Merry Christmas to Paul

Wow. It's funny, but I assumed at least a few of you had met Paul.

Like Mike, a few years ago I had a business meeting planned in Sacramento with a side trip to Napa and spoke to Paul about meeting. He couldn't make it.

I had to check so can verify that I met 3 of Paul's kids at CA for a game, his mom and his sister. They are all great. His son hit a long shot in one of those time-out contests. Paul has the photo turned into a mousepad and treasures it. It was 2019 and we had just completed the HOF room and I got them access and gave them a tour. We took a group photo in front of a Mullin mural.

Last summer Paul's son Max just happened to be in town when we had the Novita get together and showed up with a buddy. Mjmaher remarked how great Max' vintage St. John's jacket looked. Max smiled, took it off and said, "I want you to have it." Insisted. Max knew how special mjm is to the site and to Paul. Blew me away.

Paul has never liked the nastiness and craziness that has existed on here in the past. Some users just wanted to denigrate the school, program, and other users. He once confided that if soneone would take this site off his hands he'd gladly give it away.

A lot has changed and many of you helped change the overall tone. It's still a fan site and especially after losses, rants are inevitable. Right now though the site is better and stronger than ever. Except for one thing. We need Paul to get well.

Thanks Paul. We can't thank you enough.
 

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Beasts of the East said:
Wow. It's funny, but I assumed at least a few of you had met Paul.

Like Mike, a few years ago I had a business meeting planned in Sacramento with a side trip to Napa and spoke to Paul about meeting. He couldn't make it.

I had to check so can verify that I met 3 of Paul's kids at CA for a game, his mom and his sister. They are all great. His son hit a long shot in one of those time-out contests. Paul has the photo turned into a mousepad and treasures it. It was 2019 and we had just completed the HOF room and I got them access and gave them a tour. We took a group photo in front of a Mullin mural.

Last summer Paul's son Max just happened to be in town when we had the Novita get together and showed up with a buddy. Mjmaher remarked how great Max' vintage St. John's jacket looked. Max smiled, took it off and said, "I want you to have it." Insisted. Max knew how special mjm is to the site and to Paul. Blew me away.

Paul has never liked the nastiness and craziness that has existed on here in the past. Some users just wanted to denigrate the school, program, and other users. He once confided that if soneone would take this site off his hands he'd gladly give it away.

A lot has changed and many of you helped change the overall tone. It's still a fan site and especially after losses, rants are inevitable. Right now though the site is better and stronger than ever. Except for one thing. We need Paul to get well.

Thanks Paul. We can't thank you enough.
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I’ll wear the jacket Saturday. 3pm anyone going come to 114 our crew is gonna do a group pic and make a Xmas card out of it for Paul. 3pm sharp 2 of the last 3 rows in the middle of the section we are pretty hard to miss
 
I’ve been a long time, avid reader of this forum for decades—back into the 90s when news broke of Fran’s firing. I have never met nor emailed Paul, but he has always been present over the site. When things on occasion got a little out of hand he would step in to settle everyone. Always with grace and maturity, respectful but direct. Through all the years, he has always been the guiding light of this wonderful website. And honestly, this site has been my shelter through years of terrible “red” storms. Wishing you all the best, and thank you for all you’ve done here.
 
otis said:
I do not believe people know or appreciate just how much work and his own money Paul has put into this site over the past 30+/- years.

Here is my story. Thirty or so years ago when the internet was becoming mainstream I would regularly talk StJohn’s basketball on the telephone with “Tom in Simsbury” (later known as “Tom in Salem”). If I recall correctly, Tom was on an AOL group chat with a guy named “Paul”. Tom told me that Paul was going to start a StJohn’s basketball message board. At this time there were not many basketball message boards. I recall joking that there would not be much action on Paul’s new site. I was wrong. Redmen.com was an instant success far exceeding the number of posts either of us imagined which success has continued through the not so good and disappointing times of StJohn’s basketball.

During the 30+/- years the site has existed Paul has put up with a lot of crap which has included personal threats against him by one or more crazed fans. He adopted the site as a labor of love leading him to put in countless hours of his own time programming and refining the site.

Paul received offers from Rivals and others to turn the site into a “pay” site and join their network which would have produced revenue to defray his operating costs and perhaps provide him with a profit. I recommended to Paul that he explore the affiliation with Rivals to recoup his expenses but because he wanted the site to remain free he never pursued any commercial affiliations.

With his health failing Paul could no longer do all of the site maintenance himself so last year, for the first time Paul made a post on this site asking for voluntary contributions. Many regulars contributed, some did not.

Over the 30 years Redmen.com/ now RedFan has become more than just a basketball site. Redmen has formed lasting friendships. It has been a comforting source in disappointing StJohn’s basketball times and provided encouragement in other times. I shutter to think if Paul had not started or sustained this site, or if this site ceases to exist.

So please honor my friend Aubie’s request and mail a note to Paul thanking him for the time and money he has invested in creating and sustaining RedFan.

Also if possible please hit the donor tab above and make whatever contribution you are able to make to assist Paul and his family in sustaining this site.

Thank you.

Merry Christmas. Happy Chanukah. Happy Kwanzaa. Seasons Greetings.

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Thank you for sharing this history. We all owe Paul a great debt.
 
I was thinking alot about Paul, and with all the positives thoughts and all the prays for Paul, he will defeat this cancer, God does listen to us.

When he defeats this damn cancer, we should all do something special and put up money to fly him and his family to nyc and celebrate his victory over cancer. Show Paul how much he means to us all.

He brought the ST. John's family together through this site, lets do something special for him and show the man the love he deserves.
Without this site all the meetings and get togethers would never have happened, we all owe it to Paul.
 
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