BY MICHAEL GRIFFIN
Crosby High’s gym officially opened for play on Dec. 6, 1974, with Waterbury Schools Superintendent Michael F. Wallace on hand to toss up the ceremonial opening tip as the Bulldogs hosted Watertown. Center Dave Wiggins (with 20 points) and star guard Steve Johnson (18 points) were among six double-figure scorers as the Crosby routed the visitors, 114-74.
“Dr. Wallace threw up the opening jump ball and we were off and rning,” recalls Bob Brown, Crosby coach from 1968 to 1979, about that 1974-75 season – when his deep and athletic squad captured city and NVL titles and reached the Class L quarterfinals in the initial season in its new home.
Wallace tosses a ball up to Dave Wiggins of Crosby
and John Kontout of Watertown as
a ceremonial opening tap to begin the
first game at the Crosby-Wallace gym
on Dec. 6, 1974. (Repulican-American photo)
Dubbed the Crosby Palace, the gym was part of an impressive complex on Pierpont Road that housed the high school and Wallace Middle School, as the city moved away from K-8 elementary school system in the 1970s. The need to accommodate space for simultaneous physical education classes for Wallace and Crosby students called for an extra-large space, along with a seating capacity adequate for various school events.
“It was quite a gym with movable, portable baskets and probably one of the largest seating-capacity gyms in the state,” says Nick Augelli, Crosby’s current coach, who was Brown’s top assistant and JV coach back in 1974.
“For years we had to practice at Kennedy and were fit in between Kennedy’s team and Mattatuck Community College. So, having the new school and gym open up was a great advantage for us. We could practice more and truly have a home court.”
Its original bleachers have since been replaced, with a reduced capacity, but Brown estimates the original setup “was built to hold 2,800 sitting fans,” says Brown. “We sold out for many games and I remember a few nights having over 3,000 fans, with many of them standing all around the court.”
To borrow some theater terminology, you need a successful and entertaining show to draw big crowds, and the 1974-75 Bulldogs’ running and pressing style fit the bill. Crosby hit the 100-point mark four times that season – including a 125-71 romp over West Haven that set a city scoring record – and went 12-2 in league games to stage a winning show to open the Palace, a year after playing most of its games at Kennedy.
“The new school and gym were great … having our own house, earlier practice time, getting home in time for dinner,” says Pete Anton, who hit 12 of 13 shots in Crosby’s regular-season finale, an 82-63 win over Wilby that clinched the city and league titles.
“I’m sure we played in front of much bigger crowds that year, but I’m not sure if it had to do with the new gym or because we had the best team in the city. Above all else, it was just great having our own hostile home court advantage for the first time,” adds Anton, who along with junior classmate Johnson would be named to the 1974-75 All-NVL team.
Crosby collected a couple of wins in the state tournament before running into state power Warren Harding High of Bridgeport, whose roster included future NBA player Wes Matthews, All-Stater Aldo Samuel and Mike McKay, who would go on to star at UConn.
The Bulldogs held their own in the first half of the Class L quarterfinal before Harding rallied for a 70-66 victory. Steve Johnson scored 13 points, including the 1,000th point of his scholastic career, in the season-ending loss.
Harding would again prove Crosby’s nemesis the next season, in a Class L semifinal played at the New Haven Coliseum, when McKay and Matthews combined for 39 points in a 69-59 win. “It was so disappointing to end the season that way. We were up by five at the half,” notes Anton about the final game of his high school career. “We could have won it.”
Brown would coach the Bulldogs to one more NVL title before handing the reins over to Augelli for the 1979-80 campaign, when Crosby again fell just one game short of a CIAC final appearance.
The elusive state title would come in 1998, the first of Crosby’s three CIAC championships during the Augelli era. Dhaamin Hill and Marvin Rountree were top ’Dogs that season, which culminated in a victory over Notre Dame of West Haven in the Class L championship game.
during the 2015 ceremony held to rename the
school’s basketball court in his honor.
Augelli would guide Crosby teams to five CIAC final appearances over the 12 seasons between 1998 and 2009, winning again in 2005 and 2008. He has amassed 704 wins in over 40 seasons as head coach at Crosby, and the court and gymnasium at the school are now named in his honor.
“The 2015 dedication of Coach Nick Augelli Court and last year’s naming of the gym in my honor is something that I really cherish,” says Augelli, who has been on the sidelines since the gym’s opening in 1974.
Asked if there’s one game at the venue that might stand out among the rest, Augelli recalls the 1987 Crosby-Wilby matchup that determined the NVL champion that season. Both teams were 18-1 at the time and both ranked in the Top 10 poll of state teams.
“A portion of the bleachers had broken and the Park Department had to bring in extra bleachers. But they just let everybody into the gym. There were over 3,000 people, with many standing on the sidelines and under the basket,” recalls Augelli. “As the game turned out, we were down by 22 at halftime and then scored 60 points in the second half to win by one point in overtime.”
Besides all the games that were played over the years at the gym, “the practices and the times spent with the many players and seeing them achieve their goals is what stands out the most for me,” adds Augelli.
“Someday I would like to calculate the number of hours I have spent in that gymnasium – between practices, games and preparation for the season. It would be quite a number.”