1969-70 NIT team

[BCHoopster]

For all you old timers, that team had 3 seniors and 2 juniors in the starting line-up, I looked at the sophomore class and I only see Guy Lam and Gary Grzesk, who did
Al try and recruit that year cause he sure did not recruit a 5* recruit that year, who did he try and recruit and lose out to?

[oldwarrior81]

From an old Al interview.

"I would recruit one kid a year," he said. "You've only got one ball. If you put five guys out there who all need the ball, it's a problem.
"In 13 years, I got 11 players. The only ones I missed were Jim McMillian, who went to Columbia and Brian Winters who went to South Carolina.
"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house. That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk."
So McGuire mined the playgrounds of the inner cities, unafraid of bad neighborhoods like Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant. That was how he got his first major player at Marquette, George Thompson.
"He said I was the only coach who came to see him in Bed-Stuy," McGuire said. "The others all wanted to meet him outside."

McMillian would have been a senior in 1970.  Putting him between Thompson '69, and Meminger '71.
Winters in the class of 1974 (which was the same class as Larry McNeil).  Ironically Allie was anticipating Winters to MU, and he had lined up a spot with South Carolina, where Winters ended up.

[BCHoopster]

To bad Winters did not come, much better than Allie, Winters with Meminger, Chones, Brell and Lackey would have been impressive.

[marqfan22]

From an old Al interview.

"I would recruit one kid a year," he said. "You've only got one ball. If you put five guys out there who all need the ball, it's a problem.
"In 13 years, I got 11 players. The only ones I missed were Jim McMillian, who went to Columbia and Brian Winters who went to South Carolina.
"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house. That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk."
So McGuire mined the playgrounds of the inner cities, unafraid of bad neighborhoods like Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant. That was how he got his first major player at Marquette, George Thompson.
"He said I was the only coach who came to see him in Bed-Stuy," McGuire said. "The others all wanted to meet him outside."

McMillian would have been a senior in 1970.  Putting him between Thompson '69, and Meminger '71.
Winters in the class of 1974 (which was the same class as Larry McNeil).  Ironically Allie was anticipating Winters to MU, and he had lined up a spot with South Carolina, where Winters ended up.

I thought Allie would have gone to UNC if he didn't go to MU

[Nukem2]

From an old Al interview.

"I would recruit one kid a year," he said. "You've only got one ball. If you put five guys out there who all need the ball, it's a problem.
"In 13 years, I got 11 players. The only ones I missed were Jim McMillian, who went to Columbia and Brian Winters who went to South Carolina.
"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house. That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk."
So McGuire mined the playgrounds of the inner cities, unafraid of bad neighborhoods like Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant. That was how he got his first major player at Marquette, George Thompson.
"He said I was the only coach who came to see him in Bed-Stuy," McGuire said. "The others all wanted to meet him outside."

McMillian would have been a senior in 1970.  Putting him between Thompson '69, and Meminger '71.
Winters in the class of 1974 (which was the same class as Larry McNeil).  Ironically Allie was anticipating Winters to MU, and he had lined up a spot with South Carolina, where Winters ended up.

McMillian had a vey nice career at Columbia leading the Ivy school to its last NcAA tourney in 1968! 

[oldwarrior81]

McMillian had a great college career averaging about 25 per game.  Started for the Lakers teams in the early 70's.


I thought Allie was recruited by Frank McGuire, who had left North Carolina and was at South Carolina at the time.   Frank McGuire goes back to NYC and St John's.  I wasn't aware Dean Smith was in the picture.

Al sounded really surprised when Winters went to USC.   After all, he and his wife Pat, used to babysit for Brian back in Rockaway.

A short clip of Winters at South Carolina.  Including some action playing Marquette.  Including the **** game winner against the #6 ranked good guys back in 1974.
https://youtu.be/KXpCvB7xhns

[Marcus92]

I sat next to Gary Brell and his family during the game. He and his wife traveled to Milwaukee from Anchorage, Alaska for the halftime ceremony honoring the 1970 NIT championship team.

[TedBaxter]

A short story.

My brother lived in Cordova, Alaska from about 1984-1999 and worked at the Bidarki Recreation Center, a city owned facility.  Every year they had a celebration in town called the Iceworm Festival and Bidarki hosted a mens classic basketball tournament that brought teams from as far away as Anchorage.

My brother is at the front desk and gets a call about the tournament.  The guy calling asks "Is Goose's team playing?"  My brother asks him who Goose is.  "The guy that played at Marquette".  My brother thinks of the Globetrotter Goose Tatum and asks him if he's thinking of Earl Tatum and he yells back, "No, Gary Brell.  If Brell is playing we aren't coming."  Brell apparantly dominated Alaska basketball for years.

