'Everyone was playing for second place': An oral history of the New York Gauchos at BRIT 1988

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(This story was originally published on Jan. 10, 2018, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of BRIT — the Bedford Road Invitational Tournament.)

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“May God have mercy on our basketball team.”

Thirty years later, Brett Powell still remembers that first-period English class at Holy Cross high school, the desk in which he was sitting, the spot at which his teacher was praying. Why did Powell and his teammates need such divine intervention? The New York Gauchos were in town for the Bedford Road Invitational Tournament (BRIT) — and the Crusaders would be their first-round opponent in 12 hours.

“The Gauchos played an exhibition game the night before we played them. They played Evan Hardy and they beat them by 45 or 50 points,” said Powell, the Crusaders’ star point guard. “I was at that game. I saw the talent. The next morning, I was in English class. Of course, it’s a Catholic school so our teacher began the class with a prayer: ‘May God have mercy on our basketball team.'”

Powell swears that’s “absolutely” how it happened. Hundreds of others have their own memories of January 1988 and the biggest weekend in the half-century history of BRIT. A few stories are retold with 100 per cent accuracy. The details of others have grown hazy over time. Some tales have only grown taller or gained a life of their own. (See: Mashburn, Jamal and subway, missed.)

With the 50th edition of BRIT — one of Canada’s top high school tournaments and a cultural cornerstone in Saskatoon — taking place this weekend, let’s walk it back with an oral history of the greatest team and biggest show to ever hit the high school hardwood in Saskatoon: the New York Gauchos at the 1988 BRIT …

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‘The Gauchos were a whole different thing’

Don Cousins, BRIT chair, 1968-1992: “I started out in January 1987 looking for an American team, to be something a little different. I checked the northern states. In fact, I went down to Wyoming. The coach was willing to come up here. We were all set to do this. Then he said he probably couldn’t do it. There was another team down in Minnesota. They had good strong possibilities. So what happened is, I took a Little League baseball team down into Minnesota. I talked to a coach from down there. He was a policeman down in the Bronx. I said to him, ‘Do you guys have basketball teams there?’ Stupid question, of course.

“When I couldn’t get a team close by, this was a long shot but I phoned him. He says, ‘I don’t think you’ll get a team from the (Public Schools Athletic League) up there but I think I could arrange to get another team called the Gauchos.’ I didn’t know anything about this team.”

Tom Konchalski, renowned New York-based high school basketball scout: “I always jokingly say for the 1988-89 season, the NBA awarded two expansion franchises. One was for the Miami Heat and one was to the Charlotte Hornets. The two expansion franchises should have been to the Gauchos and the Van Nys drug clinic.”

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(Note: The Gauchos in the summer of 1988 had future NBA first-round draft picks Kenny Anderson, Jamal Mashburn and Eric Mobley, as well as McDonald’s and Parade magazine All-American and future NBA second-round pick Conrad McRae, plus Carlton Hines, Anthell Hicks, Ron Arnold, Andre McCullough, David Cain and David Edwards, all of whom were among the top high schoolers in the country. The Van Nys Alcohol & Drug Treatment Center in 1988 included as patients past, present or future NBA stars David Thompson, John Lucas, Chris Washburn, Roy Tarpley and Gauchos alum Lloyd Daniels.)

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Ron Naclerio, Cardozo High basketball coach, most wins in New York Public Schools Athletic League history: “Lou D’Almeida, who funded the Gauchos, the multi-millionaire, he did everything he could to let these guys realize there’s a chance for a life out of here. A lot of those kids that played AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) in New York for Riverside and the Gauchos, they came from not the greatest conditions. If you were starting on the Gauchos or Riverside, you were major Division 1.”

Cousins: “The thing about it was, they had to be a sanctioned high school team to play in our tournament, which was sanctioned as well. Unfortunately, this was a club team made up of kids from separate schools.”

Basil Hughton, Saskatoon Secondary Schools Athletic Association (SSSAD) athletic consultant: “I knew there was obviously the SHSAA sanctioning processes, any time you brought in even out-of-province teams, so BRIT would be used to that. The Gauchos were a whole different thing.”

