Two Loyolas Far Different in Basketball

Loyola Marymount and Loyola of Baltimore. So much in common, yet so different.

Loyola of Los Angeles merged with Marymount, a women’s college, in 1973, about the time Baltimore’s Loyola absorbed Mount St. Agnes College.

Both Loyolas are Jesuit schools, run by priests of the Society of Jesus. They are comparable in size; Marymount with 4,000 students, Baltimore’s Loyola with 6,000, some 2,800 undergraduates.

The president of Loyola in Baltimore for 25 years has been the Rev. Joseph A. Sellinger, S.J., a native Philadelphian. At Marymount the president is the Rev. James Loughran, also from Philadelphia.

Father Loughran was in Baltimore for a year of study at the time Marymount was looking for a president. Father Sellinger encouraged him to apply. He did and won the job. Father Sellinger is now on his board of trustees at Marymount.

It is in basketball where the two Loyolas are as far apart as the 3,000 miles that separate them.

Loyola Marymount is the basketball story of the year with a high-scoring team that went to the final eight in the NCAA tournament. Among its three playoff victims was Michigan, the defending national champion.

On March 4 people who had never heard of Loyola Marymount became acutely aware of it. That was the day Hank Gathers died after collapsing on the basketball court.

“I was at that game,” Father Sellinger said. “I was out there for a board meeting.

“I was sitting with Father Loughran and Bob Mitchell (the Rev. Robert Mitchell, president of the University of Detroit). Hank Gathers scored on a beautiful dunk shot and a few seconds later he went down with a thud. It was a terrible thing.”

The Loyola Marymount dream ended Sunday with a 131-101 loss to Nevada-Las Vegas.

Baltimore’s Loyola is at the other extreme in basketball. Loyola Marymount’s record was 26-6; Baltimore Loyola was 4-24.

Father Sellinger was asked why one moderately sized Jesuit school is so good in basketball and the other so bad.

“Loyola Marymount’s success was pretty much a matter of happenstance,” Father Sellinger said. “Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble were attending Southern Cal. When their coach was fired and George Raveling came in, they transferred to Loyola. Those two players were pretty much the franchise.

“Father Loughran hired another Philadelphian, Jim Lynam, in June to coach his team. Two months later -- before the season started -- Lynam left to coach the 76ers. Paul Westhead, who had coached the Lakers to an NBA championship, was there in L.A. without a job. He was happy to take over at Loyola.”

Could he see Loyola of Baltimore accomplishing what LMU did?

“I wouldn’t mind seeing us come up with a couple hotshots who could do that for us,” said Father Sellinger. “Our admissions standards are a little higher than Loyola Marymount’s, but we admit exceptions. You have to if you want to compete.”

If Loyola is to recruit a couple hotshots, it will have to be done by Coach Tom Schneider, who has just finished his first year at the school.

“I’m pleased with Tom Schneider,” said Father Sellinger. “Mark Amatucci (the coach who left Loyola a year ago) didn’t leave him anything.”

Schneider was asked about LMU.

“They had four players transfer in there,” he said. “Loyola Marymount won’t be this good next year.

“In addition to the death of Hank Gathers and graduations, Paul Westhead won’t be back. Paul’s hot now. Next year you’ll see him at a bigger Division I school or back in the NBA.”

Schneider already has learned one lesson at Loyola -- that the school is going to stick to its academic standards.

That was made clear in January when freshman Tracy Bergan, after scoring 35 points in a win over Navy, was dropped from the team because of low grades. That was the college administration’s decision. By NCAA standards, the player was eligible.

“Athletes too often are held to a higher standard than non-athletes,” Schneider said. “The graduation rate among all athletes at this college is 92 percent. For the rest of the students it’s in the 60s.”

You have to look hard to find anything encouraging about basketball at Baltimore’s Loyola.

“We have a $2 million athletic budget,” Father Sellinger said, shaking his head. “When I became president in 1964, the budget for the whole college was less.”

The addition of a couple hotshot basketball players could make the money seem better spent.