To grow up in Philadelphia a basketball fan is to grow up a Big Five fan. And early on you had to pick a team. My team, forever and always, is Saint Joseph’s. And I never, ever root for Villanova, not even on April 1, 1985. You’re either in or you’re out.
For the 1969-1970 season, the first team All-Big Five squad consisted of Corky Calhoun (Penn), Ken Durrett (La Salle), Mike Hauer and Dan Kelly (St. Joe’s) and Howard Porter (Villanova). It was the golden era of Big Five hoops. I can’t tell you how many times Mike Hauer and Dan Kelly hit game-winning, buzzer-beating shots over the outstretched arms of Howard Porter – sadly those shots all came in my backyard and not at The Palestra.
Howard Porter died Saturday, May 26, as a result of a severe beating he had sustained earlier in the month. Porter was a great, great college basketball player who suffered through some personal setbacks to emerge as a community cornerstone in his adopted hometown of Minneapolis. I don’t miss him beating up on my Hawks but I will miss the fact that I won’t get to read more of his on-going community service and his joyful return trips back to the main line to teach the next generation about “Villanova Basketball”.
One final note – this courtesy of Dana Pennett O’Neil’s 5/22 article in the Philadelphia Daily News as she recounted Whitey Rigsby, Howard Porter and his wife watching a Villanova practice a few years ago.
“Jay [Wright] stopped practice, gathered the guys, pointed to Howard and said, 'That right there is Howard Porter, the greatest Villanova basketball player of all time,' and he told them to come and say hello," Rigsby said. "I got goose bumps because there were people who wanted Howard blackballed and this was Jay saying, 'Welcome home.' He had no idea what that meant to Howard, but to do that in front of his wife, it was just a beautiful thing."
R.I.P. Geezer.
For the 1969-1970 season, the first team All-Big Five squad consisted of Corky Calhoun (Penn), Ken Durrett (La Salle), Mike Hauer and Dan Kelly (St. Joe’s) and Howard Porter (Villanova). It was the golden era of Big Five hoops. I can’t tell you how many times Mike Hauer and Dan Kelly hit game-winning, buzzer-beating shots over the outstretched arms of Howard Porter – sadly those shots all came in my backyard and not at The Palestra.
Howard Porter died Saturday, May 26, as a result of a severe beating he had sustained earlier in the month. Porter was a great, great college basketball player who suffered through some personal setbacks to emerge as a community cornerstone in his adopted hometown of Minneapolis. I don’t miss him beating up on my Hawks but I will miss the fact that I won’t get to read more of his on-going community service and his joyful return trips back to the main line to teach the next generation about “Villanova Basketball”.
One final note – this courtesy of Dana Pennett O’Neil’s 5/22 article in the Philadelphia Daily News as she recounted Whitey Rigsby, Howard Porter and his wife watching a Villanova practice a few years ago.
“Jay [Wright] stopped practice, gathered the guys, pointed to Howard and said, 'That right there is Howard Porter, the greatest Villanova basketball player of all time,' and he told them to come and say hello," Rigsby said. "I got goose bumps because there were people who wanted Howard blackballed and this was Jay saying, 'Welcome home.' He had no idea what that meant to Howard, but to do that in front of his wife, it was just a beautiful thing."
R.I.P. Geezer.
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