RIP Denny Crum and thank you for the a top 5 Towson Sports Moment

[Tiger93 223]

I saw the news today that Denny Crum passed away at the age of 86. Condolences to his family and those that knew and loved him.

Two things come to mind as a Towson fan. The first is that he is a criminally underrated coach historically having won two national titles at Louisville. 

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/37589221/hall-fame-men-basketball-coach-denny-crum-dies-86

Second, and the one we all remember here, is that he gave us the opportunity to have what I would consider a top 5 (if not higher) Towson sports moment on January 30 1995 at the Towson Center. Such a fun game. The only true court-storming at Towson I was every part of and a game that our team played with such a passion in a year where we otherwise underachieved. The Jason Crump free throw line jumper and Deron Robinson's uber-athletic performance off the bench really stand out to me. Ralph Blalock also went for 26 points and five steals that game. Here is the boxscore. 

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/towsontigers.com/documents/2020/10/15/Towson_Louisville_Box_Score_1995.pdf

I don't mean to turn this into a negative, because I always enjoy looking back and celebrating that day. However, I don't know if our program has experienced a collective day of joy with that many fans since that time. The closest to me in basketball is the 2021-22 regular-season title, but the difference was how much campus was buzzing, how many fans were in attendance and the national attention the victory got. 

The only comparable thing in any sport was our run to the national title game in the 2013 FCS Playoffs, which was probably the biggest deal of any sport accomplishment in my time associated with Towson. It is funny because the Eastern Washington win was the biggest, but because the Eastern Illinois game was on a Friday and we were not competing with a lot on TV, that felt like the most amount of national attention a sporting event has gotten us since I have been around Towson (since fall 1993). I am sure I am overlooking something else. The off-the-wall one, might have the Oregon State game that Obama attended. 

[Chris Datres 264]

And if you were there that night and stormed the floor, here's your chance to find yourself:

 

[Tiger93 223]

3 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

And if you were there that night and stormed the floor, here's your chance to find yourself:

 

It is also a great chance to see some bad mid-90s fashion. 

[Blazer49 130]

14 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

And if you were there that night and stormed the floor, here's your chance to find yourself:

 

I have this saved on my YouTube account.  Myself and then girlfriend now wife are in this clip!  I stormed in 1991 when we won the ECC, stormed here and came thisclose to storming in 1997 against Michigan.  

[Tiger93 223]

2 minutes ago, Blazer49 said:

I have this saved on my YouTube account.  Myself and then girlfriend now wife are in this clip!  I stormed in 1991 when we won the ECC, stormed here and came thisclose to storming in 1997 against Michigan.  

You are lucky to have stormed in 1991. I arrived freshman year in 1993 and have never experienced what it is like for this program to play in a conference tournament final game. Someday. 

[mat1992 1,816]

Coach Crum appeared to be a class act and was a great coach who went to six final fours. By then, the magic was starting to wear off and while that was quite the impressive win, you wonder why we couldn’t do more with a pretty talented team. One of the more underachieving teams in school history TBH.

[Tiger93 223]

17 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Coach Crum appeared to be a class act and was a great coach who went to six final fours. By then, the magic was starting to wear off and while that was quite the impressive win, you wonder why we couldn’t do more with a pretty talented team. One of the more underachieving teams in school history TBH.

Yeah, they were quite inconsistent as evidenced by beating No. 5 Kentucky on January 1 and less than a month later losing to Towson by 12. They only played 12 games in the Metro Conference so their schedule that year is pretty interesting. https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/louisville/men/1995-schedule.html. 

Am I remembering correctly that the game got added to our schedule shortly after the season had begun? I remember it not being part of original schedule information and flyers being put it in November and December to let people know. 

[Blazer49 130]

26 minutes ago, Tiger93 said:

Yeah, they were quite inconsistent as evidenced by beating No. 5 Kentucky on January 1 and less than a month later losing to Towson by 12. They only played 12 games in the Metro Conference so their schedule that year is pretty interesting. https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/louisville/men/1995-schedule.html. 

Am I remembering correctly that the game got added to our schedule shortly after the season had begun? I remember it not being part of original schedule information and flyers being put it in November and December to let people know. 

I think you are right about that game being a late add.  Towson, although not as successful ended the regular season at Tennessee.  That was back in the day when conferences outside of the Big and PAC 10 were usually no larger than 8 teams and needed to play OOC late in the season.  Nowadays outside of Big 12/SEC Challenges it is rare for teams to play OOC games after early January.

[Tiger93 223]

6 minutes ago, Blazer49 said:

I think you are right about that game being a late add.  Towson, although not as successful ended the regular season at Tennessee.  That was back in the day when conferences outside of the Big and PAC 10 were usually no larger than 8 teams and needed to play OOC late in the season.  Nowadays outside of Big 12/SEC Challenges it is rare for teams to play OOC games after early January.

I forgot we played Tennessee that year as well. That was a weird and disappointing year with great highlights. I remember we had Scooter Alexander redshirted and we loaded up for the next year when started in the NAC (America East).

We went 12-15 and 6-10, but the season featured the Louisville win and two of the only buzzer beaters I can recall as a Towson fan at West Virginia (I remember listening to the radio to that game) and against Delaware at home. I believe Blalock hit both, the West Virginia I seem to recall was a little inside halfcourt. I know I am probably missing some here and there, but I don't remember very many other buzzer-beaters in my time rooting for Towson (1993-currrent season). 

[TSU88 805]

Such great memories. Was there, but didn’t storm the court. My 2nd best memory of the Towson Center, the 1st being our W in the ECC conference finals over Lehigh, which sent us dancing. Man I wish someone had 1 or both of these games on DVD. I’d pay good money