Alumni Live And Die With Bonnies During Tourney Time
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Jerry Reilly lives in Dunkirk.
Tom Ames resides in Falconer.
Jerry is the sports information director at SUNY Fredonia.
Tom is the owner of Ames Insurance.
The one thing they have in common, though, is an absolute passion for St. Bonaventure University. Jerry is from the Class of 1978. Tom graduated five years later. With that in mind, one can only imagine how they feel about the Bonnies' first-round NCAA Tournament game this afternoon against LSU.
So I reached out to them to find out more about their allegiance to their alma mater.
"I don't really know how to explain it," Tom said. "If I'm traveling and I see somebody at a resort or an airport, and they have a St. Bonaventure shirt on, you don't walk by them. At the very least, you yell, 'Go Bonas!'"
That was only the start of the stories from the Chautauqua County men.
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JERRY: I was a Bona fan before Bob Lanier, all the way back to the days of George Carter. Yet, for some reason, when it came time for college, St. Bonaventure was the last one I applied to. The mother of the girl I was dating in high school wondered why I hadn't done so yet since it was the college I had always talked about attending. I probably applied in April of my senior year in high school and I received an acceptance letter a couple of weeks later. It turned out to be a great choice for me -- close enough to home and far enough away, with a rich tradition which I already knew about. I got a great education and made lifelong friends.
TOM: My mother encouraged me to go there. My other pick was USC. I wanted to be an accountant and USC had a good program. My parents quickly nixed that idea of going to the West Coast, so Bonas it was. I wasn't a great high school student, so the world was not my oyster when choosing colleges. My college career went a little better than my high school career.
JERRY: I lived in the dorms all four years. Actually, in the same dorm, on the same floor, Third Rob, short for Third Floor Robinson Hall. Only once did I consider moving off-campus. It was prior to my senior year, but decided to stay put. Looking back, I can't imagine I considered moving off-campus. It would have meant leaving a band of rowdy Bona Brothers (we were somewhat notorious on campus for reasons unknown to me). … To this day a lot of us stay in touch. In fact, each year on the weekend of the Bills' home opener, up to 30 of us meet for a weekend of golf, food and drink. There are also other meetings throughout the year and while the cast of characters changes slightly each year, the bond of friendship is forever intact.
TOM: Everybody knew the (basketball) schedule. You didn't have to remind anybody there was a game. It was just understood. You got there early. When I was there … you had to get there early to stake your claim to your seat. … You sat as a floor. Fourth West all sat together. We only had 14 freshmen on our floor my first year. It was our duty to go and reserve the same spot every game for our floor."
JERRY: I remember the day the 2012 team won the A-10 title. I was in Florida with the Fredonia State softball team as assistant coach/SID. One of the players on the team, Rachel Burrows (married name is Volz), was from Olean and a huge Bona fan. At games during the week, her dad would stand behind our dugout wearing an earpiece listening to the Bona games on Internet radio, and he'd keep us updated with the score. When the Sunday of the title game rolled around, only Rachel and I were happy that it was raining in Florida so we could watch the Bonnies vs. Xavier playing for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
As the game was winding down and the outcome was no longer in doubt, I stepped outside and called (son) Josh (also a Bona graduate) to share the moment with him. I remember tearing up as we talked (heck, I'm tearing up now remembering it) because love of the Bonnies was something we have always shared. As luck would have it, our return flight from Orlando was scheduled for the exact time the Bonnies were playing Florida State in a Thursday game of the NCAA Tournament. Once we made it to our gate, Rachel and I went and found a TV in the terminal and watched the first half, then boarded the plane. She bought the in-flight Internet and sat next to me so we could listen to the second half together.
This past Sunday, Josh (now living in Erie and working for the Erie Times-News) came home to watch the Bonnies with me. Well, to watch the game and get some of his mom's home cooking. It was another one of those shared moments that we often have around our favorite teams -- Browns games, Indians (we're going to the home opener together next month) -- that has special meaning to any parent. As the game was winding down, I texted Rachel -- we haven't seen each other in a couple of years -- and simply wrote "Last time I watched with you." She replied within seconds: "You sure did (red heart emoji) … Big win."
I teared up again.
TOM: For Christmas (in 2020), my wife got me the big Bona flag to put outside. So the day (of the Atlantic 10 championship) and before the game was going to start, I went outside and, don't you know, the pole wouldn't fit in the little flag-pole holder I had, so when there was a half-minute to go and I realized they were going to win, I said, 'Well, I can't hang it so Kourtney, my youngest, said, 'Why don't you run through the yard like they do at the Reilly Center when the student springs through the court?'
With my arthritic knees, running wasn't a possibility, but I did march it through the yard, if you will.
JERRY: My junior year, the 1977 team won the NIT over Houston at Madison Square Garden. My senior year, we made the NCAA Tournament by beating Syracuse and Virginia Commonwealth for the ECAC Southern championship, only to lose to Penn in the NCAA First Round.
I saw so many great games and great players and legendary coaches over my four years, often simply by walking a couple hundred feet from our dorm to the RC. The entire campus would turn out for home games, plus people from the surrounding communities. One of the reasons the Reilly Center was tough on visitors was because the students sat in the bleachers which surrounded the floor.
TOM: It will be a grind (today), for sure. … I can't go anywhere. I have to be at home. I have to watch every play. I don't think that's atypical of fans who love their sporting events. Let's be clear, it's a minimum they're going to the Elite 8 and I have them, in my bracket, going to the Final Four. … By then, the Bona frenzy is going to be out of control. This story will go beyond the borders of the United States of America. There will be no stopping it at that point.
I have them losing to Kansas (in the national semifinals). … I might become a bracketologist if this actually comes to fruition.