Bryan Matheson, Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association (SHSAA) president: “The initial reaction: doesn’t fit. It’s not high school. No, it’s not going to work.”

Barry Rusnell, commentator for Telecable 10 BRIT broadcasts: “I remember thinking it was unusual that an AAU team was playing in a tournament that’s designed for high school teams. That AAU circuit is basically just a mini college circuit.”

Ralph Schoenfeld, Aden Bowman head coach: “It was a cultural event as much as it was an athletic event. You sell it from that point. It is so much more diverse than that.”

Matheson: “I remember the request coming in and the fact it was certainly outside of the normal protocol. It certainly pushed the interpretation of the rule to the limit.”

Barry Rawlyk, Holy Cross head coach: “The leadership of the SHSAA tended to be very sticky about those things.”

Ralph Schoenfeld: “We didn’t have any trouble with Basketball Saskatchewan or anybody in Saskatoon. There’s still … how will I say this without offending anybody? Everybody has a territory to protect. Regina has so much pride in their Luther (Invitational) Tournament.”

Matheson: “You’ve got LIT as a complement to BRIT. Once you make a special decision for one person, you put yourself out there for that person to say you have to make an exception for me too.”

Cousins: “I presented the whole situation to them. ‘This is a benefit not only to the city but to the guys playing against our teams. There’s an education as well as an athletic benefit to it.'”

Matheson: “(Luther teacher-coach) Dick Stark, he was certainly an extremely fair person. He was not thinking this was doing something that would put BRIT ahead of LIT.”

Ralph Schoenfeld: “We realized that we’re so much different than Luther. We’re an inner-city school. We’re here to serve the basketball community in whatever capacity we can. And if we can bring in people from across the country, and make it a cultural event run by the students for the students, and the staff, we don’t sell this on the heels of basketball but we sell this as a cultural event.”

Matheson: “The organizers were certainly taking a big step to try and promote not only BRIT but basketball and high school basketball.”

Dave McCollin, New York Gauchos head coach: “My partner and I, Lou D’Almeida, read the material that was sent to us. At that time, what we were doing with the young men we were mentoring and coaching, we were always open-minded to showing our kids a different experience and that there’s other places and other ways of living, other people have different styles of life from where they’re growing up in the inner-city of New York, Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens. What our objective was was to open their eyes, open their minds up, to how really big the world was. That’s where the idea of going to Saskatoon became enticing.”

Naclerio: “Lou did so much for so many kids. I remember him calling me up, Christmas week. I forget what year. (Note: 1986) We were at the Savoy Manor, and he’s having a Christmas party for all the kids and the families, which he funded. Right before the main course, he asked everybody to get up, put their jackets on, walk out to the front, and when we got to the front, he said, ‘Follow me.’ We walked a few hundred feet to Gerard Avenue, made a left, maybe walked another 500, 800 feet. There was this warehouse building. He opened it up and he told the kids, ‘Merry Christmas.’ He got them a gym. I’ve heard negative stories about him. I’ve never seen it.”

Lou D’Almeida (in 1988), owner/founder of the New York Gauchos: “They love (basketball), they do it well and it teaches them. It’s not a classroom setting but they learn structure, discipline, teamwork and all the other things that make you into a good solid citizen.”

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SHSAA officials gradually gave the proposal more consideration. They talked with BRIT officials, school staff, coaches across the province, and officials not only in Canada but also America. Notably, the perspective offered by Michigan High School Athletic Association executive director Jack Roberts wound up carrying heavy weight.

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Matheson: “The fact was, these were high school players. We weren’t going outside high school. It was for an exhibition, a tournament type of thing. The initial reaction was, ‘No it’s not going to work.’ Then it was, ‘Well, maybe. What can we do to try and make it work?'”

Ralph Schoenfeld: “It didn’t contaminate the tournament. I thought it elevated it.”

Cousins: “Finally they agreed. ‘We’ll let it go once.'”

