GregMitch
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Since we are without a game (again) for another week, perhaps this is the optimal time to post something I've wanted to write for awhile. It is, at least, something about which I am (for once) an expert. And it should provide a little context for why this guy finally made the Bona sports Hall of Fame this year despite subpar career stats.
When I was still in 9th grade in junior high back in Niagara Falls, I started hearing about a basketball prodigy one grade up at the high school, which then had about 2000 students as the city was booming. He was already starting on the varsity at a time when that was not common (all the schools had "jayvee" teams). He was said to be about 6'4" with incredible moves and already averaging over 20 points a game as a soph in one of the tougher leagues in the state--against teams from blue-collar cities rimming Buffalo such as Kenmore and Lackawanna. Two players from Lockport went on to strong college careers, including Mike Brown, who started alongside Calvin Murphy for three seasons.
His name was John Hayes.
I never cared about the high school teams but started sneaking into games there. Hayes was indeed a wonder: fast, with drives and moves around the basket not seen in these parts beyond NBA highlights on TV, plus hooks and medium-range jumpers, and with a bit of "showtime" in him (see photo in our old gym). Then he topped himself during his final two years, averaging about 29 points per game as a senior, a league record, and ending his career as the highest Western New York scorer ever in an AAA league and with the highest points per game that stood for decades, perhaps even to this day for any of the large schools up there.
I had grown up as a Niagara U fanatic but when, after being heavily recruited, he decided on SBU I was happy because I seemed to be ticketed there as well, for journalism (I am now in the school's journo Hall of Fame, but that's another story). In those days, freshmen still had to play on...freshmen teams, probably still a good idea. I was still a year behind him but word filtered north to the Falls that he had averaged 34.8 ppg and led the country's frosh in scoring (even topping some piker named "Alcindor" although against probably weaker opponents). So when I arrived at SBU in September of 1966, I was naturally looking forward to three years of Hayes (with George Carter and Billy Butler at the start, and finally a guy named Lanier).
Back in the day, perhaps even now, no team practices were allowed until Oct. 15 so it was customary to get a jump with the first such at 12:01 a.m. that day. I did not attend but the next day heard the scary news: Hayes had hurt his knee rather seriously on the floor of Butler Gym, as the new Fieldhouse was not quite ready. We sweated out the next six weeks, and when the season began he missed the first two games. Then it was on to game #3 on the road against a good Xavier team, on December 14. Yes, in those days, you never played a single game until early December.
Would Hayes even play? We celebrated in the dorm when he entered the game about 8 minutes in. All he did in about 25 minutes of action was score 26 points, despite a newly-bandaged knee. Surely an eventual all-American if the knee held up! And Bob Lanier coming to the varsity the following year!
That Saturday I attended the next game against another good club, Denver, at the Aud as Xmas break began. This time Hayes started--and naturally rang up 11 points in about 10 minutes of action. Then right in front of me he went down under the basket on a drive--and had to be helped off limping. That was the last we would see of him that year. After some kind of snafu, he was operated on by the Knicks' surgeon but this was long before arthroscopic surgery, and players--whose games were based on speed and agility--rarely came all the way back.
Hayes did not. The following year he played gamely with an enormous brace on his knee. He became more of an elite workhorse (passing, rebounding, short jumpers, tip-ins) and was a key player on the team that reached #3 in the national rankings and went on to the NCAA undefeated--averaging 13.5 points a game and shooting over 50% as one of the fabled "Iron Man Five." (Imagine playing 38 minutes a game on a bad knee.) Scored 19 in an NCAA win against tough Boston College in a game I attended in Rhode Island. Great numbers for nearly anyone but not for a budding all-time great. If you saw him fly and make players look silly as a high schooler...it was a bit sad to watch.
The following year, injured again, he sat out a lot and his play faltered. He took it like a man. We had become friendly by then (and still today, long-distance) and he sometimes let me hitch a ride back to The Falls when we visited our girlfriends. But then he was gone from campus, relegated to starring in local b-ball leagues. Today, he takes justified pride in being part of that 1967-1968 team but he will still say that his career might have been different if he had been red-shirted after his first knee injury--something rarely done back then. An NCAA title with Lanier, Butler and Hayes at full strength--and then Hayes and Lanier--seems quite plausible. I imagine his pain and disappointment still runs deep. Lanier has testified to the talent that was Hayes he confronted in pickup games before the injury.
In any case: there you have it. Based on seeing him play, and his numbers in high school, and then as a frosh--then better than a point-a-minute in his first two varsity games against good teams--I don't feel it is a stretch to say that, healthy, he would have joined Stith, Crawford, Lanier, and Nicholson as one of the five best Bonnies ever--and I'm convinced, possibly #1.