[Marcus92]

Here's Gary showing off a silver salmon he caught, from a 2015 article in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman:

https://www.frontiersman.com/sports/outdoors/mat--su-s-september-silver-salmon/article_e378532e-52a2-11e5-b08e-f3aa8dd85feb.html

Maybe he took up fishing because nobody wanted to play against him in basketball.

[Goose]

Goose Brell is one of my all time favorites. Grew up in his neighborhood and went to same high school. A true MU legend.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Goose Brell is one of my all time favorites. Grew up in his neighborhood and went to same high school. A true MU legend.

Any one have a picture of him cutting down the NIT nets with a switchblade? That would be priceless.

[Marcus92]

Any one have a picture of him cutting down the NIT nets with a switchblade? That would be priceless.

Couldn't find that. But this is a pretty sweet pic of Dean Meminger and Gary Brell.

[Lennys Tap]

To bad Winters did not come, much better than Allie, Winters with Meminger, Chones, Brell and Lackey would have been impressive.

Well, Allie with Meminger, Chones, Brell and Lackey wasn't bad. 26-0 in the regular season, 28-1 overall with the one loss a one point game to Ohio St that the refs stole.

[BCHoopster]

Agree, probably Al's best team, but Winters was much better than Allie

[Lennys Tap]

Agree, probably Al's best team, but Winters was much better than Allie

True

[Jockey]

Goose Brell is one of my all time favorites. Grew up in his neighborhood and went to same high school. A true MU legend.

As I'm sure you know, he was one of Al's favorites as well - though he drove nuts at times.

[Gato78]

Al McGuire on Brell: "I'm the only coach in the country with a white problem."

[Cheeks]

From SI's Curry Kirkpatrick


https://www.si.com/vault/1971/01/25/542222/crazy-cat-and-his-curious-warriors

[drbob]

That article certainly brought back great memories !!  Al was one of a kind,and the teams and game atmosphere were second to none. Was on campus from 1968 to 1975 , saw a lot of great basketball.

[Earl Tatum]

I was at the MU - USC at the MECCA, when Winters, English and I
believe Dunleavy were on SC. First few minutes of the game MU got called for  fouls, Al jumped up and hollered at the ref, "This is my place,
you can't do that". Game changed and we dominated.

[warriorjoe]

It was assumed that Brian would come to MU. Brian grew up on Newport Avenue, a three-minuted walk from 120th and Rockaway Boulevard, where Allie grew up. Al knew Brian's family. When I interviewed Winters for the Centennial Edition of "You Can Call Me Al: The Colorful Journey of College Basketball's Original Flower Child, Al McGuire," this is what he told me: "When I was growing up we [Allie and I] were friends," said Winters. "We were six or seven. I went to St. Francis de Sales Grade School. The only time I remember Al coming over to the house, we were in the kitchen. He had come up to the house and just walked in. He didn't knock or ring the bell. He just walked in and said to my grandmother, 'Hi, Mrs. McDermott.' It was the spring of 1969. Al knew me and knew my family."

"I grew up with Brian," recalled Allie McGuire, "until second grade. But after we moved to Charlotte there was a long time that I never saw him," adding that it was not necessarily a done deal that Winters would go to Marquette. "He did visit."

"I knew Allie had turned into a pretty good player at Marquette," Winters continued. "I just told Al that South Carolina would be a better place for me. He was always cordial. When he came down to Columbia to do a clinic with Frank McGuire, he had a rental car that he didn't use. So he gave me the keys. Al was a lively guy. He had a lot of intensity. He knew how to motivate a team. He has his own flair to him. He did something offbeat to create interest."

Both Al and Allie told me that Dean Smith was interested in Allie. Al said he felt that if Allie had gone to North Carolina he could have been an All-America. But Allie, having been around Al and the team at practices growing up, wanted to play for his dad at Marquette.

Go Warriors!

[milwaukee ex-pat]

Al may have had a selective memory in terms of players he missed out on.  Per Dick Vitale IIRC Vitale beat McGuire our for Terry Tyler.  Can anyone confirm/debunk?

[sailwi]

Al may have had a selective memory in terms of players he missed out on.  Per Dick Vitale IIRC Vitale beat McGuire our for Terry Tyler.  Can anyone confirm/debunk?

Correct on TT.  It was a page in Vitale's book.  Al went to the house of TT and Vitale staked it out.  Later that year Vitale ran into Al at some coach clinic or the like and starts giving Al crap about getting TT from him.  Al just mentioned I dint need TT I jsut signed Butch lee.