Documentary chronicles Holy Cross' 1954 NIT title, 1947 NCAA championship

WORCESTER — It has been some 63 years since Holy Cross captured the 1954 NIT championship, but to hear the legends of that team talk about that year and their three tournament victories, like they did Wednesday morning at the Hart Center, you would think they stepped off the floor of old Madison Square Garden just minutes earlier.

The memories of that magical season are still vibrant.

“It’s a highlight of my life,” said Togo Palazzi, who was MVP of the ’54 NIT. “To have that experience, I’ll never forget it.”

Six of the eight living members of HC’s ’54 team, Palazzi, Ron Perry, Tom Heinsohn, Don Prohovich, Frank Kasprzak and Dick Santaniello, gathered to reflect and offer insight on that season for an upcoming documentary, “College Basketball’s Purple Reign,” which will chronicle the school’s remarkable athletic achievements, namely men’s basketball’s ’54 NIT title and 1947 NCAA championship.

Bob Cousy and George Kaftan, two of the three living members of the ’47 team, were at Holy Cross two summers ago to film a roundtable discussion with Palazzi, Heinsohn, Perry, Rev. Earle Markey, a standout for HC from 1949-53, and New York Times columnist Dave Anderson, a 1951 Holy Cross graduate, that will be a highlight of the documentary.

“I think there are so many elements to the story that are of interest,” Rich Kaner, the executive producer of “College Basketball’s Purple Reign,” said. “It’s a compelling story.”

Kaner, who runs a sports marketing company, began research for a book called “Hoops Hotbed on the Hudson,” about basketball stars from his home area of Hudson County, New Jersey, then turned his attention to the documentary.

“I started realizing there was a plethora of Hudson County players who went to Holy Cross,” Kaner said, “like Togo (Union City, N.J.) and Fr. Markey (West New York, N.J.) and Tom Heinsohn (Union City), among many others, and I looked more closely and saw some were in their 80s from the 1947 and 1954 teams.”

Ryan Hughes is the director of the documentary.

Rev. Markey, whose teams made NIT and NCAA appearances and kept the success of the ’47 team going, was a great help in organizing getting all the players together, Kaner said.

Wednesday morning, they took turns doing one-on-one interviews for the documentary on the Hart Center court, and enjoyed the rest of the time sitting in a circle outside the gym reminiscing, ribbing, laughing and loving being in each other’s company. Another ’54 teammate, Walter Suprunowicz, joined in via video call from South Carolina during a luncheon at O’Connor’s Restaurant.

“Reminiscing with these guys, you have some laughs,” said Heinsohn, who turned 83 last month. “This is all locker-room banter, and when you have locker-room banter, you can really finesse some of these guys. We go at each other, but that’s special. When you have that type of rapport, it means you trust the other person, you like the other person.”

After a 23-2 regular season, the Crusaders cruised to a 93-69 win over St. Francis (N.Y.) in the first round of the NIT at Madison Square Garden. Palazzi, Perry, Joe Liebler and Heinsohn all scored in double figures.

Perry, also 85, and Palazzi vividly remember the bright red jackets their next foe, Western Kentucky, wore before Game 2 and the Hilltoppers’ slam-dunking pregame warmup.

Fast-breaking Western Kentucky jumped to an 11-point lead in the second quarter. Holy Cross coach Buster Sheary called time out.

“Togo, you were all hyped up,” Heinsohn said. ‘“You’re going crazy on me,’ Buster said to you. ‘Slow it down. Slow it down. We’re going to walk the ball up the floor.’

“He straightened you out,” Heinsohn said to Palazzi, “then he called another timeout and straightened me out. ‘Tommy! Now you’re going nuts!’ ”

Sheary instructed Perry, the point guard, to take 10 seconds to get the ball across midcourt.

HC led by two at halftime and won the game, 75-69.

“(Sheary) changed the tempo of the game, and we beat them on the boards,” Palazzi said. “We were good rebounders.”

In the final against Duquesne, Palazzi and Heinsohn each scored 20 points, and Prohovich and Kasprzak held the talented Sihugo Green in check with 16 points to lead Holy Cross to a 71-62 win.

Holy Cross was the first New England team to capture the NIT.

“My whole life has been involved with basketball,” said Heinsohn, the former Celtics player and coach and current TV analyst, “but this was special to me because I was a New Jersey guy, and Madison Square Garden any basketball player from the metropolitan New York area believed it was the mecca of basketball, and to play there was really a special thing and to win a tournament there, it became very special for you, for your family, for the high school you went to, to the town you’re from. It was a big deal.”

Before being feted by the city of Worcester upon their arrival home from New York, the suddenly celebrity Crusaders appeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show” (which was actually called “Toast of the Town” until 1955).

Kasprzak recalled that Sullivan was only about 5-6 and surrounded by all the HC 6-footers on stage. Perry remembered that Leslie Caron, a popular actress and dancer in the 1950s, was the other special guest on the show that night. Santaniello said Hughes recognized him from the footage of the show that will appear in the documentary.

Longtime Holy Cross radio announcer Bob Fouracre called the ’54 team a “cast of stars.”

Palazzi, who also played for the Celtics and the Syracuse Nationals, has dedicated most of his life to coaching and mentoring young players.

“What was great about (the ’54 team) is everybody made contributions,” Palazzi said, “and I found out later from coaching how important it is to have everybody part of the team.”

Heinsohn couldn’t resist needling Palazzi. “I’ll bet you made sure everybody got to shoot the ball, too,” Heinsohn said with a laugh and drawing more of them. “What a change of attitude.” During his playing days, Palazzi was not shy about shooting the ball.

Palazzi gave it back, teasing Heinsohn about “a hook shot you took from the corner that ended up in the men’s room.”

It was all in good fun.

“Tommy,” Palazzi said, “of all the things I preached as a coach that I believe in, the thing I love the most is offensive rebounding, and you are the greatest of them all.”

Palazzi, whose recall of statistics is incredible, noted that Heinsohn still holds the HC single-game record for rebounds with 42 against Boston College on March 1, 1956.

Heinsohn and Palazzi rank 1-2 in career rebounds at Holy Cross. They are both among HC’s top-10 all-time leading scorers.

“Togo had what I termed the ‘in-the-corner layup,’ ” Heinsohn said. “A two-hand set shot. Seeing this guy shoot from the corner, it was like a layup for him.

“Imagine all the 3-pointers he would make today,” Heinsohn said.

Perry, who later became director of athletics at Holy Cross, organized many 1954 team reunions, usually about every five years.

“Guys got up and spoke, and you could see the emotion,” Perry said. “It was amazing how important those events are in our lives.

“There are little things you hear or you see,” Perry said, “that reflect back to the memories you have from the NIT championship team (as well as the 1952 College World Series title team for Perry, who was a pitcher). I do think back.”

After more than two years, Kaner said production of “College Basketball’s Purple Reign” is nearing completion. He has a fan that was in attendance at the 1947 NCAA tourney and another one who was at the 1954 NIT still to interview.

“We’ll finish up with them,” Kaner said, “then you’ve got to put together the story. We have a lot of content.”

Kaner said he is hopeful “College Basketball’s Purple Reign” will get a broadcast date this season, likely on a regional network, he said.

—Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTandG.