Long Island University at Brooklyn - Sound Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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play and cohesion. The first wry .n D nil; - , t W V Remdeer .rve that ptafed second-strirrg to the 1938-39 undefeated Torgatt and squad, lacking poise and handica::le: by weak reserves. And finally, the 4C: 41 unit of Oscar Shechtman, Si Lobeltg Sol Schwartz, Bill King, sophomore Saul Cohen, and junior Hank Beenderge Beenders replaced the great King when Dolly finished his athletic days at perm Street in January. Ready to go mtg action When the fourth personal Would be called against Beenders or Shecht- man, or when Lobetlo could not find his dime, were the surprising A1 Schneider Frank Fucarino, lanky Dick Holub, lank- ier Artie Gurfein, Max Shari, Alex Wal- terson and a host of others. The squad numbered seventeen, stood a fraction of an inch over 6'2 , and hailed all the way tram Chico Perez's Porto Rico to the sidewalks of Brooklyn. Ca. Next, it was on its own as g It was a gruelling campaign, prob- ably the toughest schedule any Long island team has ever played. Twenty- four opponents, excluding the Alumni and post-season toes, came and saw the Beemen, and only two conquered them And one of the LIU defeats was erased When the Blackbirds flew to East Lansing to outpoint Michigan State 24-23. The other blot on the record was recorded by Duquesne, a 36-34 thriller at Madison Square Garden. The highlight of the regular season spread itself over a period of ten days, and. covered 3000 miles of travel. In that space of time, LIU won five games, enjoyed the longest rest of three days, and played in the stadia of five different states. Wednesday, February 19, the Black- birds stepped from their airliner onto the court at Michigan State to beat the Spartans. One down, and tour to go. The next night, DePaul fell before the literally high-flying Blackbirds 44-40 at the Chicago basketball hall. Before you could say Stutz Modzelewski, the Long Islanders were in Maryland to bowl over previously undefeated Baltimore U. 44- 37, to celebrate George VVQshingtOnS

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mafmvmwvmrrv WMFWW Mxtwww W W merawwwmmiti You can talk about your Benders, your Torgotfs, your Kromers, but for thri11 ond ch1111 tight and guts, we'11 toke our 1941 BosketboH Writers' Tournament champions, L1U,s Shechtmcm, Schwartz, Lobe11o, Beendersl and Cohen. The Blockbirds gained their place in the tourney otter winning twenty-two and 103mg two during the 140541 come poign, triumphing six times at Madison Square Garden and four times on the road. Once in the exclusive Morch play offs, he1d ormuodly for the post four years, L1U blasted in quick order Westw minster, Seton Ho11, and Ohio. Thus the Beemen repeated their 1939 victory, cope tured o second leg on the coveted tour- ney trophy, and won or place on every motioned championship hst. We hove seen this squod grow from on owkword but promising freshman dub through three later stages of team

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.F, m '7 u- 0 .d' - 5: r- O m D Q-f'l' $5 pun. 4v W075..- ,3va .4 93E. : birthday. Back to the old stamping grounds, Madison Square Garden, Mon- day, the 24th, and a tired but scrappy quintet edged Canisius 55-53 in the final three seconds of play. The fifth obstacle was hurdled in snow-swept Philadelphia when LIU turned. defeat into victory with an overtime 42-41 win on the last night of February. There were individual as well as team triumphs tor the Long Islanders. The tireless, driving Shechtman, probably the greatest play-maker in the nation, led the way offensively and defensively. You won't find Ossie's name up there with the point-leaders but he sparked the at- tack He set up Lobello's pop shots, screening perfectly. He fed King or Been- ders in the bucket, and found the weak SDots in an opponent's defense through which Schwartz or Schneider would later drive. The one and only Bill King, acclaimed not only as the greatest athlete ever to YWear the Pearl Street institution's colors, GM as a tine team man, a gentleman, and a sportsman, concluded his play for Walterson, Shechtman LIU against Butler, Ianuary 19. Along with accolades and Have atque vale's from the press, Dolly received a hand- some trophy from his classmates. Bill capped the day by scoring 19 points against the hapless Indiana outfit. It was an in and out year for Si Lo- bello, whom the New York Post once called Nthe greatest set-shot in America. Si began the season with sixty points in the first three games,but,1osing con- fidence against close-guarding Michigan State and Duquesne, ended second in the metropolitan scoring. When Si's pops were not dropping, he was a lost boy, and the Blackbird attack moved without him. However, Lobello im- proved tremendously underneath the cords and his soft passes to Shechtman more than made up for lapses in out- side shooting. It was tlite-saver' Lobello in those hectic five games toward the end of February and rave notices from the mid-west, south, and Philly proved. Si's value to the team. His greatest in- dividual performances were his twenty- point total against Rice, five tallies in the last four minutes of the Canisius struggle, and clutch baskets during the LaSatle second half and overtime. Sol Schwartz was the same old Butch- er Boy, flinging in a screwy lett-hander, popping his peculiar arcs that begin Schwartz. Now What time is it? Starting at 12 o'clock, read- ing counter-clockwise, we see Shart, Beenders, Lobello, King, and