When did you become an SU basketball fan.

[SWC75]

1966-1967 season when I was 12-13, I listened on my transistor radio on cold winter nights to Syracuse games with Big Bill Smith, Earnie Austin, Rick Harmon, Vaughan Harper and the next year Greg the Kid Kohls came in. Interesting games with East Coast rivalr with fighting with refs, individual players scoring 40s and individual opponent players also scoring in the 40s In the same game.(??)..

We had a Dave Harmon in that era. Rick Harmon played in 1978-79.

Dave Harmon

Syracuse University basketball profile for Dave Harmon, player for the Orangemen.

orangehoops.org

Rick Harmon

Syracuse University basketball profile for Rick Harmon, player for the Orangemen.

orangehoops.org

12/7/68: Bill Smith scores 41 points in the second game of his varsity career vs. Niagara. Unfortunately, that was 27 less than Calvin Murphy.

1/14/71: Bill sets the SU record with 47 points. Tracy Tripucka scores 41 for Lafayette, (7 of them in 10 seconds).

 

[pfister1]

Grew up in Syracuse...how could you grow up in Syracuse and not be an Orange Fan???

But might have been as a kid being taken to the Inaugural Carrier Classic in 1977. I got to see SU thump LeMoyne!! And then listened to SU beat Michigan State with Magic Johnson the next night on the radio. What a lineup of players in that year's classic..... Marty Byrnes, Dale Shackleford, Louis Orr, Rosie Bouie and freshman Danny Schayes who would have a LONG NBA career but had a hard time getting on the floor for that squad.

Or a year or two later when my elementary school principal and phys ed teacher (ohhh, ok back then it was Gym) took a group to the Open SU Basketball Practice at Manley. I still have the autographs to prove it..... Shack, Bouie, Headd and Payton.


Don’t remember Roy Danforth and I don’t count Hop’s 2 game fill-in. I’m not a young fan by any means and yet JB is really the only SU Coach I’ve ever known. Is it wrong for me to want him back??


Back in my early days as a fan I kept up on the Orange by listening to Joel Mareiniss broadcast them on WSYR Radio. Ohhhh those were the days!!

 

[rvandersy]

My first favorite, Kohls.

 

[SWC75]

I became a fan as an SU student in the very early 1960s when SU was literally the worst college basketball team in America. During that period we set the then-record for consecutive losses. Fortunately, that dubious record has since been broken.

Those Cal Tech teams could really think...

Losing streak - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[DoubleDee]

Went to a few at Manley when I was single digits. Got seasons shortly after some opened. I’d say ‘83?

 

[sufandu]

My earliest memory is the clocking ticking down to 1 second before us getting the timeout and then DC inbounding the ball to end the 1987 championship game. I don't know why I don't remember anything else about that game. From then on I've listened to or watched every game I could.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Around 1963, I was in elementary school when Fred Lewis was SU’s coach. Fred Lewis had a daughter who was my 1st cousin’s best friend and so I got to meet her a few times. They lived off Techumseh Rd by Nottingham Rd near where my cousin lived. I started following the team closely after meeting her.

 

[50YRsofCuse]

We had a Dave Harmon in that era. Rick Harmon played in 1978-79.

Dave Harmon

Syracuse University basketball profile for Dave Harmon, player for the Orangemen.

orangehoops.org

Rick Harmon

Syracuse University basketball profile for Rick Harmon, player for the Orangemen.

orangehoops.org

12/7/68: Bill Smith scores 41 points in the second game of his varsity career vs. Niagara. Unfortunately, that was 27 less than Calvin Murphy.

1/14/71: Bill sets the SU record with 47 points. Tracy Tripucka scores 41 for Lafayette, (7 of them in 10 seconds).

It was Dave Harmon but for some reason i remember Rick’s name. I remember listening to both games and guess I put Bill Smith’s game against Tripcka‘s game first Because it was more memorable and exciting to me. Murphy’s game was one of the first games I listened to and did not make that much of an impression because I did not understand the significance of how many points he scored because i was young. I do remember that they made a big to do about Calvin’s baton twirling abilities. It was all new to me back then.

I am sorry that my listening days did not start a couple years earlier because I missed the Dave Bing-Jim Boeheim playing days.

 

[orange79]

My first game in 76. It was JB's first game as HC.


I'll let you do the math.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Since birth in 1984. Started really following the team in 95.

