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District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis discusses Luzerne County crime concerns

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Easter bonnet contest a hit in Swoyersville

<p>Most sports fans can tell you about their earliest memories that began their interest in sports.</p><p>Most have a specific memory for each sport they follow.</p><p>As far as baseball is concerned, my earliest memories are going to Shea Stadium courtesy of the woman my mother worked for at the time. Evidently, she knew someone in the front office of the Mets. Each year for a few seasons, she would have her driver drive us to Shea and then we would get to go down on the field to meet some players.</p><p>With professional basketball, I became a Boston Celtics fan thanks to my older brother.</p><p>Not because he was one and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. It was for quite the opposite reason. He had a Strat-O-Matic basketball game that I loved to play. But if I wanted to play, he got to be the Philadelphia 76ers and I had to be the Boston Celtics.</p><p>So I became well acquainted with Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White, Tiny Archbald and company.</p><p>But some of my fondest memories are of my introduction to college basketball.</p><p>No, I never met the Wizard of Westwood or recall seeing Bill Walton take the Bruins to the national title.</p><p>I do remember watching Bird and Magic battle in 1979, but that isn&#8217;t at the top of my list.</p><p>No, my favorite memories of college basketball happened on a much smaller stage and right up the street from where I work now.</p><p>Back when Ed Donohue prowled the King&#8217;s College sidelines as the school&#8217;s head basketball coach, my uncle, William Monahan, worked the clock for the Monarchs&#8217; men&#8217;s games.</p><p>&#8220;Uncle Bill,&#8221; as everyone who knew him seemed to call him, would let me tag along to games with him. I had a seat of honor, directly behind the King&#8217;s bench and Donohue.</p><p>And let me tell you that was a treat.</p><p>Donohue had a passion for the game and certainly knew how to coach. From the 1968-69 season through the 1982-83 season he won a then school-record 201 games.</p><p>And, much like the guy in the Billy Joel song, Donohue was quick with a joke. (I don&#8217;t know if he would light up your smoke, I wasn&#8217;t even in my teens yet.)</p><p>I remember one particular game when one of the Monarchs&#8217; big men got flustered about what to do with the ball. No defender was near him, but all his teammates were guarded. Instead of simply dribbling down court the player threw the ball away.</p><p>Unfortunately for him, he threw the ball right to Donohue.</p><p>Dononhue grabbed the ball and used both hands to slam the ball to the ground and catch the rebound.</p><p>&#8220;Look,&#8221; he yelled to the player repeating the action. &#8220;It&#8217;s got air in it. It bounces.&#8221;</p><p>OK, may be it loses something in the translation, but trust me, it was hilarious that night.</p><p>Those King&#8217;s games had a little bit of everything that makes college basketball.</p><p>Cheerleaders?</p><p>Of course.</p><p>A mascot?</p><p>Yep.</p><p>King&#8217;s mascot, &#8220;Leo the Lion,&#8221; was always present. He roamed the sidelines and stands at the Scandlon gym on North Main Street in Wilkes-Barre every game. And truth be told, long before the Nittany Lion became my mascot of choice, Leo was my favorite lion. I even seem to remember an old beat-up stuffed version of Leo that I was told belonged to my father that I had as a young child.</p><p>Rivalries?</p><p>No games were bigger than when Scranton came to town. Scranton had a coach in Bob Bessoir who seemed to always say what was just on his mind, and that didn&#8217;t endear him to opposing teams&#8217; fans. Of course, it also didn&#8217;t help that the Royals were perennially one of the top teams in Division III, winning the national championship in 1983.</p><p>Crazy fans?</p><p>A group of King&#8217;s students that called themselves the &#8220;Cuckoo&#8217;s Nest&#8221; took a back seat to no one. I&#8217;ve heard stories that when the Monarchs played at Scranton, the students that made up the Nest would walk to the John Long Center from Wilkes-Barre for the game.</p><p>I&#8217;m not sure if those stories are true, but I do know the Cuckoo&#8217;s Nest kept a playoff game between King&#8217;s and Scranton from being played without the signing of the National Anthem.</p><p>Before the tip-off of the game, the public address announcer at the John Long Center in Scranton asked everyone to stand for the national anthem as typically happens at any sporting event. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the tape of the anthem, and after several minutes of trying, the teams were told to come out for the opening tip-off without the song being played.</p><p>The Cuckoo&#8217;s Nest would have none of that. As the referee was about to toss the ball in the air to start the game, the Cuckoo&#8217;s Nest started to sing the anthem.</p><p>Fans stood back up, the officials waited and the game didn&#8217;t start until the Nest was done singing.</p><p>So April 4 when everyone settles in for the championship game, you will excuse me if I would really rather be in King&#8217;s Scandlon Gym, sitting in my usual seat behind my Uncle Bill to watch the Monarchs.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">King&#8217;s College Coach Ed Donohue won 201 games with the Monarchs. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_The-Gang-643.jpg</photo1><caption1>King&#8217;s College Coach Ed Donohue won 201 games with the Monarchs. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Joe Soprano</p><p>Contributing Columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Joe Soprano at 570-829-7242 or on Twitter @jsoprano.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Joe Soprano: Keep the Final Four. Give me the Monarchs, Royals