Just finished the Staak chapter in Xavier Tales...

[muskienick]

q,

I was just getting really interested in Muskie hoops during the last 2-3 years of Coach Wulk's tenure at Xavier before he moved on to Arizona State. I got my Muskie fixes in those days from the radio and newspaper stories, so I didn't get to see him in action at Schmidt, the Gardens, or on TV (except during the NIT).

Based on his relative success with the miniscule budget he got from the Administration to run the program, he must have been a miracle worker!

[Shadow]

Nick,
You might not remember Ned Wulk. He had every bit of the fire and demand that Staak had and was also a pioneer in integrating the Xavier program and upgrading the athletes talent

Q,
Do you remember that he sent Dave Piontek home from the NIT for breaking curfew in '55? I think that was the year. The team lost their next game without him.
That was discipline and Wulk was the man to administer it.

[Mr. Neutral]

Just finished the entire book, and I have to say it's a great read. We all know (or think we know) these coaches and players so well, and now we find out more about them, things that generally show them to be better people than we knew.

It's a wonderful look at the not-too-distant past, and you can only hope that the future brings such great memories and stories.

[wkrq59]

Shadow,
Dave was sent home from the NIT by Ned not only for breaking curfew but for being caught with --and from what he told me--an absolutely gorgeous "young lady" who (using an old line)you could bring home to meet your mother if you could trust your father. "
I asked him if she was worth it? His reply, "Is the pope Catholic?" Dave--God rest--was and is still one of my favorite Musketeers of olde. And the guy could play. At 6-5 held his own and got the better of on many occasions against Charlie Tyra, Louisville's legit All-American who was 6-8 and about 250.

[wkrq59]

Oh, and Shadow, that I'm pretty sure was the year. Ned took a pretty good team back to the NIT the following year, lost to Bradley by 31 after having a 20-point lead at halftime and returned hom to find a pink slip on his desk. He supposedly was surprised by Bradley's full-court, zone press.
Jim McCafferty came in the following year and the very first thing he did and duing almost every practice thereafter was show the players how to break that full-court trapping zone press. He used a series of scissors plays off moving center posts between forwards and centers. Bradley tried it again in the second game in New York the following year and Xavier cut it to ribbons with Tattaron, Olberding and Viviano the alternating posts off which Ducky Castelle, Al Gundrum Hank Stein and Jim.
Neither St. Bonaventure (I think) nor Dayton (in the championship game) dared try a press against Xavier in the remaining two games.
Oddly enough, I think the team that lost that '56 NIT was better than the one that won it the next year.

[muskieman]

wkrq, you need to write a book or at least have more lunches with me...to fill in my gaps.

[piontekkid]

Always interested to hear stories that I may not have known about my uncle, Dave Piontek. Just ordered my copy of the book to see what they have to say about my uncle and of course my dad, Rich Piontek (NIT Team 1958).

[Mr O]

I had the good fortune to be on the Xavier Athletic Board when Bob Staak was hired. During the interview process Bob was asked what he would do to get the students involved. "I go to the dorms and throw a big beer party" was his reply. I knew then he was our guy.

[muskieman]

I had the good fortune to be on the Xavier Athletic Board when Bob Staak was hired. During the interview process Bob was asked what he would do to get the students involved. "I go to the dorms and throw a big beer party" was his reply. I knew then he was our guy.

Too bad he didn't get there in 69 we would have loved a coach throwing a beer blast, but he would have had to have a big expense account.

[Mr. Neutral]

mm, if Staak was our coach in '69 and just showed up to a student beer gathering, we would have gladly provided the liquids.