A sad day for Gibbons students, staff and alums, as well as the MIAA
3/5/2010
by Gary Adornato
When Loyola Blakefield head basketball coach Josh Davalli has traveled to Cardinal Gibbons to coach against his alma mater, he has found it strange to find himself standing on the opposing sideline. Nonetheless, he felt at home and was happy to be around old friends and familiar faces.
Today, Davalli is sharing a sense of loss with all Gibbons alums, as well as the current students, faculty and staff of the fabled west Baltimore institution which opened in 1962. The Archdiocese of Baltimore, siting declining enrollment and mounting debt, announced Gibbons would be among 13 area Catholic schools to close its doors for good at the end of the current academic year.
"It is sad to see that the school will be closing. I know that there are some people who spent many years of their lives putting all that they had into the school and it is unfortunate that it has to close," said Davalli, who graduated from Gibbons in 1996 and played basketball for the legendary Ray Mullis. "It was a special place to many people and even though it will be gone, we will all still have the memories we gained while being at the school."
Fond memories of Gibbons extend well beyond those attached to the school. For decades Mullis, who passed away during Davalli's junior year after a difficult battle with pancreatic cancer, thrilled Baltimore area basketball fans with his great teams.
Mullis won 621 games and six Baltimore Catholic League titles, more than any coach in league history. Among the many stars to come forward from his great teams at Gibbons was Quintin Daily.
Daily was the quintessential high flyer of his day. Fans packed gyms all across the region to witness his spectacular dunks and innovative shot making ability. Daily was a three-time BCL All-Tournament selection and he led the Crusaders to the 1979 league title before going on to the University of San Francisco and a successful NBA career with the Chicago Bulls, L.A. Clippers and Seattle Super Sonics.
Prior to Daily, there was Norman Black, who played in two BCL title games before graduating in 1975 with one championship. Black went to St. Joseph's (PA) from Gibbons and averaged 17 points per game during his college career. He then battled his way up the professions ranks in the Continental Basketball League (CBA) before making a brief three game appearance with the NBA's Detroit Pistons.
Black closed his playing career in the Philippine Basketball Association where he averaged better than 40 points per game over five seasons and then spent 17 years as a successful head coach in the PBA.
Another well known Gibbons basketball alum was guard Steve Wojciehowski. A blue-collar basketball junkie, "Wojo," as he was known, was on the 1994 team (with Davalli) which won the school's last BCL crown, as he earned MVP honors and, later, was named State Player of the Year.
Wojciehowski was heavily recruited, especially in the ACC, where he elected to play for Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski. At the time Wojo had doubters who did not feel he could succeed at a program such as Duke, which was in the early stages of the national basketball prominence it enjoys to this day. All the Gibbons' product did in Durham was become a two-time All-ACC selection and the National Defensive Player of the Year in 1998.
Shortly after his playing days ended, Wojciehowski joined Coach K on the Duke sidelines and has served as his top assistant ever since.
Gibbons' athletic prowess was not limited to basketball.
The football program produced Jean Fugett, a tight end who made the jump from tiny Amherst College to the NFL. In today's world of combines and scouting agencies on every corner, many small college players are able to find their way to the NFL, but that was not the case in the early seventies.
Still, at 6-foot-3 and 225 points, with excellent speed and great hands, Fugett was hard to overlook. He played eight seasons in the NFL, with the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins, earning a Pro Bowl selection in 1977. Following his football career, Fugett became a successful businessman, running TLC Beatrice International, the largest black-owned and managed business in the United States, at its peak.
Any discussion of Gibbons football could not be complete without mention of Vaughn Hebron, the electrifying running back who set countless high school records before re-writting much of the Virginia Tech football record book. Vaughn also went on to play in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos, winning a pair of Super Bowls while in Denver.
The lure of Gibbons also has ties to the great Babe Ruth. Ruth was not a Gibbons' student, but he did grace the grounds when the St. Mary's Industrial School resided on the property.
St. Mary's was a Catholic institution for troubled youth operated by the Xaverian Brothers. Ruth was sent there in 1902 after a Justice of the Peace determined he was "beyond the control of his parents." He spent the next 12 years there where he was eventually discovered as a baseball talent and signed to a professional contract.
In 2002, former Gibbons baseball coach Lou Holcomb presided over the refurbishing of Gibbons' baseball field and it was renamed Babe Ruth Field.
Of course all the great tradition does not lessen the impact on the current students and staff who must move on to new schools and new jobs. They are the ones affected most.
"It was really hard when I found out today we're going to be closing down," said an emotional," Chris Kemp, a junior member of the basketball team, which played the final game in the program's history last Saturday when Gibbons fell to Mount St. Joseph in the BCL semifinals. "I really felt like I found a home. [Coach Jeff] Cheevers and my whole team, we were just devastated when we found out the news. I love this school."
Season Murphy, a 2001 graduate of Gibbons and a member of the school's faculty had similar thoughts.
"As an alumni and current teacher, I am very sad about this situation," said Murphy. "I understand the Archdiocese has to make decisions based on the current economy. We're all hoping the decision is reversed at some point, but we all understand the Archdiocese has to do what they think is best. As alumni, we'll continue to support the school in any way that we can."
The loss of Cardinal Gibbons will be felt in the MIAA, which saw another charter member - Towson Catholic - close its doors last summer. Like Gibbons, Towson Catholic competed in the MIAA A Conference and Baltimore Catholic League for basketball. The BCL, which was nearly closed down by the school principals prior to this season, will now be down to six teams, pending the possible acceptance of new applicants.
"It's unfortunate. This impacts our league, but that takes a back seat to the impact it has on the staff and families at the school," said MIAA Executive Director Rick Diggs. "Gibbons has a great basketball tradition, a strong football program and they have a very good baseball outfit. It's a loss."
For another key figure in the MIAA, Calvert Hall athletic director and baseball coach Lou Eckerl, the loss of Gibbons hits very close to home.
Eckerl was two-sport star at Gibbons and spent seven years there as a teacher and a coach before accepting the AD job at Calvert Hall. He led the school's first A Conference baseball championship team in 1982.
"It's very sad. I received a great foundation there as a student and an athlete and it prepared me for college and life," said Eckerl. "My time there after college also helped me prepare for what I am doing now. I have great memories from there."
