Tennis Balls Cost Vandy SEC Title

Tennis Balls Cost Vandy SEC Title

2/15/2006

by Bill Traughber

Whenever longtime SEC basketball official John Clougherty visits Memorial Gymnasium, you might notice the booing and hissing sounds from Commodore fans when his name is announced.

The reason for this “welcoming” was an infamous call Clougherty made on a winter night in 1989 that would eventually cost Vanderbilt a share of the SEC regular season championship.

January 23, 1989 was the beginning of an emotional week for the Vanderbilt men’s basketball team. On that Monday evening, Coach C.M. Newton told his team that he was taking the Kentucky Athletic Director’s job effective at the conclusion of the season.

Two days later, the Florida Gators came to Memorial Gymnasium for a huge conference encounter that would affect the standings. Vanderbilt came into the game with a 10-8, 4-2 SEC record.

Leading Vanderbilt were Barry Goheen, Barry Booker, Frank Kornet, Eric Reid and Derrick Wilcox. The Gators came to Nashville with a 10-8, 4-3 SEC record and was led by 7-foot-2 center Dwayne Schintzius. Norm Sloan coached Florida. A Memorial Gym sellout crowd of 15, 498 was anticipating a battle.

The Commodores were doing well at halftime leading 25-24 and limiting Schintzius to just four points. At the beginning of the second half, Vanderbilt went on an 8-0 run, but the Gators pulled ahead by as much as five points.

Vanderbilt was trailing 70-67 with 27 seconds remaining when Goheen (the miracle man) sank a three-pointer and was fouled. The free throw was good and the Commodores led 71-70. Florida brought the ball down court where Goheen made a steal. Booker was then fouled and missed the

front end of a one-and-one. With the score in Vanderbilt’s favor 71-70, Florida missed a field goal attempt and Kornet was fouled when he secured the rebound.

With six seconds remaining, Kornet hit the first of a two-shot opportunity, but missed the second attempt. Florida grabbed the rebound and fired the ball down court and out of bounds. The clock revealed one second and the Commodore’s possession with an apparent 72-70 victory.

Then it happened.

Just as the ball was rolling out of bounds, approximately four tennis balls came sailing onto the court from the student’s section. Clougherty sprinted to the scorer’s table signaling a technical foul. A two-shot technical foul was called against the Vanderbilt crowd.

The principle of the tennis ball barrage was aimed for Schintzius. Schintzius had been involved in some type of skirmish with a Florida student where allegedly a fight broke out with tennis rackets involved on a tennis court. Schintzius did nothing to provoke the incident.

Tennis balls had been thrown at Schintzius during previous Gator games. Prior to tipoff, the Vandy crowd was warned that such actions would result in a technical foul on the home team. Schintzius stepped to the line and made both pressurized free throws to send the game into overtime at 72-72.

In overtime, Schintzius outscored the Commodores himself with a 7-0 run to clinch the Gator win, 81-78. Schintzius recorded a game-high 24 points. Vanderbilt was led in scoring by Booker (23), Goheen (15) and Kornet (14).

“This is the toughest loss I’ve ever been associated with,” said an emotional Martin. “Whoever did that weren’t Vanderbilt fans. They were damn yokels who got carried away.

“Our players ground it out, made the plays down the stretch and did everything in their power to win the game. This should end all questions about whether this team will compete, who the coach is, and all that business.

“My concern was not whether

this team would be prepared to play, or would play well, but with the physical aspects.

“We’ve had some guys who’ve had the flu.”

Many of the Vanderbilt players were openly showing their reactions to the final outcome with tears flowing down their faces. One of those players was Kornet.

“We didn’t lose this game,” said Kornet. “Our basketball team did not lose this game.”

Vanderbilt Athletics Director Roy Kramer said that he instructed his ushers before the game to confiscate any tennis balls from fans entering the gymnasium and several were found.

“It hasn’t been a great week,” said a tired Goheen. “This was an incredible way to lose a game. Whoever did it (threw the tennis balls) better run. They’ve got about 12 guys after them.”

In the Florida locker room the mood was quite different.

“Tell whoever it was that threw the balls that Dwayne Schintzius thanks them very much,” said Schintzius. “If the guy’s stupid enough to do it, he’s stupid enough to pay for it. I guess he wanted to show how cool he was, to say to his friends he hit Dwayne Schintzius with a tennis ball. Well, now he can tell his friends how he cost Vanderbilt the game.”

Most players realized that the tennis ball tossing was a violation of the rules and Clougherty was not to blame for the usual game-ending incident. Sloan felt that Clougherty’s whistle-blowing technical was not all that courageous.

“That call didn’t take guts,’ said Sloan. “That’s the rule. The only guts it would have taken would have been for the official not to have made the call. The only thing that surprised me was that there was not a second technical called as more tennis balls came after the first.

“It’s ironic that Dwayne was the one to shoot the free throws. I didn’t have it planned that way, but he was my best free throw shooter on the court at the time. I’d rather the whole thing not have happened at all, but now it’s history. I feel sorry for C.M. and the Vanderbilt team, but they got one against Georgia where they got a break. Those things happen.”

Vanderbilt finished the season with a 19-14 overall record and an NCAA Tournament first-round loss to Notre Dame. The Commodores (12-6) were tied with Alabama for second place in the SEC. Florida (21-13) were the SEC champions at 13-5. Ouch!

Just think that if the timekeepers finger on the clock had been one second slower, time would have run out when the tennis balls came a flying. And Vanderbilt would have shared the SEC title.

Days after the game ended, there were rumors floating that the tennis ball hurler was a Florida fan bragging that he won the game for his Gators. That rumor was never verified.

In 2002, 13 years since that infamous game, Goheen reminisced to this writer (on an unrelated story) about his feelings at the time.

“Coach Newton had resigned three days before that game,” Goheen said in 2002. “That was the first game after he resigned and said he was going to Kentucky at the end of the season. And we played like zombies most of the game. But we actually rallied late in the game and had a two-point lead when the tennis ball was thrown.

“I still remember what I was feeling when the tennis ball went out there. ‘That’s terrible, but this guy (Schintzius) is never going to make two free throws in front of 15,000 fans.’ And he did.”

“Every time I have seen a game in Memorial Gym since I left there and he (Clougherty) has been one of the referees, he has been booed every single time. I hope he gets booed until the day he retires.”

Well, Commodore fans. The booing days are over. Clougherty retired as an SEC official at the end of last season. He is currently the Men’s Basketball Officials Coordinator for the ACC.

Commodore History Corner readers are asked to submit to me their all-time Vanderbilt basketball team. Please send me your first team consisting of five players and your second team. Include a coach. This is just for fun and not official. Results will be published in March. Let’s go with a traditional center, two guards and two forwards. If you have any commits or suggestions you can contact Bill Traughber via e-mail WLTraughber@aol.com.