Jack Scheuer's wife, Jeanne, reads a plaque dedicated to her husband as family members look on in a ceremony at the Palestra in April 2022. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
Jack Scheuer. Jack. Scheuer. Those HAD to be the opening two words of our first Big 5 Hoops column following Monday’s official launch of this site.
Jack was the Big 5. The Palestra was more than just his favorite gym.
“It’s my gym,” he liked to say.
Not only did he have his own key to the Palestra, but he also holds the unofficial scoring record at the Cathedral of College Basketball. As host of a longtime weekly pickup game that attracted media members and others, Jack’s patented set shot swished through the hoops more than anyone else in the storied gym’s history.
There is no debate on this. I’d also venture that he holds the all-time Palestra assist record. Jack loved a good pass and despised a bad shot.
“I don’t care if they can play,” Jack, who passed away in October 2020, would say about potential hoopers to his game, “as long as they play the right way.”
He just wanted Good Hoops.
Jack’s press-row acronyms were famous. You knew he liked what he was seeing if he scribbled on your notebook or handed you a little hand-written note that said “GH,” or Good Hoops. If you got “VGH,” or Very Good Hoops, you knew you were extremely lucky to be in attendance. Conversely, “BH,” or Bad Hoops, was, for example, an offensive possession with a point guard taking a shot without ever making a pass. Hate was not part of Jack, but he HATED “BH”! And God forbid you got a scribble that said “VBH,” or Very Bad Hoops. Those games weren’t worthy of Jack’s gym, or any court for that matter.
If he leaned over and wrote “corners” on your paper, there were 8,722 fans packed into every nook and cranny of a sold-out Palestra. You were hot, sweaty and perfectly comfortable. After all, you were in heaven.
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Everybody in the Big 5 has a Jack story or interaction that they hold dear.
One of the greatest tales in Philadelphia college basketball history involves Jack, the Palestra and Fran Dunphy. Many who are reading this likely know this unbelievable but 100 percent true story, but it will bring a smile to your face even after hearing it again.
Dunphy, the current La Salle coach then leading Penn, brought his Quakers onto the Palestra court for practice. The only problem was the Quakers’ scheduled practice time interfered with Jack’s pickup game. Out of deference for Jack, Dunphy moved Penn’s practice to a side court somewhere so Jack could finish his game on the main floor.
After all, it was Jack’s gym.
Like everyone else in Philadelphia college basketball and media circles, Dunphy had the ultimate respect for Jack. In fact, as part of his pregame ritual, Dunphy would invite Jack into his coaches’ dressing room before games for a chat.
Though I don’t know this for fact, I think talking to Jack put Dunphy at ease. Took away any pregame jitters and got him focused on the task at hand.
Jack had that way about him.
He was Mr. Big 5, of course. He knew everything and everyone related to the Big 5. Same with the Phillies and the 76ers. He covered all three forever as a correspondent for the Associated Press.
Beyond all of that, and more importantly, Jack was the greatest, most humble, most caring, most decent, most genuine person you would ever meet. He was one of the few people in press boxes about whom I’ve never, ever heard a bad word said. Not even anything close.
Jack was one of my best friends, our age difference notwithstanding. I met Jack in college at Saint Joseph’s and grew really close to him covering the Phillies side by side for many years for the AP.
Like for many others, he was a mentor to me. He taught me many things about journalism, how to write an AP story, how to conduct an interview, how to do research, how to handle yourself in a press box. Most of all, Jack showed me how to be a good person.
He always called me “AB” or “pal.” I miss hearing those words so much. Our friendship grew to the point that near the end of his life my phone calls were either to my wife, my mom or Jack. I learned so much from him and cherish so much of what he has done for me.
Jack meant so much to me — and still does.
To this day, I think about Jack every day. He holds a special place in my heart. I try to model the way he treated others, the loving husband who called his wife every night from the ballpark, the caring father and grandfather who adored his family, the friend to many and the enemy of none.
Today, with the first-ever Big 5 Classic a day away, I am thinking about Jack even more.
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It would not bug Jack because of who he was, but the circumstances of the pandemic kept Jack from being remembered in a way fully fitting of how he lived his life and how many he positively impacted. (I’m saying it, Jack; not you, pal.) What would have been an overflowing funeral service under normal circumstances was a socially distanced affair with a smallish turnout for health-related reasons. Same for the burial, which was really moving with full military honors, and the repast.
Penn beautifully honored Jack with a remembrance plaque outside of his locker room at the Palestra in April 2022. It was wonderful to be there and to see Jack’s place at his gym made permanent. But, again due to the circumstances of the pandemic, the ceremony did not occur at halftime of a packed Big 5 game (like, say, Penn-Villanova this past Nov. 13), but on a sunny spring afternoon with no game.
