The Flyers also finished second in the NIT in ’52, ’55, ’56 and ’58 under coach Tom Blackburn. They finally broke through with a title in ’62. UD won it again in 1968 under coach Don Donoher.
A few of the standouts from those teams reminisced about their experiences.
Monk Meineke (1949-52): “The pressure was unbelievable. Grigsby’s family, Norris’ family and my family were from Dayton, and everyone was coming to New York. At 2 or 3 in the morning, they’d be calling me. ... That was THE tournament. Back then, the NCAA was the second choice.
“I had an NIT watch from ’52, and I gave it to my son (Don Jr.) just the other day. ... It was a Bulova and still runs. I just wanted him to have it. My kids say, ‘Are you getting ready to die?’ I had about six watches and gave them away.
“The excitement was unbelievable. ... At that time, they introduced you with the spotlight. You’d run to the center of the floor and throw the ball back to the next player. But it was strictly business. We weren’t there to look at the skyscrapers.”
Bill Uhl (1953-56): “When I first went to UD and had my meeting with Blackburn, he asked me, ‘What goals do you have for basketball?’ I told him, ‘No. 1, I’d just love to play at Madison Square Garden. And No. 2, I’d love to make an All-American team.’ He said, ‘Bill, if you do everything I tell you, you’ll accomplish all those goals.’ Of course, he already knew he had (regular-season) games scheduled there.
“It was grander than what I thought it would be. My philosophy was if you played in Madison Square Garden, you played in a place all the great players played. That was really a treat.
“The teams before with Meineke, (Pete) Boyle, Norris and Grigsby, they were called the ‘Cinderella team.’ They were the ones who captured the emotions of the New York fans. When we came along as a second wave, they loved us.
“To walk up the street and see ‘University of Dayton’ on the marquee was a big thrill.
“I never really had any good games in the Garden. I don’t know why. I don’t know if I was too awestruck or what. I can remember the last game we played and got beat by Louisville, and they called my name to go out and get my watch, and 20,000 people booed me. I’ll never forget that.”
Jim Paxson Sr. (1951-56): “No. 1, it was the old Garden, and the floor had soft spots. When we first went there, in ’51-52, it was a musty building. We went to practice, and it was dark and sort of dingy. The lights never seemed bright enough until the games.
“The games are all a blur. That’s 58 years ago. But the thing about it was it was the first time I ever had pizza. ... We walked back to the hotel after the game, and they sold pizza by the slice. I didn’t know what pizza was, I didn’t know what the Garden was.
“It wasn’t like we had died and gone to heaven. We were invited, we got to go, we got to see New York City, and that was pretty neat.
“Guys would sit there in wooden chairs under the basket and would read the paper until there were about five minutes to go in the game, and then they’d get interested because they all had bets on the games.”
Dan Sadlier (1966-69): “I’ve got mixed feelings about Madison Square Garden. I’ll start with the good, and that would be the 1968 (championship) run. Being a kid from Lima, and going to New York City ... it was a heck of an exciting time. We had a stumble at the beginning of the season, but the tail end of it ended up quite well.
“The down side was the following year. We played in the Garden against (sixth-ranked) Davidson. Going into that (regular-season) game, we had a good season going and made a good run at them, but we came up short (64-63).
“I remember (assistant coach) Chuck Grigsby used to call us ‘flatland hillbillies’ for being from around the western Ohio area. He’d talk about going to New York and getting the roof of your mouth sunburned because of looking up at all those big buildings.
“(The Garden) was huge. Keep in mind, we did play in Freedom Hall a few times (including the ’67 NCAA Final Four), which was a big ol’ place. But this was the latest and greatest. It was very impressive, to say the least.
“It was the first NIT in the new Garden. But I remember it wasn’t quite done. There were a few things they were still finishing. ... I remember growing up and watching the Flyers play in the NIT and in the old Garden. That’s where you wanted to be. Even though the NCAA had gained momentum about that time, and maybe the NIT was not the tournament that it had been, it was still pretty prestigious.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2125 or dharris@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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