When Philly hoops' finest wanted Penn

The phone line was silent for a moment as Gene Banks remembered that windy December night in 1979 when he walked into the Palestra for the first time as a member of the Duke basketball team. Slowly, he began to recount how a capacity crowd came to see Penn, a Final Four participant in 1979, play the Blue Devils, an NCAA finalist in 1978. But moreso, the fans congregated to welcome Banks, a junior All-American forward, home to Philadelphia. "My first game back in Philadelphia was actually at the Spectrum against La Salle freshman year," Banks said. "But I really couldn't get an idea of how people felt [about my leaving the city for Duke] because the Spectrum kind of swallows up individual voices. But at the Palestra the seats are right on top of the court so you can hear everything." And the reception was as miserable as the weather outside. Banks looked around the Palestra and saw vengeful banners, including "Banks is a Traitor to the City." As he was introduced in the starting lineup, a chorus of boos and profanities followed. "It really hit me how resentful people were," said Banks, who no longer harbors ill feelings toward the people of Philadelphia. "But what hurt me even more than the boos was that they didn't understand what was going on. If it wasn't for the freshman rule in the Ivies (prohibiting varsity eligibility), I would have been at Penn]. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it." · In 1977, Gene Banks owned the city of Philadelphia. As a senior at West Philadelphia High School, the 6'7" Banks was not only all-city but also all-state and All-America. "He came to us in 10th grade and he was just a man," West Philadelphia High coach Joey Goldenberg said. "His skills were better than anyone before or since. He had such great charisma, an aura of specialness." Every school in the country wanted Banks. And he wanted Penn. As early as 10th grade, Banks would stop into Penn head coach Chuck Daly's or Assistant coach Bob Weinhauer's office in Weightman Hall. Penn, in the midst of a glorious decade of eight Ivy League championships, its improbable berth in the Final Four and its near misses of others in 1971 and 1972, naturally attracted Banks. "Basically, Penn was my initial choice," said Banks, a member of the NBA's Chicago Bulls who is currently recuperating from an achilles tendon injury he suffered last summer in Philadelphia's Sonny Hill league. The other inroad that the Quakers had in the Gene Banks Sweepstakes was the coaches' relationship with Goldenberg and West Philadelphia High. "We had a good rapport with Joey Goldenberg, and we had Tim Smith, who was their captain where Gene was a junior, on our team," Weinhauer said. "You could say that we had a pretty good line of communication." But when it was time to declare what college he would attend, Banks emphatically chose Duke, coached by Bill Foster. "Banks was the impetus for us to keep going in the NCAAs," Foster said. "We were a Gene Banks away from that next level. And he brought us there." Penn had been shunned, and the Quakers had lost the chance to grab arguably the best high school player in the nation. "Although were into speculation here, I think it's safe to say that the impact Banks would have had on our program would have been enormous," Weinhauer said. There was one reason, and one reason only, for Banks choosing Duke over Penn -- varsity eligibility for freshmen. · In 1972, the NCAA Athletic Commission succumbed to the pressure of its coaches and declared freshmen eligible to play varsity basketball. Each league followed suit, except for one -- the Ivy League. "It's hard to argue whether the Ivies were behind or ahead," said Andy Geiger, former athletic director at Penn and current holder of the same position at Stanford. "Just because the NCAA set new guidelines is no reason the Ivy presidents had to follow suit. That was not their philosophy. The freshman year is traditionally one of tremendous adjustment. The presidents didn't want to tinker with the philosophy." So when Banks realized he couldn't play his freshman year, his mind separated from his heart. Duke, Notre Dame and UCLA entered the picture. "Penn had some players playing varsity who I was better than in high school," Banks said. "My mission from the start was supposedly to resurrect the Big Five. But why should I play frosh ball and risk injury when I can play varsity and have a chance at the Final Four?" Banks went to Duke and played on the 1978 NCAA runner-up team his freshman year. Ironically, the Blue Devils faced the Quakers in the second round of that tournament and barely survived, 84-80. The next year, Banks watched on television as Penn slithered by lona, North Carolina, Syracuse and St. John's in a tantalizing run that ended with a 101-67 semifinal loss to Michigan State in the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird Final Four. "When I look at that team, I try to place myself on the same front line with Tony Price and Matt White," Banks said. "I'll tell you even without me that was, besides the l971 Corky Calhoun team, the best Penn team ever." When Duke and Penn met in the second round of the 1980 NCAAs, the Blue Devils were without Gminski and guard Jim Spanarkel (who had both graduated in 1979). The team was basically all Banks. "We had them for a while," said Weinhauer of Duke's 52-42 victory. "Put Banks on our team and it's a different story, because he's worth much more than 10 points." · On December 7, 1977, less than a month after Banks verbally committed to Duke, the Ivy League responded to enormous pressure from its coaches, as blue-chip players continually shunned its schools. The league instituted freshman eligibility. As Geiger said in the December 8, 1977, issue of The Daily Pennsylvanian: "Freshman eligibility in the whole industry is against my philosophy. I don't like it. But when you're the only ones left [without it] you have an anachronism on your hands that's very difficult to deal with in a practical way. It's causing us to sink." Ten years ago all that separated Banks from attending Penn was freshman ineligibility. Banks' decision to enroll at Duke was proof that the rule was causing irreparable damage to the Ivy League. It's amazing to think what a player of Banks' caliber would have done to not only to the Penn teams of the late 1970s but also to the future of the Quakers' program.