by Mike Kern
 
Who knew?
 
Forty years ago, the University of Pennsylvania's basketball team went on the kind of NCAA Tournament ride that still resonates. And probably always will. Bob Weinhauer's Quakers, seeded ninth in the East Regional of what was then a 40-team field, made it to the Final Four by beating eighth seed Iona (coached by Jim Valvano and led by Jeff Ruland), top seed North Carolina (coached by Dean Smith and ranked third in the country), fourth seed Syracuse (coached by Jim Boeheim) and tenth seed St. John's (coached by Lou Carnesecca).
 
They would finally lose to Michigan State and Magic Johnson in Salt Lake City's Huntsman Center, the last Final Four to be held in an on-campus facility. They would also drop the consolation game, to DePaul (with Ray Meyer and Mark Aguirre) in overtime. So they crossed paths with a series of Hall of Famers, and more than proved their worth despite coming up short of their ultimate dream.
 
It was a Final Four that is remembered for giving us the first meeting between Magic and Indiana State's Larry Bird, in what at the pro level became one of the game's legendary rivalries. Yet for West Philly, the images remain ingrained and vivid for a much different reason.
 
And that group will be honored as it celebrates the four-decade anniversary at Penn's game against Princeton this Saturday at The Palestra.
 
"When you think about March Madness, that's what it's supposed to be about," said Weinhauer, who took four of his five Penn teams (1977-82) to the tourney, only missing in '81 when the Quakers lost a playoff game to Princeton after tying for the Ivy League title with a 13-1 record. "It still comes up, more so during the tournament. I know that's when I think about it a little bit more. It was a defining moment.
 
"You don't ever want to say never, but it's doubtful, the way the NCAA is set up now, that another Ivy team will be able to get there."
 
The only other Ivy team that had was Princeton with Bill Bradley in 1965. The Tigers, who needed to win three times to reach the semifinals, finished third. Penn lost in the East finals in both 1971 and '72.
 
Since the Quakers' improbable run, the only Ivy team that's even won twice was Cornell in 2008, which of course was coached by current Penn coach Steve Donahue.
 
So Weinhauer has a logical point.
 
Again, who knew? Only three teams since then—LSU in 1986, George Mason in 2006, and VCU in 2011—have also beaten at least three higher seeds to advance to the sport's last weekend. (in fact, all of those teams beat four higher seeds to get to the Final Four.)
 
Well, maybe the Quakers had a clue, coming off a four-point loss the previous year in the Sweet 16 to eventual runner-up Duke in which they'd led much of the way.
 
"We'd lost a couple of players, but we had a lot back, and we had seniors," Weinhauer, who is 79 and tries to play golf at least four times a week whenever possible at his home near Savannah, Ga. "So we felt we were going to be pretty good. Then we beat two ACC teams, Virginia and Wake Forest, early in the season. And at that time no league was better. So they expected to win.
 
"I don't remember any of them ever saying, 'Oh my God, we're an underdog.' I don't know if anyone overlooked us. A lot of our kids were from New York and Philly, and they'd been recruited by a lot of the schools we ended up playing, like Iona, Syracuse and St. John's. So when we played them, they wanted to show them something. They'd played against many of those guys in high school. And we ended up playing three New York teams."
 
Price, a senior forward from the Bronx, was the team's top scorer (19.8-point average) and rebounder (8.7). He led the Quakers in scoring in all six postseason games, with a high of 31 against DePaul. His 142 points were the most by anyone in the tourney.
 
"I didn't know that until years later," said Price, who runs a non-profit, where his children also work, on Long Island. "I was in a bar and someone told me and I didn't believe them. I figured it was Magic or Bird or Aguirre. But he was right. That's how I found out. True story. I was like, 'For real?' The only thing that mattered was winning.
 
"Once we started playing in the tournament, I couldn't wait to compete. Especially against teams that looked at the Ivy League as being not all that. There wasn't anything better than sending them home. We knew it was going to be a basketball game. We didn't care who we were playing. That's just the way we felt. And I guess it showed."
 
