Dec. 15, 2006

The Nova Notebook, by Villanova director of media relations Mike Sheridan, appears each Friday from September through February and monthly from April through August. This week we look back on the remarkable life journey of Paul Arizin, Villanova's first basketball All-American who went on to become a Hall of Fame player with the Philadelphia Warriors. Arizin died in his sleep earlier this week at his home in Springfield, Delaware County, at the age of 78.

Tucked away in a file cabinet in a storage area located only a few feet from the floor upon which he once scored 85 points in a game in what is now Jake Nevin Field House, a modest beige file folder offers exceptional insight into the Villanova career of Paul Arizin. Through now yellowed newspaper and magazine clips come fascinating details of Arizin's four years on campus and the enormous impact he made on Villanova Basketball.

One of the most revealing portraits comes from a Sport Magazine profile done during Arizin's junior year, 1948-49. It presents an in-depth look at his roots in South Philadelphia. His was a basketball neighborhood - it was written that every telegraph pole had a peach basket affixed to it - and his uncle bought him his first basketball. It elevated his status among his peers instantly as it was the only one in his circle of friends. But he was initially lukewarm about the game, according to this account.

"My folks didn't care much about sports," Arizin told the magazine. "Dad had worked hard all his life helping out a family of 12 after his father died, and mother's family had been undertakers for generations. I think she wanted me to be an undertaker. You see, the first floor of our house was an undertaking parlor and I was sort of raised in the business. Every night, there was always someone in the parlor.

"But I decided that being an undertaker was one thing I wasn't going to be. It was too morbid for me. Sports were more in my line."

Though he began to gravitate to basketball, according to this account, Arizin's connection to Villanova came through football. As a boy, his uncle would bring him to the Wildcats' games with Temple. Villanova dominated the series at that point and the youngster was particularly impressed by All-American Johnny Wysocki.

It has been well chronicled that Arizin was cut at LaSalle High School after a few games of his senior season in 1945-46 by head coach Charlie `Obie' O'Brien. In an interview prior to his induction to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978 with Frank Bilovksy, Arizin made clear that he believed the move was justified.

"A lot of people criticized `Obie for cutting me," Arizin told Bilovsky, "but I didn't. I honestly don't think I was good enough. It was just lack of ability, pure and simple."

When it came time to apply for college, Arizin settled on Villanova in part due to his fondness for watching the Wildcats on the gridiron, according to Sport. His plan was to earn his degree and continue to play basketball for its own enjoyment. The Sport story takes it from there:

"His appearance on the basketball court was even more of an accident than his registration at Villanova. In his freshman year, he never gave a thought to trying out for the team. Gosh, he thought, he hadn't made the La Salle High team ... he wouldn't have a chance to play in college. So he joined a team around his own home in South Philadelphia, the Hastings Club. The team entered the Eagles' citywide tournament and reached the finals. The other team in the finals was the Main Liners - the entire Villanova College team. They had entered as a lark after the regular season.

"The Main Liners nosed out the Hastings Club for the title but Arizin was voted the most valuable man in the tournament. One of the spectators at the finals was Al Severance, magistrate of Tredyffrin Township and also coach at Villanova. As Arizin walked off the floor, `Judge' Severance tapped him on the shoulder. "Have you finished high school, son?"

Arizin nodded.

"Would you be interested in coming to Villanova?" asked the coach.

"Yes, indeed," said Arizin with a grin. "I like Villanova very much. I'm a freshman there now."

"Severance looked at him sharply. "What did you say? You're at Villanova?"

Arizin nodded again.

"Severance whistled sharply to himself. "Something will have to be done about this."

"The next day Paul was called to the Administration office. Details were quickly ironed out. The next season he joined the varsity. His debut was not that of a fictional hero. He played against Mount St. Mary and did not score. But his floorwork was exceptional and Severance patted him on the back. He started the next game against Manhattan and made 10 points playing brilliantly on the floor as well."

Arizin echoed that account in an appearance on "Talking Villanova Basketball with Jay Wright" in 2004. He credited his rapid development to the nights he spent playing in area leagues after attending classes by day at Villanova.

"A lot of the fellows were coming back from the service and there was a lot of good independent ball," he explained. "I was playing five and six nights a week beside going to school."

