Trending
I watched (the Nov. 14) Big Ten Network basketball game between Saint Francis and Penn State with particular interest.
My mind drifted back to 1953, my freshman year at State College.
My dormitory was Hamilton Hall, which was just steps from Rec Hall. A notice was posted that Saint Francis would play the Nittany Lions in a preseason practice game, sometimes referred to as an exhibition game.
I was more acquainted with the Frankies, having seen them play several years prior at the Jaffa Mosque (later Shrine) in Altoona.
Maurice Stokes was earning his All-American status at Loretto at the time and was the star attraction for my attending the game. He took over the game and dominated the play at both ends of the court.
Jesse Arnelle was his main competition.
Score was not kept, but it was clear that Saint Francis was prevailing. At halftime, the Lions went to their locker room, but the Frankies, strangely, just sat down on the court and rested.
My eyes stayed focused on Stokes, who joked with his teammates.
Skip Hughes of Hollidaysburg was the Saint Francis coach and Elmer Gross at Penn State (which was a college, not university, at the time). They made substitutions but were largely just observers to the action.
The game last Tuesday was hard to watch because Saint Francis was so completely dominated.
I tuned out at halftime.
As a sidebar to the game: Loa Joan Packard (later Stern) was an academic superstar at Morrison Cove High School, two years ahead of me.
She was majoring in journalism at Penn State and was attending the practice on assignment for the Daily Collegian.
I sat beside her at the game.
At one point, she searched for the exact word to describe the crowd noise being made by the spectators.
Suddenly she scribbled in her notebook, "the sounds reverberated around the arena."
For 33 consecutive years, Loa Joan wrote a weekly column for the Morrisons Cove Herald, making her the Cal Ripken of area columnists.
Jim Wentz
McLean, Va.
(Cove historian Jim Wentz also writes a monthly column for the Mirror.)