Staff writer Bob Jarzomski featured the 1986-87 Gannon men's basketball team in a story in Sunday's Erie Times-News, but there's plenty more to report on the 20th anniversary of the Knights' NCAA Division II runner-up finish:
The tale of the 1986-87 Gannon men’s basketball team featured so many people who had a part in such a memorable season, that it compared to accepting an Oscar.
If you thanked 100 people, you would have forgotten 100 more.
I went through a hectic stretch trying to contact the particulars for the piece on “Erie’s Team,” published in the Sunday, March 18, sports section. It definitely was a good busy.
I talked with the coach, Tom Chapman; the players, John “Shanghai” Matthews, John Bowen, David “Motown” Morris, James “Mo” Jamison, Mitchell Smith, Mike Runski, former AD and historian Bud Elwell, notorious fan Paul “Pets” Petrianni, auto-dealer mogul/bigger-time fan Gary Miller, and on.
The biggest regret is to not include Dr. Dan Carneval, the longtime Gannon physician and huge fan who has been on the court for every injury imaginable. The longtime followers, like Joe Gaeta, Frank Scozzi, Ed Eller, Chuck Campagne, and on, and on, and on.
There was so much to mention, so much to include, but way too much that had to be left out. But being privy to so many insights, so many great and proud memories, right up to St. Patrick’s Day afternoon when I got together with Bowen, Morris and Runski at the Hammermill Center for a photo, the cyberspace world today is the only way I can convey all that I experienced.
The key to the episode was Chapman, who I knew was in Reading and involved in the school district. I didn’t know he was the superintendent. It’s unbelievable what this man has done.
When he replaced Dick Fox in 1984, his personality immediately stood out along with his girth.
“Yes, I’ve lost a few pounds, but I can’t say I’m in the shape of a swimmer,” he said when we talked late in February.
Chapman did not have all the horses in place at first, but he did have a noteworthy star and capable supporting cast.
“My first year, I was left with Butch Warner. That’s not too bad, and imagine if he was able to shoot the 3-pointer then,” he said of the senior All-American guard who became and remains Gannon’s career scoring leader. There were Fox recruits Mike Runski and David Morris, and point guard Juan Rodriguez on the club, too.
The 84-85 team earned an NCAA Division II tournament berth, but they were shipped out to North Dakota and lost two straight.
When Matthews and Smith came aboard in 1985, and Mike MacDougall transferred from a junior college, that was the beginning of an amazing 3-year run. The Knights were suddenly overpowering, and lost the East Regional final to Cheyney by 3 points at the Hammermill Center.
“That was a game that we blew it,” Matthews said. “We had a 10-point lead, and we were the better team, no doubt.”
We all know about the 86-87 season, where the building shook, and don’t forget it was deafening the next season, when the Knights also won the East Regional, then lost at Troy State in the Elite Eight. 75 wins in three seasons — it was an incredible stretch.
Chapman had his hands on everything. After the games, he joined Jim LeCorchick on the radio broadcast for “Knights on the Line.” He had a magazine-style TV show on Sunday nights, I believe on WSEE 35, and on Saturday nights, when home games were in the evenings — all you GLIAC haters remember those days — with his wife Patty on hand, would hold court at the Pufferbelly Restaurant.
“Pufferbellys was like headquarters, and the fans would go there after the games. They all felt a part of it,” Chapman said.
Pufferbelly is an old firehouse, and speaking of that, Chapman’s car was firebombed outside of the Hammermill Center while a function before the trip to Springfield was going on.
“The guy who did it, his name was Morris,” laughed Motown, who always seems to be smiling. “No relation.”
Chapman’s players were very mature, with some NBA teams probably as young in average age. But they loved the game.
“All of those guys, they left it all on the floor,” he said.
In 15 years and four cities in academia, Chapman says he’s a lot less emotional now. On St. Patty’s Day, he must have felt plenty of emotion as he gave away his daughter, Meghan, in marriage. She’s the youngest of the kids, with two older brothers.
As Dr. Tom Chapman, superintendent, he says, “I’m excited about the challenge, to give the children a vision in life.”
