I am a child and a product of the 1960s. I grew up with Motown music, the Beatles, Mickey Mantle, Pete Rose, Jim Brown, Joe Namath, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, the UCLA basketball dynasty and Jerry West losing to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.
I also grew up going to the old West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament, the forerunner of the Mountain East Conference event that's coming up next week at the Charleston Civic Center.
My father worked across the river from Montgomery and was a West Virginia Tech fan. He and his friends from Montgomery would let me tag along with them to the games. There truly was a buzz in town during the week of the tournament.
For me and many others, the tournament was a father-son event. When my dad would come home with a couple of tournament books of tickets, it was as if he had brought a couple of gold bars into the house. A book of tickets to the tournament was a prized possession. My dad and I went every year from 1964-72 to the semifinals, consolation game and championship game.
In 1973, I was away at college when my mother called to ask if I was coming home to go to the tournament with my dad. When I told her that I was not planning on it, she said, "I think he'll be really disappointed if you don't come. He got really good seats this year." I changed my plans and came home. He did have good seats. We were on the front row at mid-court. We had a great time and continued a father-son tradition.
In the title game we saw a Joe Retton-coached Fairmont State team beat a Jess Lilly-coached Glenville State team. Future WVU assistant coach Butch Haswell had a big game for the Falcons.
As I look back on it now, in a way, the tournament really helped raise me. It was with me from the fifth grade through college. It was there in junior high and high school when I had my first crush and it was there when my buddies took me to a session of games to help get over a broken heart. It provided me with great basketball and fun times with family and friends.
Cable television changed life for mid-major and small-college basketball everywhere, but here in Charleston for many years we did not realize what we had. In the 1960s and '70s, in the old Civic Center, the state college tournament was almost the perfect event.
n My father and his friends from Smithers and Montgomery liked the Tech Golden Bears. They followed names such as Pete Kelley, Charlie Kelley, Mike Barrett, Onas Aliff, Herb Carpenter, Dale Tielbar, Bill Auxier and Bubby Walker. I remember when the Baisi Center was built.
We also followed West Virginia State and Morris Harvey. My family had moved to Charleston from Gary in McDowell County, and State was led by the Hamilton brothers from the segregated Gary District High School. They came to the Kanawha Valley from Gary about the same time we did, so I felt a special bond to those guys. It was as if they followed us from Gary to the Kanawha Valley.
Most people in Charleston followed Morris Harvey during that time. Rich Meckfessel was a gifted young coach and his roster was full of local high school stars. Among the names were players such as Roger Hart and Kenny Minor from Charleston High, Bobby Wesley from Stonewall Jackson, Jim Fout from DuPont, Spike Conley from South Charleston, Jim Hayes from Herbert Hoover and Tom Neal from St. Albans. There was also regional talent such as Gerald Martin from Huntington and Henry Dickerson and Steve Lickliter from Beckley.
n The college and high school basketball tournaments in our state serve as reunions for many of us who work around sports. At this time of the year, I always look forward to seeing former athletes and teachers Jim Young and Dave Gillespie. Both were great basketball players and still love the game.
Young, from Richwood and a longtime teacher at Fairmont State, is a walking encyclopedia of a golden era of high school basketball in our state and was a great player at Greenbrier Military Academy. Gillespie was a longtime official and school administrator and one of the all-time great players at the old Washington District High School, which is now a part of George Washington High School. A banner bears his name in the GW gym.
n One of the unique flavors to the old WVIAC tournament was the setting up of the student sections by the staff in the Civic Center. In the 1960s, most of the teams had enthusiastic fan bases. I still remember former Morris Harvey student Cindy Bailey, now a retired teacher, talking about the Golden Eagles student body waiting impatiently outside in the cold for the Civic Center doors to open and the students rushing in and racing to get the best seats in the "first come, first serve" student section.
n In the 1960s and early '70s, the Fairmont State Falcons were the UCLA Bruins and the New York Yankees of the WVIAC, and Retton was the John Wooden of the league. The Falcons' legion of fans would take over the Daniel Boone Hotel and downtown eateries like the Sterling Restaurant for the entire week. Names such as Davey Moore, Teddy Darcus, Lerman Battle, Pat Sloan, Dave Cooper, Bill Lindsey, Bill Moody and John Jamerson were magical in Marion County. I am guessing even a young Nick Saban knew those names.
It was a different time. A simpler time. A different era. I am glad I was able to experience it.
Contact Frank Giardina at flg16@hotmail.com.