It's time to put an end to this fruitless crusade
Holy Cross basketball. Jurassic Park. Same thing.
Holy Cross basketball has a proud tradition. We've been saying it for years. Too many years. And we all got old while we were talking about it.
Yes, Holy Cross won the NCAA Tournament (1947). Yes, Holy Cross won the National Invitation Tournament (1954) when the NIT was the tourney of kings. And yes, Holy Cross is the collegiate hardwood home of Bob Cousy, Tommy Heinsohn, and Jack "The Shot" Foley.
The Crusaders are well-coached, graduate all of their players, and honor those who came before them with hustle and smart play.
But the Cross hasn't won an NCAA Tournament game in . . . 54 years.
Fifty-four years. That's before Robert Parish was born, before Dwight Eisenhower's second term, before Elizabeth II was crowned, and before Ernest Hemingway won the Pulitzer for "The Old Man and the Sea."
The 13th-seeded Crusaders (25-8) take the floor against fourth-seeded Southern Illinois (27-6) in Columbus, Ohio, tomorrow night. They'll be attempting to win an NCAA tourney game for the first time since Ron Perry Sr. and friends beat Wake Forest in Raleigh, N.C., March 13, 1953. Those Crusaders were eliminated by Bob Pettit and Louisiana State in the East Regional final the next day, and Holy Cross has gone one-and-out in seven subsequent NCAA tourney appearances.
This means that the Crusaders are the AARP's team in the NCAA. Folks who remember Holy Cross's glory days are the same people who still go to the racetrack, buy newspapers at the airport, and attend daily Mass. Fact is, Holy Cross hasn't been a major player in college basketball since the days when people associated March Madness with Edward R. Murrow's CBS report on Senator Joseph McCarthy.
"The great tradition happened 50 years ago," says Cousy, who played for the Holy Cross's national champs in '47. "There were 2,500 kids in the school when I went there and there are still 2,500 -- and half of them now wear skirts. Holy Cross's recruiting is very low-key. They are hidden away in little old Worcester without any television exposure whatsoever. They don't get any high-profile kids. [Coach] Ralph Willard does a hell of a job with the kids he gets."
I mention Holy Cross's tournament drought not to be negative, only to demonstrate that it is time for the Crusaders to get back in the win column. As a proud member of the Class of '75, I will be wearing my purple when the Crusaders take on Southern Illinois late tomorrow night. Like the Globe's estimable Mark Blaudschun and at least one of the ESPN wiseguys, I am predicting an upset win for the Cross. It's time. I mean, just about every school in Division 1 has won a game since 1,000-point scorer Earle Markey (who became Father Earle Markey) led the Crusaders past the Deacons five days after Jim Rice was born in Anderson, S.C.
"I don't even like to say the last time we won a game was in '53, but it's true," says Perry, who served as Markey's backcourt partner, then as Holy Cross athletic director for 26 years. "We've always been proud of our tradition, but there's a new landscape now. It is very difficult. I don't know what happened in the 1960s. We went to the NIT a lot then. Then you had the proliferation of conferences and we didn't really establish ourselves for a while. Then we gave up scholarships. But in recent years when we have made the tournament, we've been more than competitive against much higher seeds."
There's an understatement. The Crusaders had three amazing near-misses at the beginning of this century.
In 2001, as a No. 15 seed against No. 2 Kentucky, the Crusaders were tied with the Wildcats with 6:28 remaining and lost by 4 points only because a kid named Tayshaun Prince lit up the scoreboard in the final minutes.
A year later, it was Holy Cross as a No. 16 seed playing top-seeded Kansas, and Holy Cross led the 30-3 Jayhawks with nine minutes left in the game. Coach Roy Williams was impressed. And scared for a while.
In Indianapolis in 2003, the Crusaders were a No. 14 seed and threatened Marquette before losing, 72-68. This time it was Travis Diener and a young man named Dwyane Wade who bailed out the super seed, and eliminated the future lawyers and venture capitalists from Mount St. James. Marquette advanced to the Final Four.
The Crusaders are getting more respect this time in the form of a No. 13 seed, thanks perhaps to recent first-round victories (vs. Kansas and Arkansas) by Patriot League partner Bucknell. Holy Cross senior guard Keith Simmons can play with anyone in the country, and Torey Thomas isn't far behind. Bay State League watchers will remember Holy Cross's junior center, Tim Clifford, from his days as a state champion in Walpole. And then there's the crafty Coach Willard, ever able to exploit the opposition's weakness. The Crusaders can be beaten, but they will never be outcoached.
"If you are a Crusader and want to take pride, it's just as easy to take pride in what Willard has done this year," says Cousy. "I'm sure they will not embarrass themselves. We have to set lower goals, that's all."
The goal is one win. After more than a half-century.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is dshaughnessy@globe.com. 
