Army West Point Athletics
Wednesday, Feb. 17 - A Trip Down Memory Lane
February 17, 2010 | General
Good morning from Mady Salvani on a cold and wintery New York morning and there is nothing better to see than the Hudson River frozen. It is a beautiful sight. My uncle George (who has been dead for over 30 years) told me how he would ice skate on the Hudson River from Marlboro to West Point.
I can't imagine how cold a trip that would have been. In those days when few folks had automobiles (I think my uncle grew up when the T-Model Ford was popular), there was no one to pick you up and take you back home, so you had to skate back.
I am excited because softball season is just around the corner. This past weekend it was ironic that the softball team's flight to Atlanta, Ga., was cancelled because they were expecting snow. The Mid-Hudson didn't get any, while the South was pounded with snow. I spoke to the Sports Office at Georgia State and was told school was letting out early on Friday because of the snow and they had to cancel the tournament (First Pitch Classic) because neither Army nor Saint Louis could get flights. Western Carolina was busing to Atlanta, but they didn't know if they would be able to play because of the snow.
I love a snowstorm but not a foot nor do I like driving in it, but afterwards it is pretty in the Hudson Valley. It takes away the grey and brightens the landscape, however, when it starts to melt and gets dirty, it looses its charm.
I asked Michelle DePolo, our first-year softball coach, if there was any chance Army could host someone this weekend. I have a press box with heat, so for me I am comfortable but it is not the same for fans and players. However, the ground is frozen so they would not be able to play after getting the snow off the field. Can you image the hops the ball would take, it would be like watching hockey.
So, Army will have to wait until the end of the month for DePolo to make her debut when it heads to the George Mason Invitational in Fairfax, Va.
This weekend there is a lot going on at Army and I am very excited because it is Army-Navy basketball and I am looking for my first men's and women's sweep in several years. I will have my camera ready to take shots of the trophy presentation. The men have large trophy, but the women didn't have one until 1988-89 when Francis and Joe DeVitto established the Army-Navy Trophy. It was made by Tiffany's - that's right, I was shocked when they told me. I had to call to find out the dimensions - a crystal 5" diameter basketball which sits on a sterling silver pylon. Both school's seals are etched on the pylon, Navy claimed the first trophy at their court in Annapolis, but Army won the next nine and the DeVittos' were always there to present the trophy. They also were big Army supporters for softball and volleyball and football.
I expect to see both Joey and Francis on Saturday at the basketball games. I love doubleheaders because you get a double douse. Years ago it was tougher trying to get stats completed and distributed before the second game. I love those folks who came with state crew. As the game ends, you have a box with all the percentages and a compete play-by-play, and after distributing to coaches and staff I have at least eight minutes before the second half starts to grab something to drink.
Let me take you down memory lane and not one I would want to repeat today. You did stats my hand, one person called and the other marked down every category. Some schools had five or more doing stats - one person calling just rebounds to a crew while another called just field goals and attempts and another with miscellaneous stats.
We don't have work students at Army, so one sheet of paper was used ... top half Army and bottom half the opponent ... the various categories - FG-FGA, FT-FTA, Steals, Turovers, Blocks were colored or marked so I could find them quickly. The starters were marked in red and subs in blue.
We used dots or lines - my old boss used dots and never marked the fifth one. I used lines and put a line across for every five, that way it was easy to say how many baskets made or attempts (which was usually the larger number).
At halftime, we would assemble in a back room away from the crowd (many times folks liked to look over your shoulder) and put together a box ... you had to read the numbers across (I was always praying the score would be correct - if it wasn't, you were dead) for both teams. At the end you had to add all the numbers to see if the score was correct, if the box balanced - missed shots vs. rebounds - you were golden, but if it didn't you tried to find out where you might have gone wrong. Then you had to figure out the percentages for each player as well as team - we had a book before calculator's became popular to use. In the meantime, the clock was clicking away outside as we still had to run the stats on mimeograph - you could not make an error on this or it would smudge. If everything agreed you took the sheet to a mimeograph machine and hoped you would not crease it - because it always creased by the numbers.
Today the first folks to get stats are coaches (and they wait for them to evaluable the game), but back then they never saw stats as we were running around distributing sheets to the press and jumping back into our seats to get ready for the second half with seconds to spare. In the second half we used either a blue or red pen so we could be mentally check the score. Then the same scenario was executed at the end of the game, and then you had to get ready for the second game. Today we have the starting lineups half or hour before game time, back then, you were lucky to get it with 10 minutes to go.
However, it taught me a lot about the game and that is probably why I enjoy stats so much. But I love today's modern technology, especially stat crew which saves so much time. Today you can hit a button and get individual stats, team stats, play-by-play, and all kinds of options. You could get the same years ago but it would be hours of work along with human errors. If your typed stat sheet didn't balance, you had to go back and find your original corrections to make certain they were typed correctly. For me nine of out of 10 times the compiled stats came up wrong because of typing errors. Today it takes a few minutes for stats, yesterday it was several hours. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!
