The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Navy loss ends CSU run worth saluting
Twice before in the 1986 NCAA Tournament, Cleveland State junior point guard Shawn Hood and the Cleveland State Vikings had defied long odds.
At the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, No. 14 seed CSU had posted upset victories over No. 3 Indiana and No. 6 St. Joseph’s.
It was the program’s first appearance in college basketball’s showcase event, and the Vikings had quickly established a national reputation as the tournament’s giant killer.
Next on the docket for thirdyear coach Kevin Mackey and CSU (29-3) in the round of 16 was an East Region semifinal against All-America center David Robinson and Navy (29-4) on March 21, 1986 at Brendan Byrne Arena in New Jersey.
The most basic of web searches tells you the Vikings came tantalizingly close to springing yet another upset before the No. 7 Middies, sparked by Robinson’s late second-half scoring burst, held on for a 7170 victory in front of 19,454 fans.
Robinson was spectacular, accounting for 12 of Navy’s last 14 points on his way to a 22-point, 14-rebound effort. He also blocked seven shots as Navy’s zone defense slowed the Vikings throughout and held them 19 points below their pergame average.
Still, the Vikings appeared to be in prime position when senior forward Clinton Smith stole the ball from Navy guard Doug Wojcik and drove for a layup that gave CSU a 7069 lead with 26 seconds remaining.
On the ensuing Navy possession, CSU sophomore power forward Paul Stewart intercepted a lob pass intended for Robinson. Navy senior forward Vernon Butler came up from behind Stewart and attempted to take the ball from Stewart.
Butler raised his hand as if called for a foul on the whistle by referee Joe Forte, but Forte signaled a tieup instead. The ball went to Navy on the alternate possession.
“Butler came over the back. He knew it. It was a bad call,” said Smith, now 56 and running a youth basketball program in Geauga County.
With eight seconds remaining, Robinson took a pass on the low block, spun and canned a four-foot jump shot to give Navy a 71-70 lead.
There were five seconds remaining when Hood fired the inbounds pass to Smith. Streaking up the floor, Smith let fly with a desperation shot that hit the back of the rim and caromed away as the final buzzer sounded.
CSU’s breakout season and heady run through the NCAA Tournament was over. Smith and freshman guard Ken “Mouse” McFadden had each scored 16 points. Junior center Eric Mudd, playing on an aching right knee, added 11 points and 11 rebounds. “That was a good Navy team, and David Robinson obviously was a great player.,” said Hood, now 55 and an employability skills teacher at Lorain High School. “They weren’t 10 deep like us, but their first five were really talented.”
“To this day, I wish I could have done more to slow down Robinson,” added Mudd, now 55 and working in management for Daimler Trucks North America in Charlotte, N.C.
Looking back
With full benefit of hindsight, Hood and Mudd believe the seeds for the Navy defeat were sown during the team’s three days back in Cleveland between winning twice in Syracuse and traveling to New Jersey.
“There was so much happening, so many distractions when we got back to Cleveland,” Hood said. “I wished we’d have stayed on the road. We had it going.”
Mackey, now living in Indianapolis and in his 17th year as a college scout for the Pacers, said he has come to share that view of the three-day stay in Cleveland.
“The media attention was like nothing we’d seen before at Cleveland State,” Mackey said. “TV, radio and print, they seemed to be coming at us from everywhere.”
CSU junior forward Clinton Ransey was limited to eight points against Navy after tallying 27 against Indiana and 17 against St. Joseph.
Now 55 and living in Mississippi where he is in management for Angelica Corporation, Ransey said his mind kept going back to the Navy game on the CSU traveling party’s flight home to Cleveland.
“I remember thinking could I have done this different or done that better, especially since the game was so close,” Ransey said. “You want to change the outcome. But we lost and there was no changing that.” McFadden, now 54 and working for Cuyahoga County, remembers the emotional letdown after the Navy loss.
