In the moment, he might have been perceived as arrogant, a 17-year-old kid who didn’t appreciate the gravity of what he was saying.
In the end, Paul Hoffman’s claim was remarkably prophetic.
Hoffman, then a budding Division I prospect., was indoctrinated into the St. Bonaventure basketball culture at a Bona-Canisius game in the winter of 1967-’68. The Hazleton, Pa., native was mesmerized by the rabid Reilly Center atmosphere, spellbound by the team’s dominant 6-foot-11 center, Bob Lanier.
He had a message for the priest accompanying him on his visit.
“Being a cocky high school senior when I was coming out, I told (him) when I had come up that I wanted to come to St. Bonaventure,” Hoffman said in a phone interview Monday, “and in my sophomore year, I was going to start and we were going to win the national championship because of Bob Lanier.
“I thought we could do it … and we almost did it.”
Five decades after his arrival at the small Franciscan campus, a span in which he helped the former Brown Indians to the 1970 Final Four, became a 1,000-point scorer and was inducted into the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame, Hoffman’s name recently resurfaced on the Bona basketball landscape.
The 1972 SBU grad is one of 60 former players on the ballot for the program’s All-Time Team, being voted upon in conjunction with Bona’s 100th anniversary celebration. Additionally, he and his Final Four teammates will be recognized at a Bona home game on Dec. 7 as part of that team’s golden jubilee.
For Hoffman, the announcement of those events was an interweaving of the historical significance of the program — and that iconic team — and the indelible, individual mark he left on it.
It brought to the forefront the familiar photo of the national semifinalists, in which a bespectacled Hoffman sits second row, far to the right. It’s led to Facebook friends sharing the ballot link in an effort to get him more votes.
And it’s conjured very vivid memories of that Final Four run.
“It’s great for me … I think it’ll just be a great feeling,” he said, when asked about the December reunion. “As I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, we’d have won if Lanier hadn’t gotten hurt, I don’t care what anyone else says. There was nobody in the nation that could stop Bob when he didn’t want to be stopped.”
Hoffman, now 70, accomplished plenty in his days as a shooting guard at Bona.
He still sits 36th in program history in scoring (1,103 points), a number that was achieved in only three seasons. He was one of the top scorers — and a leader — on the team that finished third at the 1971 NIT. His teams went 62-17 across three campaigns.
And yet, understandably, his mind almost automatically goes back to March 20, 1970, the day Bona lost its Final Four game to Jacksonville, 91-83.
The Bonnies, Hoffman remembers, were not only playing without their All-American center, who’d suffered a season-ending knee injury in the regional final with Villanova, they were playing against a dubious officiating crew.
With the help of his wife, who did a quick internet search for the specific numbers as Hoffman spoke, he could definitively tell you: Jacksonville attempted 45 free throws (making 37 of those) to Bona’s 22.
Bona was whistled for 11 more fouls.
And though it held a distinct edge from the field (34 made shots to 27) — and hung close without Lanier — the free throw disparity was too much to overcome.
“We really felt we got robbed in that game,” Hoffman said. “At the end, (coach Larry Weise) looks at me and tells me I have (to guard 7-foot-2 center Artis) Gilmore. I’m looking around like, ‘OK, we’re all guards now.
“Everybody was gone. (Matt) Gantt had fouled out, (Bubba) Gary had fouled out, Tom Baldwin had fouled out. There was nobody left; I think had four (fouls). Here I have to guard a 7-foot-2 guy and I’m 6-foot-1.”
Citing a specific call that had gone against him at a key moment, he added: “If I go in on a charge, you didn’t just fall down, you (felt it) … I wasn’t even close to that guy when I let go of that shot, he just fell. All of a sudden, I heard the whistle. I said, ‘what was that,’ and the guy called me for charging.
“I was like, ‘what?!’”
Another prominent picture to emerge from that time is one that appeared in Sports Illustrated, the image of Gilmore, high in the air, his freakishly long arm extended above the square, attempting to defend a running floater from St. Bonaventure’s No. 20 — Hoffman.
The assumption when looking at the photo is that Gilmore likely got at least a piece of that shot. But that wasn’t the case.
“He never blocked that shot,” Hoffman said. “Now, it did not go in, but he did not block that shot.”
For Hoffman, who’s resided in the area for almost all of his post-Bona life, and who officially retired as a teacher from the Genesee Valley school district 15 years ago, but still substitutes religiously, it was an honor to be included on the All-Time Team ballot, to be mentioned alongside all of the other Bona greats, including Final Four teammates Lanier, Gary, Gantt and Bill Kalbaugh.
“I’ve always loved Bonaventure; I always will,” he said, before adding with a laugh, “I’m always going to be a Brown Indian no matter what (nickname) they become. Sometimes they tell me I can’t say that, but that’s too bad.”
He’ll still occasionally take a look through the scrapbooks his parents made from his playing days. An avid follower of the program to this day, he can appreciate what the 2017-18 Bonnies accomplished: beating the UCLA program his 1970 team should have had a shot at 48 years earlier.
And those things always come with mixed emotions.
“It’s a good feeling,” he acknowledged, “but it’s still a sad feeling because Bob wasn’t there.”
