State Champs! (with coverage from @NOdotcom & @NOLAnews)

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!

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