Connie Hawkins said I’m the first person who ever admitted not being at the old Garden when undefeated Boys High nearly got sideswiped by Wingate High in the 1960 PSAL semis, arguably the most ardently anticipated “matchup” in New York City schoolboy history.
We’re talking the matchup of Hawkins vs. Roger Brown, not Boys vs. Wingate.
“Over the years, a million people must’ve come up to me and said they saw that game,” Hawkins said with a chuckle. “Wilt [Chamberlain] used to tell me the same thing about his 100-point game. Everyone in the world swears they were there. The same people probably attended both.”
More accurately, I was surprised to learn, the announced March 15, 1960, crowd was 11,000. Yet pictures and descriptions of the event flout that figure.
“The place was packed,” Howie Jones said.
Now 80, Jones coached the Boys Kangaroos that season. The incomparable Mickey Fisher, for whom he had played two years at Boys, took the year off to train Israel’s national team. Fisher asked Jones, then a Virginia Union assistant, to take charge, saying he would return the following season, which he did. The next year, Fisher died from a heart attack after becoming Brandeis athletic director.
Two days after Jones’ team escaped with a 62-59 win over Wingate and extended its unbeaten streak to 39, Boys repeated as public school champs — scarcely surviving Columbus.
Columbus coach Roy Rubin (the same guy who, in collaboration with Kevin Loughery, led the NBA record-setting 9-73 76ers the Nets are pushing to overtake) almost pulled off a palace coup by hoarding the ball against superior skill. The score was 4-2 at halftime. The final was unforgettable: 21-15.
Not remotely as memorable, I submit, as the 39-18 ultimate gulf that semifinal afternoon between the sheer-shooting 6-foot-5 Brown, who later contributed mightily to three ABA Pacers championships, and the designer-dunking 6-foot-6 Hawkins, later a four-time NBA All-Star and 1992 Hall of Fame inductee.
Hawkins came into the building as the nation’s most hyped-up child prodigy, yet wasn’t even Brooklyn’s finest by the time he fouled out with one second remaining in the third quarter after fruitlessly chasing Roger Rabbit far beyond and below the arc.
Brown busted out for 21 points in the first half, giving Wingate the lead by three. According to Ralph Blumenfeld’s Post account, four of his dial-ups before intermission were from the international date line. Overall, 11 of his total 17 field goals (of 34 attempts) were from “20 to 40 feet.”
“Why would I want to look back 50 years and think about that game?” Hawkins flippantly wondered when asked to reminisce. “That was the biggest game of my career ,and he lit me up. If the 3-point shot was in existence, he would’ve had 50. He kept going further and further back. The guy killed me!”
At the risk of being aberrantly impolite, I asked Hawkins why he was guarding Brown, though, Dr. Naismith knows, the individual marquee matchup furnished fans (and hoops historians) with theater normally unseen in such a consequential team confrontation.
“Why? That’s what I wanted to know,” Hawkins said jokingly, I think. “Guarding Roger was a challenge, and I took it willingly. Problem is, I didn’t respond too well. If I lay back, he’d stab me. If I crowded him, he’d fade deeper still or go around me.”
Only one person can provide the answer to the above age-old mystery.
“Mickey had warned me before the season,” Jones said, “there was one player we were going to meet in the semis or the final who was going to present a unique problem: Roger Brown. ‘If I were you, I’d have Connie guard him.’ “
Fisher explained his rationale to Jones: “The kid has uncanny range. Due to Connie’s arm span, he won’t be able to shoot his natural jumper. He’ll have to adjust and shoot higher.”
Jones said he couldn’t believe Hawkins’ stretch advantage had no effect on Brown.
“My mistake was staying too long with him,” Jones said. “I should’ve put someone more agile on him. Another mistake I made was not pressing Columbus in that 21-15 game. From that point on, I pressed teams that tried to take the air out of the ball.”
Conversely, nobody could press Boys.
“It was laughable,” said Sam Penceal, who played on two Boys title teams before he and teammate Vaughn Harper enhanced their reps at Syracuse. “Teams would try it for three or four plays and we’d have three layups and maybe miss the other shot.”
Wingate knew its limitations and conscientiously followed coach Howard Rosenstein’s one-man game plan. If not for Wylie Briggs — agile, tough, smart and a few inches smaller than Brown — Boys never would have overcome the loss of Hawkins. Throughout the fourth quarter, he all but turned off his jet faucet.
“We played man-to-man and Wylie denied, broke through screens — not that Roger needed them — and stayed on his right arm,” said Jones, whose Boys teams won four titles, the same number as Fisher’s.
Briggs, who died a few years ago from complications resulting from a stroke that had left him paralyzed, came through with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Two free throws by Fred Jones (12 points) preserved the verdict and unbeaten season after Jimmy Miller (eight) missed a breakaway layup off an outlet by Brown. Whitey (Tom) Kurowski rose to the occasion for six points, while Penceal hit one of two jumpers. Walt Davis, cousin of Ernie, Syracuse’s great running back, added three. Both Walt and Ernie Davis died in their early 20s — Walt in a car accident, Ernie from leukemia.
In 2003, the 1960 Boys team was enshrined into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.
In 2003, the ‘60 Boys team was enshrined into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame. Hawkins spent much of the evening at the side of Briggs who was restricted to a wheelchair. In his speech, Connie credited Wylie and Kurowski, the team’s lone Caucasian, for being richly responsible for the last two victories. Oddly enough, Brown was Wingate’s lone African-American.
“People knew Roger was a great player but Connie owned ‘God status,’” Evans said. “Boys appeared invincible. Nobody thought Wingate had a chance. I thought it’d be close. You could see Roger was on a mission.”
Brown, 54, died in 1997 from liver cancer. The last time Evans saw him, they talked about the game.
“He told him how confident he was, and how he was out to prove he was better than Connie,” Evans said. “They became tremendous friends, handout buddies.”
Brown and Hawkins played two years of outside ball for Mike Tynberg’s illustrious Gems, astringent rival of Howard Garfinkel’s Nationals.
“Roger and I never talked about the game that much,” Hawkins said. “He shot so incredibly well. He felt he was the winner. I felt bad because I played poorly [we should all have 18-point, 13-rebound outings] and fouled out. I didn’t feel that bad, though, because we won.”
peter.vecsey@nypost.com