A Legacy on the Court: The History of Saint Francis University Basketball
Saint Francis University (SFU), nestled in Loretto, Pennsylvania, boasts a rich history in collegiate basketball. From its early days to recent triumphs, the Saint Francis Red Flash (men's team) have carved a notable path, marked by conference championships, national tournament appearances, and the contributions of legendary figures. This article explores the program's journey, highlighting key moments, influential individuals, and the enduring spirit that defines Saint Francis basketball.
Early Years and the Rise to Prominence
While comprehensive records from the earliest years may be incomplete, Saint Francis established itself as a competitive program. The 1950s marked a golden era, fueled by exceptional talent and strategic coaching.
The Stokes Era
The 1953-54 and 1954-55 seasons are etched in Saint Francis basketball lore as "The Stokes Teams." Led by the legendary Maurice Stokes, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, and coached by Dr. Williams "Skip" Hughes, these squads propelled the program onto the national stage. Their unselfish play and remarkable talent culminated in appearances at the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), then considered the most prestigious tournament in college basketball, held at the iconic Madison Square Garden. In the 1953-54 season, the Frankies achieved a 21-6 record and advanced to the NIT quarterfinals. Stokes's individual brilliance shone brightly, setting a national record with 689 rebounds that season, a feat he surpassed the following year with 726 rebounds. He averaged an impressive 23.1 points per game and 26.5 rebounds per game during the 1954-55 campaign. The Stokes Center is named for this great player.
Post-Stokes Era and Continued Competitiveness
Following the Stokes era, Saint Francis continued to compete, experiencing periods of both success and rebuilding.
NCAA Tournament and Conference Success
Dr. Edward W. Baron guided the Red Flash to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1991, where they faced the Arizona Wildcats in the First Round. While they lost that game, the achievement marked a significant milestone for the program. The Red Flash have appeared in the NCAA Tournament twice
Read also: Explore the impact of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
Recent Highlights
Saint Francis University Men’s Basketball team has been crowned Northeast Conference (NEC) Champions, securing a 46-43 victory over the top-seeded CCSU Blue Devils. This marked their first NEC Championship since 1991, earning them a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 33 years. Juan Cranford Jr. led the Red Flash with 14 points, while Daemar Kelly controlled the boards with seven rebounds and hit the go-ahead jumper with nine seconds left. Valentino Pinedo made a clutch layup in the final 33 seconds to help seal the win. In a hard-fought defensive battle, Saint Francis never trailed in the second half and secured the lowest-scoring victory in NEC Tournament history. They found out their March Madness opponent on Sunday, March 16.
The Krimmel Era
Rob Krimmel, a Saint Francis alumnus who played for the team and later served as an assistant coach, took over as head coach in 2012. Krimmel emphasized team-based play and player development.
Looking Ahead
Saint Francis University announced it would start reclassification to NCAA Division III in July 2025. The 2025-26 season will be SFU's last in Division I.
