Charlie Bishop: Always "the gentle giant"

A good free-throw shooter -- especially for a 7-footer -- Charlie Bishop, left, against Southwestern Louisiana in February 1967,
 Louisiana Tech's biggest victory in his title-winning freshman season. That's  Richard Peek (44, in white).
The game drew a sellout, overpacked crowd to old Memorial Gym. (Photo provided by La. Tech sports information department) 

    (Fifth in a series)
    When Charlie Bishop died a couple of weeks ago, it was sorrowful news for those of us who remember him. Seven-foot people are a rarity.
    He was a basketball player in the 1960s, a star at Louisiana Tech University, and for many of us, a bit of a legend. He was, as several friends noted, "a gentle giant."
    The end came on Valentine's Day when his system shut down. Many woes -- the death of a wife and then a long string of physical challenges, including amputation of much of his right leg and a broken bone in his left leg -- made the last two decades somewhat difficult for him. He was 68.
    He had two children who are proud of him -- and he was proud of them; he became a grandfather; and he married again (Barbara) and gained four stepkids. And he almost never stopped hunting and fishing, and working.
    We identified him, of course, long before as the "big kid" in basketball.
    He was, in the spirit of this series, the third part -- the youngest part -- of the "Triple Towers," three near 7-footers on Tech's 1966-67 conference championship team. Charlie was the closest of the three to 7 feet.
---
    I write without hesitation that at one time he was (1) the best basketball player from tiny Summerfield, La., and (2) the best 7-foot player from North Louisiana.
    And then he wasn't.
    Two all-time greats, both NBA stars and Basketball Hall of Fame inductees, erased that Bishop legacy.
    A few years later, Robert Parish -- from Shreveport -- became the 7-foot all-timer in North Louisiana.
    And about Summerfield, here's what you should know (and many do) ... that's Karl Malone's hometown.
    Some 15 years younger than Bishop, Malone -- not quite "The Mailman" yet -- did what Bishop couldn't do at Summerfield High School -- he led his team to a state championship. In fact, Malone led Summerfield to three consecutive championships (1979-81) in Class C, the state's smallest classification.
      And then Karl, picking up his famed nickname, delivered in college, too -- also replacing Bishop as the best player from Summerfield to star for Louisiana Tech.
    But Charlie stood tall in his time.
    He's still in the Tech record books, most notable for 33 rebounds in one game -- against Centenary as a freshman. I will vouch that 33 is the legitimate number; I kept the stats that night (and the guys from that era will tell you I wasn't charitable.)
    A season later, he had 39 points in one game (at Louisiana College), one of his four 30-point games at Tech. He had 1,398 points (at that time, only three Tech players had ever scored more) and 1,115 rebounds in 97 games.
    Some games he simply was the most dominant player on the floor -- just as he had been at Summerfield (but against lesser opposition).
    As a freshman on the 1966-67 Tech team, he was the final piece in an otherwise veteran team that rolled to a conference championship, a 19-7 regular-season record, and Tech's first NCAA postseason tournament (College Division).
    "What Charlie did that first year was important," said Leon Barmore, the senior guard, leading scorer and co-captain of that team. "He was very good at doing his job and blending in.
    "He was good at being the second trailer on the [fast] break. He could make the jumper from the perimeter; his scoring wasn't just around the basket. He had a nice shooting touch."
    In that season's most important game, a victory against a heralded, talented Southwestern Louisiana team that was led by the first African-American players to play against all-white teams in our area, Charlie had 20 points and 11 rebounds.
---
    Summerfield has no stoplight, not even a blinking light. Some call it a small town; I'd call it a place. Might be 1,000 people. It is at the top of once oil-rich Claiborne Parish, nearly into Arkansas.
    You have to be going there; it's rural.
    But college basketball coaches knew the way in the mid-1960s, or found where the Rebels were playing. Because this very tall young man was scoring 30 points a game, just overwhelming opponents. He showed promise to be a centerpiece for a program.
    Louisiana Tech head coach Scotty Robertson was a regular Summerfield visitor and got to know the Bishop family well.

