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Happy 83rd Birthday to Lou Carnesseca!

Saturday, January 5, 2008 , Posted by Christopher Byrne at 6:48 PM, under , ,

Athens, GA (Jan 5, 2008) - There were a some good tidbits thrown out on the television today. The first, over on ESPN Classic's broadcast of the Cincinnati - St. John's Big East tilt, is that Lou Carneseccatoday is former Redmen Coach Lou Carnesecca's (pictured left) 83rd birthday. He was in attendance for the game as the school donated part of the game receipts to Autism Speaks, a non-profit organization dedicated to funding global biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatment and a cure for autism.

For the younger readers here that may be young, Carnesecca was one of the original fiery coaches of the Big East known for winning...and his sweaters. The coaches box rule, being newly reinforced this season, made watching Villanova and St. John's games a lot of fun to watch.

I saw him coach twice in person. The first time was a game against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome during the 1980-81 season. The second, and most memorable, time was in the 1984-85 season. I returned to Niagara University to visit friends and see the annual loss to St. John's. What we did not realize was that the Purple Eagles were going to pull off a stunning upset of the then number 3 ranked Redmen led by Chris Mullin. The celebration was bedlam and made Niagara an answer to the following trivia question: In the 1984-85 season St. Johns lost 4 games, with threee of those losses to Georgetown. Who was the other loss to?

So Happy Birthday Looie and may you have many more!

This video is from the February 25, 1985 game between Georgetown and St John's, who were ranked number 1 and 2 in the country. Keep a close eye and see how "young" Bill Raftery looks.



And the other tidbits from today? With today's win at Kentucky, Louisville Coach Rick Pitino increased his record at Rupp Arena to 110-10. Not too bad, especially when it one can take a perverse pleasure seeing Kentucky lose at home, again....Chris Collingsworth, paired with Tom Hammond on today's Redskins-Seahawks game, pointed out an obscure rule. If Washington had been forced to punt and the Seahawks made a fair catch with no time left, the Seahawks would have had a free kick attempt at a field goal. Well Seattle did force a 4th down with 2 seconds left and stopped the clock. Luckily Hall of Fame Coach Joe Gibbs knew this rule and wisely chose to run the ball to end the half.

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