Niagara’s Stunning Victory over St. John’s in 1984 Still Resonates Today
When Joe Arlauckas was tearing up basketball courts in the Rochester area for Jefferson High School in the early 1980s, Louie Carnesecca of St. John’s was one of the few Division I coaches who noticed the 6-foot-8 center.
But when Arlauckas suffered a leg injury in a freak accident during the spring of his junior year, Carnesecca forgot all about him.
“What happened was I got my leg pinned between a house and a car,” Arlauckas recalled. “It never bothered me at all once basketball arrived my senior year. But they (St. John’s) never contacted me again once my leg was injured.”
Not that you could blame Carnesecca. Little Louie was in the process of rounding up players such as Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Bill Wennington, Mark Jackson, Ron Rowan and Shelton Jones – all of whom went on to play in the NBA – for a run at the NCAA championship.
And when he brought that contingent of Redmen to the Niagara Falls Convention Center early in the 1984-85 season to play Arlauckas and Niagara University, Carnesecca probably didn’t even remember who Arlauckas was.
However, Carnesecca had his memory jogged on that never-to-be-forgotten night. In what still ranks as one of the greatest victories in Purple Eagles history, Arlauckas pumped in 20 points as Niagara shocked St. John’s – as well as the rest of the college basketball world – with a 62-59 victory in front of an overflow and delirious crowd of more than 6,000.
“It’s a great win for the players, the program, and most of all, the priests at Niagara who hear it from the guys at St. John’s every year,” said Niagara coach Pete Lonergan, touching off rousing laughter in his post-game press conference.
The two Catholic universities had been playing one another on an almost annual basis since 1909, but recent history had not been kind to the Purple Eagles. While the St. John’s program had become one of the nation’s elite under Carnesecca as it played in the powerful Big East conference, Niagara had remained as small-time as Division I could be and the chasm had become more and more pronounced.
Niagara hadn’t beaten St. John’s since 1972 when it upset the Redmen in the semifinals of the NIT tournament right in the Johnnies’ backyard at Madison Square Garden. Since then the Redmen had won 11 straight over Niagara, and in the three games played during Lonergan’s head-coaching tenure the Purple Eagles had lost by an average of 22 points.
“I’ve been here seven years and I think this is the first time we’ve ever been ahead of them, much less beat them,” said Lonergan, who had served as an assistant under Dan Raskin before taking the reins in 1980. “I can’t remember a bigger regular-season win since I’ve been here or even before.”
Neither could anyone who bled purple. Since the graduation of Calvin Murphy – the program’s greatest player – Niagara had endured nine non-winning seasons in the last 14 years including a 10-18 mark in 1983-84.
Niagara brought a 4-2 record into the St. John’s game, but it had barely gotten past Penn and Hartford, and it had lost by 23 points to long-time Little Three rival St. Bonaventure less than two weeks earlier. The Redmen came to Western New York with a 5-0 mark, ranked fourth in the country, and looking for a quick tune-up before its next game against perennial powerhouse UCLA.
So what happened?
“We got beat, no excuses, they beat us,” Carnesecca said in his famously hoarse tone. “Niagara played like they were top-ranked. You have to give Niagara credit, they played a marvelous game.”
And no one was more marvelous than Arlauckas. In addition to his 20 points he grabbed six rebounds and was the anchor in the middle of a 2-3 zone that helped hold the 7-foot Wennington to a mere seven points.
“We knew we had to play our hearts out,” said Arlauckas. “Lonergan had us so mentally ready. We weren’t going to be intimidated. You can’t let anyone intimidate you, no matter how big they are.”
He wasn’t just talking about the Redmen’s size. When Mullin, Berry, Wennington and company took the floor they were greeted like rock stars by the pro-Niagara crowd, so in awe the fans were of watching such talented players. Mullin had just played for Team USA in the Olympics and had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated the week before the game.
It didn’t appear that Niagara had a chance of staying close, let alone winning.
In what proved to be a prophetic beginning, the Purple Eagles were introduced to the crowd as the theme song from the movie “Rocky” blared over the sound system. Then Niagara went out and fought the way the old Sylvester Stallone character did.