The scholarship signing photo, spring 1966: (from left) Louisiana Tech
coach Scotty Robertson, big Charlie, Summerfield principal-coach
Bill Bailey (photo provided by Jan Bailey Carter)

    Summerfield is an easy trip to Ruston and Louisiana Tech, about 35 miles, maybe 40 minutes. And Tech had some recruiting advantages.
    The Summerfield principal-coach -- yes, one and the same -- was Bill Bailey, a standout Tech basketball player in the early 1950s, and he still loved the place. There was a student  -- team manager in basketball -- at Tech, Brian "Butch" Smart. His job, we kidded him, was to recruit Charlie Bishop.
    And so there was Charlie, in his red-and-white Summerfield letter jacket (large, extra long), sometimes sitting behind the Tech bench for home games. At times his parents were there, too, and very tall younger sisters Sandra and Cindy.   
    All the area schools wanted him -- and maybe he wasn't a major-college prospect -- but Charlie and the two Bishop girls were a cinch to go to Tech.
    He was Robertson's prize recruit ... until Mike Green three years later.
    And let's be honest here -- Tech paid a price (literally). The NCAA investigated the recruiting and a few years later, the Tech program went on NCAA probation for "extra" benefits given -- if I recall -- to Bishop (and his family) and Green.
    (Both Bishop girls played basketball for Summerfield, too, and were the leaders of teams that played in four consecutive Class C state championship games -- with titles in 1967 and '68, and as runner-ups in '69 and '70.
    This was pre-Lady Techsters days, so they were just students at Tech. Sandra went on to play for pay with the All-American "Red Heads," a Globetrotters-like women's touring exhibition team in which all the players -- aha -- had red hair.)
    Charlie arrived at Tech -- young, inexperienced, goofy at times but affable, able to take the teasing he often received from teammates and taunting from opposing crowds.
    "He was a big, good ol' country boy who was very easy to get along with," Bud Dean, a starter at forward as a senior the same season (1969-70) as Charlie, told a sportswriter from The Shreveport Times recently.
     Longtime Ruston Daily Leader sports editor O.K. "Buddy" Davis, a Tech student in the mid-1960s: "My lasting memory of Charlie was some oversized shorts that would invariably droop and he'd have to make necessary adjustments on the run."
     And Butch Smart -- a future outstanding coach and subject of one of my early blogs http://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2012/05/hes-taken-life-to-max.html -- was his advisor/guide/protector. He made sure Charlie was where he was supposed to be and doing what he was supposed to do.
     With Coach Robertson pushing him, and fellow big men Richard Peek and Bob Watson and the other team veterans showing the way, Charlie was a fit.
---
     There were -- and are -- people who felt Bishop didn't fulfill his potential at Tech, that he was lazy. I don't agree.
     As a senior, he teamed Green -- then a 6-10 freshman sensation, and in my opinion, Tech's best-ever player (better there than Malone or Paul Millsap) -- and that season ended with a 17-5 record and conference championship, too. So it was two titles in four years for Bishop.
     He led the team in scoring one season, in rebounding twice, and he made all-conference.
     "He was a rawboned, raw talent when he got there," said Jon Pat Stephenson, who started at small forward in Bishop's freshman season, "and he was pretty darned good when he left.
     "Charlie just tried really hard, harder than any of the others in the bunch. He probably improved more than anyone we had there in that time. ... I think Scotty did a great job with him."
     Tommy Gregory, a forward who teamed up front with Bishop two seasons and practiced against him often:  "Charlie helped us to the conference championship that year but could not play in the playoffs as a freshman.  Stupid NCAA rules then as well as the no-dunk rule the following year."
     Jim Pruett, a starting guard for two seasons with Bishop: "Charlie was a good human being and a very good basketball player. He had a good touch around the rim and greater [shooting] range than most big guys of that era. If he got hot, stopping him was a tough proposition."
    Pruett also recalled this: "Gentle giant. ... Periodically, something (probably Scotty) would set him off and it would be almost funny to see him angry ... because it just didn't fit him."
---
       In the 1970 NBA Draft, the Cincinnati Royals -- then coached by Boston Celtics legendary guard Bob Cousy -- picked Bishop in the sixth round.
    As Barmore, visiting with Charlie at a nursing home in his final months, recounted for The Shreveport Times: "He told me about going to Willis Reed's camp in the Catskills and every night he played in pickup games with Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Walt Frazier and Oscar Robertson. Can you imagine playing with all those guys?"
    Then Charlie tore up a knee, and needed surgery. He never went back to basketball.
    Maybe he lacked the drive for rehab or felt the game, the NBA player, were too fast, too talented, for him to compete.
    Soon he was married, had a family, stayed in the Ruston area and worked -- at T.L. James Construction, on oil platforms in south Texas, at Louisiana Pacific and then for the last couple of decades at Pabco Insulation, located in Grambling. Mostly he was a heavy equipment manager.

