Wow. Thank you and what a great find. What I wouldn't give to see the Hall like that someday.

(05-09-2015 09:24 AM)Sitting bull Wrote:  

(05-08-2015 08:39 AM)billymac Wrote:  It was a great atmosphere during that period. Of course, playing Wake Forest at The Hall, helped raise the number of fannies in the seats (as did UVA, ODU, UNC, etc...).

Billy, maybe you can pass on to the powers that be. In our historical archives, they show this as a road game at Wake - obviously not. Tribe won this 80-63 at the Hall, one of our top seasons and first NIT year.

I will definitely pass it along. Sometimes, if something isn't caught within the first couple years, then it gets buried and only something, like this video, brings it back up. It takes a lot of work to fact check a long history.

(05-09-2015 07:13 PM)Tribeheart Wrote:  

(05-09-2015 09:24 AM)Sitting bull Wrote:  The tipping point was a game - I think 1975 - against a highly touted Virginia Tech team. The Hall that night was near full and had the electricity never seen prior. We won that game 76-69 - and from there, launched a near 10 year run where the culture and environment at the Hall was very similar to this video.

That game was one of the greatest comeback games I have ever witnessed anywhere. Down by 18 (or maybe 16?) to Tech in the second half before the 3 pt shot era, and came back to win. It just never happened back then, and the table was set for so many high water Hall basketball evenings to follow.

That upper movement of the program really started with Ronnie Satterthwaite and George Balanis (before he opted for being in on the start of the Nike shoe era and less stress and mo' money), with a remarkable staff of Parkhill (Penn State has never been back to the level he took them), George Spack (alum and former b-ball team captain) and Bob Staak (who went on to head coaching stints at Xavier and Wake Forest before many years in the NBA.) We had back to back years of landing Satterthwaite and Lowenhaupt from two of the greatest high school programs (Dematha and Archbishop Molloy) and legendary coaches of all time (Morgan Wootten and Jack Curran). Not discounting Mike Arizin as the actual start, but he didn't stick around and wasn't a part of the run.

No game will ever top the inspiration of John Kratzer's return to the Hall ( and later posthumously as the first recipient of the USBWA's Most Courageous Award) after his period of fighting cancer, followed by W&M then taking down #2 UNC and Phil Ford.

I look forward to that next high point, though, when Tony gets us in the Big Dance, finally.

Those were heady days at W&M Hall. It is good to see the program headed back in that direction. GO TRIBE!