The Butler Did It
Tom Murray doesn’t need to look at a calendar to know where he’ll be the last weekend of March.
That’s because for about as long as he can remember, the Hall of Fame basketball coach has made the nearly 3-1/2 hour trek up the New York Thruway to Glens Falls, N.Y., the site of the New York State Federation basketball tournament since 1981.
The tournament is the end of the high school basketball season, New York’s tournament of champions, pitting the winners of the CHSAA, PSAL, NYPHSAA and the NYSAISAA to crown a single champion in each class level for boys and girls.
But this year’s trip for Murray will be the last, at least for four years. That’s because the New York State Federation committee voted Wednesday to move the tournament to Albany in 2011.
“It’s so tough because the people of Glens Falls do everything, they put on a beautiful program, but they just couldn’t get people in the seats,” said Murray, the CHSAA state vice-president. “Mrs. Murray really likes to go up there and shop. I hear there are some nice stores in Albany, too.”
The news is stunning, if only because Glens Falls was the only location the tournament has ever seen. Teams every year talk about making the trip to Glens Falls, like it is a magical, mystical location. Most of the players have never been there, but they know its where the state Federation tournament is played and that’s where they want to be.
So from a historical perspective, it’s sad that the best teams in the state won’t convene at the Glens Falls Civic Center in late March.
But as much as the players talk about their desire to get to Glens Falls, when they finally arrive it’s not quite what they expected. It’s kind of like in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion finally get to Oz and meet the Wizard, who they learn was just that guy behind the curtain.
The Glens Falls Civic Center, while it has seen its better days, was a perfectly-sized venue for the tournament. However, unless a local team was featured – and that was a rarity recently – few of the nearly 5,000 seats were filled.
A few years ago, Christ the King and Murry Bergtraum met as the top two girls teams in the country and attendance was sparse. The same teams played at Madison Square Garden as part of the Nike Super Six and drew a much larger crowd.
In fact, in each of his four years, Lance Stephenson won the PSAL championship under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden and then played in relatively anonymity in Glens Falls.
So what’s so special about Albany?
“It’s the capital of New York for one, the arena is beautiful, it’s a large population area,” Murray said. “They have a high school league and will support their own teams, but maybe if we bring the product to them they’ll support it.”
The tournament will be played at the Times Union Center, which has hosted NCAA and MAAC tournament games in recent years. The upper sections of the arena will be curtained off, much like Seton Hall games at the Prudential Center, giving the 16,500-seat arena the intimate feel of a 6,000-seat venue.
Albany is also more accessible to hoops fans, especially those living downstate.
“Albany is pretty direct from New York City,” Murray said. “If people want to go up, there’s an Amtrak Station which is five minutes from the arena.”
The committee also entertained bids from Binghamton, which runs the highly successful STOP-DWI Holiday Classic, and Long Island, which proposed the tournament be played at C.W. Post.
“It’s just that the facility didn’t match up to the facilities of the other places, especially when you start talking Times Union Center,” Murray said.
While I embrace change, I’ll miss plenty about Glens Falls – staying at the Queensbury, late-night dinners at the Bullpen Tavern with my fellow scribes, reading the comprehensive tournament coverage by the Glens Falls Post-Star and, of course, watching some quality basketball.
That said, anyone know a tavern with some good food open late in Albany?