Arlauckas made all five shots he attempted in the first half while Joe Alexander gave Berry fits and scored eight as Niagara opened a 26-21 advantage thanks to 11-of-13 shooting from the floor. The Purple Eagles cooled off long enough to allow St. John’s to make a run and by the half Niagara trailed 37-32, but it was unfazed.
“We watched films of them against St. Bonaventure,” said Alexander, referring to a narrow 57-56 St. John’s win over the Bonnies in the finals of the Joe Lapchick Tournament a couple weeks back. “You hear so much about top-rated teams, but we knew St. John’s wasn’t invincible.”
That was apparent after the intermission. Niagara outscored St. John’s 17-6 in the first seven minutes to grab a 49-43 lead. As expected, St. John’s put together another surge, this one 14-5 as Mullin hit three jumpers and Jones scored twice from in close, and with 7:15 left to play the Redmen were in front 57-54.
Incredibly, they would not score again until just 13 seconds remained, and by then, the Convention Center was on the verge of exploding because the Purple Eagles had surged into a 62-57 lead.
Arlauckas made a pair of jumpers to put Niagara ahead for good at 58-57 with 2:23 to go, and after point guard Gary Bossert failed to extend the lead when he rimmed out the front end of a 1-and-1, Mullin committed a key turnover that led to a foul of Niagara’s Juan Neal. Neal calmly sank both free throws to make it 60-57 with 1:04 to go, and when Arlauckas rebounded a Rowan miss and was fouled, he knocked down two free throws and St. John’s was done.
Mullin upped his final point total to 21 when he made two foul shots to close the gap to 62-59, but after Bossert missed another 1-and-1 attempt, the Redmen never had a chance to try for a tying three-point play (there was no three-point shot in those days) because they lost the ball out of bounds on their final possession.
“Niagara played a great game,” said Mullin, who went on to a long, productive NBA career with Golden State and Indiana, averaging 18.2 points per game during his 16 seasons. “We made bad plays at crucial times, but they really deserve all the credit.”
St. John’s lost only four games that season – three to Georgetown and this game against Niagara. Following the Niagara loss, the Redmen reeled off 19 straight wins before losing to Georgetown in a regular-season showdown. St. John’s then lost to the Hoyas in the finals of the Big East tournament, and, after winning the NCAA West Regional to reach the Final Four, St. John’s fell for the third time to Georgetown in the national semifinals at Kentucky’s Rupp Arena.
When the final horn sounded, the fans rushed the court in celebration and even tore down one of the baskets, the glass backboard shattering when it hit the floor. In the Niagara locker room – after some of the players including Arlauckas had been carried there on the shoulders of the student body as the “Rocky” theme was once again blaring – Lonergan and his team drank beer from the ceremonial cup that was awarded each year to the winner of the game.
“We hadn’t won that cup in 12 years,” said Lonergan, whose team would finish a disappointing 16-12, not good enough for either the NCAA or NIT. “I looked around the room and our players didn’t even know what it was. They’d never seen it before. So many times they’ve seen the other side of the coin, playing well but not winning. Finally, they have something to show.”
Arlauckas went on to become a 1987 fourth-round pick of the Sacramento Kings – appropriate in that their franchise roots were first planted in Rochester as the Royals. He played only NBA game, scoring 34 points, before being cut early that season. Arlauckas headed over to Europe and wound up playing 13 years abroad. In 1996 he led the FIBA EuroLeague in scoring and set the single-game record playing for Real Madrid when he scored 63 points.
Stefon Diggs Has Been Exactly What Bills Were Hoping
The Buffalo Bills are in their 61st season of operation, and in all that time, they have never had a player who has led the league in receptions, nor in receiving yards.
Not Elbert Dubenion from the old AFL days, not Andre Reed or James Lofton from the Super Bowl years, and no once since then such as Eric Moulds, Peerless Price, Stevie Johnson or Sammy Watkins.
