After 31 Years

On the day before the game the doctor laid it down that no man with a temperature of 103DEG had any business at Madison Square Garden. He wanted ailing Coach Nat Holman of C.C.N.Y.'s basketball Beavers to watch the game by television. For silver-thatched, 53-yeaf-old Coach Holman, that was out of the question. His Beavers were going into the finals of the National Invitation Tournament as three-point underdogs to Peoria's Bradley University. Holman, who had coached good teams for 31 years without winning a national championship, intended to be right there on the bench.

Next night, doped up with aureomycin and trailed by his doctor, Holman turned up at the Garden on schedule. Well into the first half, it looked as though Nat Holman should have stayed in bed. Bradley went winging off to a 29-18 lead, with lanky Paul Unruh and stubby "Squeaky" Melchiorre (TIME, March 13) spearheading the rush. By the half, the Beavers had closed some of the gap. But Bradley still led, 30-27.

A win-this-one-for-Nat spirit gripped C.C.N.Y.'s Beavers when they returned from intermission. Within seven minutes City had tied the score at 40-40. Soon Squeaky Melchiorre's slam-bang tactics fouled him out of the game. With 3 1/2 minutes to go, Irwin Dambrot, high scorer with 23 points, drove in for a layup, sank a foul, gave the Beavers a 60-to-56 lead. Then it was all over. Final score: C.C.N.Y. 69, Bradley 61. Nat Holman nibbled a sandwich and went to bed. Said he: "I feel pretty good."

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