Over the past week, with Looie's passing, there have been a lot of articles and sports broadcasters who prominently mentioned "the sweater". Many of them got the premise all wrong. One article began, "Looie liked to wear sweaters." I think my recollection is accurate, so please help me here.
On January 14, 1985, the 11-1 Red Storm traveled to Pittsburgh to play the Pitt Panthers. We had already lost an away game to Niagara of all teams, which was a shocker. Still, Pitt, which finished 8-8 for fifth place in the Big East that year, was anything but a pushover. They had a star freshman, Charles Smith, as well as Demetrius Gore, and Curtis Aiken. This much fans can agree on: Looie had a cold, and his wife Mary, concerned for his health travelling in winter weather and playing in cold, drafty gyms, insisted he pack a sweater. Looie grabbed the first sweater he saw, an ugly one he never had worn, and departed for the game.
Looie, favored brown suits, a white shirt and tie, that looked anything but debonaire to begin with, but by mid game, was usually a crumpled mess. Jacket discarded, shirt sleeves rolled up, loosened tie always in the way, is how I remember Coach. That night, though, he wore the sweater over his shirt and tie instead.
The game result? We crushed Pitt 82-59. Five days later, we played #15 Boston College at BC, an even tougher away opponent. Looie, still nursing the cold, but also the superstitious leprechaun, wore the sweater again. This time, the result was a hard fought 66-59 victory. Four days later, an even even tougher opponent loomed ahead at MSG, #11 Syracuse, who always brought a lot of their fans to the Garden. Yep, now the sweater was now his rabbit's foot, presumable not washed. This time, an 82-80 overtime victory.
Three days later, on January 26 in Landover, our toughest opponent yet lay waiting, #1 ranked Georgetown Hoyas. This was to be a clash of titans, with senior Patrick Ewing, the best college basketball center in decades, arguably ever, anchoring the vaunted G'Town defense. David Wingate, Bill Martin, Reggie Williams, and Michael Jackson rounded out the starters. Their bench was deep, and nationally they were as well known as any NBA team. Looie wore his sweater, Berry and Mullin dominated, and the final score a 66-65 Johnnie's win was not nearly as close as indicated. The Hoyas finished with a furious flurry to close a double digit SJU lead.
Providence fell, UCONN (simply University of Connecticut then) fell, and Seton Hall also went down. Sweater, sweater, sweater.
The next big test was #19 Villanova at the Spectrum, on February 9th. The sweater was a no brainer, and the result an 70-68 hard fought win. (Ultimately went 3-0 against the eventual champion Wildcats).
Columbia, Pitt, and DePaul were whacked easily, and now the sweater was 11-0 and St. John's was #1.
Next up was #18 BC at home, and then #7 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. Both were close games against very good teams. Both wins, 71-69, and 88-83. Sweater, Sweater. Damn it. I just realized that was 13 wins in a row. Not a lucky number.
The #2 Georgetown rematch promised to be the biggest regular season game in our history. Pre-internet, pre-stubhub, there were newspaper classified ads advertising ticket re-sales in the hundreds of dollars. #1 vs. #2, Ali vs. Frazier, MSG the perfect venue. The sweater was now a phenomenon, with t-shirt copies of Looie's ugly sweater sold to students. and fans. I can't write about this game with much detail because it is too painful, but what began as SJU fans elated with visions of sugarplums in our heads, crashed mightily. John Thompson, ever the intimidator, playfully (maybe) greeted Looie before the opening tap by flashing open his suit jacket to reveal a two sizes too small t-shirt version of the sweater. Whether jynx or not, the spell was broken. Georgetown, from the opening tip, raced out to an insurmountable first half lead, crushing us so thoroughly, that MSG felt more like a morgue. We were Frazier, but not even that much because Frazier fought valiantly. We were destroyed. You could almost hear Howard Cosell's voice, "And down goes St. John's, down goes St. John's."
The sweater was finished.
Unless someone tells me otherwise, the sweater story ends right there. 14 games, a great 13 game run, then just about the most devastating loss in our history. We whipped Villanova by 15 in the Big East semis, so much a mismatch that sitting in the Garden I actually felt bad for Nova, always a respected rival. the Big East finals was a 12 point loss to Georgetown. The NCAAs are etched in our memory. No need to repeat.
I wrote all this because over the past week, newer fans, and those who really didn't didn't follow our team back then, have been given a different impression of Looie's sweater. Seven hundred and twenty six games coached, 526 wins, and just 14 with the ugly sweater. Still emblematic of a great team and a great run in our best season, but really not much more.
Please feel free to correct any inaccuracies in this, and hope this was of value to reminisce.
