ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997 TAG: 9704220006
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM THE ROANOKE TIMES
A lot has changed for the Roanoke College players in the 25 years since they won it all in the NCAA College Division.
Beatty Barnes answered the telephone and was asked, ``What does the barber say?''
Without hesitation, after more than 25 years, Barnes responded, ``Next.''
With each victory for the 1972 Roanoke College men's basketball team, it was the ritual to ask that question and give that answer. The next team always was a victim of the Maroons.
Roanoke College ran out of next games and opponents when the Maroons beat Akron 84-72 in the NCAA College Division championship game in Evansville, Ind. It was Roanoke College's 19th consecutive victory and 29th triumph in 33 games during the 1971-72 season.
The story of the Maroons' championship team began in the late 1960s, when Roanoke College made a commitment to upgrade its basketball program to make it competitive with any in the NCAA's College Division. The key step came when the Maroons hired Charlie Moir, then an assistant at Virginia Tech, as head coach.
In the College Division final four 25 years ago, Roanoke College was in fast company. Besides the Zips, the other teams were Tennessee State and Eastern Michigan, which the Maroons beat 99-73 in a semifinal. Of those four schools, only Roanoke, now in Division III, is not a Division I member.
A few years after Roanoke's national title, the NCAA was divided into three classifications. Division II allowed scholarships based on athletic ability, but was a step below Division I. It also was a dying division, though it survives today.
Ultimately, school officials had to decide whether to step up to Division I or fall back to Division III, where there is no athletic-based financial aid. Eventually, Roanoke joined Division III, though it's biggest rival of 1972, Old Dominion, went the other way and is a strong Division I program.
Players, coaches and friends of the 1971-72 Maroons team gathered Saturday for a reception and dinner at Roanoke College to remember the 25th anniversary of the school's first national sports title.
What has happened to the 13 players, manager and two coaches who put Roanoke basketball in the national spotlight?
Here is a look at that team and what those Maroons are doing today:
Dickie Adams: One of the starting guards who could shoot from downtown, Adams entered the family plumbing business in Letcher, Ky. Adams later became a special-education teacher at the middle school level, coaching high school baseball and junior varsity basketball in Isom, Ky.
Adams suffered a heart attack in December, but an angioplasty procedure has enabled him to return to teaching and coaching. His 18-year-old son is headed to Pikeville (Ky.) College to play basketball. He has an older son and two daughters, both of whom also are athletes.
Had the 3-point rule been in effect in 1972, Adams might have been an All-American. ``I know most of our games might have been in the 100s,'' he says.
Beatty Barnes: He started at forward in junior college and for the Maroons. At 52 years old, Barnes has a new son, Dion Deshaun Barnes, and works two jobs in Lynchburg. His oldest son, B.J., is a stand-up comedian performing up and down the East Coast. Beatty Barnes is retired from basketball.
``The tongues in my shoes started panting, so I had to quit,'' he said.
Don Brown: He was the Maroons assistant coach Moir recruited as a player, when Moir was an assistant at Virginia Tech. Brown also was an assistant at Patrick Henry before he moved to Roanoke College. He went with Moir to Tulane, then returned with him to Tech.
Brown also has been a head coach and athletic director at Woodbridge, the state's largest high school. He now serves as the athletic director at Atlee High School in Richmond.
Everett Hurst: After selling insurance, Hurst became a stockbroker with A.G. Edwards in Roanoke. He lives in Botetourt County and has one daughter.
As the Maroons' bulky 6-foot-6 center, Hurst was known as ``Ice Cream Man'' because of his fondness for the dessert - and because Moir had to watch the Wytheville native to make sure Hurst stayed away from ice cream stands on road trips.
Henry Kleinknecht: He works for the Department of Defense and audits defense contracts for the federal government. Is his job important? ``Some people think so; others try to get rid of us,'' said Kleinknecht, who reports to congress and decides if his department is paying reasonable and fair prices.
Kleinknecht, a reserve forward at Roanoke, eventually played a lot of three-on-three basketball and also is a golfer. He has two young daughters.
Hal Johnston: The Salem native was an All-America guard. Johnston worked at Baptist Children's Home as an activities director, then taught in the Roanoke County school system. Now he's associate dean of admissions at Roanoke College and one of the valley's most eligible bachelors.
``We were a happy-go-lucky bunch, and we never knew we were that good until it was all over,'' said Johnston, who also would have loved the 3-point shot.
