Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans - The Book

"Sacred Heart Sunday" at YatPundit Podcast - Introducing the segments we'll be doing on the book: Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans. Of course, we end up talking mostly about basketball, as you'd expect the day after BMHS wins state.

Here's the link to the podcasts:

http://yatpundit.com/music/YatPundit/podcasts

Click on the file for today's date.

The 1969-1970 State Championship BMHS team, who went 36-0.

Brother Martin High School won the 5A state basketball title for the sixth time since the school opened in 1970 last night. My old school (and my kiddo's current school) was far from favored this year, entering the playoffs as the 9th seed in the state. Their defeat of St. Augustine in the quarterfinals of the playoffs was sweet, then the team, led by Coach Scott Thompson, proved that wasn't just a home-cooking fluke by beating Hammond High in the semi-finals at the CajunDome on the campus of University of Louisiana-Lafayette on Wednesday.

All that led up to last night's final game against Scotlandville High. Located in East Baton Rouge Parish, north of the city of Baton Rouge, Scotlandville was the #2 seed in the division. The Crusaders were down, but fought back. Here's Coach Thompson (video from NewOrleans.com/ABC26.com):

John DeShazier of Da Paper sums up the feeling of loss the Scotlandville players had:

And you come up empty because the opposition gets a whiff of blood in the water and begins a feeding frenzy.

Brother Martin scored the final eight points of the third quarter to cut its deficit to 41-33 entering the fourth. And the Crusaders kept coming, knowing Thomas could challenge but not foul and that a flood of layups was better than a trickle of 3-pointers.

That's the story of this BMHS basketball team.

The win triggered memories for one grad, Mr. Peter Mauer, IV, (1971). In a comment to DeShazier's article, he wrote:

I remember a similar state championship game at then St. Aloysius. Coach Andy Russo, and some unknown characters named Skip Brunet, Glenn Mason, Tommy Smith, Dale Valdery, and a transplant from Jesuit named Steve Malinowski, brought down another giant!. And trust me, they were "characters" all.

Former Boston Celtic center Robert Parrish, was then center for our opponet, Captain Shreve. Final after four quarters, and fouling him out.......56-56. Overtime! St. Aloysius ran off 16 unanswered, blistering, in-your-face points, and coasted to a 72-56 state championship.

Mr. Mauer's blurred a few things, but you get the idea--he's describing the 1970 Crusader team. Parrish played for Woodlawn, who faced the 1971 Crusaders in the state final a year later, and Ed Rossi was the Jesuit transplant.

That first BMHS basketball team was a combination of players from both St. Aloysius and Cor Jesu. As Brother Neal Golden, SC (CJ 57) wrote in his Crusader sports history series:

Beginning the 1969-70 season, Coach Andy Russo hoped that the players whovhad been at St. Aloysius and Cor Jesu would mesh into a unit that would give brand new Brother Martin High School a successful basketball season. They were more than that, they were perfect!

I arrived at BMHS as an 8th grader a year after Mr. Mauer graduated, so I didn't experience the state championships under Coach Russo, although the team did win district in my 8th grade year. I was a sophomore when Coach Russo's successor, Tom Kolb, took the Crusaders to Alexandria (site of the state tournament back then) to the championship in 1974. That was Rick Robey's senior year.

Mr. Ron Brocato, writing at NewOrleans.com, puts the Crusader championship into historical perspective with a great article on the Catholic League:

Catholic League teams have won multiple state basketball championships since 1939 when Jesuit defeated Holy Cross in the State Rally. Since then, Jesuit has won seven more in 1944, 1946, 1948, 1964, 1965, 1966 and 2001.

St. Aloysius won in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1952 and 1953.

Holy Cross won in 1942, 1943 and 1945.

De La Salle won in 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962 and 1986.

Archbishop Rummel won in 1977 and 1978.

Archbishop Shaw in 1989 and, 1997.

St. Augustine won in 1983, 1992, 1995 and 1999.

And Brother Martin won in 1970, 1971, 1974, 2004, 2005 and now 2010.

That's six from St. Aloysius, and now six from Brother Martin. What a great feeling!

Two video clips from ABC26.com. The first on Coach Scott Thompson.

If you've been to a BMHS basketball in the Conlin Gym, you know it's loud. The student section, dubbed the "Conlin Crazies," sits right behind the Crusader bench. When they start their "game time" cheer at the start of a home game, I always wondered how the team could hear anything Coach says. That clip of the huddle is priceless.