You think?
 
The Quakers, who went 25-7, were the first team to clinch a spot in the field (with three games left). They beat Iona on Friday March 9, 73-69. In the opener at North Carolina State's Reynolds Coliseum, St. John's had eliminated Temple. Two days later they beat the Tar Heels by one, the difference being a late free throw by junior guard James "Booney" Salters, another New Yorker. When St. John's knocked off second-seeded Duke in the nightcap, it became known down in those parts as "Black Sunday."
 
Penn's win over UNC marked the first time the Tar Heels lost an NCAA game in their home state, and it remained Carolina's only NCAA in-state loss until just last year, the 2018 Tournament, when Texas A&M beat the Heels in Charlotte.
 
"North Carolina had a bye, so their staff was sitting in the stands (for the Iona game)," Weinhauer said. "I don't think anyone in North Carolina thought we would win. But they didn't think St. John's would win either. The best part was, all four of our games were in North Carolina."
 
The following week they were in Greensboro.
 
"The place was sold out, but it was only half full," Weinhauer laughed. "A lot of fans didn't come. We had a couple of hundred people there. But we could hear them. I remember after we won there was a headline saying that Penn State was going to the Final Four. I don't think they knew who we were. I probably should have kept a copy.
 
"The great thing about playoffs is you don't have any time to think about it. It's always next game, next game. The kids said at one point, 'Just ride the wave and see where it takes us.' They were confident.
 
"I remember after our first bucket (against UNC) the crepe paper got thrown onto the floor. And the boos rang down. But that's what our kids did. They were excited. So we didn't care. And then we went out and did everything we had to do.
 
"We hadn't seen Michigan State play. There weren't 14 games on every night. We got one game film, from Dean Smith. They had beaten Michigan State in December."
 
Details. And after so many years, nobody is ready to forget.
 
Forward Tim Smith, who was also a senior, was a product of West Philly High. He's a resident of South Jersey, with a job in the city that re-trains people to develop new employment skills. And he acknowledges that not many days go by without someone bringing up the past.
 
"I mean, it was a long time ago," he said. "But it feels like it's only been maybe 10 years instead of 40. Wow, that is a long time. But people still want to talk about it. And they probably will 40 years from now.
 
"It's mind-boggling in a lot of ways. There's some younger folks (at his company), but we'll go into a staff meeting and the CEO will talk about it. Then the younger folks will go Google it. They can't just hear it, they have to see it for themselves. And they'll come to my office and say, 'I wasn't even born.' That happens on a regular basis. And it keeps me excited about what we accomplished back then.
 
"Or I'll be walking down the street and someone will shout out, 'Timmy.' And I know it's someone from the old days, because now I'm Tim. And they'll say, 'Hey, you're the guy from Penn.' So I'm still living that a little bit."
 
How can it ever get old? They did something historic. And they did it together. That won't change. They had a once-in-a-lifetime experience, even if it didn't end the way they wanted it to. But that can't diminish all the snapshots, or the unique bond they share. And embrace.
 
"It's incredible," said Salters, who is involved with real estate and accounting businesses in his native Long Island. "We never thought of ourselves as underdogs. No matter where they seeded us, we knew we were going to be perceived as an underdog. But we had a secret. That was our motto. And it wasn't what people thought it was. We just carried a chip around on our shoulder. We were players. It meant the world to us.
 
"When we beat Carolina, I don't think we realized how big it was. It wasn't a shock to us. Things were different. Today they'd be talking about it on 'Sports Center' for an hour. I think back then the game was only on back home and in North Carolina. Think about that.
 
"We weren't happy just being one of the final four teams. The pep rally at (Franklin Field) was probably the most exciting moment I had. Guys who didn't play were getting full-page stories. We weren't Cinderella. We belonged. Before the Syracuse game we saw a story about their backcourt. And Bobby (Willis) and I were like, 'OK, we'll see.' That stuck out, as much as anything else. They knew who we were."
 