“I didn’t know where to go or what to do,” McFadden said. “It was heartbreaking. One moment, you are on top of the world and people are cheering for you. Then, just like that, it’s over.”
In McFadden’s mind, that sense of deflation was somewhat offset by the impact of what he and his teammates had accomplished during that eight-day stretch in March 1986.
“I remember it gave the city of Cleveland a big lift,” McFadden said. “We were a breath of fresh air. You had the Indians, Browns and the Cavs. But guess who made the city feel so good? The Cleveland State Vikings.”
Tragedy, moving on
Hood also navigated some choppy psychological waters in the immediate wake of the Navy loss.
“I was so passionate about basketball and that team, so I was crushed,” Hood said.
A little more than one month later, Hood was still processing those feelings while making his way to Woodling Gym to, hopefully, catch the remaining moments of that day’s usual pickup game involving team members.
Hood was nearly to the gym when McFadden came up to him on the sidewalk.
“All he said was ‘Paul,’ and then he kept walking,” Hood said.
Moments later, another teammate, freshman forward Warren Bradley, did the same thing. Hood remembers making a beeline for the office of CSU sports information director Merle Levin.
It was Levin, now deceased, who told Hood that Paul Stewart, Hood’s childhood friend from Boston, had collapsed during the pickup game and had been rushed by paramedics to nearby St. Vincent Charity Hospital.
By the time Hood arrived at the hospital; Stewart, 19 and seemingly in robust, good health one hour previously, had passed away.
“That stopped me cold and put everything in perspective,” Hood said.
The players and coaches from that CSU team have remained in close touch. Some of them still live in Northeast Ohio. Others have moved away. There have been a number of reunions since, some planned and others spontaneous.
The last formal gathering was in 2016 at CSU, marking the 30th anniversary of the memorable NCAA run. “We became family. We were brothers,” said Steve Corbin, a senior guard on the team who now is 56 and running a contracting business in New York.
“Me and Mouse had our battles in practice, but those battles brought us closer together,” Corbin said. “We may only see each other every couple of years, but when we get together or talk on the phone, it’s like we were never apart.
“If I have a problem, I can share it with them and not worry about them looking down on me. We’re blood.’’
That sense of brotherhood extended to Bradley, who missed all but four games that season after tearing a ligament in his thumb during practice. He would go on to be a solid player in his remaining four seasons at CSU.
“I grew so much as a player and as a person during my time at CSU, and I still live in Cleveland,” Bradley said.
Redshirt junior forward Hersey Strong, a Collinwood High School product and junior college transfer, also was part of the tightly knit group. Another team member, junior center Elgin Womack, died in 2001 at the age of 36 from an aneurysm. He was a school teacher in Queens, N.Y. Mackey and many of the surviving players from that team have had professional and personal setbacks.
In July 1990, Mackey was fired as head coach six days after he was arrested in Cleveland on a traffic stop and found through urinalysis to have alcohol and cocaine in his system.
After completing treatment for drug and alcohol abuse at a Texas rehabilitation clinic run by former NBA player John Lucas, Mackey resumed his coaching career in United States Basketball League, Continental Basketball Association and International Basketball League.
In 2003, Pacers general manager and former NBA great Larry Bird hired Mackey as a college scout, He remains in that job.
“The way he dealt with that set a powerful example for all of us,” said Pat Vuyancih, a junior forward on the team who now is 56 and working as an administrator at CSU.
“We all, as human beings, whether situations are handed to us or are of our own making, have to find ways to cope. Kevin’s personal recovery from addiction, more than the coaching and the fast times, is inspirational to us.”
Mudd still gets emotional when asked to reflect on the 1985-86 season and the NCAA Tournament run.
“We didn’t know we were making history at the time, but we did,” Mudd said. “Being with Mackey and those guys, I felt like the luckiest man in the world.”
Mackey cherishes memories of that dream season.
“”It was major. It changed everything,” he said.
“The program, the belief, the system and those kids. It was a special, special time.”