sonoma bob

What a great win!! This team scares us fans, but is clutch when it counts at the end. I really enjoyed their effort today, and hope they have enough in the tank for tomorrow and SUNDAY. Don’t count them out.

I saw about 3/4of this years games on TV and streaming. I also listed to several on radio including the last one with the Dukes. I really enjoyed hearing Rammer and Earl calling the action. Kind of a throwback to my youth growing up in Richmond Hts. And listening to Harry Carey on KMOX. What an up/down year this was!

Peacock sucks, cut off the game at my house with about 30 seconds left and GJ heading to the line to seal the win. It’s part of my Comcast package but I don’t like it at all after that.

That was Jim Dailey from Joplin, who played from 58-60 at SLU. The UOP game was 18 years ago! I was planning to get down to my SF from Sonoma County until I saw the Witchita State game. I hope the Billikens can compete with the Dons this year, I’ll tune in on ESPN+ with my fingers crossed for them. Dinner and drinks at Perrys is always good so I wish you an enjoyable evening.

Any party before the game?

They need him back soon. Maybe Jimerson can step up and fill the scoring void. They did not look like the same team in the second half today as the first half. Coach Ford settled them down and they played a lot smarter than the way they started the game. I’m looking forward to the Catamounts 9 AM tip time out here.

Number 24 in the above photos is my good old pal Russ Grieger. He played 2 years for the Billikens then transferred back home to Evansville, sat out a year, then 2 years for the Aces. Smart move, his senior year they were undefeated National Champions D 2. Also on that team was Jerry Sloan and Larry Humes. They beat SIU three times that year who had Walt Frazier and several other great players. If you would like to read more about those days read Russ’s book “The Perfect Season”. We have stayed in touch for 60 years since we met when I was a walk on the freshman team with guys like Stan Leuchtefeld, Garry Garrison, Gil Beckmeyer and Jerry Strange. We had fun playing before the varsity games at Kiel Auditorium. I am very disappointed that today’s game won’t be on TV. I am sad that this year’s Billiken team will have to deal with a pandemic besides all the other tasks this year and next too. This looks like one of the best teams they have had since I graduated in 1964.

I met Justin the summer before he became a Billiken at the San Francisco summer league when I saw his school listed in the program as SLU. I introduced myself as an alum and we became friends. I also enjoyed sitting in the stands at Keira with his parents for his games for a few years until he graduated and moved on to international competition. His family was wonderful and one year when his team won the league and he was named MVP I was talking to him and a guy came up and took this photo. I asked him to send me a copy and gave him my business card. Several weeks later this photo arrived in an envelope from Italy! I am saddened to hear this news and wish his family my dearest condolences.

When I was a senior in high school, I was given a whistle and stiped shirt and told to ref a frosh game with another HS. It didn't take long to figure out how hard it was. I think the other ref was a classmate too. We finished the game with no problems from the coaches, so I guess we did a decent job. Parents didn't come to freshman games back then so we didn't have any outside pressure like now. At SLU I reffed a intermural game. A frat vs. another frat. A guy took a swing at me and missed after I called a fowl on him. My reacion was to swing back and I caught him right below his eye. That was the end as far as I remember. I saw him 30 years later at an alumni pre game party when the Bills were out here. He reminded me of that incident and told me he almost got kicked out of school because of it. I had totally forgot about him and was glad it didn't ruin his young life. I still hollar at the refs when I'm at a game, but poliely now.

I grew up in Richmond Heights, went to Little Flower, SLUH, and along with about 1/3 of my classmates to SLU. I look back and it seemed like 8 years of high school. I walked on to the freshman team in '60-61, made lots of new friends then. The dominant team then was the soccer teams, they won the NCAA title every year. The basketball team had it rough in the old MVC with Cincinnati , Witchita St., Bradley, etc. were all great teams then. I left SL upon graduation in '64 but still stay a faithful fan to Alma Mater. I don't understand why having the only D-1 team in town, SLU isn't more dominant, since the Hawks moved to Atlanta there is no hoops competition like there was back then.

I think it depends where you live. Here in the Bay Area all Warriors games not on the big networks are carried on CSN in high def with a superb announcing crew and great pre and post game analysts. A lot of non hoops fans watch because of the quality of the home team and the broadcasts. I will always be a Billiken, so I continue to look here, but the few games I have seen broadcast look like high school in comparison. I am as optomistic as all of you that the future will be better with Coach Ford. Has the new president of SLU made any difference in support?

Is StlToday kidding? I enjoy keeping up with news from my old hometown to a point. Paying to do it is way past that point. Get serious, you are not the PD I grew up with. Goodbye.

From Russia with Love.....a great James Bond movie memory. I couldn't find an English translation button on any of the torch's links. But I hope if he leaves Odessa he comes home to San Francisco to play in the Summer Pro-Am League again. He was also MVP there several years ago. www.sanfranciscoproam.com

My old stomping ground has gotten gentrified. My brothers and best friend went to M-RH, and I used to drink and play pool at the VFW Post on Big Bend & Hiawatha when I went to SLU. Cards SS Marty Marion lived a few doors down from there on Hiawatha back then when they had real jobs in the winter. We lived on Lindbergh Dr. when the trolley ran down the parkway into the city.