What is the definition of a blue blood program?

[Bill Marsh]

Great stuff, Billy Jack. To add to your comments on the Dons . . .

Not only did the sexual assault so offend the Jesuits as to self impose the death penalty, but Father LoSchiavo, the university's president, also acknowledged that boosters were out of control despite prior attempts to rein them in, and were in some ways running the program. We know that exactly the same situation with big money boosters existed at UCLA under St. John Wooden as well as at many other big time programs in that era, but no one took the steps to even acknowledge the wrong doing, much less suspend the program.

That's what happens in a University that teaches values and then holds itself to the same standards that it teaches its students. Compare that with the standards of a place like Kentucky where the standard is, "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'."

This same positive adherence to an ethical model could be seen at Catholic schools from the Big East. The decline of programs like St John's and Seton Hall in the 1960's was directly tied to the point shaving scandals of the '50's and '60's. St John's built its on campus arena and pulled its games from The Garden specifically for the purpose of getting its student-athletes away from the gamblers who infested that arena in those days. We can see the rise of basketball in the South coincidentally occur at precisely that same time. The corrupting influence of big money in college sports didn't seem to be a problem for them.

[Toronto Rapture]

When we toss together ideas on western expansion, which has less than 1% chance of happening, and we pair Gonzaga with a second team, it's my guess that Jesuit city school San Francisco in its recruiting hotbed would be the choice over countryside St Mary’s. But before that could ever happen, they would have to string a bunch of great seasons together, like a west coast VCU or Dayton.

So you're saying theres a chance.

Great insight on San Francisco (you too Bill). I wonder how many other programs have gone through the same thing. I really only know of SMU.

[Bill Marsh]

When we toss together ideas on western expansion, which has less than 1% chance of happening, and we pair Gonzaga with a second team, it's my guess that Jesuit city school San Francisco in its recruiting hotbed would be the choice over countryside St Mary’s. But before that could ever happen, they would have to string a bunch of great seasons together, like a west coast VCU or Dayton.

So you're saying theres a chance.

Great insight on San Francisco (you too Bill). I wonder how many other programs have gone through the same thing. I really only know of SMU.

Tulane is the only other school to have voluntarily disbanded their basketball program (1985-89).

Kentucky (1952-53) and Louisiana-Lafayette (1973-75) both had death penalties imposed by the NCAA. UL-Lafayette was a very successful program at that time when it was named Southwestern Louisiana and featured Bo Lamar, one of the nation's leading scorers (36 ppg).

[Randy]

Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, Duke, and North Carolina. That is it.

[billyjack]

N.Y. Times article about the SF Dons self imposed penalty from July 1982:
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/30/sport ... wanted=all
Funny it mentions Paterno and Bobby Knight as good guys.

L.A. Times article about the reinstated Dons hoops program from November 1985:
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-11-23/ ... basketball
Funny it mentions how Notre Dame and DePaul want to get the Dons back on their schedule.

[Bill Marsh]

N.Y. Times article about the SF Dons self imposed penalty from July 1982:
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/30/sport ... wanted=all
Funny it mentions Paterno and Bobby Knight as good guys.

L.A. Times article about the reinstated Dons hoops program from November 1985:
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-11-23/ ... basketball
Funny it mentions how Notre Dame and DePaul want to get the Dons back on their schedule.

Thanks for the articles, Billy Jack. Good reads and good insights.

I laughed at the line in the first article which said that Kentucky suspended its program "voluntarily" in 1952-53. The truth is that they suspended their program that year because no one would play them. As for self-policing, they played the entire season in 1953-54, the year following their "voluntary" suspension, with an ineligible player despite the fact that it made the entire team ineligible for postseason play. So much for a school standing up for principle. Or maybe it was a different principle they stand for down at UK.

It's interesting to see how times change. Sexual assault aside, which can't be tolerated at any time, the program was brought down by the corruption of illegal money which violated the rules of amateurism. Only a decade later, pros were playing in the Olympics. Today, paying college players is the focus of a reform movement.

The history of the university is truly fascinating. San Francisco was a remote outpost of Mexico in the 1840's before it was invaded and taken over by the United States without a shot being fired in 1847. There was no city there. There was a small fort where the Presidio stands today and a tiny settlement. A city was created virtually overnight in 1849 fueled by the gold rush and was at first literally a tent city. It was incorporated in 1850. Five years later San Francisco Academy was founded to establish the institution that became USF. Amazing. Same thing in Boston where Harvard was founded 5 years after the establishment of the city of Boston. Education was historically so valued by the founding fathers of this country that schools of higher learning were started in the wilderness at the first opportunity.

