Mules rekindle college championship memories
In 1969, Muhlenberg College's men's basketball team played at the Penn Palestra, but a loss to the Ivy League Quakers wasn't what the players were thinking about on the bus ride home.
They were thinking about the draft lottery, and not the one that sets the order for NBA teams every May.
This draft lottery determined how likely you were to have to fight in Vietnam.
Ned Rahn, a member of the Mules' three consecutive league championship teams from 1968-70, remembered the emotions of that night and the turbulence of the times.
“Emotions ran very high everywhere,” Rahn said. “There was kind of a generational divide taking place. Kids were against parents. Is the government right or wrong? The kids were saying we should be out of Vietnam.”
While Rahn and the Mules were on the bus ride home from Philadelphia, their fellow students were watching the draft lottery on TV knowing that their futures, possibly their lives, were at stake.
“When I got back, I found out what my number was and there were prediction ranges,” Rahn said. “If you were in a certain range with low numbers, you were likely to be drafted. Then you could get a number that would be in the middle or in a range where you had a high number and weren't likely to get picked. But I got a low number.”
Against that scary backdrop, Rahn and the Mules looked to the basketball team as an emotional oasis, a place to have fun and be unified in a nation filled with strife.
Rahn and the Mules had lots of fun in the 1969-70 season, just as they had the previous two years.
In a three-season span, Muhlenberg went 49-23 and played up-tempo, free-wheeling basketball that often produced scores in the 80s or more.
Four Hall of Fame players were part of those teams — Bob McClure, Mickey Miller, Frank Scagliotta and Rahn. Three of them are still among the top eight scorers in school history.
The championship teams were honored Saturday with a luncheon on the Muhlenberg campus and an intoduction at halftime of the Mules' win over Gettysburg at Memorial Hall.
There were smiles all around as most of the team members were present, even though they had to travel from different parts of the country to be get there.
The camaraderie was rekindled, memories flowed freely and a video presentation at the luncheon reminded them just how enjoyable it was to have a respite from the discord and strife all around them.
The guys enjoyed playing for coach Kenny Moyer, who was as conservative as his crew-cut haircut, but believed in letting his players play without having to follow a script.
“It was tremendous fun playing here,” said Rahn, who came to Muhlenberg after a solid career at Stroudsburg High School. “I said to my teammate, Mickey Miller, who is from Lehighton and who I played against in the Lehigh Valley League, that if we had a chance to do it all over again, we would do it in a heartbeat. What is sports if it's not fun? Does it matter who wins the Super Bowl in the national picture? Not really. We'll all have to go back to work Monday.”
Also having fun was Mike Mathey, who was the team MVP in baseball for Ken Wildonger at Allen High School after not making the Canaries basketball team.
He got a second chance at basketball at Muhlenberg after transferring from Rider and made the most of it while playing fastpitch softball in the Allentown Church League for St. Mary's Ukranian Church.
Mathey said he was originally the sixth man on the 1967-68 squad that started the streak of championship teams.
“I think we were playing Johns Hopkins and I came off the bench and scored eight straight points over the last two minutes and we won the game,” Mathey said. “Kenny Moyer came to me and asked me if I wanted to start or keep coming off the bench. I said I'd start.”
Mathey was a point guard before the term became part of the basketball language. He was more interested in assists than points.
“When I sent my grandkids the video from my games, and they looked at it and said I didn't shoot the ball enough,” Mathey said. “I told them we had enough guys who could shoot. My job was to get them the ball in position where they could score.”
Mathey wasn't part of the draft lottery system. He enlisted after he graduated from Muhlenberg in 1968 and served for 14 months in Korea.
“I was lucky because I didn't have to go to Vietnam,” Mathey said. “But I was still proud to serve my country.”
Rahn eventually got into the National Guard, and didn't serve in Vietnam.
“I got lucky,” Rahn said. “I was also lucky to have played here at Muhlenberg. There was a lot going on in the world and a lot to think about, but being around these guys, life was pretty good.”