‘Word spread like wildfire’

On Jan. 6, the day the Gauchos landed at Saskatoon Airport, the average historical high temperature in NYC was 3 C, with a historical average daily low of -3 C. The low temperature that day in Saskatoon: -28.5 C. Welcome to Canada, boys.

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Andre McCullough, New York Gauchos guard: “First thing I did, when I went back to school and let my teachers know I was going up there, was ask, ‘Did you ever hear of Saskatchewan?’ ”

McCollin: “When we were greeted at the hotel, there was a lot of students and young kids there. There were some young men who took off their shirts and spelled the word ‘G-A-U-C-H-O-S’ as if you’d see at a football game. This is a different kind of cold that we’re not used to. We’re standing there with our parkas on and heavy winter coats and these young men are spelling out the word Gauchos. They wrote it on their chest. And we’re like, ‘You’re not cold?’ ‘They’re like, ‘We’re used to this kind of weather.’ ”

McCullough: “What I remember most is how kind everybody was. The other thing was, how cold it was. I remember walking out of the hotel. My nose just froze up. I couldn’t breathe. ‘Oh my God, what’s going on?’ ”

Nancy Kamineski, Bedford Road student/New York Gauchos team hostess: “They were probably wearing three layers of clothing underneath their great matching grey jackets, with bunny hugs and as many scarves and mittens as people were giving them.”

Cousins: “They did stop and get some long johns at the stores.”

McCollin: “After one of the games, we went out to eat at this nice restaurant. Some of the players were like, ‘Coach, we’re finished. Can we go back to the hotel?’ About 10 minutes, 12 minutes away. Me and Lou and a couple players hadn’t finished our meal. We were enjoying it. We told them to be careful. About an hour later, me and Lou get back to the hotel (laughs). You should have seen the look on them. They learned a little lesson in terms of what we consider cold in New York and what’s real cold.”

Kamineski: “There wasn’t a scrap, per se, but there was a whole lot of interest wanting to work as Gauchos team hostess. I believe it came down to a draw. I actually got off the cheerleading squad for that year just so I’d have the opportunity to apply for it.”

Cousins: “We brought them into the gym. They were awestruck there was a 12-by-12-foot poster of the New York Gauchos up there. They said, ‘When we go down to Florida or places like that, we get booed. Now not only is everybody so kind and nice to us, but we have that gigantic poster of us up there.’ ”

Danny Tirado (in 1988), New York Gauchos point guard: “The people treated us like we were family and I wish I could stay but it’s too cold. Man, it’s cold.”

Cousins: “We decided we’d have them play an exhibition game since they were in here early. We played them against Evan Hardy, which at that time was one of the top teams in the city but they weren’t entered into BRIT.”

Konchalski: “The Gauchos were aggressive and they played 94-foot basketball. They really attacked the basket. Their best offence was probably their defence. They played suffocating, full-court pressure defence.”

D’Almeida (in 1988): “If a kid doesn’t have heart, it doesn’t matter how good he is and he isn’t my kind of player.”

Nolton Knippel, Evan Hardy forward: “It was a year we weren’t in BRIT. We desperately wanted to be. But it was an opportunity to play in a BRIT-like environment.”

Kelly Bowers, referee, teacher, BRIT volunteer: “I got called to ref that Wednesday night. Hardy wasn’t a bad team.”

Cousins: “I was coaching hockey at that time. I thought I’d go up to the school after and see how things went. I walked into the gym and guys were just buzzing. We charged something like 50 cents, 25 cents or no fee at all. It packed the place.”

Knippel: “They were good sports, good guys, you could tell, but it was very humbling, very quickly. We did our best but it was clear they were stronger, they could jump higher, they were better ball handlers, they could shoot from anywhere.”

Cousins: “These guys were doing slam dunks and things we really weren’t doing — bounce it off the backboard and the next guy in would dunk it. That just didn’t happen in our schools.”

Bowers: “Word spread like wildfire around town. The next night at BRIT, the lineup was out to the street.”