[billyjack]

Great post Bill. I love your point that "education was historically so valued by the founding fathers of this country that schools of higher learning were started in the wilderness at the first opportunity."

Ok, here's one more SF Dons article... and the Dons should maybe get their own thread...
They were featured on the cover of S.I. in Jan of 1977, and had a long writeup...

http://www.si.com/vault/1977/01/31/6282 ... -francisco

I generally remember that they were an exciting team, and the article really describes them as freewheeling and eccentric, running and dunking. Sort of like the renegade Raiders of that time, who had just won their first Super Bowl that same month.

I remember several players names (Cartwright, Boynes and Redmond), i guess maybe from the NBA... not sure.
- Cartwright of course with that unique free throw style, who won all those rings with the Bulls.
- Chubby Cox, who i don't remember, a guard who apparently transferred from Villanova, and whose sister is Kobe Bryant's mother.
- James Hardy, also who i don't remember, who was the most outgoing and talented and eccentric.
- Winford Boynes, great name.
- Marlon Redmond, another great name.

Would love to see them build their program to a perennial power.

[Bill Marsh]

Great post Bill. I love your point that "education was historically so valued by the founding fathers of this country that schools of higher learning were started in the wilderness at the first opportunity."

Ok, here's one more SF Dons article... and the Dons should maybe get their own thread...
They were featured on the cover of S.I. in Jan of 1977, and had a long writeup...

http://www.si.com/vault/1977/01/31/6282 ... -francisco

I generally remember that they were an exciting team, and the article really describes them as freewheeling and eccentric, running and dunking. Sort of like the renegade Raiders of that time, who had just won their first Super Bowl that same month.

I remember several players names (Cartwright, Boynes and Redmond), i guess maybe from the NBA... not sure.
- Cartwright of course with that unique free throw style, who won all those rings with the Bulls.
- Chubby Cox, who i don't remember, a guard who apparently transferred from Villanova, and whose sister is Kobe Bryant's mother.
- James Hardy, also who i don't remember, who was the most outgoing and talented and eccentric.
- Winford Boynes, great name.
- Marlon Redmond, another great name.

Would love to see them build their program to a perennial power.

Great article!

You're bringing back my memories of the '70's. Crazy decade.

The most entertaining college basketball game I ever saw was the 1970 shootout between LSU and Kentucky when Pete Maravich scoed 64 points for LSU and Dan Issel scored 51 for Kentucky in the same game. Just insane.

A couple of years later was my introduction to the play of Ernie D as he almost single handedly beating a good Manhattan team in MSG. He's still the best pure point guard I ever saw. Every time I watch a player today turning the ball over in his hand as he dribbles, I think of Ernie doing magic with the ball but always keeping his hand on top of the ball while keeping his dribble low to the ground. It was impossible to steal the ball from him. He and Bill Walton were my 2 favorite players of that decade and probably the 2 most fundamentally sound players I ever saw.

NC State's national champs featured a 7-4 center, a 5-6 PG, and David Thompson who just levitated. A more diverse collection of players on one team has never been assembled. They would have won 2 national championships if their undefeated team wasn't on probation in 1973.

When I think of Quentin Dailey's sexual assault, I think how crazy the sexual mores of that decade were. The same year that Ernie D took the Friars to the Final Four, two NY Yankee pitchers wer swapping wives!

'70's basketball was various versions of Dr. Dunkenstein. The other doctor, Dr J, raised dunking to an art form and showed players how to add inches to their height with his Afro, prompting Chevy Chase to later come up with this line in Fletch as he imitated Lakers' announcer Chick Hearn describing a player - "6-4, but 6-6 with the Afro".

Coaching was more about relationships than strategy. Al McGuire, my all time favorite coach, talked about "seashells and balloons" and how he gave himself permission once a month to take the wrong fork in the road so he could spend the day in "God's country" instead of at work. His strategy was "to play black on defense and white on offense, instead of black on offense and white on defense like most coaches." Tark the Shark fancied himself as Father Flanagan and UNLV as the Boys' Town orphanage while he was sucking on a towel that he used to wipe his bald head.

The background music started with San Francisco psychedelic bands Jefferson Airplane/Starship and Credence Clearwater Revival and ended with "disco bullsh--" in the words of the late, great Harry Chapin.

I'll stop the rambling, free association there, but thanks for the memories.

[Doge McDermott]

Being a blueblood means you send Death Threats to the ref and trash his business when your team loses. The ref is from Omaha, too.

Let's not also forget when UNC fans sent death threats to Creighton players as well.

Let's not be those guys. ESPN trying to rationalize is an awful look.