Charlie, with his children -- Lee and Hope

    He didn't dwell on basketball and was not a regular at Tech games. He did play in a few alumni vs. faculty games, said his son, Charles William Bishop III, known as Lee.
    "Daddy, as far as I can remember, always followed Tech's program," Lee said. "He would listen to games on the radio. ... I know he missed basketball just by the excitement I would see in him when he listened to Tech games, as well as the few times he took us to the games."
    Charlie's daughter, Hope Neuroth, is 45. Lee is 41, 6-foot-3 and a 17-year policeman in Monroe, La.
    Tommy Gregory: "I was truly touched by his son when he spoke at Charlie's funeral. A really moving testament of Charlie's life."
---
    In that eulogy, Lee told of his father's modesty: "... I learned of Daddy's basketball accomplishments through passing." How strangers would stop him and ask if he was the Bishop from Summerfield and Tech, as if 7 feet wasn't a clue. (With his bushy red beard, though, maybe he was not recognizable.)
     Lee: "Daddy as always would stand there with his hands on top of one another in front of him rocking slightly back and forth and would reply 'yes, m'am' or 'yes sir.' And would politely excuse himself from the conversation."
    Lee later added, "... But that was Daddy. He didn't brag or boast unless it was about his kids, nephews, nieces or [four] grandchildren."
    Lee spoke of Charlie's tough discipline at times with an "attitude adjuster" paddle, and of learning from his father about "a strong work ethic," "a strong family bond," "the value of self-worth, integrity, respect for others, and the satisfaction of doing for yourself. 
    "... But most of all Daddy and Mama taught us to have a sense of selflessness to put others ahead of yourself and for that I am truly grateful."

    He taught Lee about hunting, fishing, marksmanship, skiing, building and fixing things, how to cut steel and weld, how to start a garden, and how to barbecue the Southern way -- charcoal and wood, no gas.

    But in some ways, Lee said, he was "very 'old school.' He'd get our kids or Hope's kids to show him how to use an I-phone, how to do things on it."

    Most importantly, he taught about pain, life ... and death.

       "Daddy was a very loving father who taught me growing up the meaning of chivalry by example," Lee said. "He always would open doors for mama brought her flowers and candy and loved her passionately even after she was called home 16 years ago."  

--- 

     His health problems mounted over the years. The original knee problem evolved into two painful knees, for years. In 2006, Charlie had double knee replacement surgery. A fall led to a re-injury in his right knee and an implant replacement. 

     More trouble with that knee, subsequent surgeries in Houston -- and then the amputation of the lower part of that leg, and he began to learn to use a prosthetic leg.

    "He eventually fell and broke his hip and had to have hip surgery," Lee said. "He never walked again after that."

    Then he fell over in his wheelchair and broke his left femur, requiring a bone graft to repair, in September 2015.
    That led to respiratory issues during the operation, a prolonged hospital stay, recovery time and physical therapy in an assisted living center, and finally a return home right before Thanksgiving.
    Pneumonia in January 2016 sent him to the hospital -- for good.

    "He did not let it get the best of him," Lee said of all the problems. "He still did things he liked -- went fishing, shooting," and he was ready to go after deer again this year with a new rifle.
    A friend suggested that Charlie, over the years, "was kind of a loner, withdrawn from society" and that perhaps "his life had not turned out like he thought it would."
    Jim Pruett said that "Charlie and I reconnected a few years ago when Scotty was sick, and we talked periodically ever since. I did not know he was nearing the end.
    "Last time I saw him, at Butch [Smart]'s funeral [late May 2013], he was in a wheelchair with his wife rolling him around. Strange sight to see a 7-footer in a wheelchair.
    "Still, he was as friendly and as gentle as ever. I will miss him."
      Almost strangely, in his last years, Charlie was deferential to his old friends and teammates, addressing them as "Mr. (last name)" instead of by first name. He was told -- repeatedly -- he didn't need to do that, but it remained that way.
    Maybe it was because it was manners, that's how he was taught. It was his gentle way.
    "I always enjoyed visiting with him," said Leon Barmore. "He was such a polite man."