So what was the feeling like, after holding off St. John's, again on a foul shot near the end from Salters?
 
"For us, the Final Four wasn't an unrealistic goal," Weinhauer noted. "That was our mentality. But it was just pure ecstasy when it was over. You're sitting there saying, 'Is this really happening?' But you knew you had to get ready for Salt Lake.
 
"There's a picture of me cutting down the nets, somewhere, yet I don't remember going up on the ladder and actually doing anything. I don't even know if they gave me a piece. But I know it happened, because there's a picture. I was interviewed by Bryant Gumbel, but I don't remember any of his questions, or any of my answers. But, you know, it's been 40 years."
 
Against the Spartans, Penn missed a few early layups and things got away from them. The following year, of course, Magic was leading the Lakers to an NBA title by scoring 42 in the final game against the 76ers.
 
"Nothing against the Sixers, but we did a better job defending him," Weinhauer said. "If we played them 10 times, yeah, maybe they beat us eight or nine. But we only had to do beat them once. We were able to do that against Carolina. We just couldn't do that against Michigan State.
 
"We were a better team that the final score (101-67). There's some disappointment that I carry around with me, still to this day. It stays with me. That's just me. Sometimes I'll say, 'What the hell are you doing?' That's my thing. I'll probably go to my grave with that slightest bit of disappointment."
 
And the planet keeps spinning, even after so much time. They are as close these days as ever. They've all been successful in the real world. And every time they get back together it reaffirms everything that is right about their relationship. And what it means. No matter what, they will always be connected. There is no other way. And yes, it is emotional. Just as it was then.
 
"I think we would have stayed close anyway, but what happened just really enhanced that," Salters insisted. "You can never truly separate yourself from that. Everything gets magnified. Someone's always reaching out. We stay in touch. It made us more of an extended family.
 
"I hope tears don't come to my eyes (at the reunion), but I know they will. I've got to man up, hold it together. But it's 40 years. They're my brothers, man. We talk like it was yesterday. That's how it is. And we'll just start laughing. You can't help yourself. It's a fact. Nothing can pull us apart."
 
Hopefully, they've got plenty more reunions left in them. And hopefully they only keep getting more meaningful.
 
"We trust each other, and care about each other," Price said. "It's a simple game. If you love each other, basketball is real easy. That was us. We looked out for each other, had each other's backs. Still do.
 
"It's a part of your life. I was angry we didn't win the championship. That's what we wanted. For many years after I was very disappointed by it. In my heart, I felt we were good enough. But Magic turned into one of the all-time greats. So I'm not ashamed (of that loss) any more. They beat the crap out of us. We didn't play well. But we weren't afraid of them."
 
And his son, A.J., went to the Final Four as a senior with Connecticut in 2009, where the Huskies also lost in the semis.
 
"We got bookends," Price said. "I would have loved two championships, like Scott May and his son (Sean). But it's still something pretty special.
 
"We all ended up at Penn for a reason. We could have gone other places. We became a tough, hard-nosed group. If you were open, you got the ball. If you were open and you didn't, then someone said something to the person who should have gave you the ball. That doesn't happen too often. Over time, like fine wine, it gets better. At first, I wouldn't even wear my Final Four watch. My mother told me it was because I wanted to win. So I wasn't happy. But I'm at a good point in my life. It'll be great seeing all the guys. Always is …
 
"We weren't Cinderella. They should have called us Hercules."
 
He won't get any arguments from his teammates.
 
"We could be a pretty cocky bunch," Smith said. "When we played in Carolina, it was like the Eagles when their fans go to away games … It's funny how so many great things happened that year, and you can only remember a few of them. But it makes for instant conversation.
 
"At the time, I really didn't understand the significance of what just happened. That came later on. But I know that in the locker room (after St. John's), some guys had tears in their eyes. And I was one of them. I mean, how many guys from Philly can say they've been to a Final Four? I will cherish that."
 
As will many others. It's that kind of collective hug. And that's forever.
 
Maybe the rest of us should have known better.