That was such an awesome year to be in attendance! We sat on the ledges on the sidelines because all the seats were full! Also remember when some fans dribbled basketballs on a journey to MSG for the NIT. Don’t remember if they made it.
They did make it but actually the year that happened was when the Stags made the NIT for the first time in 1973. By 78 the tournament wasn't all played at the Garden. Stags played away at Dayton but lost unfortunately.
3 or 4 Division 2 teams kinda diminishes the schedule. However , those games were offset on the schedule by games that would be considered tougher up games for the stags today ( Boston College, St Joe’s, St. Bonnies , UConn etc.)
Post by nittanystag on Dec 27, 2019 19:17:35 GMT -5
Let's not forget South Carolina, too, then a member of the ACC, who the Stags battled tooth and nail down in the Carolinas before dropping a close contest. Referencing back to the discussion about Rich Wejnert – he played in that game – for the Gamecocks! Perhaps he was so impressed with the Stags' performance that he decided that's where he wanted to play someday!
Post by stagmania78 on Dec 31, 2019 23:17:52 GMT -5
Wow. The NY Times mentioned my moniker. That article put a lot of things in perspective. Especially the demand for tickets. We all had "season tickets". In my 4 years there was never ever a problem or demand getting a ticket. Until sometime in the middle of 78. I've said it at least once here that you had to hustle to get your ticket. Sexist or not, our female friends caught Stagmania too and it became a destination event, especially off campus. The beach houses had pre and post game parties for every home game after we got back from Winter Break. It really was crazy. Someone mentioned Saturday games. Oh boy. The article mentioned Seton Hall's stunning upset breaking our 26 game unbeaten home winning streak. I remember that it made some headlines at the time because at 26 Fairfield had the nation's longest home court streak broken. I have no idea if that was true or not but we believed it. Ha. I also don't know if it was a "stunning upset", but I sat there and watched a Bill Rafferty team beat us. Nicky Galis was a total beast that night. Two weeks later all was forgotten as has been mentioned here a thousand times we demolished 13th ranked Ronny Perry's Holy Cross squad. Thanks to sonofdoc and JoeStag for allowing this thread go through.
Wow. The NY Times mentioned my moniker. That article put a lot of things in perspective. Especially the demand for tickets. We all had "season tickets". In my 4 years there was never ever a problem or demand getting a ticket. Until sometime in the middle of 78. I've said it at least once here that you had to hustle to get your ticket. Sexist or not, our female friends caught Stagmania too and it became a destination event, especially off campus. The beach houses had pre and post game parties for every home game after we got back from Winter Break. It really was crazy. Someone mentioned Saturday games. Oh boy. The article mentioned Seton Hall's stunning upset breaking our 26 game unbeaten home winning streak. I remember that it made some headlines at the time because at 26 Fairfield had the nation's longest home court streak broken. I have no idea if that was true or not but we believed it. Ha. I also don't know if it was a "stunning upset", but I sat there and watched a Bill Rafferty team beat us. Nicky Galis was a total beast that night. Two weeks later all was forgotten as has been mentioned here a thousand times we demolished 13th ranked Ronny Perry's Holy Cross squad. Thanks to sonofdoc and JoeStag for allowing this thread go through.
Galis, a very highly regarded player, was indeed a breast that night. Unstoppable and the difference for the Pirates in the loss for the Stags. This might have been an upset but it was far from "stunning" to people who understood the relative powers of the teams. Rafftery was one if the better coaches around (before he became famous as an analyst), and he and Barakat had quite a few matchups to see who could out-do each other, and in this case it was the former.
A couple of other things regarding your memory of the events around that season. First of all as a local fan of the program but not a student I never remembered hearing about the pre and post game parties at the beach. Must of been quite a time to be attending Fairfield U! Thanks for mentioning that. But as far as the home winning streak, yes it was true and therefore made quite a few headlines. The other thing though, and something that has been pointed out earlier in this thread, the rotation of the games meant that we had already defeated Holy Cross, therefore the Seton Hall loss came after that game. Just for the record.
Last Edit: Jan 1, 2020 9:59:39 GMT -5 by nashvillestag
I've always wondered how far that team could have gone in the post season had Steve Balkun not sustained that late-season leg injury.
Even with an injured Balkun, we still had a great chance to beat Rhode Island in the ECAC Tourney. Sly Williams of URI hit a 15 footer, and Flip Williams missed his 15 footer
I've always wondered how far that team could have gone in the post season had Steve Balkun not sustained that late-season leg injury.
Agree.
We got off of the bus at the Providence Civic Center the evening of the ECAC semifinal against Rhode Island, and were told shortly after we entered the building by a trainer we were friends with that Balkun had been injured in practice and would not be playing. That was devastating. Mark Young and Balkun had been a rugged combo in the lane and on the glass. The third big that season, Mark Plefka, was almost strictly an outside gunner.
And still DeSantis and Fisher did their thing, and we only lost by 2, thanks to a tough shot by New haven's own Sly Williams (from Lee High School), and Flip Williams' floater in the lane teasing the rim and falling off at the buzzer.
To this day I believe with the entire starting team intact (we had little or no depth) we beat Rhode Island and Providence and make the NCAA tournament.
I've always wondered how far that team could have gone in the post season had Steve Balkun not sustained that late-season leg injury.
Agree.
We got off of the bus at the Providence Civic Center the evening of the ECAC semifinal against Rhode Island, and were told shortly after we entered the building by a trainer we were friends with that Balkun had been injured in practice and would not be playing. That was devastating. Mark Young and Balkun had been a rugged combo in the lane and on the glass. The third big that season, Mark Plefka, was almost strictly an outside gunner.
And still DeSantis and Fisher did their thing, and we only lost by 2, thanks to a tough shot by New haven's own Sly Williams (from Lee High School), and Flip Williams' floater in the lane teasing the rim and falling off at the buzzer.
To this day I believe with the entire starting team intact (we had little or no depth) we beat Rhode Island and Providence and make the NCAA tournament.
Yes, we could have beat Providence in the finals of the ECAC. But we also could have done the same thing that Rhode Island did ....... almost beat Duke in the NCAA Tourney. I remember that URI vs Duke with Jim Spanarkle, Gene Banks and Mike Gminski. Sly Williams was amazing in that game too.
Game 4 - Fairfield vs Boston College 12-6-77 - Note I am missing the Fairfield Stonehill game, I believe the only game I am missing from the scrapbook. Fairfield now 3-1.