It’s All About The Buck
I don’t know, Skippy. Maybe it’s me. I spotted this story about this 56-year-old billionaire named Mike Repoe at the top of the front page in the New York Times the other day. As a kid from Queens, Mike was a big fan of the St John’s University basketball team. They had some real powerhouse teams then. Players coming from the gyms and playgrounds of New York City.
As Mike got rich selling Vitamin Water and Bodyarmor SuperDrink, St John’s basketball was in decline season after season. So Mike, who claims to have graduated from St. John’s, threw in four million dollars in the last year to recruit and pay the best players. He says he’ll do whatever it takes to bring St. John’s a national championship. As of March 14, they were ranked 6th, with a record of 27 and 4.
This story reminded me of one my dad told me as a kid. He went to Holy Cross College then was off to the Army for a two-year stint before coming back to Holy Cross. The skinny kid in the next room over from my dad was from New York City. His name was Bob Cousy and he played basketball for the Crusaders. The team had a bunch of good players who clicked. Attendance at the school at the time was 1,500. No big money behind the team. But Dinky Holy Cross went on to win the 1947 NCAA national championship.
And later in 2022, there was another great Cinderella story when Saint Peter’s University almost went all the way to the national title and captured every fan in America. The Peacocks were from Jersey City ,New Jersey with a coupla thousand students and hardly any athletic budget. Things were so bad for that team they had to postpone home games because the gym roof leaked.
College basketball and March Madness has always been about these small unknown schools like Holy Cross and Saint Peter’s making a run for it. I don’t have any problem with players being compensated, especially when you think about what the schools take in, but let’s keep it real. Don’t let some big-buck billionaire scoop up the best players and buy a national championship. Just sayin’.
Keep your dukes up.
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