Great memories but we must move forward. Build new memories for the students. First step fire Amodio get a competent AD. Bring back the disenfranchised Duquesne fan base. Yes be like Pitt! Please quit blaming the current administration for lack of $$$$$. 0-10 vs. Pitt 3-7 vs. Bobby Mo need I say more? Come March begins the rebuilding of this program. This is not brain surgery.

The old Eastern Eight was the only college basketball conference in the country with a mascot.  The "Hoopster Rooster" was scheduled to show up at all of the league's televised games, beginning in 1980, but the colorful bird's sponsors pulled out after only about three games that year.   It lived on in subsequent years.  The Eastern Eight dreamed big.  It even had its own television contract.  I was living in the Philadelphia-area at the time and remember looking forward to those weekly televised games every Saturday afternoon, especially since the Dukes were frequently featured in the Eastern 8 "Game of the Week."   Given Duquesne's rich basketball tradition, the Dukes probably made more televised appearances than several of the other conference members. 

In any case, the long-forgotten rooster was an imaginative idea, intended to be college basketball's answer to the famous San Diego Chicken.  The rooster, in fact, fit in perfectly with the league's slogan: "Something to crow about." 

The fully-feathered rooster, incidentally, was portrayed by Brian Bartholme of Erie, who had been the Pitt Panthers' football mascot until 1979, a role which he briefly continued after graduating from Pitt in December of 1978.  Sports columnists had a field day with the rooster, saying that the lowly Eastern Eight should have selected a "lame duck" instead, or — as one particularly mean-spirited pundit put it — "a buzzard."

Dump Davidson!  Go Iron Dukes!   

Last edited by IronDukes12 (2/07/2015 3:36 am)

Phildog wrote:

The Eastern 8 had their first tournament in Phillys pro arena and drew so little fans it was the laughing stock of Eastern basketball. The next year with Pitt, Dukes and the loyal WVU fans, about 5,000 showed up each night, the three day tournament outdrew the ACC tournament with over 30,000 attending over three nights. I went to every game, even the championship that had no local team in it and it was a great crowd.

Remember at that time the Arena only held about 12,000 so a 10,000 was just about a full house.

Bob Smizak on the Pittsburgh Press even raved about the tournament, we all hated him because of the Dave Roddy incident of having no eligibility left and cost us the NIT bid in 1070-71 , 20-5 Billingy team. Rumor was Bob broke the story, and Dave was done for the year, And the Iron Dules played with 8 kids.

So we all thought, no way Eastern 8 will ever be played in Philly again, wrong, they never came back to Pittsburgh again and drew fly's in Philly.

Penn State pulled a class act at a tournament, after they lost their game, they slid letters under the hotel doors of all attending AD's resigning membership from the conference and left.

Our only bright side was on Norman's Sr. year and we went into The Tournament with a losing record and swept all games and went to our last NCAA.

That and the battles with Pitt that had most of the sports page filled with Pictures and stories before and after the games, Andy Sissani point guard trying to fight Sam Clancy,, 6-4 and about 250 of muscle during a game. Mike Rice having our rebounders standing on the feet of Pitts rebounders, great times and really good basketball with mostly local kids playing key roles.

The first tournament was at the Spectrum in Philly. It was at the Civic Arena for the next 5 or so years. The Arena had been expanded to seat around 16,000 by then (it was 12-13,000 during the Nelson brothers era).
The 70-71 team went to the NCAA's and lost to Penn in Morgantown. That was the Penn team that reached the eastern final undefeated, and was smoked 90-47, by a Villanova team they had beaten during the year. Nova reached the title game, and gave UCLA it's only real battle during it's string of 7 consecutive titiles, losing 68-62. That was the Howard Porter team. The Dave Roddy team was 71-72. That team should have had Mickey Davis, and Ed Searcy on it. If it had, I doubt if we would have lost more than one or two games all year. We would have been a powerhouse of the first magnitude, Red would likely have never retired so early, and we may have never hit the skids. We probably would have ended up in the BE, and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

The first 8 years of the league, one of the 3 local teams made the final every single year.
 

No offense taken.   I'm fine. Lol.  I just thought the convo was interesting at the end of the Mason thread and wanted it to continue.  Thanks for the info about the tournament.   I just read that Smizik article.   Good read.   It seems like even though they had s good thing going lots of teams had one foot out the door. 

This was also before big football TV money which I believe started in the mid 80s.   So it would have happened anyway.

To answer duqkurt's question, my favorite memory was the 1971 season, two games in particular. Late in the season, we sold out the Civic Arena for a game with Villanova. They were in the Final Four that year, but we beat them. It was a big national game with both teams in the Top 20. Late in the game, one of the Nelson twins had a breakaway and dunked the ball--illegal then--and ticked off Red Manning something fierce, but we fans loved it.  When we went to the NCAA in Morgantown, Duquesne sold over 10,000 tickets. It was like a Duquesne home game there. Penn played a good game and deserved to win but if they seeded teams like they do today, we would have been 3 seed playing a 14 seed and probably would have won.
 

Last edited by scduke (2/07/2015 12:02 pm)

Thanks for participating!

Lost by 26, Davidson shot 50% at three, about 58% overall.

Yes - Ferry Ran his LHTM Defense tonight.   Though the Let's Hope They Miss Defense has become a favorite of Ferry and his team, other teams in the conference don't want to adopt it when playing the Dukes.

The Dome wrote:

He actually said at halftime the problem was that we didn't rebound their misses in the first half.  LMAO

I couldn't believe that either. It's apparent to me, and likely to his team, that he has no answers.

And obviously I didn't have the answer either as evidenced by my prediction on this one.

Last edited by PhoenixRising2 (2/07/2015 9:41 pm)

Hard to get rebounds when they don't miss or when they do, ball rebounds out to the free throw line.

Stevens 1-8 from the field.
One rebound from McCoy.
Mason continues to be pedestrian shooting the ball.
Robinson never gets off of the bench, in a game that was never in doubt.
Is Ferry trying to get fired?

If the Dukes aren't busy this week, maybe they can appear in an episode of "The Walking Dead."