This could change in 2020. In his first season with the team, Stefon Diggs has a legitimate look at becoming the first Bill to win the receptions crown, the yardage crown, or maybe even both.
“He’s gotten a lot of targets and a lot of catches because he’s doing his job getting open and creating separation and producing run after catch,” said quarterback Josh Allen, who has completed 63 passes for 813 yards which puts Diggs at the top of the NFL charts in both categories.
Nine weeks into the year, Diggs has been everything the 7-2 Bills were hoping when they made the trade with Minnesota back in March, one that cost them three draft picks in April including their first-round slot, plus a 2021 fourth-rounder.
When the trade was initially announced, some believed the Bills were giving up too much, especially that first-round pick in a year when the receiver draft class was believed to be the greatest in history.
It’s unlikely anyone still feels that way now. General manager Brandon Beane and coach Sean McDermott knew their team had a chance to make noise in 2020, meaning win the AFC East in the wake of Tom Brady’s exodus from New England, and possibly contend for an AFC championship.
But if any of that was going to come true, they also knew they needed a true No. 1 wideout for Allen, someone who could make game-changing plays on his own, plus open up the rest of the offense for receivers Cole Beasley and John Brown.
Diggs has done exactly that and while he’s leading the league in the two primary receiving categories, Allen has soared into rarified air as well. He already has two 400-yard passing games which resulted in AFC offensive player of the week awards, two other 300-yard games, and he currently sits third in the NFL in passing yards (2,587), tied for fifth in passing TDs (19), sixth in completion percentage (68.9), and eighth in passer rating (107.2).
Allen is nowhere near any of those rankings without Diggs, who already has four 100-yard receiving games, only one fewer than he had in 2019 when he set his career-high for yards in a season with 1,130.
“I didn’t go into this season with any pre-conceived notions of how this season was going to go or what I was going to do,” Diggs said. “I put in a lot of time in the offseason learning the playbook so I could come in and hit the ground running and play as fast as I can. I was just trying to get better each and every day. Still grinding at it, still learning how to get better for my guys and I’m going to continue to do that. Whatever the job calls for, I’m going to do it.”
Diggs came to Buffalo with the reputation as a bit of a diva, though that’s not an uncommon trait for wide receivers in the NFL. He had voiced complaints about how he was used in Minnesota, but again, nothing out of the ordinary. What Diggs needed more than anything was a change of scenery.
When the Bills consummated the trade, there were questions about how Diggs would react to it. Would he really be on board coming to a Buffalo team that historically has lagged behind the rest of the NFL, especially in the passing game, plus had a quarterback that had been inconsistent his first two seasons in the league?
That was all a load of crap, Diggs said.
“When I first got traded, there was so many words about how I wasn’t going to like it here,” he said. “I ignored a lot of it because people who know football and know the game or even know me, I embrace all my challenges. I don’t shy away, I don’t dodge. As far as people doubting me, people have been doubting me for a very long time and it’s not going to stop no time soon. I went into this new year trying to be the best player and best teammate and it’s been working out.”
McDermott, for one, didn’t pay attention to anything that was said about Diggs. If there’s one thing McDermott has proven in his time in Buffalo, it’s that he makes his own judgements on players, and in most cases he finds ways to get them to not only buy into his thought process and culture, but to become, as he often likes to say, “the best version of themselves.”
“I think he’s brought experience to our receiving corps,” McDermott said. “We’ve had experience before to some extent, but he’s brought legitimacy to that group, even more than we were before. He’s brought energy and a dog mentality to our offense and to our football team, quite frankly. I think the yards everyone can pull it up, look on a computer and find the numbers, but I believe it goes beyond that. There’s a lot of intangibles in there as well that we as a team have benefited from.”
Allen wholeheartedly agreed with that point. From the first moments they spoke after the trade, to getting together down in Florida for throwing sessions when the offseason program was cancelled, to all the time they spend in practice talking things over and learning from each other, Diggs has been a true pro.
