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Viking Champions: Tom Florentine
CHICAGO, IL (May 30, 2003) - Tom Florentine came to North Park after transferring
from nearby Oakton Community College, where he had led the nation in
scoring. After being one of the Vikings' primary scorers during his junior
year, Florentine's offensive role diminished somewhat, although his outside
shooting in the 1978 title game against Widener keyed a 79-67 championship
game victory and earned him All-Tourney honors.
"Every game was different, a different guy leading the way. (Against
Widener), they knew Michael Harper was the man and they were collapsing.
They forced us to make some long shots were long shots but, fortunately,
everybody had it going that night."
Florentine called the 1977-78 season one of the great periods of his life,
for obvious reasons. "I still play three times a week in hoops leagues and
I see a lot of people that knew me back in college and a lot of times the
subject (the 1978 championship) comes up," he said. What does the Hammond,
Indiana, resident remember most vividly? Good team chemistry, good defense,
and an unsung hero are among the first things that came to mind.
"We had five or six guys who were leaders on the team, but we all wanted to
win and we were hard workers. The guys really enjoyed being with each
other; we had fun together. We had our little skirmishes in practices but
during the games we jelled. And the coaches were obviously good. They were
real good fundamental coaches, which was big. We worked real hard on
man-to-man defense and we played a full-court press and that killed people.
Thomas was the leader of the team and Harper was a leader because of his
talent. But Al May was the Dennis Rodman on our team. He would always guard
the hard guy and would just bang on people. He had a lot of big rebounds
and did the dirty work. In those playoff games he had a big role and a lot
of people may not have realized that."
In recalling key games during the season, Florentine stated that his team's
first loss during the 1977-78 season, a four-point early December nail
biter at conference foe Illinois Wesleyan University, might have been the
turning point. "That game gave us a lot of confidence," he said. "They were
as good as anybody then and we hung with them all the way. Going to
Bloomington and playing Illinois Wesleyan tough on the road - that gave us
a lot of confidence, even though we lost. That showed me that we could do
some damage."
North Park only lost once more (at San Francisco State University in late
December) during the 1977-78 season, winning its conference title and
surviving a couple of tough early playoff battles before beating Widener in
the finals. North Park beat Minnesota-Morris in the regional finals and
edged Humboldt State University in a quarterfinal overtime contest played
in northern California. Florentine remembers both contests being more
competitive than the national title game.
"We really didn't think about it (a shot at the national title) until we
beat Humboldt State," he said. "We played a couple of really good teams in
Iowa during regionals. We beat Minnesota-Morris with free throws at the
end, but it was a tough game until about two minutes left. They were real
big, like a Big 10 type team, and it was hard to get a shot off. And right
after that we had to play Humboldt State, which was tough.
"Minnesota-Morris was the better team, but it was the environment we played
in that was difficult," Florentine continued. "The gym was closed down an
hour o
r two before the game (because it was filled) and they passed out wooden
redwood blocks and they banged them the whole game. You were three feet
from your teammates and you had to yell at them to be heard. That place was
unbelievable. And they had a good team. To come out with the win with all
of the chaos there was great."
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