1970-71 hoops team to be honored at halftime

The 1995-96 Penn and Temple basketball teams will not be the only ones taking the court at the Palestra tonight. The celebrated 1970-71 Penn basketball team will reunite to be honored at halftime in commemoration of its 25th anniversary. Many of the team's players have returned to Penn for the celebration, including Dave Wohl, the general manager of the NBA's Miami Heat, Craig Littlepage, the assistant athletic director at the University of Virginia, and Bob Morse, who has traveled from Italy for the reunion. In addition, several coaches and the athletic director during the 1970-71 basketball season, Fred Schabel, will be honored. One alum who will not have to travel far for the celebration is Steve Bilsky, a starting guard for the team, who is now Penn's athletic director. According to Bilsky, the 1970-71 team was one of the best in school history. "I think it was one of the greatest Penn teams ever -- if not the greatest," Bilsky said. "But of course I'm biased." Ray Edelman, an assistant coach for the 1970-71 team, agrees that the team stands out among many great Quakers squads. "They rank with the top Pennsylvania teams," Edelman said. "They were pretty special. Most of them had played in the previous year, and I think they lost maybe three games total." The 1970-71 team finished the regular season with a perfect 26-0 record. Only eight college teams have gone undefeated in the regular season since. After beating Duquesne and South Carolina in the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament, the Quakers' run was finally stopped by Villanova, 90-47, in the NCAA Eastern Regional Final. The Wildcats later had to forfeit the game for using an ineligible player. The team won both the Ivy League and Big 5 championships and finished first in the ECAC Quaker City Tournament at the Palestra. The team was ranked third in the nation by both the AP and the UPI college basketball polls. "We accomplished some outstanding things as a team," Littlepage said. "It was a fun group of guys that were very competitive, but were very different in their personalities and likes and dislikes. It was an unusually unselfish group. I had a great experience." Littlepage added that he misses his Penn basketball days, especially the competition and the interaction with his teammates "to distract us from the pressure." However, he said he is glad to return to Penn knowing that the strong basketball foundations developed in the '60s and '70s have been built upon by present coach Fran Dunphy. According to Edelman, one of the 1970-71 team's major strengths was the unselfish nature of the players. "They played together," he said. "I don't think anyone averaged more than 15 or 16 points per game. It was spread out, and we had depth." In fact, Morse, then a senior, led the team in scoring with 15.4 points per game. Then-junior Wohl finished a close second, averaging 15.3 points. Corky Calhoun, another stand-out on the team, who went on to play eight seasons in the NBA for the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers and Indiana Pacers, recalls the mechanics of the team, which won the most wins ever -- 28 -- by a Penn team. "All the guys got along together," said Calhoun, adding that the momentum of each win carried the team into each subsequent game. "We pulled off some games that maybe we shouldn't have won." During the halftime ceremony, members of the 1970-71 team, as well as coaches and the former athletic director will be introduced on the Palestra floor, where Penn Basketball Club President Tony Tanetta will present them with commemorative gifts. "It's a great university, and it's great to go back," Edelman said.

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