Fifty years ago, a championship team and season

      (Second in a series)
     One reason the 1966-67 Louisiana Tech basketball team was special to me, other than the friends: It was the first conference championship team I experienced in my four years (fall 1965-spring '69) at Tech.
     That 1966-67 team was my sophomore year. The only other Tech team to win a conference championship in those years was in golf of my senior spring, the last of many championships for legendary athletic director/football and golf coach Joe Aillet.
     Great as the football tradition was -- and is -- at the university, not even Terry Bradshaw, in his breakout junior season, could deliver a title (he did with the 1969 Bulldogs, but I had graduated). 
     Great as the Tech baseball tradition was, we missed a championship by a half-game in my freshman year, losing both ends of a final-day doubleheader after winning six consecutive doubleheaders.

Charlie Bishop and Richard Peek, back row, left side. Bob Watson ducked
out of this photo. (from the Shreveport Journal game story)

     So basketball provided the big thrills in many ways in that 1966-67 season, remembered for our "Triple Towers" at center -- Richard Peek, Bob Watson and Charlie Bishop.
     But that team had so much more ... and we thought from the start of practice this would be a great season. It was.  
     We had two veteran guards who could flat-out shoot -- senior Leon Barmore (you might have heard of him, as a women's basketball coach chosen to the Basketball Hall of Fame) and junior Jimmy Pruett, back after a redshirt season (knee injury).
      The other starter was senior small forward Jon Pat Stephenson (6-foot-3), the team's most versatile, fastest and all-around best athlete.
      The bench was strong, led by two juniors -- rugged 6-7 forward Tommy Gregory and tenacious defensive star Malcolm Smith (6-4). In many of the key games, they were on the floor at the finish.
      All five of those players, like Bishop, were from Louisiana. Two other top reserves were guards -- senior Billy Ray Stokes (Yazoo City, Miss.), a junior college transfer in his second year at Tech, and true freshman Wayne Smith (Tishomingo, Okla.) in his only year at Tech.
      Three key factors in this team's success: (1) the big guys, Peek and Bishop as a devastating low-post combo; (2) great balance, all five starters averaged scoring in double figures -- Barmore 15.6, Bishop 14.6, Peek 14.1, Pruett 11.4, Stephenson 11.1; and (3) solid defense -- if you played for Coach Scotty Robertson, you had to play defense ... or you'd sit.
---
       The season began with a victory against a "major" -- at Texas A&M. But December was rough, with four consecutive losses (none all that close) to SEC teams, and a tournament loss to Morehead (Ky.) State in Shreveport.
       Then came 17 victories in the next 19 games -- and an 11-1 record (and championship) in the Gulf States Conference, an all-Louisiana league with bus road trips and longstanding, strong and often heated rivalries.
       No rivalry then, and for the next few years, was more intense than Tech vs. Southwestern Louisiana -- USL. Coach Beryl Shipley had one of the first integrated programs in the Deep South, maybe the first, and Shipley had gone far to recruit very talented -- and many suspected, well-financed -- players.
        This USL team was the first of that program's powerhouse era, which included a couple of NCAA Tournament Division I bids and -- eventually -- a "death penalty" handed out by the NCAA for a large number of rules violations.
        Frankly, we did not like those guys. There was an arrogance about the Ragin' Cajuns. So beating USL twice was the highlight of the season, the difference between first and second place.