John Lang: He remains bitter toward Roanoke College over an unspecified incident that kept him from graduating with his class. In the 1980s, Lang asked the school to stop contacting him for alumni functions.
The Maroons' sixth man in 1971-72, Lang might be its most successful alumnus. He heads a company that builds and develops golf course communities. Lang's Estancia Club was named the best new golf course for 1996 by Golf Digest.
``I have great admiration for what happened while I was there,'' Lang said. ``I was first reserve and liked that role. I told Coach Moir I liked coming off the bench, though I suppose that decision had already been made.''
Gerald McDearmon: ``Hoss,'' as McDearmon was known, was the team manager. He has been with the Roanoke city school system and will be the principal of Breckinridge Middle School when it reopens after undergoing renovations.
McDearmon's wife, Candice, was killed two years ago when she fell from a pyramid while touring Mexico. McDearmon, other than Barnes, probably had the best sense of humor on the 1971-72 team.
Tom Martin: The school's athletic director in 1972, Martin eventually took Roanoke to Division III. He retired to open Martin Travel, which still is around today. Martin later sold the travel business and opened Galaxy Cruises and moved to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he lives today.
Charlie Moir: He was the Maroons' head coach, before leaving two years later to become head coach at Tulane. Moir returned to Virginia Tech and guided the Hokies to some success. He retired to take a job with Dillard Paper in Salem as sales representative.
Moir is retired and enjoys watching son Page, a ball boy for the 1971-72 Maroons, coach Roanoke College today.
Larry Osborne: He was the Maroons' back-up center. Osborne served in the Air Force, but retired, and no one associated with the school is sure where he is now. His son, former VMI player Larry Jr., is estranged from him.
One Roanoke alumnus in the Washington, D.C., area saw Osborne a few months ago and said the former Maroon was planning to start a home improvement business.
Jay Piccola: A second-team All-American who started at forward, Piccola was kneed in the groin following an NCAA regional game against Mercer, then was sucker-punched in the jaw by Eastern Michigan's George Gervin in the Maroons' semifinal victory. That incident ended the college career of Gervin, who went on to star in the NBA and ABA, and made Piccola more famous than anything else he did in his career at Roanoke.
Piccola has gone from a sales career with Converse to an executive vice presidency with Fruit of the Loom for Pro Player. He lives in Bedford, N.H., and has three sons. At 44, his basketball days are over after he severed an Achilles' tendon.
Ron Reed: As a reserve guard, Reed's biggest night of the 1971-72 season came when he kept hitting free throws as Roanoke upset University Division member Long Island University on a stage gym in the old Brooklyn Loew's Theater.
Reed is television production manager for Gallaudet College, where he has worked for 19 years. He is an avid golfer and is looking forward to retirement.
Steve Ragsdale: He is the football coach at Giles High School in Pearisburg, where his teams have won two state titles. Ragsdale also coached basketball at Giles, putting to use what he learned as a reserve guard at Roanoke.
Ross Robinson: He is a direct-response advertising consultant whose business interests bring him from Northern Virginia to Salem throughout the year. Robinson runs a golf tournament for alumni weekend each year, this one made special because it is the 25th anniversary of his championship team.
Robinson served as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech under Moir, then went to work for Stuart McGuire in Salem before setting up his own consulting business 14 years ago. He was a reserve forward as a freshman in 1972.
Billy Thornhill: One of two players who didn't accompany the team to Evansville, Thornhill was a freshman guard who transferred to Gardner-Webb to finish his career. He is the boys' basketball coach, athletic director and assistant principal at Culpeper County High School, which he attended before coming to Roanoke.
Bob Veney: Known as ``Do-Dad'' in college, Veney also didn't make the trip to Evansville. He went on to serve in the armed forces, then lived with his father, Robert Sr., in Lexington before leaving a few months ago. His father doesn't know his whereabouts.
LENGTH: Long : 172 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. & 2. 1972 FILE PHOTO & ERIC BRADY THE ROANOKE TIMES.by CNBThe Maroons gathered to strike nearly the same pose as when they
Martin won their championship. Kneeling left to right: Dickie Adams,
Steve Ragsdale, John Lang (third from left in 1972 photo, top, but
not pictured in other), Hal Johnston, Jay Piccola and Everett Hurst.
Standing left to right: head coach Charlie Moir, Gerald McDearmon
(partially hidden behind Moir in 1972 photo) Larry Osborne (third
from left in 1972 photo, but not pictured in other), Henry
Kleinknecht, Beatty Barnes, Ross Robinson, Don Brown, Page Moir and
Tom MArtin.