When I was ten years old, I was forced to go to a family christening during March Madness. If it was the first weekend, the scheduling oversight could have almost been forgiven, but this was Elite Eight weekend, and #1 Temple was playing #2 Duke.
Without understanding the tradition of the Big 5, I knew that it was special for a local school to have a shot at the Final Four, and I refused to miss history. As the tip-off coincided with the anointing, I had a 4-inch black and white screen on my lap, an earpiece, and a small huddled mass of fathers over my shoulder. 
From the men in my family I learned that being a good Catholic meant regularly attending services, but maybe even more importantly it meant being a basketball fan. Temple lost that day, but through its run in the tournament and the nervous anticipation I felt before each game, I can identify that experience as my baptism into the Big 5.
Over the next eight years, I found myself pulling for all the Philadelphia schools when they made it to the tournament – Temple with Macon or McKie, Villanova with Kittles or Alvin Williams, and LaSalle with Simmons or Woods.
When it came time to apply to college, it was a choice between Villanova and LaSalle. While recruiting class or post season prospects did not factor into my decision to attend LaSalle, it didn’t hurt that I fondly remembered Lionel’s 29-1 season or practiced his jumpshot in my driveway.
I never saw the Explorers play in the tournament my four years at LaSalle, and eight years later, I still haven’t had to decide how many rounds deep they will go in my bracket. That tough choice is reserved for St. Joe’s, Villanova, and Temple. It’s okay, I said, we don’t really belong with those teams anyway. They have the better tradition of excellence.
I’m not sure if turning 30 has made me more of a student of history, or I just need a reason to feel passionate about something again, but I want to love LaSalle basketball. There are many reasons to love it, and the more you read, the more you realize it takes a backcourt to no one in tradition and contribution to the game.
North Carolina. Kentucky. UCLA. Indiana. LaSalle Explorers? It may seem odd to include the Blue and Gold in a list of storied basketball traditions, but the other schools all have one thing in common – they have less National Player of the Year awards than the ballers of 20th and Olney. In fact, Duke (6) is the only school with more NPYAs than LaSalle (3).
Before Garrett Bragg, Mike St. John, and a bunch of out-of-state guys who averaged single-singles filled out the roster, LaSalle recruited local blue chips Gola, Cannon, Brooks, Simmons, Overton, and Woods who would define five decades of hardwood glory. LaSalle is one of only 17 schools to win both NCAA and NIT Championships (but they might as well have two NCAA titles as NIT Champion was the more prestigious honor back when they won it).
Consider this fact: There are only 12 players in the history of NCAA Division 1 basketball who have more than 4,000 combined points and rebounds in their career. LaSalle accounts for three players on that list - #1 (Tom Gola with 4663), #2 (Lionel Simmons with 4646), and #12 (Michael Brooks with 4000). When you see that the Big O, Elvin Hayes, Pistol, and Bird are part of this fraternity, you begin to understand how special these players were to the game.
Hell, even Bill Raftery (’63) is a LaSalle grad and there are few commentators who call a more exciting tournament game or whose voice you’d rather hear as a big fella goes in for a monster dunk…
When LaSalle won its 1,000th game in 1992, it did so in the fewest seasons (62) of any school. The more you examine LaSalle’s mark on the game, the more depressing it is to bear witness to its fall from grace.
A tragic thing happened to LaSalle basketball after Simmons walked out of the Hartford Civic Center in 1990, his last as a collegiate, after losing a heartbreaker to Clemson in the second round of the NCAA tournament: it stopped being relevant.
How did we go from the L-Train to the latrine over the last 20 years?
This year marked the first year that a graduating high school senior was not born while Lionel played here. I’m sure it helped Lionel to see Michael Brooks roaming the paint in blue and gold as a young boy, just as Brooks grew up with Ken Durrett. Who has the local Catholic league or public league star grown up watching? Donnie Carr? Rasual Butler? Darnell Harris? Exciting and memorable players for sure, but none can make the claim that LaSalle basketball rose from the ashes under their leadership.
The following local schools have all made the tournament since the Explorers last dance in 1992: Temple (10 times), Penn (10), Villanova (8), Princeton (5), St. Joe’s (5), Delaware (3), Drexel (3), Rider (2), and Lafayette (2). Yeah, Drexel has made it three times. If it doesn’t make you mad that an engineering school somehow engineered multiple runs to the tournament and LaSalle can’t muster a single bid, then you never watched Olaf Landgren get meaningful minutes.
When they closed the 1930s with 103 victories against 56 losses, the Explorers began a 70 year run of never having finished a decade with a losing record. With two seasons left this decade, LaSalle will enter 2008-2009 with 103-136 record. That’s unacceptable.
In the words of Rick Pitino, Lionel Simmons is not walking through that door. Tim Legler and Doug Overton are not walking through that door. But maybe they should. As ambassadors, as coaches, as alumni who care about LaSalle’s return to relevancy.
LaSalle has an amazing tradition of excellence. For a school with such a great reputation as a Communications School and such a rich story to tell about our impact on the game, you sure wouldn’t know it by looking at the website or visiting the campus. How about producing a video narrated by Bill Raftery that showcases the LaSalle tradition and play it for incoming recruits when they visit Gola Arena? How about erecting a statue of Lionel Simmons outside of Gola ala Michael Jordan at the United Center?
There is a lot to be proud about LaSalle from the Catholic tradition and the Brothers to its faculty and alumni who are leaders in medicine, education, financial services, non-profit, government, sports, and media. It’s time to start being proud of LaSalle basketball again.
Who knows, maybe one day my eight-year old nephew will get to experience a Big 5 christening by watching the Explorers play on a 4-inch screen in March.
I’ll be the guy looking over his shoulder.
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