“The things that don’t show on the stat sheet – the energy that he brings, and the knowledge that he has for the game, how he rallies and bonds with the guys in the locker room and the stuff that shows up off the stat sheet and I think that’s what is really cool about him,” said Allen. “He is a very team-first guy, contrary to popular belief; all he says to me is just keep making the right decisions and he’s not trying to get me to force him the ball.
“That said, he does have the most targets in the league and he’s got the most receptions and yards now. But he’s never once given me any reason to believe he’s nothing but a team guy. He’s a great fit in our receiving group, in our locker room for that matter and we’re lucky to have him.”
The Minnesota Twins have decided to move their Triple-A operation closer to home. Really close, as in the other Twin City: St. Paul. Now their top prospects will be less than a 30-minute Uber ride away from Target Field. Where does this leave the Rochester Red Wings. CLICK HERE
This year is the 60th anniversary of the debut of the American Football League. Now I’ll be honest, I didn’t start paying attention until the league was nearly folded into its merger with the NFL in time for 1970. The first games I can remember watching on TV were in 1968, which happened to be one of the worst seasons in Bills history.
Just because I didn’t see many games, or attend any in person during the AFL era - the first Bills game I attended was in 1970, their first year in the NFL - that doesn’t mean I don’t love the AFL. Because I do. And so, what I thought I’d do is give you an in-depth look back at the history of the league.
Sports Raid, a Medium.com publication, has agreed to be the home site for the posts which you will see in each newsletter. I hope you enjoy the look back.
I’m very excited to announce that The Junction, a Medium.com site that specializes in fiction, has agreed to publish my historical novel 1968: Amid the Crucible of War, Revolt and Tragedy, Sports Helped Soothe America’s Psyche in serial episode form, one chapter every week in episodic fashion, most likely on Sundays.
I self-published the novel in 2018, the 50th anniversary of what I consider one of the most unforgettable and transformative years in United States history. I love history, especially the 1960s, and I’d always wanted to write about 1968 in particular.
I’ve done some historical fiction in the past and I thought the format would be a fun and creative way to tell the story of 1968, so I created a fictional family to carry the reader through the year with the emphasis on sports.
Not surprisingly, my lead character is a sports writer (hey, write what you know, right?) named Jack McDonald who travels the country covering all the major events including the Super Bowl, the Final Four, the Masters, the Stanley Cup Finals, the Summer and Winter Olympics, and more. His wife Olivia is a political activist, his son Patrick is fighting in Vietnam, and his daughter Kathleen is a student at Columbia University who later takes a summer trip to San Francisco to experience the cultural scene in Haight-Ashbury.
I hope you will read each chapter as they come out because of all the books I’ve written, I think I’m most proud of this one because I stepped outside the bounds of sports, a rarity for me.
The Junction is a top-notch site on the wide-ranging Medium platform that publishes creative writing in all varieties – short story, flash fiction, serial fiction and poetry. Thanks to editor Stephen M. Tomic for seeing the vision in the project and allowing me to post.
Aug. 4, 1998: Darryl Strawberry’s last great day on the diamond
As Dynasty: Yankees 1996-2000 rolls on today, the Yankees sweep a doubleheader out in Oakland, and what stood out was the performance of Darryl Strawberry. He homered in both games, including a dramatic, game-tying grand slam in the top of the ninth in the second game which opened the door to a stunning nine-run rally.
“They’re the best team in baseball. Ask anyone on the street and they’ll tell you,” said Oakland closer Billy Taylor. Uh, yeah, he was right about that.
If you’re a Buffalo sports fan – especially someone who grew up in the 1970s – I think you, or perhaps someone you know, will really enjoy my latest book.
For most of that decade, the city had three major-league teams – the Bills, the Sabres, and the Braves. There were certainly some lean years, but not during the period between the fall of 1973 and the spring of 1976 which is what the book focuses on.
That was a time of great excitement, winning teams, and true superstars – O.J. Simpson, Gilbert Perreault and Bob McAdoo – who called Buffalo home.
The book takes a deep dive into the three seasons for each team and you will get reintroduced to many of the players from that era who you may have forgotten, and you will relive the great games and performances that we bore witness to in what I refer to as the golden age of Buffalo sports.