Photo courtesy Scott Stover, Saint Francis University Jim Baron (center) stands with Joe Anderson (left) and Mike Iuzzolino during Saturday’s jersey retirement ceremony.

LORETTO — Humility and gratitude filled the air Saturday afternoon at Saint Francis.

Until then, the jerseys of just three men’s basketball players — Maurice Stokes, Norm Van Lier and Kevin Porter — were retired and hung on the wall at the DeGol Arena.

“It’s definitely humbling because you don’t ever feel you deserve to be up there alongside Stokes, Porter and Van Lier — what they accomplished in the professional ranks,” Mike Iuzzolino said before the pre-game ceremony enshrining his No. 42 and Joe Anderson’s 44. “It’s hard to feel you belong with those guys — and not just with them, but Joe Anderson, too.”

Stokes and Van Lier were both three-time NBA all-stars, and Porter led the league in assists four times.

The last time any of the three played for Saint Francis was 50-plus years ago.

Anderson and Iuzzolino provided a dynamic two-year combination in 1990-91 that sparked Saint Francis to its first Northeast Conference men’s basketball title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

In the process, Anderson, with 2,301 points, broke Stokes’ hallowed career scoring record that stood since 1955. Iuzzolino, an Altoona native who spent his first two years at Penn State, set the SFU school’s single-season record with 772 points in 1991, breaking Stokes’ mark.

Through the 1970s-80s, Saint Francis had fleeting success, with a few outstanding players and some winning seasons, but had generally lost its way and no longer had a present — only a past.

The ’91 team changed that and captured the region’s attention.

It began packing the DeGol Arena, especially on Saturday nights, as Saint Francis basketball became the event it once was at the Jaffa Mosque (now Shrine Center) and Johnstown War Memorial.

Saturday’s recognition took Anderson back to his first day on campus.

“I can clearly think of 1987, standing in the JFK Center and having a conversation with my mother that I didn’t know if I belonged at Saint Francis,” Anderson, a Virginia native who was a football standout at T.C. Williams High School, recalled. “But as God would have it, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.”

Both players credited those around them. Jim Baron was the head coach and with the help of his staff (Joe Lombardi, Dave Caldwell, John Sanow, Jim Datka), identified, recruited and developed them along with role players John Hilvert, Tom Bennetch, Mike Fink, Harkeem Dixon, Deon George, Antoine Patterson and Steve Strachan, among others.

“On a personal level, it’s awesome to be recognized, but I also realize it doesn’t happen unless you have great people around you,” Iuzzolino, now the head coach of Sewickley Academy, said. “I was fortunate to have great teammates and great coaches that made this possible.”

Baron flew here from Florida on Friday night, saying, “I wouldn’t miss this” and called Saturday’s festivities, “a phenomenal moment in Saint Francis history.”

Though they both set scoring records, they also sacrificed. Iuzzolino only averaged 12.6 shots per game in two years at SFU yet somehow averaged 24.1 points as a senior. Anderson scored more as a sophomore than as an upperclassman.

“Mike deferred, and Joe deferred,” Baron said. “They worked together.”

Iuzzolino scored 32 in the NEC final against Fairleigh-Dickinson, and when Fordham put a big man on him in the NCAA play-in game to limit his 3-point game, Anderson scored 32.

The Flash, who lost to second-seeded Arizona in the NCAAs (with Anderson scoring 29 and Iuzzolino 20) set an NEC scoring record for the season.

“We ran, we scored, we played up-tempo, we shot 3s,” Baron said. “We were scoring points, and there were enough for everybody.”

Iuzzolino is the last Saint Francis player to be drafted. He spent two years with the Dallas Mavericks, averaging 9.0 points in 122 games, and 10 seasons in Europe – where Anderson also played 10 years abroad.

“I don’t want to say it was pressure when Mike came,” Anderson, who owns a construction company in Northeast Ohio, said. “But I felt there was someone willing to push everyone to the limit and make sure we got to the promised land.”

That they did, and their NEC championship stood by itself until Rob Krimmel’s final team cracked the code in 2025.

Especially now that it’s dropped to Division III, it will be a long, long time until the Red Flash have two players on the same team worthy of jersey retirement.

But Saint Francis has always done a good job celebrating its history, and in that regard, after 35 years, the Red Flash got it right Saturday.

Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.