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"My Losing Season"

Wood Hall

Wood Hall

Team Manager
Jan 26, 2015
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Just re-read Conroy's great book for about the third time. Lots of Richmond references and information. Johnny Moates, Buster Batts, Bobby Ukrops, Tom Green, Billy McCann, a blast from the past for Spider fans of the 1960s era.

My only interaction with Johnny Moates was not good. But he was sticking up for his coach, Lew Mills, who in retrospect wasn't that bad compared to the disaster of Carl Sloane. But "Dump Lew Mills" night was a lot of fun.
 
Wood Hall said:
Just re-read Conroy's great book for about the third time. Lots of Richmond references and information. Johnny Moates, Buster Batts, Bobby Ukrops, Tom Green, Billy McCann, a blast from the past for Spider fans of the 1960s era.

My only interaction with Johnny Moates was not good. But he was sticking up for his coach, Lew Mills, who in retrospect wasn't that bad compared to the disaster of Carl Sloane. But "Dump Lew Mills" night was a lot of fun.
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Wood, I am not familiar with the book you reference...I began watching Spiders basketball in the early 60's...can you provide the name and author of the book?

Thanks.

Go Spiders!
 
The late author Pat Conroy played guard at The Citadel from 1963-67. It's a recounting of his team's difficult senior year and has numerous references to the Spiders.
 
Wood Hall said:
Just re-read Conroy's great book for about the third time. Lots of Richmond references and information. Johnny Moates, Buster Batts, Bobby Ukrops, Tom Green, Billy McCann, a blast from the past for Spider fans of the 1960s era.

My only interaction with Johnny Moates was not good. But he was sticking up for his coach, Lew Mills, who in retrospect wasn't that bad compared to the disaster of Carl Sloane. But "Dump Lew Mills" night was a lot of fun.
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Wood Hall remember the "Dump Lew Mills" signs and such. Beginning of our time at UR was low points in UR basketball history till McCurdy, Stewart, Gray and Eastman joined the team.
 
spider fan said:
Lewis Mills 11 seasons at Richmond - 110-170- only winning season was his last 73-74 when team was 16-12.....................

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Mills_(basketball)
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In Lew's defense (I can't believe I'm saying that), he had only two years with a true home court, on-campus arena. The RC opened my freshman year so I never saw a game at the old Richmond Arena, but it could not have been easy to recruit players with that as your home court, and practicing in Millhiser.

I believe we lost to Furman in the SoCon finals. Furman had Clyde Mayes and Fessor Leonard and was very good. And to my knowledge he didn't recruit thugs like Carl Slone did.
 
AnnapSpider said:
The arena was worse than you can imagine, but the City of Richmond had no other venue.
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The SOCON Tournament was played there until the 1962-63 season...my memory is very hazy, but I believe I saw the Spiders lose there in the first round a couple of times...

Go Spiders!
 
i may be wrong, but Ihink it had been where the city kept their buses, and worked on them mechanically.
I remember seeing some pretty good teams there. For example, Jacksonville with Artis Gilmore and Pembroke
Morris- on their way to the final 4.
But one fun night, a bunch of my fraternity brothers and I decided to go see ROLLER DERBY. That was real classy.
 
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Growing up in Ginter Park, I was not far from Parker Field or the Arena. Annap I remember doing
Drivers Ed over there. I remember going to the Arena and seeing WV and Jerry West play the
Spiders around 1960.

Back then SoCon consisted of UR, GW, VMI, Furman, Davidson, W&M, WV and VT. My has times
changed.
 
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CarolinaSpider said:
Growing up in Ginter Park, I was not far from Parker Field or the Arena. Annap I remember doing
Drivers Ed over there. I remember going to the Arena and seeing WV and Jerry West play the
Spiders around 1960.

Back then SoCon consisted of UR, GW, VMI, Furman, Davidson, W&M, WV and VT. My has times
changed.
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Carolina Spider - I went to Ginter Park Elementary from Sherwood Park; I remember the opening of I 64 between our house and Parker Field.
 
Once saw Alice Cooper there with Don McLean as the opener. :oops:

But real memories are playing Maggie Walker in basketball. My school had a damned good team, but we never could handle those guys. Atmosphere was great. Place packed to the rafters.
 
SpiderLaw said:
Carolina Spider - I went to Ginter Park Elementary from Sherwood Park; I remember the opening of I 64 between our house and Parker Field.
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and I bet you went to Whataburger and Bills BQue at least once a week. They were two of my favorite eats.
 
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KE Spider said:
Once saw Alice Cooper there with Don McLean as the opener. :oops:

But real memories are playing Maggie Walker in basketball. My school had a damned good team, but we never could handle those guys. Atmosphere was great. Place packed to the rafters.
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But nobody was as good as the Moses Malone Petersburg team back in the 60s. Never took Lefty to the promised land.
 
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You are correct and it didn't work out well.

McLean got pissed and left the stage early after making some sarcastic remarks to the crowd. No one was paying attention to him and half the crowd was milling about the place during his abbreviated performance.
 
This literally made me LOL...

Why his music remains influential and why he doesn’t like Alice Cooper...

I really don’t think about genres too much. I’m just me. I meld together the old fashioned pop and the early rock and the folk music. That’s what I do. My music has been pretty influential. The albums I made in the ’70s have had a big impact on a lot of country singers who came along later. You know, Brenda Lee loved me and Jerry Lee Lewis, all those people… But I still have people like — what the hell is his name? Alice Cooper. He said ‘American Pie’ isn’t a rock ’n’ roll song. Well that’s fine coming from a circus act. I hear shit from people sometimes and I don’t take it.
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www.palmspringslife.com

Don McLean Sounds Off on Critics and More Prior to Desert Concert

Singer Don McLean sounds off on critics, Donald Trump, and the enduring appeal of his iconic song prior to his Fantasy Springs concert in Indio.
www.palmspringslife.com www.palmspringslife.com
 
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KE Spider said:
But real memories are playing Maggie Walker in basketball. My school had a damned good team, but we never could handle those guys. Atmosphere was great. Place packed to the rafters.
Click to expand...
Not entirely related but I think it was crazy that Artur Ashe and Willie Lanier went to MWHS at the same time. Bob Dandrige was also there with Lanier. If I had a time machine what I would give to go to a Walker-Armstrong Classic.
 
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AnnapSpider said:
i may be wrong, but Ihink it had been where the city kept their buses, and worked on them mechanically.
I remember seeing some pretty good teams there. For example, Jacksonville with Artis Gilmore and Pembroke
Morris- on their way to the final 4.
But one fun night, a bunch of my fraternity brothers and I decided to go see ROLLER DERBY. That was real classy.
Click to expand...
They also played men's pro tennis tournaments there......couldn't lob though.
 
Is Mooney writing the sequel to this book? “My Losing Seasons-The Billboard Years”
 
SpiderK said:
Is Mooney writing the sequel to this book? “My Losing Seasons-The Billboard Years”
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It will be a pretty short book, with only four chapters to cover a 17-year period. He's 62-29 post-billboard anyways. Life is short, enjoy the present, it's been pretty darn good the past three years.
 
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Wood Hall said:
It will be a pretty short book, with only four chapters to cover a 17-year period. He's 62-29 post-billboard anyways. Life is short, enjoy the present, it's been pretty darn good the past three years.
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Wood Hall so there was some good that came out of that damn billboard!
 
If that's all it takes, there would be billboards all over Chicago, Queens, Bloomington, etc.
 
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