Seton Hall had a player named Glen Mosley who lived in my home town (Irvington) and went to Irvington Tech. My best friend went to Seton Hall and my other buddies stayed local (NJIT and Upsala). I had applied to Rutgers, Syracuse and, at the last minute, Duquesne. Syracuse accepted me (my dream school at the time) but told me I was too poor to go there. I was fifth on their waiting list for a scholarship, but they said they typically didn't dip into that list so I was free to move on. I never heard from Rutgers. Duquesne sent me one of its "Good News" yellow postcards (still have it somewhere). In April, DU sent me a huge envelope filled with forms. I filled them out and sent them back. Two weeks later I received the equivalent of a full 1 year scholarship between grants and an on campus job. So I picked Duquesne. Spring and summer went by, I bought a one way plane ticket to Pittsburgh, and the day I was leaving for the airport I received a full, 4 year scholarship to Rutgers, including housing and books. Too late, I got on that plane a few hours later.

I also had an offer to play football at a school in Kansas I'd never heard of, but I didn't know how much of a football future a 5-10, 180 pound D-lineman would have. Plus my shoulders had both been injured (spent this past summer getting PT on the right one). Not that it mattered. I had no interest in going to Kansas.

Rutgers was coming off the great Final Four season with Bailey, Sellers, Dabney, Jordan, etc. Syracuse was meh in hoops at the time.

Rutgers was too slow to make an offer. In retrospect, Syracuse would have been sweet, Rutgers would have eventually let me down, and despite the sinking Ferry on the Mon, the friendships I made and the love I have for the city and the Steelers (rescued me from having to root for the Jets) and of course my education make my Duquesne experience worthwhile. Even if it took me 15 years to pay off my final three!

KenOTR73 wrote:

You are correct '81. That was before Hall was anything special. As for the St. John's comment: Wow! That's one I hadn't heard. Our history certainly would have taken to the high road. What's disparaging to me about the A-10 is the fact that we've lost some very decent programs the last few years i.e. Xavier and Butler and way before that Nova. Temple as well but their football program (if you can call it that of course they beat PSU for the first time since the civil war) was always the elephant in the room. Interesting history ED. I was all set to enroll at P&**$(t. Even had a roommate from my Catholic high school picked out. SAme thing as you. I received some nice scholarship $ from Duquesne plus my Dad worked for U.S. Steel and I won a nice competitive 4-year scholie from the Steelworkers Union. No regrets here. Saw Jarrett, Barry and Gary for two years. Mickey D. for a year. Jumpin' Jack Wodjowski, Darnell Roebuck, Lionel Big Train, Mike & Mo Barr. Loss to Penn. Beat Notre Dame with Dwight Clay. So I'm good with those ancient memories. LOL!

The Hall actually had a long run that pretty much mirrored that of Duquesne up to the mid 60s. They then hit the skids in a big way, while Duquesne rebounded strongly in the late 60s. Since recent performance always trumps ancient history, Duquesne would have been seen as the better program in the mid 70s when the eastern independents first began to discuss a potential conference, this as a result of two major changes instituted by the NCAA. Those were, the jettisoning of the "conference champions only" rule for the tournament, and the forced organization of the ECAC into psuedo leagues.
The story has been told on this board a few times before. The BE wanted Rutgers, which was probably the number 2 program in the East behind Cuse at the time. When Rutgers decided it was better to stay with the football schools in the E8, the BE schools turned to Seton Hall. St. John's was very much against this, as they had no desire to have another metro team in the league. The BE had asked Villanova to join, but they were waffling, as Rollie was against leaving the E8. The BE didn't want to be a 6 team league, so St. John's started looking for an alternative to Seton Hall, and Duquesne was it, as they knew Duquesne had a history with most of the schools, and they felt that if they stood firm, the schools would accept the Dukes instead of taking Seton Hall. The brass at Duquesne asked Villanova what they planned to do. When Villanova didn't jump, Duquesne declined St. John's offer, squashing the St. John's plan. Seton Hall became the 7th member. Villanova soon had a change of heart, as they feared that Temple would eventually grab the 8th spot. Duquesne realized their error, but it was too late. With SH already in the league, St. John's no longer had a reason to push Duquesne as a potential member.
I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Joe Paterno's Eastern Conference had come to fruition in 1981. All of the football schools would have exited the BE, and E8. The Dukes were in a good stretch at the time, and you have to think that the remaining BE schools would have quickly added them, along with maybe Bona, and UMass. Hard to know how that league would have developed though. The Paterno league would have had all the big schools, but with Dave Gavitt in charge, the BE still might have become very strong, although the loss of Syracuse would have stung, as they had become the flagship of eastern basketball after 1974.