Jack Powers, iconic NYC basketball fixture, dead at 89: A giant, nothing less

To fully appreciate the moment, you need to remember just how devastated New York City had been by the gambling scandals of 1951.You have to understand how much the gamblers and the sharks had taken from the city, from the old Madison Square Garden, how it felt like college basketball would never again matter within the walls of that wonderful old gym.So that’s where we start in telling the story of Jack Powers, who died Thursday at age 89 after a near 70-year run as one of the most important college basketball figures the city has ever known.For it was on March 11, 1958, that the Garden was finally reborn as a college basketball showplace, and it was young Jack Powers, a senior at Manhattan, who made that happen.The Jaspers had been a surprise choice for the NCAA Tournament that winter at 15-8, and for their troubles they drew mighty West Virginia, led by sophomore superstar Jerry West, 26-1 and the No.

1 team in the nation.The Jaspers were supposed to be an easy mark for the Mountaineers.“I heard that their fans actually skipped coming to the Garden in order to head to the second-round game in Charlotte,” Powers told HoopsHD.com in 2018.It’s best they did that.

In their place were 13,109 heavily pro-Jaspers fans, maybe 5,000 less than the game would’ve drawn a few years earlier, but still a large enough gathering that when the Jaspers raced to an 84-73 lead the roars made it sound and feel like a full house and then some.But then the Mountaineers came storming back nd when West — held to six points to that point — hit back-to-back shots, West Virginia knotted the game at 84-all.Then West fouled out when he hacked Powers with 3:56 to go.

Powers calmly sank both free throws, and Manhattan — down four of their own players who’d also fouled out — shut the Mountaineers out the rest of the way.It ended 89-84.

Powers had been the biggest reason why: 29 points and 15 rebounds.College basketball in New York City was back.And Jack Powers would devot...