Is it true that Jim Boeheim played with miners years ago? YES IT IS!!

I am not lying to you.  Not one drop.  It’s something that Jim Boeheim never talks about… but it’s part of his history.

Long before the Syracuse University men’s basketball head coach took the Orange to numerous NCAA basketball tournaments – including one tournament win – he spent five years playing with miners.

It was okay – back in the 1960’s, it was totally legal for Boeheim to associate with miners; heck, if you had the time and the ability and everyone consented to you doing so, you could play with miners in Scranton as well.

See, after Boeheim graduated from Syracuse University, he spent several years playing professional basketball for the Scranton Miners of the old Eastern Professional Basketball League.

In the 1960’s, the Eastern Professional Basketball League – the precursor to the Continental Basketball Association – played in several Northeastern towns and cities and villages.  The circuit at that time had teams in New Haven and Hartford, in Binghamton and in Wilkes-Barre; in Wilmington and in Allentown.  And for about 20 years, there was a franchise in Scranton called the Miners.

When the EPBL changed its name to the Eastern Basketball Association, the Scranton Miners rebranded themselves as the Scranton Apollos – not so much for the mythological Greek god, but instead for the space missions that were regularly traveling to the moon.  In fact, he won a championship with the Apollos in 1971.

During his tenure with the Scranton basketball team, Boeheim was an assistant coach at Syracuse University.  On the weekends, Boeheim would drive to Scranton for EPBL contests.  In six Eastern League seasons, Boeheim scored 2,308 points (17.0 ppg).  Not bad for a guy whose best skills with Scranton was in slowing down opposing offenses.  He played in the Eastern League’s 1969 All-Star Classic, where he scored 17 points.   In that 1968-69 season, Boeheim averaged 23.4 points for the Miners, including hitting 11 3-pointers – and back then, the three-point line was 25 feet from the basket!

It should also be noted that Boeheim actually played games in the Capital District.  During the 1965-66 season, Boeheim and a group of graduating Syracuse seniors – including Dave Bing – played against Barry Kramer and the Schenectady Wedekind Pros in several contests.  Back in those days, once a college senior used up his eligibility, he could tour as part of an “All-Star Squad” and pick up some dollars playing against local “town teams.”  Boeheim did it – so did Julius Erving and Dave Bing and several others.

JIM BOEHEIM REGULAR SEASON RECORD, EASTERN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL LEAGUE

SEASON   TEAM              GP   FG   FT   FTA   FT%  3PM  REB  RPG  AST   PTS   PPG
1966-67  Scranton Miners   27  116   68    82  .829    8  105  3.9  129   308  11.4
1967-68  Scranton Miners   32  266  127   170  .747    8  149  4.7  128   667  20.8
1968-69  Scranton Miners   27  234  154   190  .811   11  103  3.8  123   633  23.4
1969-70  Scranton Miners   24  159   86   109  .789    2   64  2.7   90   406  16.9
1970-71  Scranton Apollos  15   85   38    48  .792    1   38  2.5   63   209  13.9
1971-72  Scranton Apollos  11   38    8    14  .571    1   16  1.5   30    85   7.7
TOTALS:                   136  898  481   613  .785   31  475  3.5  563  2308  17.0

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Boeheim’s minor league hoops career ended during the 1971-72 season; he was working as an assistant coach at Syracuse, and his duties there superseded his playing time with Scranton.  The Scranton-Boeheim connection continued, though – one of the Orange’s top scorers of the past few years, Gerry McNamara, came from the Electric City.

And the venue where the Miners / Apollos used to play – a building called the Catholic Youth Center – has been acquired by Lackawanna College, who shares the facility with the local professional Premier Basketball League hoops team, the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Steamers.

All part of the day when the bespectacled Boeheim was on the court – rather than patrolling the sidelines.