(Editor’s Note: This is part II of J.P. Butler’s conversation with former St. Bonaventure star Barry Mungar.)
Mungar’s impressed by the level to which Mark Schmidt has elevated the program.
“They’re doing really well, and when you consider the size of the school …” he said. “We’ve got to be one of the smallest Division I programs in the country (now), so to be making the NCAA Tournament is pretty impressive, because you have to wonder: what’s the drawing card?
“It would be tough, I would think, to continue to recruit here, so obviously Schmidt is doing a great job. He must be doing something very right to get that kind of talent here.”
And though Mungar’s professional career might not have panned out the way he’d once hoped, he takes pride in the fact he was drafted out of Bona in an era where it’s become increasingly difficult to do so.
He’s one of just five Bonnies in the last 40 years to be selected, alongside Nicholson, Mark Jones (1983), Earl Belcher (1981) and Tim Waterman (1979).
“I also look at it like this,” he said. “Leo Rautins was the first real big high school star to come out of Canada and really make a big name for himself in the NCAA a couple of years later (at Syracuse in the early 1980s).
“Really, that was kind of the beginning of it for Canadian athletes, when we kind of opened that floodgate and the Americans looked north of the border and said, ‘wow, there’s a lot of talent up there, I think we’re missing out. We need to go up there a little more.’ Now, it’s just taken off; it’s exponential. So that’s pretty neat (Mungar actually trained the No. 27 pick in this year’s draft, Mfiondu Kabengele, a 6-foot-8 forward from Florida State and fellow Canadian).”
Of course, no piece on Mungar would be complete without his version of what transpired the night of Jan. 5, 1984 …
His recollection of the knockout blow that left some fans inside the Reilly Center mouths agape, and sent many more into a frenzy. His memory of the time he punched out Penn State’s Carl Chrabascz during a 74-69 Bona victory his sophomore season.
“I remember it so vividly because so many people have asked me about it,” he said with a laugh.
“We were in the area of the foul line, and I’m trying to post up on offense. Carl, he’s a big lug, and he’s pulling on my jersey, pulling on my shorts. I yelled at him to let go, I warned him a few times, ‘get off me’. The referees didn’t seem to care, and he kept pulling, wrapping my jersey up in his hand.
“I took a step toward halfcourt, planted my foot, turned and just threw a haymaker — hit him square in the nose and he dropped like timber. Of course, I got thrown out of the game. I broke his nose, knocked him out. My brother (who was in attendance, along with the rest of Mungar’s family) thought it was the most unbelievable thing he’d ever seen. They talked about it for weeks afterward.”
Mungar, who still ranks 22nd in Bona history in scoring (1,361 points) and 18th in rebounding (651) and is one of just 24 players in program annals with at least 1,000 career points and 500 rebounds, described himself as a nice guy, a player who typically didn’t have a short fuse.
But there was also a line, and Chrabascz crossed it.
“Back then, basketball was different,” he noted. “I come from the Larry Bird, Bill Laimbeer kind of era. You didn’t think anything of putting a guy in a bear hug and throwing him to the floor.”
This was a night that Mungar will never forget. The same is true of the summer of 1988, when he played with the Canadian national team in the Seoul Olympics, and the following year, when he was asked to throw out a ceremonial jump ball in an NBA exhibition game in his hometown of Hamilton, a game that featured Rodman’s Pistons.
“He looked at me kind of funny, like I was just some fan, and I said, ‘you don’t remember me, do you?’” Mungar remembered. “I said, ‘Barry Mungar, we played together in Portsmouth,’ and he goes, ‘oh my god, Barry!’ And he comes over and gives me a big hug.”
He then added, “It’s kind of funny that his career went one way, and I ended up going in a completely different direction, but it’s wonderful memories, of course, that I’ll take with me the rest of my life.”
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherald.com)
