History of the ACC

Beasts of the East

Beasts of the East

Well-known member
2023 $upporter
Last night I saw most of a documentary on the history of the ACC.

Frank McGuire featured prominently as the coach at UNC to unseat NC State dominance by recruiting NYC, starting with Lennie Rosenbluth, a dominant big man.

Side note was that his assistant was former SJU head coach Buck Freeman who was a recovered alcoholic. When Buck relapsed he was let go and McGuire hired a young little known coach to be his assistant - Dean Smith.

I hope I successfully recorded it. Great stuff.
 
Most basketball prople credit Buck Freeman for being the Xs and Osexpert while assisting McGuire at both SJU and NC. Frank is generally recognized as being one of the great recruiters of all time. Tommy Kearns ,who played at St Ann’s for Looie wrote that after committing to Frank at SJU , Frank left for NC and asked Tommy to go with him. Kearns told Frank that both his parents Irish immigrants would never OK his going to baptist country instead of SJU. Frank told Tommy , invite me up for a cup of tea and the next day Kearns was going to NC.
I can’t verify this but rumor had it that Brennan, Quigg and Cunningham who all started for NC in their perfect 57 season had all committed to SJU and Frank prior to his leaving and followed him to NC.
 
GardenCity62 said:
Most basketball prople credit Buck Freeman for being the Xs and Osexpert while assisting McGuire at both SJU and NC. Frank is generally recognized as being one of the great recruiters of all time. Tommy Kearns ,who played at St Ann’s for Looie wrote that after committing to Frank at SJU , Frank left for NC and asked Tommy to go with him. Kearns told Frank that both his parents Irish immigrants would never OK his going to baptist country instead of SJU. Frank told Tommy , invite me up for a cup of tea and the next day Kearns was going to NC.
I can’t verify this but rumor had it that Brennan, Quigg and Cunningham who all started for NC in their perfect 57 season had all committed to SJU and Frank prior to his leaving and followed him to NC.
Click to expand...
Lennie Rosebluth commented that Frank told him he was leaving st johns but not to say a word and that Frank wanted him to come to UNC with him.

UNC recruited Frank because he hadvbeaten them twice in the NCAAs.

Humorous footnote to your comment about all the Catholic NYC kids Frank recruited: they would all make the sign of the cross before shooting free throws. Kids in NC who were Tar Heel fans picked up on this and began doing this even though they were all Protestant and had no idea what they were doing.
 
Beasts of the East said:
Last night I saw most of a documentary on the history of the ACC.

Frank McGuire featured prominently as the coach at UNC to unseat NC State dominance by recruiting NYC, starting with Lennie Rosenbluth, a dominant big man.

Side note was that his assistant was former SJU head coach Buck Freeman who was a recovered alcoholic. When Buck relapsed he was let go and McGuire hired a young little known coach to be his assistant - Dean Smith.

I hope I successfully recorded it. Great stuff.
Click to expand...
Is this “The History of the ACC Tournament?” If so, it’s an 8 or 10 part series. The SEC has one for basketball and another one for football which are also 8 or 10 part series.

They are all well done and do discuss the lack of black players in both conferences until the late 60’s but not being fully integrated until the 70’s. The SEC one includes how Solly Walker was treated when St. John’s visited Kentucky in 1952.
 
Last edited:
SJU85 said:
Is this “The History of the ACC Tournament?” If so, it’s an 8 or 10 part series. The SEC has one for basketball and another one for football which are also 8 or 10 part series.

They are all well done and do discuss the lack of black players in both conferences until the late 60’s but not being fully integrated until the 70’s. The SEC one includes how Solly Walker was treated when St. John’s visited Kentucky in 1952.
Click to expand...
Thanks for clarifying - do you know where it can be streamed? I didn't understand how direct a line there was from St. John's and Frank McGuire and Dean Smith.

McGuire was such a great recruiter around NYC that it was noted that NC State and some other ACC schools stopped recruiting heavily here.

I remember reading that after letting McGuire leave from about $2k more than his SJU salary of about $5000. He was succeeded by Al DeStefano who didn't have much success coaching for 4 seasons.

When Lapchick left St Johns for the NBA, he became the highest paid coach in that league. When SJU brought Lapchick back, they paid him an astronomical amount of $18,000.