        In the first meeting, the first game of 1967 (Jan. 4), Tech won 72-66 on USL's floor. I won't forget that score, hopefully; I remember looking at the scoreboard afterward at old Blackham Coliseum in Lafayette and thinking: This is a huge win.
        But the second meeting, a month later in Ruston, was -- in reality -- the conference championship game. We were tied for first place, and Memorial Gym (which seated 5,000) was crammed to the rafters with about 6,000 fans. It was one of the tightest, most tense games I can remember. I've rarely been more nervous about a game -- and I was just keep statistics.
        Our fans went crazy often that night, especially on dunks by Peek and Bishop which shredded USL's vaunted, stretched 1-3-1 defense. Barmore had 22 points, Bishop had 20 and Peek had 14 rebounds.
        Tech 80, USL 78. Beautiful. Good Guys beat the Mercenaries.
        (I have told people for years: In my four years at Louisiana Tech, this game and victory were topped in athletics only by the Terry Bradshaw-to-Ken Liberto, 82-yard touchdown pass in the final 25 seconds to beat Northwestern State in the 1968 State Fair Game in Shreveport.)
        The GSC title clincher came a few games later by beating another hot rival, Northeast Louisiana, at Memorial Gym. And with a final 19-7 regular-season record came an NCAA Tournament (College Division) invitation -- a first for Tech.
---
        So it was off to the four-team Midwest Regional in Bloomington, Ill., where Illinois State was the home team. It was a plane trip (rare for Tech teams in those days), but without Bishop and Wayne Smith because freshmen were ineligible for College Division postseason play and in Division I, period.
        Without Bishop, the opening-round game was a challenge because North Dakota (19-5 record) had a gangly 6-8 forward/center who was setting all sorts of school records and, we heard, was a hot NBA prospect. His name: Phil Jackson.
        Yes, that Phil Jackson -- two NBA championships as a player (New York Knicks), a record 11 rings as a head coach, and currently running the Knicks.
        The North Dakota coach was Bill Fitch, who 14 years later coached the Boston Celtics (with Robert Parish) to an NBA championship. Fitch's assistant, Jimmy Rodgers, also went on to become a Celtics' head coach.   
        Jackson played well against Tech (21 points, 9-of-13 from the floor), but he didn't dominate. Fact is, Jim Hester -- future New Orleans Saints tight end -- was the Sioux's top scorer with 22. But Tech's balance -- five double-figure scorers, led by Barmore (20) and Stephenson (18), and one near-miss (Gregory had eight) -- led to an 86-77 victory. Peek had 13 points, 10 rebounds.
       That set up a game against Illinois State for a trip to the College Division final eight.
        In the consolation game the next night, Jackson had 52 points against a school named Parsons. The regional title game that followed wasn't pretty for us.
        Illinois State won in a rout and our wonderful season (20-8 record) was finished. So were the college careers of our seniors, including Peek and Watson.
        Bishop remained at Tech for three more seasons and he wasn't a great star, but he starred in many games. Tech basketball played on -- for 50 years, and the women's program founded in the mid-1970s became more of a national power than the men's program.
         Life had just really started for those of us at Tech then, adulthood -- hard as some of us fought it -- and careers awaited. But we had those sweet memories of that basketball season.
         (Next: Bob Watson, big man in town) 

