Lanny, Seeing Jim Jungle Jim turner I thought I would share an article I came across while looking up some info for a friend of mine....enjoy Bill Clark and the Magical 1964 Season 1964 mansfield mens basketball team bill clark 2/7/2012 10:35:00 AM Bill Clark and the Magical 1964 Season By Steve McCloskey Last Sunday was a great day to be a Mountaineer. Not only because the mens basketball team posted a convincing win over Lock Haven, but sitting in the stands in a rare visit to campus was Bill Clark and his wife Glenda. The distinguished 80-year-old Clark was warmly received when announced to the crowd and his presence reminded many of whats good about college athletics. The head coach of the Mountaineers from 1964-67, Clark was at the helm during one of the greatest seasons in Mansfield basketball history. He is remembered and respected as much for the quality of his character as his knowledge of the game. His first season in 1964 proved to be the most magical year in Mansfields storied basketball history, uniting the college and community as never before or since. In 1986 the movie “Hoosiers” was a blockbuster hit for Gene Hackman. It told the story of a tiny high school in basketball mad Indiana and of a new head basketball coach who had to win the support of the town and his players before taking them to the state championship. Although the real life story “Hoosiers” took place in rural Indiana in the early 1950s, its plot is very similar to the 1964 Mountaineer basketball team. Bill Clark had never been to Mansfield before becoming the head coach just before the start of the 1963-64 season. He would have never even become the head coach had it not been for the Cleveland newspapers strike that year. Clark was teaching and successfully coaching basketball at Bay View High School in Ohio. He was thinking of giving college coaching a try. Because of the newspaper strike, the school secretary brought in her copy of the Christian Science Monitor for the faculty to catch up on the news. On one of the pages Clark saw an article about Mountaineer head coach Bill Gibson leaving Mansfield to take the head coaching job at the University of Virginia. He wrote to athletic director Spotts Decker to inquire about the position. Decker replied by inviting Clark and his whole family to come and stay in his home to take a look at the school and see if it, and Mansfield, was what he wanted. Clark came, arriving in a deluge that turned the campus into a muddy mess. Still he felt comfortable with Deckers hospitality and took the job. Gibson had built the Mountaineers into one of the best small college basketball programs in the East. Mansfield had advanced to the NAIA District playoffs four straight years and had captured two of the first three PSAC Championship Tournaments while winning 38 of 40 conference games. Clark knew he had to make a strong first impression to win the respect of his inherited veteran team. Their first game together would be an exhibition game at Penn State where they would face former Athens High School standout Bob Weiss (the same Bob Weiss who started this year as the head coach of the NBAs Seattle Sonics). Mansfield crushed Penn State in the game at Rec Hall and from that point on his players never doubted him. Mansfield won its first six games and took the PSAC East crown and after scoring a school record 140 points in win over Lock Haven to end the regular season took a 16-3 record into the conference playoffs. As their record grew so did the crowds. Mansfield students came to watch. Town residents joined them. People from all over Tioga County added to the crowd size. Eventually sports fans from throughout the Twin Tiers were following the team. davy russell and jungle jim turner 1964 basketball bill clark The Mountaineers captured their third PSAC title in four years with a win over Edinboro in the PSAC Championship game. The excitement was tempered only by the stinging reminders from the past. Four times before, the Mountaineers had taken the excitement of almost perfect seasons into the NAIA District 30 playoffs and the promise of the fabled trip to Kansas City. Four times they had returned home with their hopes crushed. Three of those times it was Westminster College in western Pennsylvania that ended the Kansas City dream and they would have to face them again. Mansfield almost didnt get the chance when they had to rally to beat Gannnon 68-67 in overtime in the opening round. The exhausted Mounties would have to face Westminster the next day at Geneva College in Beaver Falls. They wouldnt be alone. Fans -- convinced that this “was the year” -- by the hundreds traveled to the Westminster game with downtown businesses shutting their stores to attend. Students who couldnt travel gathered to listen in the Hut on campus. Their loyalty would be rewarded. The Mountaineers crushed Westminster 84-63 and bedlam broke out across the land. President Bryan declared a school holiday the next day and personally led the victory parade through town. The players girlfriends washed the players uniforms for the Mountaineers first ever trip to Kansas City. The trip itself would be special for the team which usually traveled to their away games in three automobiles driven by coaches and players during the season. A 30-car caravan loaded with hope followed the team up Rt. 15 to Corning where the players boarded the train at the Erie Station for the two-day trip. When they arrived at the Phillips Hotel they found an 18-foot telegram wanting for them signed by hundreds of supporters. The school paper airmailed them a special copy of the Flashlight and the girls living in North Hall pooled their money to telegraph flowers. Somehow the schools pep band showed up 1,200 miles from campus, borrowing a bass drum and baritone player from a Mississippi school. The Mounties opened the 32-team national championship tournament with a 99-79 win over Miles (AL) College and advanced into the “Elite Eight” with a dramatic 97-89 victory over Georgetown (KY) College. The magic finally ran out when they lost to defending National Champion Pan American and their future NBA star Luke Jackson. Hundreds met the team on their return at the railroad station in Corning, blaring their horns all the way back to Mansfield where they were greeted by a crowd of 2,000 in the middle of town. The mayor presented them the Key to the City and the elementary school cheerleaders sang we love you Mounties. For Coach Clark the biggest reward would unfold in the coming decades. Emulating their mentor, the players all became respected members of their communities. Mansfield native Bud Hulser was a longtime teacher, administrator and coach in the Elmira area and still volunteers at Notre Dame High School. Blossburgs Paul Manikowski became a college professor and served as head coach of the mens basketball team at Elmira College. Jim “Jungle Jim” Turner was a longtime teacher and successful coach at Port Allegheny High School. Terry Crouthamel and Bob Wolfe found home at Muncy High School as a guidance counselor, teacher and coach respectively. Joe Russell is a civil rights monitor for Dennys Corporation in Irvine, CA. Tom Wallon became a principal in Jacksonville, FL while Jim Kinsler is the president of a company in Olean, NY. John Machulsky retired as the director of Guidance and Counseling for the Lawrenceville, NJ school district. The legendary Lee Felsburg recently retired as guidance counselor and coached for many years at Pottsville High School. Ron Markert, honored as one of the nations finest medical educators, is now Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Office of Medical Education at Tulane Universitys School of Medicine. The hurricane closed Tulane and destroyed all of Rons personal possessions. He is now operating his program at the Texas Medical Center through June before returning to Tulane and New Orleans. Bob Brisiel was a high school coach and college housing administer before retiring and forming a landscaping company called MyThreeSons in Fayetteville, AK Bill Clark will always be remembered as a legendary coach, but his fondest memories are of his players, and his greatest pride comes from their accomplishments after graduation
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 15:24:24 +0000
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