BY MICHAEL GRIFFIN
As Waterbury schools gained prominence in the post-Armory era while challenging for CIAC tournament glory, each seemed to have a specific, established state power to run up against on numerous occasions during the 1970s and ’80s.
Crosby seemed to face off against Warren Harding of Bridgeport regularly in Class L contests during the mid-1970s.
Sacred Heart squared up with the storied St. Thomas Aquinas (of New Britain) program in a number of Class M showdowns in the early ‘80s.
For Holy Cross, its rival come tournament time was the mighty Governors of Wilbur Cross of New Haven, who dominated the state basketball scene in the 1970s and captured six CIAC LL titles over a ten-year period between 1972 and 1981.
The last of those six titles was an 80-73 triumph over Holy Cross in the 1981 LL championship game. “It was a back-and-forth game and was decided in the last two minutes. Their 6-foot–9 center Jeff Hoffler was the difference,” recalls Holy Cross’ Carmen Giampetruzzi, who was “fighting the flu that week and played the game with a 103-degree temperature.”
against Wilbur Cross’ Earl Kelley during
the 1981 CIAC LL championship game
at Central Connecticut State University.
Coach Tim McDonald’s Crusader team gained revenge a year later by toppling Wilbur Cross at the semifinal stage, with Giampetruzzi scoring three baskets in the final minute of a come-from-behind, one-point victory.
The last two of the 6-foot-3 forward’s 30 points came on a game-winning jumper with six seconds remaining, to send Holy Cross into the LL final.
“I have never seen or heard a larger crowd that night at Quinnipiac College,” says Giampetruzzi, the left-handed forward who was named to the LL All-State team and was the recipient of the Billy Finn Award in 1982 as top senior player in the city.
“Those two tournament games against Wilbur Cross could go down as some of the best back-to-back games in tournament history,” believes Giampetruzzi. “The floor was full of future college-bound players and the two coaches (McDonald and Wilbur Cross’ Bob Saulsbury) were legends in Connecticut high school hoops.
“I don’t know if there were ever four guards of that caliber — Fred Collins and Earl Kelley (of Wilbur Cross) and Bruce Johnson and John Burrus (of Holy Cross) — to match up against each other in a state championship game,” believes Giampetruzzi.
Johnson and Burrus, who were both named All-City and All-NVL, were the senior leaders on the 1981 Holy Cross team that lost only its first and last games of the season. “If it wasn’t for illness in both, we probably would have been undefeated with a state championship,” says Giampetruzzi, recalling the opening lost to Bishop McNamara in Maryland when the team was stricken with food poisoning.
The 1980-81 Crusader team was loaded with talent, with senior Jeff Weiner and juniors Giampetruzzi and Mike Robinson rounding out the starting five. “All five of us averaged double-digit scoring marks. We ran, we pushed the ball, we outscored our opponents at historical marks,” adds Giampetruzzi. “I truly believe this team, with five players earning scholarships to college, was one of the better teams to come out of Waterbury.”
Giampetruzzi and Robinson, who had played together as teammates since their grade-schools days at St. Mary’s School in the city’s parochial league, took on bigger roles in their senior season at Holy Cross.
playing days at New Hampshire College.
“We were a very different team for the 1981-82 season. We played at a slower pace, but were very smart,” points out Giampetruzzi. “The obvious common denominator was our head coach Tim McDonald. Timmy knew how we could get it done with smart, ball-controlled offense and hard-nosed defense.”
The starting five that year was a tough group: “Jim Crocicchia was the quarterback on the football team; Steve Schade was a 6-foot-6 center who was also very intelligent; and Dave Lepore — who everyone now knows from his great food establishment, Roma’s — was a great complementary guard who would rarely miss a shot,” describes Giampetruzzi.
“Mike (Robinson) and I took most of the shots that season, yet the others did not care. They were only concerned with winning.”
That 1981-82 Holy Cross team was “on a roll and finally jelling as a team unit by the time we faced Wilbur Cross again in the state tournament,” recalls Giampetruzzi. Earl Kelley was averaging 40 points a game and “Wilbur Cross seemed unstoppable, but with a game plan put together by Tim McDonald and assistants George D’Agostino and Marty DeFazio, we perfected it and came up with a miracle ending.”
Wilbur Cross had a five-point lead in the final minute before Giampetruzzi provided the key hoops down the stretch. “Although the box score stats seemed lopsided, with myself and Mike Robinson scoring 80% of the points, it was a true team effort to beat a great team and one of the nation’s best players,” he says. “We also got some key minutes from reserve Tony Thompson, who covered Earl Kelly in a ‘box-and-one’ for half the game.”
The CIAC LL title game between Holy Cross and Norwalk was tied at 33-all at halftime. But the taller Norwalk team – featuring 6-8 Ray Brown and 6-5 Kevin Stevens, who combined for 56 points on the night – controlled the inside in the second half and held off the Crusaders, 85-76. Robinson hit for 32 points and Giampetruzzi added 24 in their final high-school games.
Giampetruzzi, named an All-State performer in Class LL, went on to star at New Hampshire College. A four-year member of the men’s basketball team, Giampetruzzi served as co-captain his senior year and help lead the Penmen to a 24-7 record and an appearance in the NCAA Division II Tournament.
his 2018 induction into the Crusader Hall
of Honor at Holy Cross High School.
He averaged 21 points a game for his sophomore season, the highest average among New England Division II players that year, and totaled 1,928 career points in his collegiate career. A three-time All-NECC selection, Giampetruzzi was voted into his school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995.
Moving on to continue his successes in the world of marketing after college, Giampetruzzi still resides in New Hampshire. But the memories of his high school days in Waterbury remain, especially the battles with Catholic school rival Sacred Heart and games against Crosby, which traded NVL titles with Holy Cross over his junior and senior seasons.
“The Sacred Heart vs. Holy Cross games were no less comparable to the Red Sox vs. Yankees,” boats Giampetruzzi. “If you look at old pictures, our crowds were so big that we had to re-locate the games to a bigger gym at Crosby High School.”
“And one of the most memorable games was against Crosby when Bob Brown called a pick play 90 feet away from his own basket and attracted a charge call to beat us from the foul line with seconds left to play,” he adds.
The 1981-82 NVL title came down to a late-February battle between Holy Cross and Crosby at the Palace. Giampetruzzi played his part, but Brian Jones hit for 25 points while 6-1 Jeff Hunter contributed 14 points and 12 rebounds as the host Bulldogs held off the Crusaders, 73-65 — clinching a first NVL title for Nick Augelli, who had taken over for Brown as head coach in 1979-80.
Like Holy Cross, Crosby would also reach a CIAC final that season, losing to St. Bernard and its All-American Harold Pressley in the Class L title game.
The next season, Sacred Heart and Wilby would each advance to CIAC championship games before falling at the final hurdle.
That marked an impressive two-year period when teams from four different city high schools reached state title games.
Perennial state power St. Thomas Aquinas of New Britain ended Sacred Heart’s hopes that 1982-83 season, but Coach Ed Generali’s Hearts gained some revenge by topping its nemesis at the semifinal stage and end Aquinas’ attempt at a fourth consecutive state title.
The Hearts would end the string of title games losses by city teams when it routed Weston to win the 1984 Class M crown.
But, win or lose – as Giampetruzzi notes – the “1980s produced some of the more memorable moments and best basketball teams in the city’s history.”