It is important to me and, surely, many others that Jack’s legacy lives on.
As a way to continue recognizing Jack’s important contributions to the Big 5, I will be honoring a player from the championship team of the inaugural Big 5 Classic on Saturday night with the “Jack Scheuer VGH Award.” This player might be the leading scorer; however, he more likely will be someone who does all of the little things just right to help his team win. This isn’t the MVP award; rather, the VGH, or Very Good Hoops, honor.
I am going to poll media members with a ballot that can only be returned on paper because Jack did not use technology. I’ll announce the winner on social media, tell the player a little about Jack and do an interview for a later story. Going forward, I would like this to be an annual award. Since I thought of this on Tuesday, I didn’t have time to get a plaque. I will consult with the school’s athletic directors to see if this is something they would like to do. If not, I will handle it on my end.
Jack did so much for the Big 5, and this is a small, but meaningful way to thank him and ensure that his important legacy lives on for years to come.
Entering Big 5 Hall of Fame ‘special’ for Dougherty
Larry Dougherty, who led public relations for the St. Joe’s and Temple men’s basketball programs for the last 25 years, will be inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame at halftime of the Big 5 Classic championship game on Saturday night. Among those also being honored will be sportswriters Dick Jerardi and Mike Kern of the Philadelphia Daily News and Big 5 standouts DeAndre’ Bembry (St. Joe’s), Tyreek Duren (La Salle) and Fran O’Hanlon (Penn).
Dougherty took over as men’s basketball public relations contact in John Griffin’s last season as Hawks head coach in 1994-95 before working alongside Phil Martelli for nine years. He then went to Temple in the same role, first as the right-hand man for John Chaney, then Dunphy and, finally, Aaron McKie before retiring prior to this season.
“I feel so blessed to have had this career and this life,” Dougherty said in a phone interview. “This honor really means a lot.”
It means even more to Dougherty because he will join his late father, Andy, as the first father-son duo to enter the Big 5 Hall of Fame. Andy Dougherty worked in the same role for St. Joe’s.
“My dad is the reason I’m in this profession,” Dougherty said. “It was his love and passion. He guided me to this career I’ve had. And it’s been a tremendous career. It’s special.”
A role like Dougherty’s is an important one, if sometimes underappreciated and misunderstood. Not only do public relations people need to be liaisons between media and the organization, but they have to share the message in a way that best suits the employer. It can be a delicate balance between appeasing the media and those you represent. The varying personalities can make it that much more challenging.
Dougherty handled both expertly. And he did it working for coaches with very different personalities.
In Martelli, he had someone as accommodating with media requests as probably any coach in college basketball.
“Trying to connect him and his amazing personality to help sell Saint Joseph’s, to help sell the program,” Dougherty said of his role with Martelli. “He was such an ambassador for St. Joe’s. Amazing. Phil would want to get as many interviews as he could because he wanted to sell the university.”
Like Martelli, Dougherty said Chaney and Dunphy loved helping others and being ambassadors for Temple. But they needed a little more nudging at times for interviews. With Chaney, Dougherty would pick just the right time to ask. With both Chaney and Dunphy, he sometimes had to do a little selling of his own.
“This interview is going to help Temple and it’s going to help our program,” he would say.
In Martelli, Chaney and Dunphy, Dougherty has helped spread the message about three of the greatest coaches in Big 5 history.
“Working with these amazing men, it was great,” he said. “You want to try to make sure people understood what it was about them that made them special, not just wins and losses. They were not phonies. That could be your Mount Rushmore of Philadelphia college basketball right there. They would be carved in there.”
Big 5 Classic and Wells Fargo Center a good match
“Big 5 Classic and Wells Fargo Center a good match”
Jack Scheuer would not love that headline. He loved the Big 5. The Palestra was his gym. The Big 5 and the Palestra go together.
But change was needed. Last season’s Big 5 doubleheader at the Palestra drew few fans and little interest. Either the Big 5 was going to fade away, or there was going to be something different this season.
It would have been terrible for the Big 5 to disband. There is history and tradition in the Big 5 that is important to many people. Hopefully, thanks to the forward thinking of the athletic directors and the schools’ new partnership with the Wells Fargo Center, the Big 5 will continue for many years to come.
The athletic directors scrapped the traditional round-robin that yearly pitted La Salle, Penn, Temple, St. Joe’s and Villanova against each other. They added Drexel and created two three-team pods. The winner of each pod would meet in a championship game at the WFC, with the other teams completing the schedule for the tripleheader.