When I was still in 9th grade in junior high back in Niagara Falls, I started hearing about a basketball prodigy one grade up at the high school, which then had about 2000 students as the city was booming. He was already starting on the varsity at a time when that was not common (all the schools had "jayvee" teams). He was said to be about 6'4" with incredible moves and already averaging over 20 points a game as a soph in one of the tougher leagues in the state--against teams from blue-collar cities rimming Buffalo such as Kenmore and Lackawanna. Two players from Lockport went on to strong college careers, including Mike Brown, who started alongside Calvin Murphy for three seasons.
His name was John Hayes.
I never cared about the high school teams but started sneaking into games there. Hayes was indeed a wonder: fast, with drives and moves around the basket not seen in these parts beyond NBA highlights on TV, plus hooks and medium-range jumpers, and with a bit of "showtime" in him (see photo in our old gym). Then he topped himself during his final two years, averaging about 29 points per game as a senior, a league record, and ending his career as the highest Western New York scorer ever in an AAA league and with the highest points per game that stood for decades, perhaps even to this day for any of the large schools up there.
I had grown up as a Niagara U fanatic but when, after being heavily recruited, he decided on SBU I was happy because I seemed to be ticketed there as well, for journalism (I am now in the school's journo Hall of Fame, but that's another story). In those days, freshmen still had to play on...freshmen teams, probably still a good idea. I was still a year behind him but word filtered north to the Falls that he had averaged 34.8 ppg and led the country's frosh in scoring (even topping some piker named "Alcindor" although against probably weaker opponents). So when I arrived at SBU in September of 1966, I was naturally looking forward to three years of Hayes (with George Carter and Billy Butler at the start, and finally a guy named Lanier).
Back in the day, perhaps even now, no team practices were allowed until Oct. 15 so it was customary to get a jump with the first such at 12:01 a.m. that day. I did not attend but the next day heard the scary news: Hayes had hurt his knee rather seriously on the floor of Butler Gym, as the new Fieldhouse was not quite ready. We sweated out the next six weeks, and when the season began he missed the first two games. Then it was on to game #3 on the road against a good Xavier team, on December 14. Yes, in those days, you never played a single game until early December.
Would Hayes even play? We celebrated in the dorm when he entered the game about 8 minutes in. All he did in about 25 minutes of action was score 26 points, despite a newly-bandaged knee. Surely an eventual all-American if the knee held up! And Bob Lanier coming to the varsity the following year!
That Saturday I attended the next game against another good club, Denver, at the Aud as Xmas break began. This time Hayes started--and naturally rang up 11 points in about 10 minutes of action. Then right in front of me he went down under the basket on a drive--and had to be helped off limping. That was the last we would see of him that year. After some kind of snafu, he was operated on by the Knicks' surgeon but this was long before arthroscopic surgery, and players--whose games were based on speed and agility--rarely came all the way back.
Hayes did not. The following year he played gamely with an enormous brace on his knee. He became more of an elite workhorse (passing, rebounding, short jumpers, tip-ins) and was a key player on the team that reached #3 in the national rankings and went on to the NCAA undefeated--averaging 13.5 points a game and shooting over 50% as one of the fabled "Iron Man Five." (Imagine playing 38 minutes a game on a bad knee.) Scored 19 in an NCAA win against tough Boston College in a game I attended in Rhode Island. Great numbers for nearly anyone but not for a budding all-time great. If you saw him fly and make players look silly as a high schooler...it was a bit sad to watch.
The following year, injured again, he sat out a lot and his play faltered. He took it like a man. We had become friendly by then (and still today, long-distance) and he sometimes let me hitch a ride back to The Falls when we visited our girlfriends. But then he was gone from campus, relegated to starring in local b-ball leagues. Today, he takes justified pride in being part of that 1967-1968 team but he will still say that his career might have been different if he had been red-shirted after his first knee injury--something rarely done back then. An NCAA title with Lanier, Butler and Hayes at full strength--and then Hayes and Lanier--seems quite plausible. I imagine his pain and disappointment still runs deep. Lanier has testified to the talent that was Hayes he confronted in pickup games before the injury.
In any case: there you have it. Based on seeing him play, and his numbers in high school, and then as a frosh--then better than a point-a-minute in his first two varsity games against good teams--I don't feel it is a stretch to say that, healthy, he would have joined Stith, Crawford, Lanier, and Nicholson as one of the five best Bonnies ever--and I'm convinced, possibly #1.
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