A Parallel Story: St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers
While this article primarily focuses on Saint Francis University, it's worth noting the history of another institution with a similar name: St. Francis College (now St. Francis Brooklyn). Their basketball program, the Terriers, holds the distinction of being the oldest collegiate program in New York City, founded in 1896. Although St. Francis Brooklyn permanently closed in 2023, their basketball history offers an interesting parallel. The St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers men's basketball program represented St. Francis College (SFC) in intercollegiate men's basketball up through the 2022-23 season, which was its last in intercollegiate competition. The team was a member of the Division I Northeast Conference. From 1971 through the 2021-22 season, they had played in the Daniel J. Lynch '38 Gym in the Generoso Pope Athletic Complex, located on SFC's former Brooklyn Heights campus. However, after the 2021-22 school year, SFC closed its Brooklyn Heights campus to move to a new campus on Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn. With the new campus lacking any athletic facilities, SFC arranged to use other nearby venues on at least a short-term basis. The Terriers' final game at the Pope Athletic Complex was held on November 19, 2022. From late November 2022 until March 2023, the Terriers played home games at the Activity Resource Center (branded as "The ARC") at Pratt Institute in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. The Terriers have also hosted home games at Madison Square Garden and at the Barclays Center. On March 20, 2023, St. The St. Francis Brooklyn men's basketball program was founded in 1896 and is the oldest collegiate program in New York City. The Terriers have an overall record of 1223-1295, 48.6 W-L%, over a 99-year span from the 1920-1921 to the 2019-2020 season. The program has won 6 regular season championships and has participated in 4 National Invitational Tournaments. In 2010, Glenn Braica was announced as the 17th head coach in the history of the St. Francis Terriers men's basketball program. Braica was previously an assistant under Norm Roberts at St. John's University. Braica has qualified nine times for the NEC tournament and in 2015 led the team to its first post season tournament in 52 years. The Terriers were one of seven NCAA Division I programs in New York City and in 2011 attending a Terriers game was named one reason to love New York by New York Magazine in their seventh annual Reasons to Love New York 2011 piece. The Terriers are also one of only four original Division I programs (since 1939) to have never participated in the NCAA tournament. The Terriers have been one win away from participating on three occasions, first in the 2000-01 season, then in the 2002-03 season, and again in the 2014-15 season. Beginning on November 27, 2012, St. Francis College rebranded its Athletics programs from St. Francis (NY) to St. Francis Brooklyn. After the 2022-23 season, St. Photo of Eddie Keating and Eddie Moran, St. Francis College players on the 1922-23 basketball team.The St. Francis College's men's basketball program was founded in 1896 and was the oldest collegiate program in New York City. The program had players on the court only 5 years after Dr. James Naismith invented the game in 1891. The College's first official game came in 1901 against Brown University. The Boys from Brooklyn, as they were referred to, finished the 1901 season with a 13-1 mark. From the 1902 to the 1920 season the Terrier basketball records are incomplete. Then from 1920 to 1940 the Terriers compiled a 246-187 record and established themselves as a premier basketball program in New York City, playing their home games in Brooklyn. The Terriers had played as Independents for most of these years, but in 1933 they were a founding member of the now defunct Metropolitan New York Conference. The Terriers had 6 head coaches during this period, the most successful of which was Rody Cooney. Who in his 9 years at the helm of the program didn't have a single losing season and compiled a 116-77 record. During this period the Terriers also had their first 20-win season. Cooney's 1935-36 team was the first to participate in a post-season tournament. Photo of the 1936 St. Joseph Brennan was the Terriers head coach with the highest winning percentage and he was also elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975. Brennan helped make the Terriers into a popular team during New York City's Basketball glory days of the 1940s and 50s. Due to their popularity the Terriers would play 2 to 3 games a year at Madison Square Garden and the Terriers were one of the few programs hosting Division I games in Brooklyn at the Park Slope Armory, their home court. Brennan's 1941-42 squad averaged 56 points per game, which was quite high during those years. The Terriers also had the first college player to score 20 or more points at Madison Square Garden, Vincent T. Agoglia. He did it twice in the 1941-1942 season, first against LaSalle College of Philadelphia. The greatest head coach in the program's history