   

A long-ago basketball team that hit the heights

     (First in a series)
     They were our "Triple Towers" -- a basketball team with, if you can imagine, three (nearly) 7-footers.
     It's only been 50 years ago, just a short passage of time. But the memories of the 1966-67 Louisiana Tech University team are clear to those of us who were there.
     It was a championship team, the first Tech team to play in an NCAA Tournament (College Division).

photos from Shreveport Journal, 1967

     And it had that huge front line -- 6-10 senior Bob Watson, 6-11 senior Richard Peek and 7-foot freshman Charlie Bishop. 
     That was unique then ... or in any season. Opposing teams weren't necessarily intimidated, but they took  notice. It had to be one of the country's tallest teams.
     A friend recently suggested I write about those big guys, and that season, and -- to be honest -- although I stay in touch with several of the players from that team, I was not current with the three centers.
     To my dismay, as I began to research, I found on the Internet that Richard Peek, the only one of the three to make a professional regular-season roster, died two years at age 70. Then the news came that Charlie Bishop had died in Ruston -- home of Louisiana Tech -- on Valentine's Day at age 68. 
     I also found a story from May 2014 that Bob Watson was retiring after 29 years as the superintendent of schools in El Dorado, Ark. He still lives in that city, about 53 miles and one hour directly north from Ruston.
     Peek was from Pensacola, Fla., a metropolis compared to the hometowns of Watson (Logan, W.Va.) and Bishop (Summerfield, La.).
     In 1966-67, they were part of a classy, unselfish team -- the best team in our little part of the world. The big guys were fun to watch; the whole team was. 
     These Bulldogs played hard, they were competitive -- and they were smart players. They reflected the head coach, Scotty Robertson. 
     They were serious about winning, but there was lots of joking and laughter. It was a close-knit, friendly, happy bunch, even the team managers and one student sports information assistant/statistician/would-be sportswriter. 
---
     Watson arrived first, coming to Tech in 1964 as a transfer from home-state West Virginia University, where he spent part of one year. When he became eligible to play for the second semester of the 1964-65 season, he became the tallest player in Tech's long basketball history.
     He joined a team that was talented but lacked any significant height. And he was an immediate sensation, although that would not last.
     Peek arrived a few months after Watson and sat out a season as a transfer. He also originally had stayed in his home state, going as a heralded recruit from Escambia High School to the University of Florida, where he had played for two seasons (one on the freshman team, one as a varsity letterman).
     Peek was a starter from the start for Tech in the 1965-66 season, averaging 17.4 points a game and leading the team in rebounding. He basically replaced Watson, who had been ill and never regained a regular spot.
     A team with no seniors showed promise late in the season, going from a 6-9 record to eight victories in the final 10 games, including the memorable comeback from six points down with 21 seconds to play against Centenary (the "Donnie Henry punch game," subject of a previous blog piece: 
http://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-punch-line-what-finish.html).
      So the only starter not returning for the 1966-67 season was shooting forward George Stone, who opted for a pro baseball career (and made the majors).
     His starting replacement: Charlie Bishop. We went from 6-foot-3 to 7 feet. Prospects for this team were promising.
     Bishop was a true freshman in the fall of 1966, a much sought-after recruit by Robertson (about to enter his third season as head coach at Tech), a player with size that had rarely -- maybe never -- had been seen in North Louisiana. He had some ability, he'd averaged close to 30 points a game for his Class C (smallest classification) school, but he was a raw college prospect.
    Charlie wasn't shy, he was willing to work, eager to learn and Peek -- quiet, reserved, determined and a polished, skilled offensive player with strong moves around the basket -- was a mentor.
    Fans loved them, especially their dunks off lob passes from the wings or guards, as Robertson installed a double low-post offense. That helped beat a lot of teams.
    Watson was the roughest of the three centers and while he played mostly in a mop-up role, the home fans loved him, loved his spirit. He was a crowd favorite. He was all arms and legs, and jerky motion, and action always picked up -- one way or the other -- with him on the floor.
---

    Peek was drafted by an NBA team, but played with the Dallas Chaparrals the next season, the first season of the American Basketball Association. Two trades and a hurting body convinced him to stop playing ball.
    Watson graduated with a BA degree in Education, then earned a masters' degree in Speech and moved into a 45-year career as an educator/administrator.
    Bishop played three more seasons at Tech and started 97 games in his college career. He was Tech's No. 4 career scoring leader (1,398 points) when he finished, he made all-conference, and his 11.5 per-game rebound average is still fourth on the all-time Tech list (Peek is No. 5 at 10.3).
    Bishop had a shot at the NBA, but a knee injury spoiled that, and basketball was soon over for him.

Bob Watson

     A little-known secret, as I remember it: None of our "Triple Towers" were 7-footers then. Not even Bishop.
     Watson was a hulking 6-10, kind of a stooped figure at times. We listed Peek at 6-11; the next year the Chaparrals made him a 7-footer. His widow, Carole, says he actually was 6-10 1/2.
     And Charlie was listed as 6-11 in high school. Measured before his freshman season, he was 6-11 3/4. Close enough, said Scotty Robertson, let's round it up. So he was listed as 7 feet. Maybe he grew into that.  
    Here is a thought I had: Not many fireman were as tall as Peek (that was his occupation for 33 years in Dallas); not many school superintendents were as tall as Watson; not many industrial mechanics were as tall as Bishop. They were -- pun here -- in the upper echelon of their professions.
     I can tell you for sure that those three big guys were all popular and friends with their teammates.

Charlie Bishop

     Subsequent three blog pieces will tell of the lives of our "Triple Towers." They each had interesting and what I consider rich lives -- careers, many interests, families they were proud of (and families proud of them). They had to deal with tragedy -- a son killed, a spouse's death, and for Peek and Bishop, debilitating health issues in later years that led to their deaths.         
     Louisiana Tech has had many outstanding men's basketball teams, before and after -- 21 conference champions. The 1966-67 team wouldn't make my top five of Tech teams, maybe not even top 10 (when Tech moved to Division I, the schedule got tougher and the talent got better).
      But this isn't an objective sportswriting piece. That "Triple Towers" team in 1966-67 were my guys -- and they still are.
      (Next: A championship team and season)