- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,215,257
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images attach
The first in a series of unknown duration, where former Cardinals reminisce about their days in Crawford Gym, on the tenth anniversary of its demolition.
The former Cardinal guard, whom I hadn’t seen for awhile at the JCC where we both work out, was limping toward his favorite elliptical.
Roger Burkman. Member of the 1980 national championship squad.
“Dude, bad wheel?”
“Yeah. Foot surgery. Metatarsal. Plates, screws, no ligament damage. “
Call it an after effect decades later of a baller who toiled for that initial title.
Hours and hours in the crucible of champions.
Shirts and skins in the cauldron of summer. Where the obsessed among us shvitzed through our shirts, watching Cardinal warriors in pickup games.
Where Denny Crum arrived and thrived, teaching how to use the backboard on angled jumpers, a U of L signature technique.
“Been hoping to run into you. It’s the tenth anniversary of the demolition of Crawford Gym.
“I trust you have some memories.”
“Too hot in the summer. Too cold in the winter.”
He has memories.
* * * * *
I was curious if the HS kid from Acton, Indiana was shown the rather unimposing Crawford facility during recruitment.
He was. This was before the razzle dazzle of hundred million dollar upgrades. A time when coaching and tradition came first.
“During the summer, there’d be a key in the bushes out front. First one there, unlocked the door. Last one out, locked up.
“Everybody on the squad would be there.”
Other than the current players of your era, who showed up?
“Alums. Jim Price. Ron Thomas. Wes would show up just for the sweat.”
Non Cardinals, HS players?
“Rudy Macklin was a regular. There was a fellow, from New Albany I think, Charles Nanz. Jeff Mack, a teammate of Grif’s at Male. He could ball. Never played college I don’t think.
“Not many high school kids. I had a buddy, a coach at Oldham County, who had a good team and wanted to bring them in one summer. So, I got some guys together to play them. Charles* blocked their first five shots. They sat and watched the rest of the night.”
* If you need these guys last names, shame on ya.
Fights?
“I don’t remember anything you would call that. But it was competitive.
“Derek. One time he got on Billy so much, he ran him out of the gym for the night.”
Practice memories?
“In ’80, after we beat LSU in the regional, we were all pumped that night. Ended up having water fights in the hotel. Coach got wind of it, walked to Grif and Tony’s room, they were the leaders, to get us to stop.
“When Tony opened the door he pelted Coach with water, thinking it was one of us who knocked.
“Next week at practice, Coach set up a prank with us to get back. Pelted Tony with a bucket of water.”
“During my freshman season, the guys warned me not play one on one with Bill Olson after practice. But, I did. It was a test.
“First time I had the ball, Olson hacked me big time. No foul. He was a Marine, remember?
“So, I returned the favor. He knew then I wouldn’t back down. A foxhole guy.”
“We hated when he’d run practices. They’d be a lot tougher.”
When would that be?
“When we played at Florida State, Coach would always go down a couple of days early, before the team, to fish.”
Memories of the title campaign.
“It was the first year we pressed full court the whole game the whole season. We’d used to almost come back the previous tournament against Arkansas.
“Sidney Moncrief beat me up in that one.
“Derek and I would be at the front of the press. We had a pact. If somebody tried to go between us, we’d draw blood.”
Was there a time that year when you had a sense that a championship was possible?
“We lost to Utah on the way out to play in Hawaii. Then to Illinois out there.
“Rodney, who wasn’t much of a talker, spoke up after that. He told us he’d never lost two games in a season let along before New Year’s.”*
* The Cardinals lost just once more after winning eighteen in a row. To Iona at the end of an energy-sapping five game in ten day road trip.
A spa is the last thing you’d call Crawford Gym.
But it was there the Cardinals regrouped, won eight in a row for that first crown.
It wasn’t to be the last.
— c d kaplan
Continue reading...
