FSU Basketball...Then and Now

By Jim Joanos

Golden Girls

Attending a Florida State University men’s basketball game these days is a splendid thing. Sitting among eight to twelve thousand fans in a well lighted, air conditioned facility with band music, golden girl dancers, a huge electronic information screen, and t-shirts and food coupons falling from the rafters is really something to behold. And most of the teams the Seminoles play are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, probably the most prestigious college basketball league in the nation. The level of basketball being played is at the highest in the college world. It has not always been like this.

1946-47 TBUF Basketball Team

Officially, FSU’s first basketball season was the 1947-48 one in which Don Loucks served as the head coach. That was the first full school year in which the institution bore the name, "Florida State University." However, in the school year prior to that there had been an intercollegiate basketball team at the school. That team was composed of men from the 500 plus that were attending college at the women’s Florida State College for Women under the auspices of something named, "The Tallahassee Branch of the University of Florida," a temporary arrangement to provide space for veterans returning from World War II. The "T-Buffers," as they were called, engaged in several intramural sports but only one intercollegiate one, basketball. Under head coach, Ed Williamson, the same guy who would in 1947 coach the football team, the team had a 4 win, 7 loss, season. Its most important victory was one over the University of Tampa.

The T-Buffers played most of their home games at the old Dale Mabry air base gymnasium. Male students at the time were housed in nearby barracks that had also been left over from the military base. The gym facility had an excellent playing surface but very little room for the 200 to 400 spectators that might attend each game. The "West Campus Gym," as it was known, served not only the T-Buffers but was the home facility for the early official FSU teams.

It was my good fortune to have attended a number of games in that old gym. My older brother was a T-Buffer and later an FSU student who was kind enough on occasion to take me along with him. It was lots of fun. Some of the football players attended as spectators and one of them would lead the crowd in the "FSU All the Damn Time" cheer several times each game. On occasion, the half time entertainment consisted of a couple of acts from the FSU circus. The basketball players wore satin-like short-shorts with small belt buckles and two-handed shooting, especially free throws, was commonplace. Time outs were called to rest the players rather than as strategic moves. Substitution was mainly to rest "first stringers" instead of changing the dimensions and skill set of the lineup. The teams being played were mostly of the lesser known echelon of college sports. The team was still playing in the West Campus Gym when I was a student in the early fifties. The atmosphere was still much the same as the early years except the basketball was being played at a higher level against more respected teams.

1971-72 FSU Basketball Team

J.K. "Bud" Kennedy had taken over as head coach beginning in 1948 and was still in that position when the team made its major move from the old gym into Tully Gymnasium in 1956. The Tully Gym atmosphere was something else. Especially enjoyable was the dozen year span between 1967 and 1978 when Hugh Durham was the head coach and the team first became competitive on a national basis. In 1972, FSU stunned the college basketball world by going all of the way to the national championship game where they lost in a very close game to perennial national champion UCLA. About five thousand people would jam themselves into Tully Gym for home games during that time. The fold out bleachers were not built for such crowds. It was noisy and always hot. The rumor was that the fans were kept off purposely to affect the visiting team. The school was undergoing desegregation and so although most of the players were black, there was tension in the air as most black students preferred to sit in a group separate from the others. There were also issues pertaining to the Viet Nam War. But, nevertheless, once a game began, it was one of the most exciting basketball places in the U.S. The crowd stomped on the bleachers and yelled. It was tough on visiting teams but much fun for the locals.

FSU first moved into the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center in 1981. At that time, the head coach was Joe Williams and FSU was a member of the Metro Conference. The move was welcomed as the facility was more in keeping with other top notch facilities but, frankly, it took awhile for the fans to get accustomed to the new place. However, when FSU joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1991, the atmosphere picked up. Early success in the ACC was most helpful in improving the home game atmosphere. Since then there have been ups and downs in league play and most importantly, a 1999 twenty-one million dollar facelift to the facility which brings us to the present day situation where the team under Coach Leonard Hamilton is playing in a pretty good facility and the atmosphere as I said above is special. However, there are some nights when I just wish somebody would get up and lead us in the "FSU All the Damn Time" cheer.