 

[NCo’range]

Settled in Liverpool (13088) in 1975 after a stint in the USAF.
Found a job with Agway and noticing all the fun my co-workers were having rooting for SU kind of caught on with me.
This was the Louie & Bouie era and things were always rocking in the dome how could you not get ramped up for life!

 

[FireballPhil]

1987. After joining the Marine Corps in 1986 we got to know each other in large part by what sports teams were around where we grew up. I finished up MOS school and PCSed to Cherry Point NC around the same time the team made the great run. I got a lot of ribbing and a lot of respect at the same time. Good times.

 

[SUbear]

When did you become an SU basketball fan?

Me: Started to get interested in the 1965-66 season when we were scoring 100 points a game but fell in love with the next year's team that was rebuilding but started out 19-2.

What was the first game you listened to the radio or watched on TV?

12/29/66: We lost to #2 Louisville in the Quaker City Classic 71-75. I listened on the radio and cried myself to sleep at age 13. The first Tv game was a 102-81 win over LaSalle at Manley.

What was the first game you attended?

2/25/67: The Sonny Dove game. We were 19-2 and St. John's 18-3. Who was the best team in the East. It looked like us most of the way but a couple of Sonny's dunks and we lost 64-71.

1965-66 season, my freshman year. Football long before that, remember watching Jim Brown as a really young kid.

 

[DonLightfoot]

My goodness, I thought I was one of the oldest dudes on here. I was in my early 30's when I was strolling the TV channels and saw over 30K in this dome stadium for a college basketball game (WOW!). Not sure, but it could have been Georgetown. The star of the team was a Canadian kid named Leo Rautins and I became a fan ever since.

Been to a few TBT games and two varsity games. One in Ottawa for that exhibition game versus Carleton and one later at the Dome.

 

[Longtimesu]

1962

And me, 1962

 

[jncuse]

Sometime during 1986/87 season - they were on TV a fair bit that season- there wasn't much sports content for a Canadian kid on the border with no cable -- it was CBS, NBC, and ABC local affiliates (Burlington or Watertown if I remember correctly) and I saw a fair bunch of Syracuse games.

 

[OptimusOtto]

When I was in 2nd grade which was 02. A lot of fun memories from my formative years - obviously extremely lucky to see the national championship so early. Got up to campus for the first time a couple years later for my 13th birthday. Also proud to be part of the only graduating class to be able to say they were on campus for 2 final four teams, although I hope that changes soon.

 

[PoppyHart]

Jan-Feb 1984. Brother was a freshman at SU, I was a sports-obsessed 9 year old.

 

[HOFCeluck]

I became a fan in the late 80s with the Coleman/Owens/Douglas teams when I was 7-8.

First game I attended live was one of those scrub exhibitions vs marathon oil or something

 

[FreakTalksAboutSU]

I started watching Cuse in 1994 when I applied to attend as a HS Senior in Boston, and my oldest memory is Lawrence Moten calling that timeout

That should have clued me in as to the ride it would be lol

 

[OrangePA]

1970-71 with the Roy's Runts team. That team had Mike Lee at 6'3 and Mark Wadach at 6'2 as the starting forwards with 6'11 scoring center Bill Smith at center. But my favorite was Kid Kohls at SG who could go off for 35 several games with his amazing long range shooting -- and that was before the 3 point shot. The Manley Zoo was rocking. That team went to the NIT -- when the NIT was a meaningful tourney.

Great years.

Smartest teams I have ever seen.

 

[llandz]

'72'73 season.My freshman year..I was in love with SU basketball. 1975 I was dancing in the marathon when we won the regional game to go to the FF!!!

 

[two3zone]

First game I remember watching and have memory of was the championship game against Indiana when I was 7. My grandfather never missed a game and it became our thing until he passed.

 

[tptcuse]

JB's first year (76-77.) Attended a couple games at age 7 with my Dad and remember the Bernie and Ernie show game.

 

[walsh2012]

When i was early accepted in winter/spring of 08, but i always had a good impression of them before hand.

Though in a weird twist of fate, if you were to rewind to winter 02/03 you'd see my official introduction to the program.

At that time, there was a package run at the MCI center that allowed for young basketball teams to get run on their court before a game with an invite extended to see the game following.

In the warmups to that game, a friend from my Va Beach Va Catholic school shoulder taps me to mention that he's "heard that 13's name is Carmelo Anthony and he's really good."

Syracuse would beat Gtown in OT that day, and as we all know, Kansas in the national final a few months later. So I suppose the seed of my Cuse fandom may have been subconsciously planted on that day lol