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Post by hc87 on Jun 8, 2020 16:31:20 GMT -5
...and its resumption in '39-40? Just curious if anyone had more info on what transpired back then...as I'm looking for more and more arcane HC sports things to talk about in these days of no sports.  I'm assuming it was somewhat economic happening amidst the Depression.... was its resumption and our amazingly quick rise to national prominence after WW2 a concerted effort by the school or just a happy coincidence? |
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Post by longsuffering on Jun 9, 2020 2:08:26 GMT -5
Out of the recesses I think I recall that Bob Cousy chose HC over BC because HC had dorms. That doesn't sound like a grand plan.
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Post by A Clock Tower Purple on Jun 9, 2020 7:46:44 GMT -5
?
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Post by longsuffering on Jun 9, 2020 8:41:35 GMT -5
Started to Google the question. Nothing on HC yet but there were pro women's teams in the 1930s with names like the All American Red Heads, the Ozark Hillbillies and the Terrible Swedes. The All American Red Heads barn-stormed 160 games a year on the road.
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Post by hc6774 on Jun 9, 2020 9:00:13 GMT -5
...and its resumption in '39-40? Just curious if anyone had more info on what transpired back then...as I'm looking for more and more arcane HC sports things to talk about in these days of no sports. I'm assuming it was somewhat economic happening amidst the Depression.... was its resumption and our amazingly quick rise to national prominence after WW2 a concerted effort by the school or just a happy coincidence? Check Fr K's book p 272 first para '...during the height of the Depression the College afforded an expensive building program [Kimball & Wheeler?] even after an unsuccessful fund drive. In fact it was generating a budget surplus partly because employee salaries were cut by 5% however coaches salary reductions were as much at 20% [Jack Barry in 1931]; in 1933 there was a 'marked decline in athletic revenues' which led to further cuts in in Athletic Dept salaries.' also Fr Noland, president '33-'39, had come to HC as academic dean in 1930; Fr K notes that he was a renown 3 sport athlete at BC & BC High before entering the Jesuits. |
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Post by timholycross on Jun 9, 2020 9:05:20 GMT -5
Seems like classic Holy Cross thinking.
"Geez, we won the NCAA's, maybe that's a good thing and we might want to build an adequate gym (like BC and PC did, nothing fancy, but functional for the 50s and 60s)......Nah!"
And somehow or another, despite this unbelievable miscalculation, the program kept winning for quite a while; which, of course, was great, but put the program in a bad place after that.
The only thing HC had that most other schools didn't was a practice court!
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Post by rgs318 on Jun 9, 2020 9:13:06 GMT -5
No mention that I could find for sports in The Spires of Fenwick - a history of HC through the late 1960s.
Hard to believe how different things were back then. Fr Hart used to tell a story of the first indoor basketball court at HC (just before Cousy was recruited). HC had no place to practice on campus and one night at dinner it was announced that HC was getting an indoor practice facility. The students gave that announcement a standing ovation. The next day, the cows were moved out of the on-campus barn and a wood floor was put down for hoops. Many big things have modest beginnings.
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Post by rgs318 on Jun 9, 2020 10:24:26 GMT -5
Apparently HC dropped the sport twice for financial reasons (and insufficient student interest) and the third time (1935) because they could only win 3 games (they were 3-12). Powers led the Crusaders through the 1908-1909 season, after which the sport was discontinued until 1920-1921 — at which time it was restarted only as a response to a challenge from Boston College to a home and home competition. HC won both games. Holy Cross continued to play through the 1930-1931 season, with some success. Coach John Reed’s squads were a combined 60-41 from 1925-1931, when again the Crusaders played their “final” game, due primarily to financial reasons. Under Holy Cross legend Albert “Hop” Riopel, Holy Cross basketball started anew for the third time in 1934-1935, but after a disappointing 3-12 season, the sport was discontinued for the third — and final — time.
Yet when Edward “Moose” Krause’s squad took the court against Assumption on Feb. 3, 1940, it was the final “beginning” of what would become one of the finest college basketball programs in the East.
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Post by bison137 on Jun 9, 2020 10:30:29 GMT -5
Not sure if this was posted (from the HC archives). HC actually dropped basketball three times, with the final time in 1935, after a 3-12 season, being for "financial reasons".
"For a program that has had as much success as Holy Cross basketball, it is commonplace to be able to speak with reverence about “the beginning.” With the Crusaders, however, it is important to ask “which beginning?” Coached by J. Fred Powers, Holy Cross played its first basketball game on Jan. 11, 1901, losing to the Milbury Intermediates 21-13. Holy Cross followed that up the next day by defeating the Century Cycle Club 30-10. But it was a loss to Harvard (20-10) on Jan. 15 of that season that marked the school’s initial outing against a collegiate opponent.
Powers led the Crusaders through the 1908-1909 season, after which the sport was discontinued until 1920-1921 — at which time it was restarted only as a response to a challenge. Holy Cross continued to play through the 1930-1931 season, with some success. Coach John Reed’s squads were a combined 60-41 from 1925-1931, when again the Crusaders played their “final” game, due primarily to financial reasons. Under Holy Cross legend Albert “Hop” Riopel, Holy Cross basketball started anew for the third time in 1934-1935, but after a disappointing 3-12 season, the sport was discontinued for the third — and final — time.
Yet when Edward “Moose” Krause’s squad took the court against Assumption on Feb. 3, 1940, it was the final “beginning” "
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Post by nhteamer on Jun 9, 2020 10:33:28 GMT -5
On June 9, 1935 Derek Bok was born.
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Post by hc87 on Jun 9, 2020 12:14:57 GMT -5
Thanks all for the digging/researching....
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Post by thecrossisback on Jun 10, 2020 9:35:15 GMT -5
Found this from the 1907 Yearbook
1905-06
A very gratifying season resulted from our basketball schedule of 1905-06. Only three games out of a total of 15 were lost and the scores ran from 10 to 50. Connor, "07, made a record of 12 baskets in the college gymnasium, and had a total of 79 baskets to his credit, or an average of five in every game. The team lost to Harvard the first time in four years, and Dartmouth took the other two games from us.
This was the last year of basketball at Holy Cross. Though we always had excellent teams, the students took no interest, and by their absence, showed that they did not desire the sport. Though always a losing venture, it would have been continued as long as the students desired it, but, in accordance with their evident feeling, the sport was dropped from the list of inter-colle giate athletics.
It is sincerely hoped that with the advent of the season of 1907-8, there will be a new spirit, and that we shall be again represented by an intercollegiate basket-ball team, the champions of New England.
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