As an athlete, Arizin was a trailblazer in establishing the jump shot as a weapon. He patterned his after `Jumpin Joe Fulks' and it was created mostly by necessity. In an effort to cut down on the slipping he was doing on the slick dance floor halls at his home parish of St. Monica's and other independent venues, he developed a jumper.

One of his fellow students at the time was a Villanova baseball player named Tom Jones, class of 1951.

"We used to tease Paul that there was helium in the basketball when he had it," Jones recalled this week from his home in Franklin Lakes, N.J. "He was 6-3 and he had an ability to just hang up in the air and with a flip of the wrist send his shot towards the basket."

It was in Arizin's junior year that the full breadth of his skill began to gain notice regionally and nationally. He averaged 22.0 ppg for a squad that finished 23-4 and turned heads with its effort against Kentucky and Yale in the NCAA Tournament. He was named an honorable mention All-American.

Of course, the event from that season that remains strongly linked to Arizin took place on Feb. 12, 1949. In a 117-25 win over the Navy Air Material Center, the La Salle High School product scored 85 points, a record that still stands. Yet in numerous interviews over the years, including the 2004 one on Wright's radio show, Arizin expressed little affection for that accomplishment.

"There are a lot of things in basketball I am proud of," Arizin noted in one interview, "but that's not one of them."

That no doubt had to do with the fact the NAMC was clearly an overmatched group of athletes no one in the stands that night was familiar with. While some of the military squads the `Cats occasionally faced were talented, this one was in trouble right from the start. Witness the Villanovan's account of the night, written by Jim Plunkett:

"Those 1,000 fans who watched the Wildcats of Villanova hand the Navy Air Material Station a 117-25 pasting left the field house Saturday with the knowledge that they had witnessed the greatest individual scoring performance in the history of basketball. (Wilt Chamberlain - later an Arizin teammate - would not score his 100 points in a pro game against the Knicks until 1962).

"Record upon record fell by the wayside as Paul Arizin, aided and abetted by his teammates, scored 85 points on 35 field goals and 15 free throws. Behaving in an almost carnival like atmosphere, the small band of fans rocked the Villanova field house on five different occasions with their tumultuous cheers."

That Arizin did not relish the experience was evident in accounts of the game. In several instances, there are descriptions of him turning down shot opportunities despite the encouragement of his teammates.

According to the Villanovan, there is one other fascinating tidbit about that game: one of the referees was none other than `Obie O'Brien, the man who dropped Arizin from the La Salle High squad. (No boxscores have survived to verify this).

Arizin's Villanova career is so much more than that one outing. As a senior, he became the school's first national basketball icon, winning college player of the year awards and the national scoring title (735 points). The Villanovan dedicated its entire front page to "Tall Paul" at season's end. Following graduation he would go on to a glorious 10 year-National Basketball Association career that was interrupted by two seasons of military service. In 1996, he was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Player in NBA history. Later he spent many years working for IBM while raising his family and continuing to play pickup basketball into his 50s.

The Arizin file speaks most eloquently about him when it describes the humility and grace that defined the man throughout his life. His contemporaries were as profound in their praise then as those eulogizing him have been in recent days.

In one instance, there is a letter addressed to Arizin dated Feb. 21, 1950 from Hugo G. Autz, one of the editors at The Sporting News. The magazine had recently honored Arizin as its player of the year and Arizin apparently sent the publication's editors a telegram of thanks. Autz wrote: "This also quite clearly demonstrates why you have been such a success on the basketball court. Anyone with such thoughtfulness and alertness can't miss. We hope that our award is just the start of much more such recognition throughout your life."

More kind words came from George Senesky, a former teammate who later coached Arizin with the Warriors: "I cannot recall Paul ever playing a game even the experts could call unsatisfactory. He was the one player I relied upon in the last seconds, clutch fouls, last shot type situations which are so important in this game of basketball, and he came through in most instances for his team.

"His devotion and loyalty to his family is known to all who have contact with him."

Arizin is survived by his wife Maureen, four sons, one daughter and 14 grandchildren. He will also be missed, says Wright, by a Villanova basketball family which still benefits from his generosity of spirit as much as his accomplishments.

"Whenever you meet a legend, you're a little uneasy," says Wright, who once coached Arizin's son Chris at Drexel in 1986-87. "We all know what Paul Arizin means to Villanova and basketball. But he was always so kind, respectful, dignified and humble that you were immediately at ease. As I got to know him, I realized he was just a wonderful human being."