made first counted 3 pointer in NBA
History.
saw video of him at Nova. Guy coukd really shoot the ball.
RIP Chris Ford
- Thread starter psuro
- Start date
made first counted 3 pointer in NBA
History.
saw video of him at Nova. Guy coukd really shoot the ball.
Damn. He played in the Big Five’s greatest era, the same class as Corky Calhoun. I was a Penn fan, my dad stood by Villanova.
Penn has had some great teams over the years
Howard Porter was part of this era, correct?
The Big 5- what a great hoops institution.
Porter played with Ford on the team that gave the Wicks-Rowe UCLA team a tussle in the NCAA Finals, losing by like six points IIRC.Porter carried the load. Doubt that Ford took five shots in that game
Yes, Porter was a senior when Ford was a junior, Villanova went to the final, 1971. They beat 28-0 Penn in the Elite 8. Kenny Durrett from LaSalle was 1971, too, three-time Big Five POY. My dad told me, the day before he died, that Durrett was the greatest player he ever saw. Dad worked at General Electric just north of the Palestra and we saw many games there.
The fans at the Palestra would throw hot dog rolls onto the court when Ford was introduced.
Penn went 25-2, 28-1, 25-3 in Calhoun’s three years, 78-6. I must have watched every single Penn home game in these three years, Channel 17 with Al Meltzer.
I’m not much of a basketball fan, but I remember him with the Celtics. Basketball seems to have lost a good guy.
beat penn something like 90-47 steve bilsky and dave wohl penn team
I think the rest of the Ivies hated Penn at that time. They were so much better thet a lot of accusations of cheating were made.
What year was it that Ford made the first 3. Trying to remember when that first started.
This is the first time I’ve heard such accusations mentioned in regards to Penn basketball. You might be thinking of Penn football, there were definitely such accusations, in the 1990s I’m guessing. I really can’t place these accusations, but they were 19-0 in 93 and 94, so that sounds about right.
The ivies can be dramatic like teenage girls. I agree with you on football though.
This was my favorite NBA era….
https://sports.yahoo.com/revisiting...ent-wondering-could-141207072--nba.html?a20=1
Chris Ford was as gracious as he was talented. I had the good fortune to have lunch with him in Atlantic City about five years ago and talk about his Celtic years. He told me that making the first three-pointer in NBA history occurred because the game started at 7pm and the rest of the evenings' games were later starts. He laughed about it. RIP, Chris.
Sad thing. Villanova played Monday afternoon, I like to listen to the internet radio to get our own guys instead of the FS1 crew. Color man Whitey Rigsby (one of Massimino's first high-profile recruits) said in the pregame that Chris was doing very poorly.
That's two players now gone from the 1971 NCAA Tournament runners-up (lost to UCLA in the Astrodome). Howard Porter was a homicide victim about ten years ago, now Chris. It was an iron man starting five - Howard from Florida, Chris from Atlantic City, Hank Siemontowski from Northeast Philly, Tom Inglesby from Delaware County and Clarence Smith from Harrisburg. Coach Jack Kraft (from Philly, played at St Joe of all places) is gone too although he made it to 90-something.
Villanova was back towards the top when I was an undergrad in the early 80's. We spent hours talking about the guys from 10 years earlier - was Porter better than Pinone, was Kraft better than Mass, how would Siemontowski match up against Alex Bradley - seems like a lifetime ago.
That's two players now gone from the 1971 NCAA Tournament runners-up (lost to UCLA in the Astrodome). Howard Porter was a homicide victim about ten years ago, now Chris. It was an iron man starting five - Howard from Florida, Chris from Atlantic City, Hank Siemontowski from Northeast Philly, Tom Inglesby from Delaware County and Clarence Smith from Harrisburg. Coach Jack Kraft (from Philly, played at St Joe of all places) is gone too although he made it to 90-something.
Villanova was back towards the top when I was an undergrad in the early 80's. We spent hours talking about the guys from 10 years earlier - was Porter better than Pinone, was Kraft better than Mass, how would Siemontowski match up against Alex Bradley - seems like a lifetime ago.
Your dad may have been right about Durrett. Saw him play in HS, Schenley in Pittsburgh, where he was a back-to-the-basket center. Never saw anyone who could move in the post, on the blocks like he did (yes, and that would include Kevin McHale). In his sophomore year at LaSalle, the team, with Larry Cannon, Fattie Taylor, Bernie Williams, and Stan Wlodarczyk, went 28-1 and was ranked 2 in the country. Would have been great to see them play UCLA that year, but, alas, wasn't going to happen. LaSalle was on probation for two years.
Durrett suffered a knee injury in his senior year, which was subsequently determined to be a torn ACL. Back then.ACL tears weren't diagnosed or corrected. He went on to become a top five NBA draft pick, but the injury that no one knew about prevented Durrett from having much of a career.
As a side note, Fran Dunphy was a college teammate of Durrett's and is of a similar opinion on his talents..
Big Al Meltzer on the horn doing the play by play from what I recall....
Bill White and Harry Kalas also called Big 5 games at various times. Used to sit with my father and watch the twinbills on Wednesday and Saturday nights from our home in northern Dauphin County. We didn't like Penn or Temple, but we did like Villanova in 70-71 and when 'Cats routed Penn in NCAA Tournament that was a huge deal. Penn, with Dick Harter as coach, was terrific with Calhoun, Bilsky, Wohl,, Bob Morse, Phil Hankinson and Craig Littlepage in its lineup. Our La Salle favoritism arrived several seasons later when Joe Bryant, Glenn Collier, Charlie Wise, Joe DiCocco and the great Billy Taylor were Explorers -- especially since Taylor went to St. Francis Prep in Spring Grove, where we lived for a number of years and my parents taught school. My dad even worked at the paper mill during the summers between school years.
I believe that I am the only person on the planet to have been coached in high school by two members of the great Lasalle team. I was coached by Bob Walters ( I’m impressed if you remember him) as a freshman and then by Greg Cannon as a junior at a different high school. Larry would hoop with us as he was recovering from a serious injury during his ABA day’s.
Get unlimited access today.