Re Black players in college basketball and the ACC in particular: It's difficult to get our arms around the fact that when Solly Walker first played for St. John's in 1951, this was just 4 years after Jackie Robinson's rookie season. In a historical sense, this isn’t ancient history. Clearly we've come a long way and clearly we have a long way to go.
 
Last edited:
Beasts of the East said:
Thanks for clarifying - do you know where it can be streamed? I didn't understand how direct a line there was from St. John's and Frank McGuire and Dean Smith.

McGuire was such a great recruiter around NYC that it was noted that NC State and some other ACC schools stopped recruiting heavily here.

I remember reading that after letting McGuire leave from about $2k more than his SJU salary of about $5000. He was succeeded by Al DeStefano who didn't have much success coaching for 4 seasons.

When Lapchick left St Johns for the NBA, he became the highest paid coach in that league. When SJU brought Lapchick back, they paid him an astronomical amount of $18,000.

Re Black players in college basketball and the ACC in particular: It's difficult to get our arms around the fact that when Solly Walker first played for St. John's in 1951, this was just 4 years after Jackie Robinson's rookie season. In a historical sense, this isn’t ancient history. Clearly we've come a long way and clearly we have a long way to go.
Click to expand...
If you have the ACC Network, the series will run in it appears in its entirety on March 13th beginning at 10 AM. If you have Demand through your service you can get it there. I don’t know about streaming it other ways.

None of these series were puff pieces. They did speak as I said in the earlier post they did speak about racial issues (even past the time the conferences were integrated) and with the SEC one on basketball why Dale Brown is so beloved. Also talks about schools going on probation and why South Carolina left the ACC.

I met Solly Walker for the first time when he was inducted into the St. John’s Sports Hall of Fame after I graduated. I wish I knew more about him and his story back then. You are so correct in that it really is not that long ago especially since it was another twenty years before the SEC was fully integrated in basketball.
 
bamafan said:
After I watch The History of the ACC I’m going to watch a 4 hour special on the Vancouver Canucks.
Click to expand...
I’m just there for the Riots is available on ESPN 30 for 30….insert ESPN jingle.

Quite frankly the ACC blows this year. It’s Duke and???
 
Not ACC but the 30 for 30 Playing for the Mob on the BC fixing scandal with Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill (Goodfellas) is on ESPNU now.
 
dk423 said:
Duke/Clemson/Louisville.

Hate to say it, but how much better is BE's top half with STJ/Creighton/Marquette/UConn.
Click to expand...
True. But the BE has 11 teams, the top half is made up of 4-5 teams. The ACC has 18 teams. They have more options to create a good top half of the conference, but arguably it is still not as good as the BE.
 
Last edited:
Did SJU expect McGuire to stay when they offered him a five hundred dollar raise in1952? He had just gone about 75 and 15 in the prior three years reaching the NCAA finals in 52. In addition he is still the only coach to take a basketball and baseball team to the final four, Frank made about 6000 a year and NYC patrolmen with three years on the job made 4800.
What is more mind boggling about this is SJU got very little negative feedback from the press.
Lapchick had built up such a good relationship with the press that for years SJU would say no current top coach was interested in the job the press printed it and the public bought it. So when Frank left SJU hired an asst and the tone was set for years, hire an asst or mid major coach and save the bucks.
SJU had success doing this but what could have been if they opened up the pocketbook just a little for McGuire. How many of those NC players would have played for SJU.
 
kranmars said:
True. But the BE has 11 teams, the top half is made up if 4-5 teams. The ACC has 18 teams. They have more options to create a good top half of the conference, but arguably it is still not as good as the BE.
Click to expand...
I think our conference is better and more enjoyable. I just wish we had Xavier or Nova also emerge as a bonafide tournament team this year to really hammer that home.
 
kranmars said:
True. But the BE has 11 teams, the top half is made up if 4-5 teams. The ACC has 18 teams. They have more options to create a good top half of the conference, but arguably it is still not as good as the BE.
Click to expand...
I would also be curious as to how they (ACC) designed their schedule. No way they are playing Home and Aways. With the number of teams that is impossible. So who drew the un lucky straw and got Duke twice? I assume everyone played everyone at least once. I know UNC/Duke play twice. So when people point out UNC was 14-6 in conference WHO they actually beat matters.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top