The Upset: How and Why
In the years since 1943 undoubtedly there have been many Philadelphia area high school teams and tournaments that rival or even exceed those of the Red Cross Tournament, though Lower Merion’s unbelievable State Championship “three-peat” in those days would certainly contend well for all-time honors. There may have been many thrilling performances by even more renowned and unforgettable Philly hoop stars and teams since then. But to those who watched it all the way, there was never a more shocking upset and Cinderella saga than in that once-in-history wartime charity. Roman Catholic defeated Penn Charter for the title after the seemingly invincible Lower Merion squad of that era had lost to the Quakers in the first round. The ultimate winner of this one would never have figured in Joe Lunardi’s modern bracketology.
The story is sufficient unto itself but an amateur analyst who was present may owe some final observations to those who still wonder why, after losing six of their first seven games Roman Catholic pulled off that comeback. How did Cinderella do it? How and why did they come back in February and March after being left for dead in December and January? How did they get back on track to sweep the Red Cross tournament after their three crushing postseason losses by a total of five points, two in overtime?
Scholastic basketball writers in 1943 described what they saw of Roman Catholic’s game by game revival but the reporters and columnists of the day largely prescinded from in-depth analysis beyond their frequent references to the maturing of the pressure zone, their dogged full-court fight, inspiring team play, fine coaching and the leadership of unanimous All-Catholic, Joe Rogers. All of those were accurate assessments. That was sufficient for the writers and, I suspect, for their readers. The Inquirer’s Ken Hay came close to summing it up with his pointed phrase the morning after the Red Cross final victory, “Stealing everything but the cover off the ball.”
Beyond those citations no one felt the need to reach for a more clinical approach to Roman’s turnaround. Martin Heiddeger’s theory of skillful coping is really no help here. The story is simpler than that. I prefer Kiernan’s theory of persistent striving, simply expressed as, “They kept working at it”. I modestly ascribe my name to the theory but it actually came from more reliable sources, my 2009 conversations with three surviving Roman Catholic players, Andy Quinn, Phil Rapone and Joe Rogers. They had already bought into the system, responding to their coaching, even when they were getting bounced around.
For those who saw them from beginning to end, as I did, even when losing, the morale factor was evident. Surely, winning remains the ultimate booster shot for the team’s confidence. We still define morale in the simplest of terms as “tenacity in the face of adversity”, not giving up, scratching back when your down. The tournament trophy raised by the Roman players at the end of their run was donated by an iconic Philly enterprise, “Pep Boys”. How appropriate!
Probably the answer is no more dramatic than the self-confidence they built as team of equal partners as hard-won victories began to come, each player contributing his own piece. In such circumstances, what turns losers into winners? Starting with their mid-season rally, they gained the collaborative mindset that they expected to win, something they share with all survivors, on and off the court. But “mind” alone doesn’t bring victories. It was not just “mind”, it was the “matter” of their style and their guts as they developed in that system. They learned and grew in team play and in game situation management from early season failures. Believing was part of their growth. No painful buzzer setback dampened the expectation of winning the next time out. Today’s fans would have loved to watch this club!
It is especially worth noting that their three talented Red Cross rivals already possessed and acted on that winning expectation, West Phila with only two losses before the tournament, Penn Charter with only one and State champion, Lower Merion with no losses and winners of all but one game over two years.
Perhaps it is just as well that there was no need for the press to invent a Hoosiers movie plot with a “story behind the story”. No writer had an inside exclusive on half-time pep talks by Jordan Olivar or Father Senglar or on how novenas by the players’ mothers were responsible or a “Win it for big brother at war” patriotic angle. That is good news, however. They can add those touches in “Wartime Cinderella, The Movie” coming soon to a multiplex near you.
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