Brad Schoenfeld, Aden Bowman guard: “We were pretty dominant in Saskatoon. But after we saw how badly Hardy got beat, it was pretty obvious everyone was playing for second place.”

‘It was a matter of by how much’

Rawlyk: “I was a young coach at the time. They’d caused a lot of turnovers against Hardy. That’s how they generated a lot of their scoring. I kind of thought to myself, being young and naive, ‘We’ve got a point guard who’s pretty crafty and can take care of the ball. As long as we take care of the ball and don’t turn it over, don’t get into a track meet with these guys, we can probably win this game.'”

Brett Powell, Holy Cross point guard: “We were gripped by fear. I remember going up early. We were up 11-2 at one point. I looked at the score clock and they called a timeout. I walked by their bench. Their coach was just giving it to them.”

Rawlyk: “I do remember them calling a timeout and their coach raking those guys up and down the coals. ‘A bunch of white boys are beating you guys!’ I remember him saying that. I was like, ‘OK’ (laughs).”

McCollin: “I know I would not say something of that nature as a coaching tool or otherwise. That’s not my view of people and I definitely wouldn’t pass something like that on to young men that I am mentoring.”

McCullough: “(Laughs) I didn’t know who the team was but, yeah, I remember that. When we got back to that huddle, and Coach Dave laid it on us, a switch changed over. Let’s go to work.”

McCollin: “I’m not going to deny that part of being good, you have to have a certain amount of arrogance and confidence, which as a coach I didn’t lack. I had to convey that to my players.”

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The Gauchos went on a 32-9 run to finish the half and lead 34-20 at the break, before pulling away for a 71-50 win.

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Bob Florence, StarPhoenix reporter: “Cross was the only team to give the Gauchos a run and Powell did a great job guarding him. He was in Tirado’s face and really ticking him off. Tirado would be slapping at Powell’s hands to get him away. It was the only time all weekend Tirado wasn’t in complete control.”

Powell: “There was always words. I’m not proud of that (laughs) but the competitiveness, the environment, you didn’t want to give an inch. Nothing was really derogatory. It wasn’t crass. But we’ve come to compete, to play, we’re not going to back down.”

McCollin: “Watching Danny and the young man battle, the game within the game, it was fun to watch, as long as my guys kept their mind on the bigger picture.”

Powell: “I walked off the court and Ian MacDonald, who was one of our top players, we kind of gave each other a high five with, ‘You know, we lost the game but we kind of surprised some people’ — because we only lost by 20 (laughs).”

The way the bracket developed, each Saskatoon team got its shot at the Gauchos. Mount Royal, which won its first game 71-70 over Abbotsford, fell 96-43 on the Friday night, as McCullough, Kenny Graham, Eric Mobley and Tirado starred for New York. The host Redmen, 1-6 in league play, stunned Winnipeg Tech Voc 50-47, delighting the fans and earning a semi-final showdown with the Gauchos. What unfolded was a 115-44 beatdown — the 71-point margin of victory is still the biggest in BRIT history. Crazy thing is, players, coaches, referees and fans all say the Gauchos never ran up the score that weekend.

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McCollin: “I was mindful that they respect their opponents they were playing up there in Saskatoon. It’s important (local teams) learn from that, also.”

Rawlyk: “There was no surprise who was going to the win the tournament. It was a matter of by how much.”

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As good as the Gauchos were, only two players (McCullough and Graham) listed on the team’s roster sent to Bedford and placed in the official tournament program actually attended BRIT — though not for the reason told and retold incorrectly for the next 30 years.

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Cousins: “When they decided to come up here, there was a couple of them who didn’t get to the bus on time to get to the airplane.”

Bowers: “The guys all met out at the airport. No, the train station. The best guy didn’t even make the trip apparently. Jamal Mashburn missed connecting at the tube station or wherever they were going to meet to go out to the airport.”

Rusnell: “They had — I can’t remember the guy’s name — he was a big-time player that went on to play at Kentucky and in the NBA. I can see his face. He didn’t make the trip … He missed the bus, I think. I thought, ‘Oh my God. If they had this guy in the lineup, they’d really have done some damage.'”

