1970 Marquette grad bball memories
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 4:23 pmI may be the oldest guy to register in quite a while but I am just a kid compared to 100 year old Marquette grad John Scooenberg who attends all of Marquette's home games. I have lurked on this site for some time now and revived my interest in MU bball about 8 years ago thanks to the internet. This post is simply going to be for fun. I have noticed that many of you need to take deep breaths. Maybe even Valium. Here are some of my Marquette bball memories:
Student tickets were 50 cents. Once, a guy smuggled his girlfriend, a U.of Wisconsin student, into Marquette's student section. Wisconsin started out strong and she stood up and loudly cheered Wisconsin on.Then Marquette took over and she took flak for the rest of the game. I guess her boyfriend was trying to get her killed. Nice guy.
One game started out with Marquette getting called for about 6 fouls in the first few minutes. I thought we would have to forfeit the game after a while since we would not have 5 players left at that rate. The crowd of 11,000+ (Milwaukee Arena) fell dead silent. Then a guy I know with a megaphone of a voice bellowed out "THE REFS ARE A BUNCH OF PROTESTANTS!". 11,000 people laughed loudly.
Marquette had a very long home game streak in '67 and was playing South Carolina's all white team. SC had the game wrapped up with about a minute to go. I could hear the racial baiting one of the SC players kept pouring on George Thompson. George had the ball, looked up at the clock, set the ball down and decked the guy-spread eagle! The ref went nuts with his whistle but George had already headed to the bench.
Al Mcguire had a great sense of humor and was a master at getting the crowd really into the game. He claimed to deliberately got overbearing with the refs to be called for a technical and get the crowd into the game. However, he had an even more effective way to entertain the crowd. If we had a big lead and the game was under control, Al would send in one of the worst players Marquette ever had- Piercy. Why? Because the guy was a first class clown. Piercy, with a huge smirk on his face, would hold the ball out to his opponent and say "want it? want it?" and then quickly pull it back. He would also dribble the ball under his thigh and turn around to pick it up again. Heading down court, he once bounced the ball off the back of a defender and immediately yelled "hey ref!" so that when the ref turned around all he saw was the guy clenching his fist and threatening Piercy. As you may have guessed, he often turned the ball over with his clowning around. He also could shoot a great air ball. Once he actually made a difficult shot and got a standing ovation from the crowd.
I was heading down some stairs between classes and saw Al's office with the door open and I peered in but was embarrassed when I saw Al at his desk. I felt that I had intruded upon his privacy. He looked up, broke into a broad smile and very warmly said "How ya doin'? " If memory serves me correctly, Al made $50,000.
Before the first game between Kentucky and Marquette Al and Adolph Rupp got into it big time (on a radio interview, I think.) I do not remember what started the fight but they hated each other. Kentucky won easily but when UK was a #1 seed the next year, Marquette pulled off a great upset. Al looked like a raving maniac during the game, screaming for more and more points. I think that was the same year we played Purdue in a tourney game. Rick Mount was Purdue's star. Like the rest of the Marquette crowd, I was shocked to see Purdue start off with a 16-0 lead! Marquette slowly came back and tied the game. 3 OT's. Rick Mount got free at the end of the 3rd OT and it was all over. I think they went on to play UCLA in the final that year. I believe that was also the game in which Al's son, Allie McGuire, turned the ball over in OT when the ref spotted his heel on the line.
OK, back to the recent past. A friend of mine is a UCONN grad and we watched the games between our schools together. And no, we do not go for the jugular. A couple of years ago Blaney was subbing for Calhoun who was at a funeral. UCONN had the game almost wrapped up but Marquette rallied, although the game still seemed out of reach. UCONN had the last possession and Kemba was the guy they trusted to protect the ball and/or draw a foul. Marquette double teamed him and trapped him. Timeout UCONN. Then- same thing. Third time was a charm- Kemba was stripped of the ball, MU tied and then won in OT. My friend sat there with his mouth wide open, staring at the TV and trying to realize it was not just a bad dream. I said goodbye, quietly slipped out the door, got into my car, and laughed my ass off!
Student tickets were 50 cents. Once, a guy smuggled his girlfriend, a U.of Wisconsin student, into Marquette's student section. Wisconsin started out strong and she stood up and loudly cheered Wisconsin on.Then Marquette took over and she took flak for the rest of the game. I guess her boyfriend was trying to get her killed. Nice guy.
One game started out with Marquette getting called for about 6 fouls in the first few minutes. I thought we would have to forfeit the game after a while since we would not have 5 players left at that rate. The crowd of 11,000+ (Milwaukee Arena) fell dead silent. Then a guy I know with a megaphone of a voice bellowed out "THE REFS ARE A BUNCH OF PROTESTANTS!". 11,000 people laughed loudly.
Marquette had a very long home game streak in '67 and was playing South Carolina's all white team. SC had the game wrapped up with about a minute to go. I could hear the racial baiting one of the SC players kept pouring on George Thompson. George had the ball, looked up at the clock, set the ball down and decked the guy-spread eagle! The ref went nuts with his whistle but George had already headed to the bench.
Al Mcguire had a great sense of humor and was a master at getting the crowd really into the game. He claimed to deliberately got overbearing with the refs to be called for a technical and get the crowd into the game. However, he had an even more effective way to entertain the crowd. If we had a big lead and the game was under control, Al would send in one of the worst players Marquette ever had- Piercy. Why? Because the guy was a first class clown. Piercy, with a huge smirk on his face, would hold the ball out to his opponent and say "want it? want it?" and then quickly pull it back. He would also dribble the ball under his thigh and turn around to pick it up again. Heading down court, he once bounced the ball off the back of a defender and immediately yelled "hey ref!" so that when the ref turned around all he saw was the guy clenching his fist and threatening Piercy. As you may have guessed, he often turned the ball over with his clowning around. He also could shoot a great air ball. Once he actually made a difficult shot and got a standing ovation from the crowd.
I was heading down some stairs between classes and saw Al's office with the door open and I peered in but was embarrassed when I saw Al at his desk. I felt that I had intruded upon his privacy. He looked up, broke into a broad smile and very warmly said "How ya doin'? " If memory serves me correctly, Al made $50,000.
Before the first game between Kentucky and Marquette Al and Adolph Rupp got into it big time (on a radio interview, I think.) I do not remember what started the fight but they hated each other. Kentucky won easily but when UK was a #1 seed the next year, Marquette pulled off a great upset. Al looked like a raving maniac during the game, screaming for more and more points. I think that was the same year we played Purdue in a tourney game. Rick Mount was Purdue's star. Like the rest of the Marquette crowd, I was shocked to see Purdue start off with a 16-0 lead! Marquette slowly came back and tied the game. 3 OT's. Rick Mount got free at the end of the 3rd OT and it was all over. I think they went on to play UCLA in the final that year. I believe that was also the game in which Al's son, Allie McGuire, turned the ball over in OT when the ref spotted his heel on the line.
OK, back to the recent past. A friend of mine is a UCONN grad and we watched the games between our schools together. And no, we do not go for the jugular. A couple of years ago Blaney was subbing for Calhoun who was at a funeral. UCONN had the game almost wrapped up but Marquette rallied, although the game still seemed out of reach. UCONN had the last possession and Kemba was the guy they trusted to protect the ball and/or draw a foul. Marquette double teamed him and trapped him. Timeout UCONN. Then- same thing. Third time was a charm- Kemba was stripped of the ball, MU tied and then won in OT. My friend sat there with his mouth wide open, staring at the TV and trying to realize it was not just a bad dream. I said goodbye, quietly slipped out the door, got into my car, and laughed my ass off!
