The greatest BB player in A&T history

[Bornthrilla]

What was the atmosphere in the Dawg Pound/ Moore Gym like in those days?

[AggieGroove]

Aug 19, 2008 13:21:08 GMT -5 Bornthrilla said:

What was the atmosphere in the Dawg Pound/ Moore Gym like in those days?

You won't believe this but more hype than in Corbett now....the roots of the pound was born back in those days. The FB players would sit on the first row and talk more smack than the BB players...we had unbelievably swagger back then...just ask Wheeler! There was a sense of pride back then where the FB and BB players supported each other to the hilt...we call it tradition now! Something which may be missing from our programs today! "Our saying was get your hat, get your coat and leave MFer....usually at a spanking of that butt especially Central"

[DECKS]

UnfortunatelyI never saw Bird play as he was a few years before my time at A&T. The best Aggie player I ever saw was without a doubt Joe Binion. After returning from overseas Bird pledged me and eventually became a good friend. The Washington Bullets did sign him to a free agent contract but he was on the drugs so badly he never showed up for training camp.

[oleschoolaggie]

Aug 19, 2008 13:33:06 GMT -5 AggieGroove said:

Aug 19, 2008 13:21:08 GMT -5 Bornthrilla said:

What was the atmosphere in the Dawg Pound/ Moore Gym like in those days?

You won't believe this but more hype than in Corbett now....the roots of the pound was born back in those days. The FB players would sit on the first row and talk more smack than the BB players...we had unbelievably swagger back then...just ask Wheeler! There was a sense of pride back then where the FB and BB players supported each other to the hilt...we call it tradition now! Something which may be missing from our programs today! "Our saying was get your hat, get your coat and leave MFer....usually at a spanking of that butt especially Central"

back in bird's days most of our home games were played at the coliseum where you lose quite a bit of the atmosphere. the few games that were played at moore were hot, sweaty, and very heated in terms of atmosphere!

i would have hated to be an opponent playing in moore gym! essentially there were no visiting fans because aggies took up all the seats and aggies were right on top of the action talkin' a whole lot of smack.

trust me, no one wanted to play against a&t in moore gym! it was bad enough that you couldn't win a game in moore gym, but on top of that, you had none of your fans there and you got heckled so bad by aggies that you needed psychological therapy after the game...

[DIEHARDAGGIE]

In the early seventies, we played Howard on Friday night and Morgan on Saturday. I stood in line more than an hour at Burr gymnasium to see my aggies play. From the Cal Irwin era to the Don Corbett era, we were one of the greatest HBCU in basketball along with Winston-Salem State. There is a guy from DC who played at A & T during the early sixties(I can't recall his name as of this moment) who was outstanding. He could have played at Georgetown or Maryland and would have been a star if intergration had existed. He is in the A & T Hall of Fame. By the-way, his name is Herb Gray.

[Aggie One]

We would put the dawg pound to shame back in the seventies. It is no contest.

[Gator]

Gamma Phi Gamma

[AggieGroove]

Aug 19, 2008 22:21:20 GMT -5 Gator said:

Gamma Phi Gamma

you know that is nowhere the case....you were back on the yard during these times!

[aggiejazz]

I played against and with all the guys that were named from 'Bird' to Claude Williams. In my opinion Joe Binion had the most talent but played against lesser talent in the MEAC due to talent drain to the bigger colleges.

Remember the outdoor courts on Benbow Road. I got a chance to play against Bob McAdoo and Curly Neal, once. I was just a innocent little kid, then.

I get disgusted now when I go to high school games and major AAU tournaments. Most of them are simply running and gunning.

[AggieGroove]

Aug 20, 2008 7:40:46 GMT -5 aggiejazz said:

I played against and with all the guys that were named from 'Bird' to Claude Williams. In my opinion Joe Binion had the most talent but played against lesser talent in the MEAC due to talent drain to the bigger colleges.

Remember the outdoor courts on Benbow Road. I got a chance to play against Bob McAdoo and Curly Neal, once. I was just a innocent little kid, then.

I get disgusted now when I go to high school games and major AAU tournaments. Most of them are simply running and gunning.

That is my case to the A&T masses on this board....the drain to bigger colleges started around this time and Bird is the best because of the talent level (Marvin Webster, Pencil Evans) at that time!

[DECKS]

Aug 20, 2008 5:44:00 GMT -5 AggieGroove said:

Aug 19, 2008 22:21:20 GMT -5 Gator said:

Gamma Phi Gamma

you know that is nowhere the case....you were back on the yard during these times!

You'll have to overlook Gator. He wasn't sober during those days. ;D

[Bigboy]

Yeah, Moore Gym was the spot. If the football players came in the gym and some students were sitting in there seats ( everybody knew where the FB team sat) they would literally toss them out of the seats. I remember one game in Moore, don't remember the team, but A&T had to get some walk-on's to make out the team due to some player's being ineligible. Elsworth Turner QB on the FB team was one of the walk-on's playing PG. On a fast break Elsworth went down court and dunked on someone. Man, the whole FB team went off. They ran out on the floor celebrating and held up the game for about 15 minutes. Man, it was wild in Moore that night.

[AggieGroove]

Aug 20, 2008 10:21:10 GMT -5 Bigboy said:

Yeah, Moore Gym was the spot. If the football players came in the gym and some students were sitting in there seats ( everybody knew where the FB team sat) they would literally toss them out of the seats. I remember one game in Moore, don't remember the team, but A&T had to get some walk-on's to make out the team due to some player's being ineligible. Elsworth Turner QB on the FB team was one of the walk-on's playing PG. On a fast break Elsworth went down court and dunked on someone. Man, the whole FB team went off. They ran out on the floor celebrating and held up the game for about 15 minutes. Man, it was wild in Moore that night.

Yeah...I remember that night....boy what good old days ;D ;D ;D

[Aggie One]

During the "Bird" days, HBCUs were getting those top 100 players and the MEAC tournament in 1975 in the Greensboro Coliseum drew more than 58,000 fans in four days and had five teams with 20 or more wins (A&T, Del State, SCSU, Howard, and Morgan). You could not find a PWC on the east coast who wanted any part of those five teams.

Even NCCU was 17-11 that year and were considered the darkhorse of the league but had beaten 3 of those five on the road.

Our championship game with Morgan had 14,497 in a then 16,000 seat building. I remember those years clearly because I covered the entire tournament for the Associated Press as an sophomore intern.

[Aggie E]

Aug 20, 2008 10:21:10 GMT -5 Bigboy said:

Yeah, Moore Gym was the spot. If the football players came in the gym and some students were sitting in there seats ( everybody knew where the FB team sat) they would literally toss them out of the seats. I remember one game in Moore, don't remember the team, but A&T had to get some walk-on's to make out the team due to some player's being ineligible. Elsworth Turner QB on the FB team was one of the walk-on's playing PG. On a fast break Elsworth went down court and dunked on someone. Man, the whole FB team went off. They ran out on the floor celebrating and held up the game for about 15 minutes. Man, it was wild in Moore that night.

Bigboy,
I was in Moore that night too! It was wild. I believe we were playing Howard that night. Elsworth was superman that night!