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I wrote this Temple short story about 8 yrs ago & thought I'd share: Most colleges are about to start their semester break. Many college students take for granted being able to go home over Thanksgiving & Holiday break, to spend time with family, friends, and significant others.
Since basketball season is in full swing during this time I never got the opportunity to do that. For me, four Thanksgivings, four Christmases and four New Years from 1985-1989 were spent with my Temple family.
Even though on average 7 of the 10 players were within a 30 minute drive home, Coach Chaney did not allow anyone to go home for these holidays. Coach felt that if everyone couldn’t be with family on these days then no one would be, and we’d spend the time together as a team.
I understand this now. Imagine how Ramon Rivas would feel if all his teammates were home and he wasn’t in Puerto Rico. What was lost on me back then is that Chaney, too, didn’t spend this time with his family either on these holidays.
To ensure that everyone hung around and didn’t have thoughts of sneaking home, the longest practices of the year were on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years Eve and New Years Day. These practices would start at 9am and we didn’t get done until around 2pm.
Then we sat down as a team around 6pm for a nice holiday dinner somewhere. This was extremely hard for me my freshmen year. I’d never been away from home on holidays. The following years got only slightly easier for me.
My mother, however, didn’t like it then and doesn’t like the memories now. I had to convince her back then not to call Chaney to ask if I could get permission to come home. Just leave it alone, mom! It wasn’t all bad, though.
Since the dorms shut down over break the team stayed at (formerly) The Bellevue Stratford my freshmen and sophomore year, and (formerly) The Hershey Hotel my junior and senior years. I grew up in a house that, when the wind blew outside the curtains swayed inside.
And the dorm rooms weren’t exactly a palace. This was 5 weeks of luxury, with no school work, in comparison. It was always a great day when family or friends would drop in from out of town, or out of state, to hang out, be it an hour or a couple days.
We also got an NCAA approved per diem in the amount of $15 per day. That doesn’t sound like much but multiply by 35 days and that’s real money to a college kid that has none. I remember Howie Evans wanted his whole per diem in all $5s to make it seem like he had more.
Looking back I’m thankful this time was spent with the team because of the bond built with teammates, managers, trainers, coaches. Experiencing being away gave me an appreciated for being with family during these holidays now. You never know what events will shape one’s life.