Brad Schoenfeld: “I guess, fortunately for us, he was the guy who didn’t make the subway.”

Butch Steponchev, referee: “My understanding is they even left two kids at home when they missed the bus ride, didn’t they? Missed the sub? When I was told these two kids were starters, I thought, ‘Holy (expletive), how good are these guys?’ ”

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The correct story behind the story: Jamal Mashburn, who became a superstar at University of Kentucky and later an NBA all-star, was listed in the program — but he never missed a bus or subway or a train or plane. D’Almeida and McCollin initially thought BRIT was in March, when the New York high school season would be finished, and submitted a roster based on that belief. When they realized BRIT was in January, they brought a handful of A-team players who were OK to travel but mostly booked spots for kids who at that moment were not on a varsity team for reasons academic, personal or otherwise. While A-teamers including McCullough and Mobley, Graham and Tirado journeyed to Saskatoon, others like Mashburn, Edwards, Cain and McRae stayed home.

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McCullough: “Just imagine if we had Mashburn, David Cain and Conrad. They would have thought we was the Globetrotters or somebody.”

‘There’s a big world out there’

By the time the Gauchos met Aden Bowman for the 1988 BRIT championship — the final wasn’t even as close as the 83-39 score — it was more coronation than competition. The overflow crowds had been so big, fans spilled onto the court during games. Lineups to get into Bedford snaked out the school’s door and along Avenue H. The fire marshall couldn’t have squeezed into the gym even if he wanted to.

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Ralph Schoenfeld: “They walked around like they owned the place, which they did.”

Kamineski: “There were numerous house parties going on, the age we all were. Definitely took in a lot of those. A lot of cruising around, up and down the main strip, taking them to the malls, showing them the city and sights for the little time they had. We’d hang out with them at the hotels.”

Ralph Schoenfeld: “You had a diverse student body at Bedford Road, so they were totally accepted by the student body. They were adopted from the moment they stepped into the gym to the moment they left.”

Kamineski: “I remember getting into some trouble and then having to be adhering to the rules that Lou was setting down for all the guys with his very firm expectations. There definitely was some curfews broken. Things didn’t get crazy out of hand but it was all in good fun.”

McCullough: “Every little step we took — autograph, picture, autograph.”

Kamineski: “Absolutely they attracted the teenage girls. In all honesty, that was probably half the draw there.”

McCullough: “People hanging around with us, taking us to play a little ping pong. It was great.”

Cousins: “I remember standing in the gym, seeing the Gauchos, thinking, ‘My God, we’ve really done something.’ ”

Brad Schoenfeld: “I always remember the tipoff for the final. They had their big seven-footer, Mobley. He wins the tip. We planned that they were going to win the tip. I was back on defence already. Tirado comes down.”

Ralph Schoenfeld: “They created a mosaic on a basketball court, not a canvas. It’s total creativity. It’s modern art versus paint by the numbers.”

Brad Schoenfeld: “It looks like he’s coming in for a layup. I thought, ‘I can actually block this guy.’ Then he bounces it between his legs to Mobley, who dunks it on my head.”

Ralph Schoenfeld: “A regular slam dunk would have been ordinary to them. Something creative would have been Danny Tirado going down the court on a fast break, our guys being back, him passing the ball backwards between his legs and somebody else throwing it up on the backboard and the third guy coming in and dunking it. How do you defend that? You’re looking up at the guy’s crotch as he goes up over top of you to dunk.”

Brad Schoenfeld: “That’s how I remember it anyway. I think that’s pretty accurate.”

D’Almeida (in 1988): “I’ve always been a believer that athletics is healthful in more ways than one, and I thought to myself that basketball is a vehicle, which is the art form of the inner-city, which these kids do better than anyone else instinctively.”

Ralph Schoenfeld: “They didn’t even know that we existed. They would talk amongst themselves and they would get excited when somebody would do something really spectacular.”

