Introduction of 1972-73 Men's Basketball Team, presented by Brandon Linton, Tufts Men's Basketball Head Coach

When the Tufts men’s basketball team was selected as the Most Improved Team in New England for the 1971-72 season, Head Coach Tom Penders told those gathered at the awards ceremony: “I’m honored, but I hope we never have to accept this award again.”

The honor recognized the team’s rise from a 1-17 finish in 1970-71 to a 12-8 record in 1971-72, and Penders’ joke reflected his belief that the Jumbo basketball team would never again lose enough to even be considered for a “most improved” award.

As it turned out, Coach Penders was exactly right. Just one year later, the 1972-73 team would be so successful that we honor them here tonight with an induction to the Tufts Athletics Hall of Fame.

One of the great teams in Tufts and New England basketball history, the 1972-73 Jumbos finished with a 22-4 record, which remains the best single-season winning percentage (.846) in school history. With NESCAC schools ineligible for NCAA Tournament play at the time, the Jumbos won the ECAC New England Championship by defeating Williams College in double overtime, 95-89, at Cousens Gym.

“We knew that Tufts didn’t have a great basketball history then, and Coach Penders kept saying that we had to create our own legacy,” said Eddie Tapscott, a sophomore point guard on that team. “We thought we had some talented players, and we wanted to show everyone that Tufts could be known as not just fine academic institution, but one that had competitive athletic programs as well.”

And for this great team, tonight’s Hall of Fame induction isn’t their first. In October 2006, the 1972-73 Jumbos were inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.

"It was an extremely talented group of players, we had some real Division I talent," Coach Penders said. "I felt that team was good enough to win the national championship, and it was a little frustrating that we couldn't do that. We won all that we could, though."

It was Coach Penders’ second year as head coach at Tufts, and the team’s 22 wins set a Tufts record for victories in a season at the time. Their 89.1 points per game that year still stands as the highest scoring average in Jumbo history. With a balance of talent spread out across the entire roster, Tufts was also relentless defensively and dominant rebounding the ball. Tufts grabbed 53.1 rebounds per game that year compared to 38.0 for their opponents.

With many of the same players from the 1972-73 Tufts team returning for the next season, Coach Penders’ last at Tufts, the Jumbos finished 20-6. At the time those were the first back-to-back 20-win seasons in Tufts men’s basketball history.

The on-court accomplishments of the 1972-73 team were many, but they also had a significant impact on the Tufts community. 

“It was a very turbulent time for colleges,” Coach Penders recalled. “There were a lot of protests and a lot of division between students and faculty and no real interest in campus life or sports. But after we started practicing and playing, all that disappeared.”

“They were a group of guys that the whole community could get behind,” Bill Gehling recalled. “We could leave our political activism to the side and just be Tufts students cheering for the Tufts basketball team.”

“We really galvanized the campus community,” said Leroy Charles, a freshman on that team. “It used to be you could count the number of people at games on one hand. To see 2,000 people crammed into the stands, hanging off the rafters, sneaking in through the side entrance and through the trainer’s room - it was really a sight to see.”

Well, tonight, no one is sneaking in through the side door or hanging from the rafters – but we’ve got 300 Jumbos who are happy to be here cheering for the 1972-73 men’s basketball team all over again. 

To celebrate their well-deserved induction into the Tufts Athletics Hall of Fame, we welcome members of the 1972-73 team to the stage, and we invite team captains John White and Paul Daniels to say a few words.