Chapman, with the quick wit and colorful quotes, also had an incredible ego, like many successful coaches. But his charm and spontaneity, and his incredible 120-38 record in five seasons overrode that trait.
I’d like to note that top assistant coach John Ruby was an amazing recruiter who didn’t get enough credit.
“John Ruby recruited me,” Jamison said. Gannon needed a point guard to replace Rodriguez, and Jamison, from Columbus, Ohio, and Colby Junior College in Kansas, fit right in.
“Ruby was a great recruiter, and also an X’s and O’s guy. Chapman put together the finished product, and he was the motivator,” Jamison said.
“When I was at Clairton, Ruby was at McKeesport,” Matthews said of his high school days, a decade apart from his two years at Gannon because he worked eight years at the Clairton Coke Works. Matthews was 29 when he arrived.
“I used play against Ruby, and he finally persuaded me to go to Gannon. I wanted to go to Division I, and I had an offer from UNLV, but the NCAA has a bunch of hypocrites. They said the rule was, I was too old. But that was like crossing a park, and they plop down a sign behind you, saying, ‘Keep off the grass.’ That rule was a track rule. Southern California complained that Texas had too many Kenyans on the track team, that they were too old and too experienced compared to normal college athletes. So I couldn’t play Division I basketball.”
“Shanghai,” who got his nickname in high school, said his twin brother James was the real basketball player in the family, and he was a late bloomer. “James went to Norfolk State, but he was killed in an auto accident when he was 21,” Shanghai said. “I didn’t think I was ready for college ball, so I went to work.”
Matthews still plays basketball, in the Legends over-45 travel league. Jamison, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, also plays and runs into Matthews from time to time.
Matthews said he was an avid archer, and had brought down a trophy 10-point buck that won him a contest at the Erie Sport Store.
“That gave me bragging rights with the hunters,” he said. He also added that the guys that lived in the Gannon basketball house “Ate up all the venison.”
Morris and Bowen live in Erie and both work in the school district. JB, who was constantly seen in TV interviews in those days, was particularly helpful in getting me in contact with all of the players scattered around the country.
Motown, who is a fourth-degree black belt in taekwondo, related his thoughts about his playing days.
“I was a fan of our players. The Mitch Smith dunks. The Shanghai Matthews blocked shots. John Bowen’s smooth shooting. Mike MacDougall’s big-game play. My unstoppable turnaround jumpers,” Motown said.
Bowen, who transferred from William & Mary after starting his college career at Notre Dame, also played with the Harlem Globetrotters — on the opposing team that never won a game.
“That was so much fun, because they were great players who loved the game,” Bowen said.
Bowen, who is an assistant to Knights coach John Reilly, said he tells the young players what went on in his Gannon heyday. “Their jaws just drop in disbelief,” he said.
“I still think we can turn it around here, and get the crowds back,” JB said.
I had long phone conversations with everyone, and they all related that that was the time of their lives.
Of the 13 players on the roster — MacDougall died of leukemia at 28 — there were three players whose whereabouts were uncertain. Runski said he believes Erie’s Stacey Hitt lives in south Florida, and yesterday, Carol Kloecker, who played for Gannon’s women’s team at the time, informed me that she corresponds with Joav Kadman. “He still lives in Israel, is married and has beautiful children,” Carol said.
Only Bruce Martin, who played one season, is unaccounted for.
All in all, the Gannon fans made the story. Gary Miller, in particular, surprised me that first, he is 65 and looks 10 years younger, and second, he had to scrounge for a living when he was attending Gannon as an accounting major in the 60’s.
“I was married, had a child, and we lived above the bus station on North Park Row. I became a huge fan in the mid-60s. And, at least I didn’t have any trouble finding a parking spot.
“As time went on, I not only went to home games, I went to every road game I could.”
Now teams travel to Erie to play in the Gary Miller Classic, and the (Lou) Porreco Cup, sponsored by two of Erie’s most prominent auto dealers.
“Gary Miller, Bud Elwell, those guys traveled everywhere with us,” Chapman said. “And Bud was like a second father to me.”
It was all like family.
-- Bob Jarzomski