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Post by aggierattler on Apr 4, 2020 13:39:04 GMT -5
Legendary head basketball coach Cal Irvin Irvin brought big-time basketball to Greensboro long before the ACC Tournament came here, leading A&T to the 1959 NCAA College Division Final Four, the first historic black university to even earn a bid to the NCAA tournament, much less reach a Final Four.
Irvin would win 308 games in 18 years as the coach of the Aggies, leading A&T to CIAA titles in 1959, 1962, 1964 and 1967.
He’s a member of the CIAA Hall of Fame, the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
The brother of Negro League baseball legend Monte Irvin, Cal was also a great baseball player who played for the Newark Eagles and the Raleigh Grays before coming to Greensboro, where he would coach basketball and serve as the athletics director at A&T.
Basketball great Al Attles said Irvin taught him to be a man, a student and a basketball player.
“He taught me so much more,” Attles said a few years ago. “He taught me there was more than basketball.”
Irvin was a character, a story-teller who played baseball with Jackie Robinson and Josh Gibson, an educator who taught a generation of A&T students that sports was just a starting point. He would write three books and travel the world as an inspirational speaker.
His legacy is that of a basketball coach who led A&T into the modern era, winning titles and spanning the school’s move from the CIAA to the MEAC.
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Post by SixtiesAggie on Apr 4, 2020 14:56:46 GMT -5
Cal was a great athlete. He played football and basketball at Morgan State and played baseball in the Negro League. He coached basketball at Johnson C Smith as well as Adkins in Winston-Salem. He and "Big House" are Hall of Famers at Morgan. He was a well educated man.
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Post by neighborhoodsuperstar on Apr 4, 2020 15:21:31 GMT -5
Yo aggierattler, Just doing some digging... Cleo Hill was at Winston from 57-61 Attles was at A&T from 56-60
A&T won the CI in the 57-58 and 58-59 seasons. Winston won the CI in the 59-60 and 60-61 seasons.
I don’t know what exact year that program you posted was from....
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Post by aggierattler on Apr 4, 2020 15:30:59 GMT -5
Yo aggierattler, Just doing some digging... Cleo Hill was at Winston from 57-61 Attles was at A&T from 56-60 A&T won the CI in the 57-58 and 58-59 seasons. Winston won the CI in the 59-60 and 60-61 seasons. I don’t know what exact year that program you posted was from.... Thanks for that info, NSS! The photo tag didn't give a year, and of course, they didn't put the year on the flyer.
One clue (and I haven't had time to follow up on it): The flyer mentions "the New Greensboro Coliseum." I need to see when it was built.
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Post by SixtiesAggie on Apr 4, 2020 17:38:17 GMT -5
Yo aggierattler, Just doing some digging... Cleo Hill was at Winston from 57-61 Attles was at A&T from 56-60 A&T won the CI in the 57-58 and 58-59 seasons. Winston won the CI in the 59-60 and 60-61 seasons. I don’t know what exact year that program you posted was from.... Thanks for that info, NSS! The photo tag didn't give a year, and of course, they didn't put the year on the flyer.
One clue (and I haven't had time to follow up on it): The flyer mentions "the New Greensboro Coliseum." I need to see when it was built.The Greensboro coliseum opened in 1959. Over the years it has seen or experienced many expansions and renovations to the original 1959 structure. The original structure under went some major transformations from 7,000 to about 23,000 seating. A&T use to play some of its home games there during that early period and students were bused to and from the coliseum. The W-S coliseum was built a few years before the Greensboro coliseum.
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Post by aggierattler on Apr 4, 2020 18:01:48 GMT -5
Thanks for that info, NSS! The photo tag didn't give a year, and of course, they didn't put the year on the flyer.
One clue (and I haven't had time to follow up on it): The flyer mentions "the New Greensboro Coliseum." I need to see when it was built. The Greensboro coliseum opened in 1959. Over the years it has seen or experienced many expansions and renovations to the original 1959 structure. The original structure under went some major transformations from 7,000 to about 23,000 seating. A&T use to play some of its home games there during that early period and students were bused to and from the coliseum. The W-S coliseum was built a few years before the Greensboro coliseum. I can only guess that the poster/flyer is from the 1960 CIAA Basketball Tournament. Knowing how racial conditions were back then, the city of Greensboro most certainly would not let a Black enterprise break in their new building.
But, again, that is my opinion.
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Post by SixtiesAggie on Apr 4, 2020 19:21:47 GMT -5
No, A&T played in the Greensboro Coliseum in either 60 or 61. You see, that was a taxpayer's facility, and no matter which city they were located in, they were always available to the public.
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Post by SixtiesAggie on Apr 4, 2020 19:24:26 GMT -5
A player from A&T may have scored the first basket in the Coliseum. The ACC and the dixie classic played in Charlotte.
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Post by aggierattler on Apr 4, 2020 20:20:36 GMT -5
No, A&T played in the Greensboro Coliseum in either 60 or 61. You see, that was a taxpayer's facility, and no matter which city they were located in, they were always available to the public. Hmmm...I actually made a correct guess.
That flyer was for the 1960 CIAA Basketball Tournament. It was a one-year run in Greensboro. The 1953-1959 tournaments were played on NCC's campus, and the 1961-1963 tournaments were held in War Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem. It came back to Greensboro in 1964-1975.
CIAA TOURNAMENT SITES: theciaa.com/sports/2018/9/25/bballtournament-history-site-history.aspx
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Post by SixtiesAggie on Apr 5, 2020 1:11:09 GMT -5
I believe A&T played either in 59 or 60 at the coliseum.
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Post by aggierattler on Apr 5, 2020 8:22:06 GMT -5
I don't know what has happened, but now ALL of the pictures have disappeared...at least on my end. However, it might be an internet problem. CBS News Sunday Morning is running a segment right now about internet delivery problems cropping up nationwide with so many people working and worshipping at home now.
Now, they are slowly repopulating.
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Post by aggieblackie2 on Apr 5, 2020 9:43:34 GMT -5
Chucks cost $8.50 in my hometown and the only place you could purchase them were at the Army & Navy store.
Chucks were durable. You could play in them year round and they still never wore out.
Some people could not afford the $8.50 for Chucks. They went to Sears and Robuck and bought the imitation Chucks called "Jeepers". I think they sold for about 5 or 6 bucks.
You only got "big time" amongst your friends when you were able to purchase Chucks and graduated from the imitation "jeepers.
You were really bad if you purchased the first colorful Chucks - low cut blacks. Not too many people had them.
Times sho have changed. Damn!!
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Post by neighborhoodsuperstar on Apr 5, 2020 10:06:31 GMT -5
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Post by aggierattler on Apr 5, 2020 10:37:29 GMT -5
Aggie great Elmer Austin, the winner of the very first MEAC Player of the Year Award in 1972.
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Post by codeblu78 on Apr 5, 2020 14:17:46 GMT -5
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