Penn basketball memories: The Final Four

What would our collection of great moments in Penn hoops history be without a few from the magical 1979 season? Thanks to you, we've got a bunch of memories from the year when the Cinderella Quakers took it all the way to Salt Lake City for the Final Four.

Your favorite Penn basketball memory?

Favorite Penn basketball memory? Hands down, it's the *anticipation* of Penn's appearance in the Final Four in 1979. There was a pep rally -- yeah, hard to believe today -- which filled one side of Franklin Field with more than 8,000 cheering Penn students and staff. It was something to behold. Then, Penn charted two planes for students to fly out to Salt Lake City for the game, and a plane-full of 200 excited Quaker fans shouting "Show no pity in Salt Lake City!" was equally incredible. (Even the pilot got in on leading a few cheers.) And just walking around Salt Lake City the day before the game, where packs of fans from the four schools would spot each other and shout cheers and jeers across the street at each other in friendly competition, was memorable. (Sadly, the actual game, in which Penn got drubbed by the Magic Johnson-led Michigan State Spartans, was much less memorable.)

-Eric Jacobs, DP General Manager, Engineering '80

After watching Penn upset the #1-ranked UNC Tarheels on television, I remember traveling to Greensboro, NC for the Eastern Regionals in 1979 as a young teenager. First, Tim Smith & Booney Salters (my favorites) and the rest of the #9 Quakers knocked off the fourth-seeded Syracuse Orangemen with the Louie-Bowie show (Louis Orr & Roosevelt Bouie), followed by the tenth-ranked St. John's Redmen with Reggie Carter. Two of my best memories were the small crowds at the Greensboro Coliseum because it was the year of the Atlantic "Choke" Conference when Duke & UNC were upset before the regionals and the fact that when I wanted to buy a souvenir, they didn't have anything Red & Blue. It was all blue and white because they thought we were from Penn State and they only knew about that football program.

-The Voice of Franklin Field, John Alexander, College '87

The year Penn went to the Final Four! Including beating North Carolina in North Carolina, watching Penn beat Syracuse on national television (the Quaker had a sign that said "Peel those Oranges"), riding a train back to Philadelphia on the Sunday Spring Break ended with a train full of Penn students who took the first train back after watching the Syracuse game on tv, the sign someone had at all games all year that said "Show No Pity in Salt Lake City" and then watching on tv as Penn actually did play in Salt Lake City during the Final Four, and being at the airport to welcome the team home after the tournament. It doesn't matter that they ultimately lost -- the team they lost to had Magic Johnson on it, and the runner up had Larry Bird. It was so incredibly exciting that they were there!

-Deborah Jagoda, Wharton '81

The 1979 NCAA semifinal game with Michigan State in which the Quakers lost 101-69, I believe. My dad was in the hospital and it was the last of hundreds of game we watched together either on TV or in the wonderful, ancient Palestra.

-Jim Holt