This plan, or some semblance of it, was sitting on the desk of Wells Fargo Center general manager Mike Sulkes for at least seven years before talks gained steam last winter.
Everyone knew change was needed.
The new format has created more excitement and attention, both locally and nationally, for the Big 5. Wednesday’s St. Joe’s-Villanova and La Salle-Temple contests were essentially semifinal games. The Hawks’ upset of Villanova and the Owls’ triple-overtime win over the Explorers were classic Big 5 contests.
Two great games with drama and excitement.
Now, it’s winner-take-all for St. Joe’s and Temple on Saturday night at 7:30 at the WFC. Before that, Villanova meets Drexel at 2 in the fifth-place game and Penn faces La Salle at 4:45 in the third-place matchup.
“I think the format has people talking about the Big 5,” Sulkes said in a phone interview this week. “There would be times that I didn’t even realize the Big 5 champion was crowned. It happened in a random game in February. It had gotten to the point where there wasn’t much to talk about.
“This is a very, very busy, crowded sports market. The No. 1 success is the format has people talking. It has people buzzing. It has a little controversy. That’s what’s great about sports. It gets people talking, gets people debating.”
There is a business side to this, of course. Sulkes said the advance ticket sales and sponsorship partnerships are encouraging.
“That’s the No. 1 indicator that we are on to something big here,” he said.
Here. Like, at the Wells Fargo Center. And not the Palestra.
I love the Palestra. I have covered sports in the Philadelphia area for nearly 25 years. Been to countless sites, covered countless games for high school, college and pro. There is nowhere that I’ve felt more excited, more adrenaline than a sold-out Palestra for a Big 5 game. I love the Palestra.
But the Wells Fargo Center is the right place for the Big 5 Classic today.
“To get fans down to any event, there is a lot of competition in the market, you have to create different experiences for different people,” Sulkes said. “That’s what we’re able to do here at the Wells Fargo Center. You want a suite for your buddies to come down, you just want an upper deck ticket, you want to sit courtside, we can provide any experience a fan wants here. Obviously, the Philly tradition of tailgating.
“We provide an experience for basically anyone who possibly is interested in coming to the event. It’s what we do. We’re hoping this building makes the event more accessible to everybody. We have all this parking, no matter where you live, you can get here no problem. When you get here, we have the experience no matter what you’re looking for. Combining the tradition of the Big 5 with a modern, major venue is just a recipe for success.”
Success. What will that mean?
While the Hawks’ upset victory over Villanova on Wednesday was thrilling for St. Joe’s faithful, it might not have been the best result for the Big 5 Classic box office. I would guess that there will be around 15,000 in the building for the championship game. But the early-round games could feature more empty seats than occupied ones.
While upper-deck tickets are a very reasonable $45 for all three games, fans of the schools looking to sit in their school’s section need to shell out $150. That gets them in for all three games, but it might be a bit steep for some. We shall see on Saturday night.
Tickets might be the least of the problems with the new format.
Another issue could be Villanova.
The Wildcats finishing 0-2 and now playing Drexel in a fifth-place game at 2 p.m. surely was not what Villanova people had in mind when putting this thing together. The Big 5 obviously needs Villanova to have any chance of survival.
How will a last-place pod finish and fifth-place game versus Drexel affect things going forward? Will the format change again to ensure this doesn’t happen? Could Villanova just up and leave the Big 5? I’m not 100 percent sure, but my guess is Villanova will stick with the Big 5. Going away from the round-robin setup gave Villanova one more game of schedule flexibility, something the Wildcats needed.
There’s also something to be said for some early-season games that might be tougher than, say, playing LeMoyne or American at the Pavilion. Those are fun wins for Nova Nation backers, but you don’t learn much about your team from them. The difficult thing for Villanova is that people nationally don’t understand how hard it is to win these Big 5 games.
So, it is understandable why a national program like Villanova would be looking to protect itself. I totally get it. Still though, I think the Wildcats will stay.
Former Wildcats coach Jay Wright always spoke highly of the Big 5 and Villanova’s place in it. Wright was honored prior to Wednesday’s game, and I asked him about the new format.
“I’m really excited about this,” he said. “We have been talking about this for years, and I was a proponent of it. I felt like the games being spread out, there wasn’t enough attention nationally or locally.
“It’s good for the country to see that this is a big thing in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a great college basketball town. I think it’s the future of the Big 5, and I really like the direction it’s going.”
So does Sulkes. While the schools have a one-year contract with the Wells Fargo Center, the feeling is that the Big 5 Classic will be returning there going forward.
“We are committed in perpetuity to this event,” Sulkes said. “We want this to be an annual event at the Wells Fargo Center on the same weekend every year, and I think we’re working toward that. We love the Big 5. We just felt like our two institutions partnering together can make something special. I’m hoping this takes off.”
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Tickets for the Big 5 Classic can be purchased at Big5Classic.com. Tickets for all three games start at $45 for upper-level tickets.
‘Wright Way’ dedication leaves former Villanova coach emotional
Jay Wright took the podium outside of the Pavilion after just unveiling a beautiful stone sign that read “Wright Way” for the new name of the road outside of Villanova’s on-campus arena. He looked out at the assembled media and a large contingent of Wildcats supporters. His eyes got red, he sniffled and then composed himself with some poignant remarks.
Why did he get emotional?
“This is such a special community, so much bigger than basketball,” he said. “It kind of all just hit me that we’re going to be part of this forever.”
Wright led Villanova to 520 wins in 21 seasons that included two national titles and four Final Four berths.
Does he miss coaching?
“I hate to say I don’t miss it because I enjoyed every second of it,” he said. “I just really feel good that it’s Kyle’s (Neptune’s) turn. I can be a fan and really enjoy these games.”
–TIP-INS: One of La Salle’s biggest supporters, Richard Prendergast, who also appears on Explorers radio broadcasts, suffered a serious knee injury in a fall over the Thanksgiving holiday and faces a lenghty recovery. He turned 85 years old on Thursday. Prayers to Prendergast for a full and quick recovery. … La Salle’s Jhamir Brickus set a Big 5 scoring record with 41 points in the Explorers’ 106-99 loss to Temple on Wednesday night in triple-overtime. … Great atmosphere at the Pavilion on Wednesday night. Love that Villanova’s students started the game with a rollout: “DECADES OF DOMINANCE.” The St. Joe’s students responded with their own troll after the game, taking a photo atop the new “Wright Way” sign and pointing “V’s” down. Trolling by students is part of the fun, pageantry and tradition of the Big 5.
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Aaron Bracy has been covering Philadelphia sports since 1996. His byline regularly appears on Associated Press stories. Big5Hoops.com is his second website dedicated to Philadelphia college basketball. Follow Bracy on X: @Aaron_Bracy and like his Facebook and Instagram pages.
Rankings (through games 11/30):
1. St. Joe’s (5-2)
2. Villanova (6-2)
3. Temple (4-2)
4. Penn (5-3)
5. La Salle (5-2)
6. Drexel (4-3)
Big 5 Scoring Leaders (through games 11/30):
1. Hysier Miller, Temple, 20.2
2. Jhamir Brickus, La Salle, 17.9
3. Clark Stajchert, Penn, 17.8
4. Khalil Brantley, La Salle, 17.6
5. Erik Reynolds II, St. Joe’s, 17.3
6. Tyler Perkins, Penn, 16.3
7. Justin Moore, Villanova, 15.8
T8. Jahlil White, Temple, 14.0
T8. Eric Dixon, Villanova, 14.0
10. Matteo Picarelli, Temple, 13.3
Big 5 Rebounding Leaders (through games 11/30)
1. Amari Williams, Drexel, 8.1
2. Jahlil White, Temple, 8.0
T3. Nick Spinoso, Penn, 7.6
T3. Steve Settle III, Temple, 7.6
5. Tyler Perkins, Penn, 7.1
T6. Lamar Oden, Jr., Drexel, 7.0
T6. Eric Dixon, Villanova, 7.0
8. Rokas Jocius, La Salle, 6.9
9. Rasheer Fleming, St. Joe’s, 6.7
10. Christ Essandoko, St. Joe’s, 6.6
Upcoming Schedule:
Saturday, Dec. 2
Big 5 Classic, Wells Fargo Center
2 pm, Fifth-place game, Villanova vs. Drexel
4:45 pm, Third-place game, Penn vs. La Salle
7:30 pm, Championship game, Saint Joseph’s vs. Temple
Tuesday, Dec. 5
7 pm, Drexel at Princeton
7 pm, Villanova at Kansas State
Wednesday, Dec. 6
6 pm, FDU-Florham at Penn
6:30 pm, Loyola (Md.) at La Salle
7 pm, Bloomsburg at Temple
7 pm, American at Saint Joseph’s
Saturday, Dec. 9
12 pm, Kentucky at Penn, Wells Fargo Center
1 pm, La Salle at Lafayette
4 pm, Drexel at West Virginia
7 pm, UCLA at Villanova, Wells Fargo Center
Sunday, Dec. 10
1 pm, Princeton at Saint Joseph’s
7 pm, Temple vs. Albany, Barclays Center