There’s a 100th anniversary up at Rose Hill in the Bronx.
The campus at Fordham University has an old and new look, iconic and famed structures of lecture and study halls. The Jack Coffey field for football in the fall and baseball season where surrounding trees are in bloom. And history at the Lombardi Athletic Center in honor of the late Hall of Fame coach.
Yes, Fordham University has tradition and history. Vince Lombardi and the Super Bowl trophy, baseball names including Paul Blair, the late Baltimore Orioles All-Star and coach of the Rams. Men’s basketball is a major part of the history though that NCAA tournament championship has been difficult to achieve.
Walk up the hill and greet an iconic structure known as the Rose Hill Gym Gymnasium with distinction of the oldest among NCAA schools. The architecture of an old school field house with friendly confines for alumni boosters, students, and fans of the Rams. Visiting teams know how small capacity crowds make it difficult to focus.
I know that walking up Rose Hill, how many times I heard the student pep band and the roar of the crowd as game time approached because the architecture was meant to be an indoor palace. Fordham men’s and women’s basketball in the old and renovated building has had many historic moments. Championship banners of NCAA and NIT tournament years hang above the rafters along with retired uniform numbers of some legends who played and coached on the iconic basketball court.
The ambiance at the Rose Hill gym and acoustics, that’s also an experience when every one of the 3,200 seats are filled with standing room crowds. It’s special and different from the other bigger home venues of NCAA schools, some in the Atlantic 10 Conference where Fordham resides.
And the venue’s history of hosting events and serving as an Army barracks to shelter soldiers serving in World War 2. But the basketball history is memorable and historic in Rams country,
I recall talking to the numerous men’s basketball coaches and players over the years, the first Tom Penders in 1981 who led Fordham to five NIT Tournaments. He, Nick Macarchuk, and NBA coach Bob Hill. And many more that followed, including current coach Keith Urgo.
Two years ago a seat was hard to find, Urgo led the Rams to their most wins in the A-10 Conference finishing with a 25-8 season and record number of wins at Rose Hill, He got them close to their first conference championship and the old place was jumping.
“A unique experience here,” Penders would say. Hill, who huddled with his team on a chair during timeouts said to me “Fans were so close to the court I could use one or two of them.”
In December of 2013, the Rams won their 600th game on their home court, one of 14 other NCAA Division 1 schools with that achievement along with Duke (Cameron Indoor Arena) and UCLA (Pauley Pavilion.)
Hill was kidding. The intimacy of a unique venue has lasted this long because it is different from the others. There have been discussions about closing the doors and building a bigger home for the Rams, but it has never come to fruition because you can’t build with one dollar. So, the old Rose Hill Gym remains and continues to establish records.
Wednesday evening and there were more records. It was so fitting that 100 years of recognition and the Rose Hill Gym hosted the first triple overtime game, a 120-118 Fordham conference loss to UMass. Rahsool Diggins who scored a game-high 46 points set a Rose Hill record by a visiting player and tying Fordham’s Kenny Charles.
The 118 points are the most scored by the Rams in the Rose Hill Gym and the fourth most overall (school record is 128 at Rochester in 1970) Five Rams and four Minutemen fouled out which also established an NCAA Division 1 overtime record.
The joint was jumping. Lead changes and a game tied at 108 after two overtimes. Fordham had the 117-113 lead midway through the third extra period following a Abdou Tsimbila tip in. Jackie Johnson III scored a career high 36 points and seven rebounds as the Rams remained winless in the conference (0-5, 8-10 overall).
Prior to Diggins, the last visiting player to score more than 37 points at Rose Hill was UMass great Julius Erving on January 21, 1970. But this was special and so appropriate during an anniversary for an iconic building.
Yes, the grand old gym up at Rose Hill was made for record breakers.
Rich Mancuso: X @Ring786 Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
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