This next one is Ed Daniels' summary of last night's 68-66 win over Hammond in the state semi-finals:

Here's the NewOrleans.com article on both 5A semi-final games last night. I didn't go to Lafayette, but my kiddo, who is a sophomore, went as part of the Crusader Band. They played and had a blast.

On the drive home from Elysian Fields after the bus got back from the CajunDome, his description of the game took me right back to my sophomore year at BMHS, 1973-74. Last night sounded like many a game that year, but instead of Rick Robey getting jammed up early with two or three fouls, it was Pat Swilling, Jr.:

Swilling, who spent much of the first half on the bench in foul trouble, made amends in the second half. He finished with 17 points, including 12 in the second half. Junior guard Schane Rillieux led the way, pumping in 18 points while pulling down 10 rebounds. The Crusaders’ bench played a huge role in the victory as Jamon Gray scored eight points while Dante Butler and Myron Chapman each had seven for Brother Martin. Gray fouled out in the fourth quarter.

And just like that 73-74 season, when the star got jammed up, the team stepped in, stepped up, and delivered.

Brother Martin Day at Ground Pat'i (Severn Avenue in Metairie)

Brother Martin High School Day at Ground Pati is Thursday, March 11th, from 11:00 a.m. till 9 p.m., at 2740 Severn Ave. (across from the Landmark Hotel). All alumni, parents, students and friends are invited. Please print out this flyer and present it to your server and Brother Martin High School will receive 15% of the net sales.

St. Aloysius College, shot from the neutral ground on Esplanade Avenue.  I'm guessing this was shot in the 1950s, judging by the car passing by on the right.  The source for the original photo is unknown; I found it as part of a slide presentation in the province office. 

St. Aloysius' Bill Roniger (SA 69) goes for a layup in the last-ever Cor Jesu-St. Aloysius basketball game, 1969. Tonight, Brother Martin plays Lafayette High for the right to advance in the state basketball playoffs. The game will be at the Conlin Gym.

(hat-tip to Gerry Keenan (1971) for the ID on the photo!

St. Aloyisus High School Band in the Krewe of Mid City parade, Carnival, 1966. The Krewe of Mid City used to start at Canal and St. Patrick Streets, down by the cemeteries. They set up reviewing stands at Canal St. and Jefferson Davis Parkway, where they held the "Greatest Bands in Dixie" contest. Each band would stop at the reviewing stand and do tune and marching routine.

The band contests are gone from Carnival parades, but Brother Martin High still marches. This year, they'll march in the Krewe of Carrollton and Krewe d'Etat parades. Carrollton rolls this year on 7-Feb, which is Super Bowl Sunday. Usually this is no big deal, people go to the parade and make it home in time to see the game. This year, Carrollton will move up their start time an hour to get everyone home to see Da Saints. The Krewe d'Etat parades on the following Friday.

Brother Martin's band doesn't get the on-street recognition that their Gentilly rivals from St. Augustine do, but they get the last laugh in concert. Once again, BMHS had more students selected to the LMEA District VI Senior High Honor Band than any other school participating. Seventeen Crusaders played the gig, including four of the five trombones and five out of the six drummers.

This is an event sponsored by Brother Martin High School--eat, enjoy, support!

Click the link above to download the PDF of the invitation. Bring that with you to Semolina on Monday so BMHS gets credit for your meal. Thanks!

I've never done a serious giveaway on any of my websites.  Time to change that! 

Here's how it works:  I'm giving away several copies of my book, New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line.  This will actually be four contests.

Contest #1 - Register as a user at CanalStreetCar.com, then tweet that you registered to @canalstreetcar on twitter or e-mail edward@canalstreetcar.com

Contest #2 - Register as a user at BoshBook.com (the website for my forthcoming book on the Brothers of the Sacred Heart), then tweet @canalstreetcar (or e-mail)

Contest #3 - Register as a user at YatCuisine (http://food.yatpundit.com) and tweet @yatcuisine that you did (or e-mail) 

Contest #4 - Register as a user at YatMedia and tweet @yatmedia that you did (or e-mail)

We'll randomly choose a winner from each of the four groups, but if we pick you twice, we'll pick another name. 

Brother Martin High School Marching Band in the Krewe of Alla, Carnival, 2009