was Daniel Lynch. Lynch was a graduate of St. Francis College and played basketball at his alma mater from 1934-38 under head coach Rody Cooney. When Lynch took over in 1948 the Terriers became the first team in the New York City area to have a game televised. The Terriers defeated Seton Hall in its inaugural telecast on WPIX. Lynch is the Terrier head coach with the most wins in the programs history (283). Part of that wins total came during a 6-year span from 1950 to 1956, where Lynch guided the Terriers to five consecutive winning seasons going 121-43. From 1949-1951 the Terriers participated in 4 National Catholic Invitational Tournaments (NCIT). The NCIT was a premier post-season tournament in those years. The Terriers went to the NCIT finals three consecutive times and won the Championship in 1951. Lynch's 1950-51 squad defeated the Seattle University Redhawks 93-79 in the Championship game. The Terriers appeared in the 1955 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament, losing in the first round to Quincy University. St. Francis first participated in the NAIA District 31 playoffs to qualify for the tournament, in it they defeated St. Lynch also led the Terriers to 3 NIT appearances (1954, 1956, and 1963). Lynch's 1953-54 squad won the Metropolitan New York Conference regular season championship and were invited to the 1954 NIT where they defeated Louisville in the first round before losing to Holy Cross in the Quarterfinals. The 1955-56 squad also won the Metropolitan New York Conference regular season championship and participated in the 1956 NIT. They went as far as the 3rd-place game where they lost to St. Joseph's to finish in fourth place. The 1955-1956 season was the Terriers best, as Coach Lynch led them to a 21-4 record that ranked them at 13th nationally in the AP polls. The squad included legends Al Innis, Dan Mannix, Walt Adamushko, and Tony D'Elia. The team at one point won 18 straight games and upset Niagara to reach the NIT Semi-Finals, before falling to Dayton. In the 1963 National Invitation Tournament the Terriers were one of 12 teams selected for the tournament. Lynch's team was the 4th best defense in the country and faced the best offense in Miami. St. Francis had the bigger Miami on the ropes with a 66-65 lead with 3:38 to play, led by Jim Raftery who scored 23 points. After the Metropolitan New York Conference became defunct in 1963, the Terriers became Independents before joining the Metropolitan Collegiate Conference. The Terriers were a part of the MCC for all four years in which it was active, winning the 1966-67 Conference regular season championship after going 7-2 in conference play. Lynch ended his coaching career with a 283-237 (54.4%) record over a 21-year span. After retiring as the head coach, Lynch became the full-time Athletic Director at St. The Terriers originally played most of their home games in their gymnasium at their Butler Street Campus, this lasted until 1955. The Terriers were also occasionally invited to play at Madison Square Garden III by Ned Irish, a basketball promoter. Yet, beginning in the late 1940s the Terriers would also host games at the 14th Regiment Armory in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Starting in the 1950-51 season, St. By 1956, the Terriers were exclusively hosting games at the Park Slope Armory since the College was in the process of moving its campus from Butler Street to the current Remsen Street location in Brooklyn Heights. The Terriers practices were often interrupted by military drills, and in 1960 the Terriers decided to relocate to the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan. With SFC noticeably expanding its enrollment in the early 2020s, it outgrew its Remsen Street campus, and moved to a new campus on Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn after the 2021-22 school year. The new campus lacks athletic facilities, forcing SFC to move basketball elsewhere. From the 1969-70 season to the 1990-91 season, a span of 22 years, the St. Francis Terriers men's basketball program only had three winning seasons. Two of those came during the tenure of Lou Rossini, who was formerly a head coach for NYU and Columbia. In the third year of his contract with St. Francis College, it was announced that they would not renew his contract. During those 22 years the Terriers went through six head coaches and hit a program low in the 1983-84 season going 2-26 under the tenure of Gene Roberti (1979-84). Bob Valvano (1984-88) took over as the youngest Division I coach in the country at 27 years old, and while the program made slight improvements, winning a conference tournament game for the first time in 1988, there were still no winning seasons. After Valvano, Rich Zvosec took the reins of the Terriers in 1988 and became the youngest Division I coach in the country at age 27. Zvosec produced a winning season 3 years into his tenure going 15-14. The winning season was only the 3rd in 22 years and the first in 11 seasons since Rossini accomplished the feat in 1978-79. Also during this time St. Francis College moved its campus and in 1971 the Terriers settled into a new home at the Pope Physical