HAMMOND – Members of the Bishop Noll Institute class of 1973 had such a good time at their 50-year reunion last summer that many of them decided to continue celebrating on Jan. 20 at the BNI Alumni Watch Party that featured the Warrior boys basketball team in its 81-31 rout of rival Whiting.
That final score was a far cry from the numbers regularly put up by the 1973 basketball team, honored at halftime, that used a masterful stall to capture the IHSAA Regional Basketball championship 50 years ago.
Coach Bob Bradtke explained in a video played before the team was introduced to the crowd, that he installed the stall because his Warriors lacked the height to run to the basket and compete with taller opponents for lay-ups (no shot clock or three-pointers in those days). With a ballhandling wizard like Tom Ispas, the BNI point guard, the stall frustrated the opposition while the Warriors waited for an opening to grab an open shot, leading to single-digit halftime scores.
The key was staying ahead on the scoreboard, “because you can’t stall when you’re behind,” explained Bill Lowry, Ispas’ backcourt partner. “I was the defensive guard.”
Lowry, who was cheered at halftime by more than a half-dozen family members, said the team “definitely bought in” when Bradtke revealed his plan and practiced it regularly while using it sparingly early in the season.
“Finally, in the holiday tourney, we began with the stall and led 4-2 at the half,” Lowry recalled. “We fell behind 11-10 in the third quarter, and coach said at the timeout, ‘Are you ready to run?’”
The Warriors turned on the speed to leave Hammond Clark still dazed by the earlier slow pace and scored 26 points in the fourth quarter to score the win. “That’s when we began using the stall to win games,” said Lowry, whose teammates in addition to Ispas included Wally Kasprzycki, Ron Mazur, Phil Doherty, Ray Baron, Dennis Tracy, Kevin Cohorst, Tom Karlowicz, Tom Thiel and Paul Pobereyko. Assisting Bradtke was Ray Zawada.
“It was one of the best things to happen in my life,” said Lowry of the halftime honors.
Sharing the memories with Lowry were almost 50 of his classmates, who made a special effort to attend the game watch.
“It was all about the stall,” said ’73 classmate Patrick Golden, of LaGrange, Ill., about that team. “Ispas could handle that ball.”
“We had such a good time at our reunion that we decided to keep it going,” said Marian Kritsch, of Munster, a member of the 50-Year Reunion Committee. “It was a three-day event with a party at a Crown Point bar on Friday night, a dinner at Innsbrook Country Club in Merrillville on Saturday and, on Sunday, a Mass celebrated here at the school by our classmate, Father Tom Mischler, followed by brunch and a tour of the building.”
Kritsch said it was “the people, and the friends we made,” that made BNI a special place. “Our reunion committee became like a family,” she said.
Bill’s brother, Jim Lowry, class of ’70, was on the Warrior wrestling team and remembers that “coming to basketball games” was his favorite school activity. “Bob Bradtke was a big influence on me,” he added. “He was not only a coach, but our accounting teacher, and I started out as an accountant after graduating from Calumet College, before I went into banking.”
Five of the six Lowry siblings attended BNI, and Jim Lowry knew that “My parents felt it was important for us to attend Noll.”
Classmate Maureen Mulholland Alfonso, of Homewood, Ill., said Noll was big enough to offer a variety of extracurriculars – “I was a cheerleader, and in stage plays – but academics were key. “Everyone knew Noll was a good school,” she said.
Cathy Bolanowski, of Schererville, also class of ’73, recently retired after 40 years of teaching middle school students in Hammond and appreciates the education she received at Noll. “I don’t think we saw it as students, but as soon as I got to Indiana University, I realized how well Noll had prepared me for college,” she explained. “I saw other freshmen who couldn’t seem to get up in the morning to get to class, who couldn’t get their work done, and ended up on academic probation. I couldn’t imagine that – I had learned the study skills, the discipline, to do well.”
“How many places do you know where people come back 50 or 60 years later and are still friends?” asked Kritsch. “This is great.”