Rest in Peace, Sonny Dove
- Thread starter benthall85
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I remember listening to SJU games that year - I believe Sonny was calling some on radio - the very week he died I Listened to him - I forget who worked on the radio that year but one of the announcers mentioned about how Sonny had finally gotten his life together (addiction???) and I believe he was working several jobs and perhaps even finishing school…when announcing Sonny seemed like such a decent and grateful guy
and the decades have flown by - I'm glad his name is up on the Allumni Hall wall!
all the best
Manhattan Prep. He played with Richard Lapchick there, as did I, although sparingly. Richie Jackson was a freshman with me. Played with Carmine Calzonetti and Johnny Warren. Jones was a guard with decent defensive ability. He helped hold Dave Bing to reasonable numbers in a Alumni Hall win.
beast of the east
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Funny you mention Rudy Bogad. In the 70s, as a teenager, I worked for about a year in a supermarket where Bogad's younger brother Bob, who had just graduated college worked. We played a little ball together, and we heard that his brother was really good, but we were dismissive about the younger brother's college experience. It was only in the last year or so that I learned that the younger brother was a starter and pretty good player for Fairfield.
beast of the east
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beast of the east
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Ah, so you were Doc Butler?
RIP Sonny Dove, one of the most illustrious names in SJU history.
A man is not measured by his numbers in the NBA, we all love college bb players, many or even most of whom do not have NBA careers.
It was a bad day for all of us when we learned of his tragic death.
I remember watching Sonny play, I was a fan and then attended SJU ’71-75, ’75-78, now a long time ago. He was excellent.
Amen, rest in peace, Sonny Dove.
A man is not measured by his numbers in the NBA, we all love college bb players, many or even most of whom do not have NBA careers.
It was a bad day for all of us when we learned of his tragic death.
I remember watching Sonny play, I was a fan and then attended SJU ’71-75, ’75-78, now a long time ago. He was excellent.
Amen, rest in peace, Sonny Dove.
Have to disagree with you on this one, Paultzman. Sonny was class of '67 and John Warren was class of '69 (drafted by the Knicks and played on the '69-'70 title team), which means they played one season together ('66-'67), when Sonny was a senior and John was a soph. I was a junior that year, and unless my memory is playing tricks on me (as it does more and more), I recall seeing on them on the court together. Also, from what I remember, Richie Jackson and Carmine Calzonetti were in the same class as John Warren.
Edit: Check outhttp://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/st-johns-ny/1967.html for the '66-'67 roster. Your friend Billy Jones was on that team as well.
John has always been a class act. Have spoken with him and his wife on a number of occasions, and I never failed to mention how his jersey belongs with the others that are hanging from the rafters at CA ... and how his wife would beam at him when I said that. (Let's get that done!)
P.S. Apologies for leaving out the "u" in Paultzman, which I've since gone back and corrected. (Then again, I've always been a Leroy Ellis guy. :blush
John has always been a class act. Have spoken with him and his wife on a number of occasions, and I never failed to mention how his jersey belongs with the others that are hanging from the rafters at CA ... and how his wife would beam at him when I said that. (Let's get that done!)
P.S. Apologies for leaving out the "u" in Paultzman, which I've since gone back and corrected. (Then again, I've always been a Leroy Ellis guy. :blush
Nice! Enjoyable conversation.
I was in the same class as Sonny. There was a rally for Lapchic and he was one of the main speakers. A really good regular guy. We were the idiots that brought birds into the old garden in honor of Sonny Dove. We let them go at halftime. Really stupid but funny. We couldn't afford doves.
were you on that bus trip to the Palestra? I think we played Temple. Somebody released a pigeon there and another guy managed to sneak down on the court and grab the head off the mascot, scoot up to our section and toss it in. He was caught by security and spent the night in Jail.
It was the St. Johns VS St Joes game . Davidson had brought in a dead pigeon and a live pigeon . The bag with the dead pigeon fell on the ground right where they were collecting tickets so Davidson casually pushed it foward with his foot and picked up the bag inside the Palestra . later on during the game when Dove made a basket , he threw the dead pigeon on the court and said ' The Hawk is dead ' he then set the live pigeon loose and we all yelled out " but the Dove flies high " great memories !!!!!!!!!
westchesterjoe
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Well, that may be debatable. The NCAA took only a limited number of teams, many from Conferences that weren't very good, in addition to the UCLA'S, KANSAS, etc
ST JOHN'S, among many back then were independents and didn't play in a Conference. Maybe there were 16-24 teams in the NCAA back then and a lot of very good teams did not get the few 'AT LARGE BIDS," that existed then. And, a number of teams, mostly east and Midwest actually preferred the NIT to the NCAA, i.e. Marquette for example. The year before they won the NCAA.
Back then too, many conferences got only 1 bid and, if NC lost in the ACC tournament to Duke or Maryland, they may not have gotten a NCAA bid. So, the NIT picked up a lot of good teams .
The NIT declined when the NCAA began enlarging their field to 32 teams, 48 teams, etc. And, St JOHN'S and others began to go that route too.
Just my view but, many here might agree about the NIT back in the day?
beast of the east
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I'm not sure who was the last coach to turn down an NCAA bid (Al McGuire?) but after the last event, the NCAA made a rule requiring all invited teams to accept bids.
Mullin did not play with a 3 point shot.