Education Center. Other transitions during this time included St. Francis joining a new conference in 1981, the Northeast Conference (then known as the ECAC Metro Conference). Ron Ganulin's 14 seasons were one of contrasts, but Ganulin helped restore the program to its glory days somewhat. Before joining the Terriers, Ganulin was fresh off the 1990 National Championship as an assistant with the 1989-90 UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball team. Ganulin's tenure began with several losing seasons, his 1993-94 squad went 1-26 and finished last in the Northeast Conference. Yet by the 1997-98 season Ganulin's squad's began to turn it around stringing together 5 consecutive winning seasons from 1997-2001. Ganulin accumulated 187 wins and was twice named the Northeast Conference's Coach of the Year. Ganulin's tenure at St. Francis include finishing with a .500 or better record in the Northeast Conference eight straight years, at that time the longest active streak in the conference and making the NEC Tournament each of his 14 seasons as head coach. They also reached the NEC semi-finals five times and had two NEC tournament championship game appearances (2001 and 2003). Those Championship game appearances are the closest the Terriers have been to making the NCAA tournament. From 1998 through 2004, St. Francis posted a 78-36 conference record, which was best in the NEC. Also during Ganulin's tenure St. Francis made their first appearance in a National Tournament since 1963, by being selected to participate in the 2003 NIT Season Tip-Off. The Terriers lost in the first round to Massachusetts. The 2003 NIT Tip-off invitation was a product of the Terriers success in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Brian Nash was head coach for 5 seasons, during which time the Terriers lost much of the momentum gained during Ganulin's tenure. Nash's squad's never produced a winning season and missed the NEC Tournament three times in five seasons. St. On April 29, 2010, Glenn Braica was announced as the 17th head coach in the history of the St. Francis Terriers men's basketball program. Braica was a former assistant at St. Francis under Ron Ganulin for 15 years and was an assistant at St. Braica inherited a depleted team that had not had a winning season in six years and quickly added 5 signings in his first year. This led to a 15-15 record and a berth in the NEC Tournament where they lost in the first round to Central Connecticut 62-64. In his second season, Braica led the Terriers to their second NEC tournament with the 4th seed. They went 15-15 overall and 12-6 in the NEC, their most conference wins since the 2003-04 season and they hosted their first home tournament game since 1997, a 72-80 loss to Quinnipiac. Additionally, Braica was selected as the 2012 NEC Jim Phelan coach of the year and as the 2012 NABC District 18 Co-Coach of the Year. After two 15-15 seasons, the Terriers posted their first losing record at 12-18 overall and 8-10 in conference play. St. Prior to the 2013 season, Braica announced that he hired former head coach Ron Ganulin as an assistant. This would be their second stint together, but with Briaca at the helm this time. In 2013, the Terriers were selected to participate in the Maui Invitational Tournament as part of the Mainland Bracket for the first time in the programs history. Braica was able to guide his Terriers to a 9-6 non-conference record which was one win shy of being the first NEC team to win 10 non-conference games in a season. Part of this success was the Terriers stingy defense and big road wins against Miami, Florida Atlantic and Stony Brook. The Terriers ended the 2013-14 season at 18-14, their first time winning 18 games since the 2001-02 season. The Terriers qualified for the NEC Tournament with the 4th seed and lost to Mount St. The 2014-15 Terriers for the first time as members of the NEC, were selected as the preseason NEC favorites by league head coaches. The program was also selected to participate in the 3rd annual 2014 Barclays Center Classic. On January 31, 2015, the Terriers gained sole possession of 1st place in the NEC after defeating LIU Brooklyn in the annual Battle of Brooklyn. For St. Francis Brooklyn, it marks being in first place after 10 games since starting 8-2 in the 2003-04 season. That year the Terriers finished 12-6 and shared the NEC regular season title with Monmouth. On February 21, 2015 the Terriers clinched the NEC regular season Championship and recorded their first 20+ win season since the 1998-99 season. The Terriers closed out the regular season at 21-10 overall and 15-3 in conference play. Prior to the beginning of the NEC Tournament, the NEC announced Glenn Braica as the Jim Phelan Coach of the Year, Jalen Cannon as the NEC Player of the Year and Amdy Fall as the NEC Defensive Player of the Year. In the NEC Tournament, the Terriers defeated LIU Brooklyn and Saint Francis (PA) to reach the Championship game, where they lost to Robert Morris. Because of the loss the Terriers didn't receive t…
Read also: Affording Saint Leo University
Read also: SLU Hospital Overview
tags: #saint #francis #university #basketball #history
