1993 Charlie assisted on the national championship winning goal on a pass to Matt Riter. That was against North Carolina and gave Syracuse a winning score of 13-12. Lockwood's other claim to fame came as a basketball walk-on. In mop up duty Charlie nailed his first career field goal attempt against Tennessee. It was a three that brought the house down.
That wouldn't be the last time Charlie's path with my family would cross. At one time he dated my daughter. Lockwood later married a former Boy's Club teammate of Onions, Kristin Brudsinki who had a distinguished playing career at West Genny and later became head coach for the Wildcats.
Getting back to the free throw contest. The final stage of the 'Milk Shoot' took place at Onondaga Community College. There were 30 champions from all over the county in Onions division. He was shooter # 25. The contestant just before OO nailed 18 for 20 leaving little margin for error. With all of his aunts, uncles, cousins, sister and parents in attendance he toed the line. The first nine attempts were nothing but net. The 10th went in and out. There would be no room for error from here on out. OO calmly nailed ten-in-a-row then had to sweat out the last five contestants.
Once the 3oth contestant failed, Onions was crowned champion of the 12 and under division.
We soon learned that he would be awarded a basketball, certificate and best of all four tickets to the SU-BC game on January 2, 1986 where at halftime he would shoot 5 free throws. County Executive Nick Pirro awarded him a trophy after OO sunk 3 of his 5 attempts.
Syracuse was ranked #4 in the nation and won the game 68-52, Wendall Alexis had 21 points that night and Rony Seikaly grabbed 15 rebounds. Pearl Washington, Raphael Addison and Howard Triche rounded out the starting lineup.
After the game we were taking pictures of OO and his trophy in front of the Dome. Dome Eddy wandered by and asked us if we could give him a ride home. My wife knew him from her daily bus commute to work so we said yes.
Big Mistake!
In those days he and the Dome Ranger got a pretty good workout rousing the crowd.
The five of us jammed into my sub-compact and let's just say we had all the windows down all the way to his house on a freezing night in January.
A lot of those memories will come flooding back for our family members on Wednesday night when we once again take on Boston College at the Carrier Dome..
Story of the 1985-1986 Orangemen
That year Orange Onions entered the Onondaga County Free Throw Shooting Contest aka as 'The Milk Shoot' sponsored by Byrne Dairy. Qualifying took place in various towns. Onions entered in the Town of Onondaga which held their contest at St. Michael's gym on Seneca Turnpike.
Quite a few kids showed up and one in particular stood out from the rest and it wasn't OO. This kid was sturdily built and was warming up from half court. At one point he made 10 in-a-row from there. Sort of kiddingly I said to Onions, lets get out of here, what's the point? All the while knowing the lads father was standing next to us. The boys father said how old is your son? I responded 12, he said my son is 13 so they are in different age categories.
Onions and this kid went on to win their divisions. I later learned that this kid was none other than Charlie Lockwood the future four-time SU Lacrosse All American. In 1993 Charlie assisted on the national championship winning goal on a pass to Matt Riter. That was against North Carolina and gave Syracuse a winning score of 13-12. Lockwood's other claim to fame came as a basketball walk-on. In mop up duty Charlie nailed his first career field goal attempt against Tennessee. It was a three that brought the house down.
That wouldn't be the last time Charlie's path with my family would cross. At one time he dated my daughter. Lockwood later married a former Boy's Club teammate of Onions, Kristin Brudsinki who had a distinguished playing career at West Genny and later became head coach for the Wildcats.
Getting back to the free throw contest. The final stage of the 'Milk Shoot' took place at Onondaga Community College. There were 30 champions from all over the county in Onions division. He was shooter # 25. The contestant just before OO nailed 18 for 20 leaving little margin for error. With all of his aunts, uncles, cousins, sister and parents in attendance he toed the line. The first nine attempts were nothing but net. The 10th went in and out. There would be no room for error from here on out. OO calmly nailed ten-in-a-row then had to sweat out the last five contestants.
Once the 3oth contestant failed, Onions was crowned champion of the 12 and under division.
We soon learned that he would be awarded a basketball, certificate and best of all four tickets to the SU-BC game on January 2, 1986 where at halftime he would shoot 5 free throws. County Executive Nick Pirro awarded him a trophy after OO sunk 3 of his 5 attempts.
Syracuse was ranked #4 in the nation and won the game 68-52, Wendall Alexis had 21 points that night and Rony Seikaly grabbed 15 rebounds. Pearl Washington, Raphael Addison and Howard Triche rounded out the starting lineup.
After the game we were taking pictures of OO and his trophy in front of the Dome. Dome Eddy wandered by and asked us if we could give him a ride home. My wife knew him from her daily bus commute to work so we said yes.
Big Mistake!
In those days he and the Dome Ranger got a pretty good workout rousing the crowd.
The five of us jammed into my sub-compact and let's just say we had all the windows down all the way to his house on a freezing night in January.
A lot of those memories will come flooding back for our family members on Wednesday night when we once again take on Boston College at the Carrier Dome..
Story of the 1985-1986 Orangemen
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