Earlier this week, Pitt easily defeated Duquesne in this annual "City Game". My friend, Fred Shugars, was in attendance and offered the following observation on Facebook:
If you've never been to The City Game, you can't call yourself a Pittsburgh sports fan. Best spectacle around--both student sections, both bands, both sets of cheerleader and dancers, and a mascot dance-off!
Well, who am I to disagree, and I am sorry to say that I have not yet been to a "City Game" as it exists in its current iteration, but I will say to Fred, and to anyone else who (a) may not be a long time resident of Pittsburgh, and (b) may be under the age of, say, 60, and as such has no memory of when Duquesne was a significant player in the world of college basketball, and was, in fact, far superior to Pitt in the sport, both nationally and locally, that the Pitt-Duquesne Rivalry has changed quite a bit over the years.
The rivalry between the schools used to manifest itself in the annual Steel Bowl Basketball Tournament. For those who don't remember, two schools would be invited to play in the Steel Bowl, which was, if memory serves, held in December. Pitt would play one opponent, Duquesne the other. The hope would be that both teams would win their opening round game, and then face each other in the Championship. It didn't always work out that way, but it usually did. While I can't say this for certain, I am guessing that my first trip to a college basketball game was probably to a Steel Bowl event, where I, the son of two Duquesne grads, would furiously cheer for the Red & Blue.
Over the years, I know that I saw the University of Miami's Rick Barry play in the Steel Bowl, and I also saw the UCLA Bruins play in the event. Unfortunately, I caught the Bruins after Lew Alcindor and before Bill Walton. Yes, I was witness to a game during the glorious Steve Patterson Era. Although after the game, I did go down on the floor and shake hands with John Wooden. True story.
Pitt and Duquesne used to compete and recruit the same players, usually local kids like Bill Knight, Bill Zopf, Mickey Davis, and the Nelson Twins. At some point in the mid- to late 70's, thew rivalry may have hit its peak when Tim Grgurich coached at Pitt and Mike Rice coached the Dukes. Both were alums of their schools, and the rivalry was most intense. Then Pitt joined the Big East, the basketball program took off and they never looked back, while the fortunes of the Dukes have been in a decline that with few exceptions, has been going on for well over thirty years. I seriously doubt that either the players or the coaches, if they were honest with themselves, care a whole lot about this "rivalry" game.
I will say that I plan on taking up Fred's call next year, and be there at the 2013 City Game, but at the risk of sounding like a hey-you-kids-get-off-of-my-lawn old timer, I will hold fast to my belief that games between Pitt and Duquesne just ain't what they used to be.
How does all of this tie in with that "Special Anniversary" mentioned in the title? Well, you see it was forty years ago today - December 8, 1972 - that Marilyn and I went out on our first date. And where was that first date, you may ask? Well, it was at the Civic Arena for the, you guessed it, Steel Bowl opening round doubleheader. I can't recall who the two opponents were, I do remember that Billy Knight played for Pitt, and I'm pretty sure that both Pitt and the Dukes won their games. You can forgive me, I hope, if I'm fuzzy on the details, but I had more important thoughts on my mind that night than the results of a couple of hoops games!
Happy Anniversary, Marilyn!!!!
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