Rawlyk: “A lot of it was generated from their point guard, who played with a lot of swagger.”

Rusnell: “I remember Tirado going left, going right, spin moves, dishing off the dribble, just effortlessly, at high speed.”

Steponchev: “I called a foul on him and he came and gave me a pat on the ass and says, ‘Nice call.’ I thought, ‘You little bugger. (laughs) I’m going to have to catch up to you for that one.’ He was quite a kid.”

Konchalski: “His nickname was Diesel. He played with great energy. He had tremendous charisma. He was a great kid.”

Naclerio: “Danny was right up there with the top point guards in the city. That was when if you were a top player in New York, you were a top player in the nation.”

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Tirado was named most outstanding and sportsmanlike player of the tournament. McCullough led the tourney in scoring at 25.5 points per game and was named an all-star along with Mobley. McCollin received the coach of the tournament award.

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McCullough: “Eric Mobley was a monster in that middle. He’d let you go up and then just catch your ball right on the backboard and smile at you. I was the person at the top of the press, got that steal, started the break going, get everybody riled up. Danny, he didn’t look like he had the tricks or the ball-handling skills but when you seen him, oh my goodness. Coach Dave took me from being a football player to being a five-star basketball player who wound up getting cut from an NBA team but played in Europe. Lou was great. He took us all over the world.”

For McCullough, who still has the netting the team cut down in Bedford’s gym, the Gauchos were a springboard to success. His playing days eventually done, he helped nephew Chris McCullough develop into a 2015 first-round NBA draft pick. Long after his NBA and European career ended, Mobley is quietly doing well in Pittsburgh. Steph Marshall attended San Diego State University. D’Almeida, 84, still lives in his swank Midtown Manhattan apartment on West 57th Street.

Others whose names but not games are captured in BRIT history include Conrad McRae, who was drafted in the NBA’s second round and starred for years overseas. In 2000, McRae — who had a history of arrythmia — collapsed and died while running wind sprints with the Orlando Magic’s summer league team. A tournament in NYC is held annually in his name. David Cain played at St. John’s University. David Edwards attended Georgetown and Texas A&M. Mashburn averaged 19.1 points-per-game in his 12-year NBA career.

Carlton Hines, whose older brother was a drug dealer, was murdered. “He got involved in the family business at the expense of his basketball,” Konchalski said.

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D’Almeida (in 1988): “This is not something where you save everybody, but I figured if we saved 10 kids out of 100 we were doing well.”

Tirado, arguably the most popular player in BRIT history, played at the University of Jacksonville, averaging 10 assists per game in 1990-91 to lead the NCAA.

McCollin: “Danny, the news is not so great. He was playing professionally in Puerto Rico and he was killed.”

Konchalski: “He was a great kid. It was a shame. He was down in Puerto Rico, he was playing down there, and he was murdered.”

McCullough: “He was killed at a young age, 20 or 21. Shocked all of us.”

Tirado (in 1988): “I’ve never felt so much attention as (in Saskatoon) because I don’t get much of that in New York. I love it over here.”

McCullough: “For me to go to BRIT, and then come back with some of the pictures we had, winning the championship, being able to brag about something like that, to this day is exciting to me.”

Tirado (in 1988): “It’s the best experience I’ve ever had.”

McCollin: “It was overwhelming. They treated my young men like NBA players. I wanted them to breathe it in, enjoy it. There seemed to be a lot of relaxed commonality.”

Kamineski: “We understood a lot of these individuals, and I had an opportunity to really work with them, hang out with them, get to know them personally, see that a lot of them didn’t leave New York. Our worlds were so different, coming from a city that big.”

McCollin: “They made friends. A lot of people on a different side of the world are just like you.”

Kamineski: “They actually left me one of their grey jackets when they left. I know I never would have gotten rid of it. It’s still at my mom’s house in Saskatoon. Definitely a hope chest item (laughs).”

McCollin: “Most of these guys had never been on a plane. Some of them had never stepped out of their respective boroughs: Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx. That was all they knew. You’ve got to let them see there’s a big world out there.”