Reflections of a Lifelong Friar Fan: The 1960s

In the first edition of a series on the tradition of Providence basketball, Craig Leighton shares his earliest memories of following the Friars in the 1960s.

My earliest memories of Providence College basketball are of the 1961 NIT and Vinnie Ernst. At the end of regulation in the semifinals against Holy Cross, Ernst was at the free throw line needing to make a free throw to win the game. 

Holy Cross fans started shaking the guide wires holding up the backboard and rim. This went on for seemingly forever — maybe 20 minutes. Ernst eventually missed the free throw, but then went on to dominate the overtime session (scoring or assisting on all 15 points). The Friars would go on to win the 1961 NIT Championship. 

The whole state of Rhode Island seemed to explode with Friar fever after that. Even though I was only five at the time and didn’t understand everything that was going on, it was settled — PC was always going to be my team and Ernst was going to be my all-time favorite player. 

That is until Jimmy Walker came along.

No one had ever seen anything like him. His game was ahead of his time. He had moves that we had not been seen before. To my knowledge, he was the first player to dribble the ball between his legs and make it a part of his game.

During his sophomore season in 1964-65, Walker (along with fellow sophomores Mike Riordan and Dexter Westbrook) led the Friars to a 24-2 record, with the Friars being ranked in the top three in the country at one point. Walker averaged 20 points a game and led the Friars to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. 

This is when I got the first taste of what most lifelong Friars go through being a Friar supporter. Throughout their history, the Friars have brought their fans to the highest of highs followed immediately by the lowest of lows. 

Over and over again.

Everyone was on cloud nine heading into the Elite Eight, as PC was heavily favored to beat Princeton and move on to the Final Four. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell Bill Bradley that Princeton was supposed to lose. The Friars got pummeled by Bradley and Princeton, 109-69.

Over the next two years, Walker went on to have a great individual career. He led the country in scoring his senior year at 30.4 points per game, overtaking UCLA’s Lew Alcindor in the final week of the season. He became the only Friar to go number one in the NBA Draft when the Detroit Pistons made him the top pick in 1967. 

The Friars, however, never reached the heights of that ‘64-65 season during Walker’s junior and senior seasons. Talented center Dexter Westbrook left school after his sophomore season due to academic issues, and Providence never really replaced his low post game. PC would lose in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to St. Joseph’s in Walker’s junior season, and missed the NCAAs altogether his senior year, losing in the quarterfinals of the NIT.

One of the unfortunate things during this period of Providence basketball was that it was virtually impossible to get a ticket to a PC game in Alumni Hall. They were always sold out, so I never got to see Walker play for the Friars in-person.

My father was able to take care of that, however, while surprising the heck out of me at the same time. 

After Walker finished his senior season my father was supposedly taking me to a high school basketball game, but when we entered the gym there was Walker, along with Riordan, warming up. Jimmy Walker’s All Stars were playing an exhibition game that night and I got to meet my idol. It was a night I will never forget.

After the Walker era, Providence entered into a period of mediocrity. During the 1967-68 season the Friars finished with an 11-14 record — the first time PC hadn’t won 20 games since 1958. Friar fans started to wonder if the glory years of PC basketball were going to be a thing of the past. 

The 1968-69 Friars were more respectable, finishing 14-10 behind sophomores Jim Larranaga, Vic Collucci, and Ray Johnson. Unfortunately, head coach Joe Mullaney left after the season to coach the Los Angeles Lakers, casting even more doubt about the long-term viability of the program. 

Little did we realize that the rich tradition of Providence basketball was just getting started. The program was about to head to new heights with a new coach, a new arena, and two local players who will go down in PC history. 

More to come in the next edition of Reflections of a Lifelong Friar fan.