Quotes from Dr. Jack Ramsay at the Ramsay Basketball Center Dedication Ceremony
Campaign News 26 JUNE 2009
On what the honor means to him:
“I am honored beyond words…to have a building with your name on it is something very special.”
On how he came to Saint Joseph's and what the University has meant to him:
“When I was 17-years-old, I came to this college after a chance meeting with coach Bill Ferguson. A tryout ensued. He apparently thought I was good enough to play here, so in September of that year I entered Saint Joseph's…it changed my life.”
“Saint Joseph's has been connected with every good thing that has happened to me in my lifetime. I met my wife here.”
On his coach at Saint Joseph's, Bill Ferguson:
“When I hear praise directed at me about coaching, I think it all goes back to Bill Ferguson…He was not an ‘X and O' guy. His motto was, ‘We're gonna outhustle the other guys.' It didn't matter who they were, how big, what their reputation was. We can beat them.”
On the beginning of his coaching career at Saint Joseph's:
“I had great players, starting with the first team I coached, which won the Big 5 championship in the first year of the Big 5. We beat Temple in a game at the end of the season…Temple had been ranked one, two or three throughout the season, and we beat them. That enabled me to get my one-year contract extended and my $3,500 salary to be doubled.”
“The first team…Mike Fallon and Dan Dougherty were the guards, Bill Lynch was the center and Kurt Englebert and Ray Radziszewski were the forwards. Al Juliana, Jack McKinney, Jim Purcell and Joe Ceremsak came off the bench. It was a great team, not so much in talent, but in the way they played together and never gave up on the game. Temple that season had much better talent than we did, but they couldn't cope with the intensity of our game. That was the beginning, and that inspired other players to come here, and we had great guys come here.”
On the tradition of basketball at Saint Joseph's:
“These guys just gave you their hearts every game, and that was the essence of why we were successful and the tradition that went on after I left with Jack McKinney's team…another group that just carried on that tradition of never allowing yourself to give up on the game…Phil Martelli has carried on that same tradition after we had Harry Booth, we had Jim Lynam, we had Jim Boyle…I mean these people, as people, are just so memorable and such quality individuals that you knew the teams were going to succeed because of who they were.”
On the undefeated season of 2003-04:
“The undefeated team in 2004, led by Jameer [Nelson] and Delonte West…that doesn't happen. A little school, Saint Joseph's, undefeated in the regular season and acquitting itself well in the playoffs.”
On honoring the legacy of the basketball program at Saint Joseph's:
“All the others in between [Ferguson and Martelli] were former players and also former assistant coaches [at Saint Joseph's]. So in honoring me, I think you honor all those players, you honor the coaches; you honor all the people who participated in the program because the program is complete. The Hawk is part of it, the team managers are part of it, the public relations staff is part of it…in honoring me, you honor all those people.”
On welcoming the Saint Joseph's community to the new facility:
“I coached in Puerto Rico for two summers and I remember an expression they had: ‘Mi casa es su casa.' ‘My house is your house.' I say the same about this situation, about that building, the Ramsay Basketball Center. It is your house, too. Mi casa es su casa.”