This month I’m going to change things up and give you a book review on a special basketball book called “Against All Odds” which is a true story about the 1965-67 Roberts Wesleyan basketball team and their coach Bill Hughes, who was Fredonia State’s basketball coach for a number of years before becoming head coach at the University of Buffalo.

The book details the growth of the Roberts Wesleyan basketball program. I first met Coach Hughes in 1963, when I was a point guard for Fredonia State, in my sophomore year. Roberts, like Fredonia State, at that time, did not have a gym and played all their home games at various high school gyms in Rochester. Fredonia State from 1961-65 also played our home games at Dunkirk High School, Cardinal Mindszenty, and Fredonia High. On this particular night, we were playing at Gates-Chili High School. Bill had taken over a program that was a member of the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics).

I was guarding a very good player, about 6’2″, named Gant. About five minutes into the game, he said to me, “Relax, number 4, you’re going to have an easy night.”

See TRAMUTA, Page D6

I said to him, “What are you talking about?”

He stated, “I’m taking the night off and doing nothing for him (Coach Hughes) because he’s been on my case all week.”

He was right, because he played no defense, loafed on offense, and appeared bored by the whole game. When Coach Hughes saw what was happening, with about ten minutes left in the first half, he took him out of the game, put him on the bench, and never put him back in. I remember we beat them pretty good, and I remember scoring 25 points. When we were shaking hands after the game, I remember Bill coming up to me and stating, “number 4, good game. You do all the things that good point guards should do, like being the floor general, shooting it, giving the ball up for assists, and especially playing defense, good job.”

Little did I know at the time that this would turn into a lifelong friendship and down the road, we would end up coaching together. My junior year, they came to Fredonia, and we beat them again in a close game, but I could see the improvement over 1963. I graduated in January of 1965, and did not play against Roberts again, and after watching them I was glad I did.

“Against All Odds” was written by Dave Scribner, who I had played against twice and chronicles the history of a great Roberts team and the NAIA. At that time, the NAIA was comprised of 632 teams in the country. They were a rival to the NCAA and many, many of their “unknown” players were drafted into the NBA. The NAIA had their own top twenty-five team ranking and their own 32 team tourney at Kansas City every year. Many of their top twenty-five were equal to the top twenty-five NCAA teams. As time went by, many NAIA players like Willis Reed (Grambling) and New York Knicks, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe (Winston-Salem) and New York Knicks, Cornbread Maxwell, Boston Celtics, were to become NBA champions.

It became very apparent that the NAIA was outperforming the NCAA players. Thus in the 80’s-90’s the NCAA stated that all NAIA teams could also play and belong to the NCAA. As time went by, this didn’t seem to work, and sometime around the 90’s or 2000, the NCAA stated you would have to choose the NCAA or NAIA. Since the NCAA was more powerful and had much more revenue, many NAIA chose the NCAA and the membership of the NAIA plummeted. When Bill and I attended the NAIA tourney in 2010, the NAIA was down to about 300 teams. It was important for me to give you, the reader, this background so that you are aware of what this team did in 1965-67 when there were still over 600 teams in the country and a multitude of players for the NBA.

From 1965-67, Roberts overall record was 38-4 playing some of the top NAIA teams in the country. Dave Scribner credits Coach Hughes with turning a program around that was never in a position for consideration before and making them a contender. Roberts had a great player and good friend named Frank Carter from Niagara Falls High School. How he got to Roberts was interesting. Frank played football his senior year (1964) and broke his leg and did not play basketball. In those days, the recruiting wasn’t like today, and no one offered him a scholarship to play college basketball except Coach Hughes. Frank was special, about 6’4″, a great jumper and shooter and went on to make All American and was Roberts all-time leading scorer. I was fortunate to play with him in a tournament at the Eldredge Club in Buffalo because he knew as a point guard I’d give the ball up for assists. We won the tourney, but had I never seen it, I never would have believed it. Frank made 17 straight jump shots from everywhere, and had 45 points.

So, back to the book. After the great season of ’65-66, Roberts was 20-2 and was to play Millersville State of Pennsylvania in the district NAIA quarterfinals. They had put themselves in the position that the winner of this game went on to Kansas City to play in the NAIA tourney of the best 32 teams in the country.

Fate was not kind to Roberts Wesleyan. On the way to Millersville, there was a snowstorm and the team was in 2 station wagons, with the first team in one and the second team in the other. The vehicle with the first team got stuck and was an hour late. The rules were the game was supposed to start at 7 p.m. “no exceptions.” When they finally got there, they were down 22 points. Millersville knew there were no subs and pressed the heck out of the second team. However, without a warm-up, Frank Carter, Bill Bochmann and Dave Scribner brought them all the way back in the second half only to lose by two points. The following year with a record of 18-2, once again a two-point loss that would have sent them to Kansas City. The odds of a team ever having a chance to get to Kansas City were overwhelming. Later in the coming years the whole Roberts Wesleyan basketball team along with Coach Hughes were inducted into the Roberts Wesleyan Sports Hall of Fame. No team from this school has ever gone this far in 60 years.

This book is available on Amazon for $16 paperback and $26 hardcover. I would suggest that if you want to read about a “Cinderella” story, buy this book to see how average players can play above average by having a great coach.

Mike Tramuta is a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy counselor. He can be reached at 716-983-1592.