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One of the great small college rivalries of the mid-20th century is revived Tuesday when the Duquesne Dukes travel up the mountain to visit Saint Francis U.  Tipoff at the Stokes Center is slated for 7 p.m.

While Duquesne has had its way with the Red Flash for the bulk of the teams' 71 meetings dating back to the 1913-14 season, from 1955 to 1960 Saint Francis took six of 11 games from the Dukes.  Some of the details of those usually raucous affairs are recounted below.

As for the modern day, Duquesne is playing its fourth Pennsylvania-based opponent in five games but has come up short in all three of those.  On Saturday, the Dukes dropped a 67-63 home contest to Robert Morris, which snapped a five-game losing streak.  Duquesne is 0-1 on the road this season.

Saint Francis, on the other hand, is playing its second game of the season at the Stokes Center and its third as the home team, counting Nov. 11's win over Navy (which is now 5-4) at the Cambria County War Memorial.

Today's game ends a 10-day layoff for Saint Francis to accommodate final exams.  The Red Flash returns to action on Sunday when it travels to Drexel for a 2 p.m. contest.



The SAINT FRANCIS-DUQUESNE Rivalry

Any budding rivalry with Duquesne was as much a matter of geography as anything else. Saint Francis was very much Western Pennsylvania-based in the 1950s and played a schedule heavy with schools from that part of the state. The fact that Duquesne was Catholic only added to the natural attraction to play an annual game. With both schools looking to Pittsburgh as a prime recruiting ground for talent, the outcome of games between the colleges decided bragging rights each year when the players turned out on the city's courts every summer.

There could be little doubt that something of a rivalry could grow only when Saint Francis began to defeat the routinely top-ranked and better-known Dukes on a regular basis. That it did when the fine sophomore class of Wilbur Trosch, Joe Aston and Bobby Jones came on board in 1957 and went on a run of four consecutive wins over their Pittsburgh neighbors.

A turning point in the rivalry came early in the 195 7-58 season and, at all places, the Pitt Field House where the Dukes played their home games. A last minute win on two free throws by Jack O'Malley set the school's students in attendance into a frenzy of celebration. "If the sons and daughters of Saint Francis College reached Loretto alive and well last night it was because the gentle patron of their alma mater stayed up late to see them safely through golden delirium of victory," reported the next day's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Early games with Duquesne were often brutal affairs with plenty of fouls. Saint Francis home games at first were played at the Cambria Country War Memorial since it offered a larger venue for the crowds that came out for the match-up.

In the final game of the 1957-58 regular season, a fight broke out near the end of the first half when, during a scramble for a missed shot, Wilbur Trosch appeared to have been shoved from behind by the Dukes' George Brown when the ball went out of bounds. Trosch went after Brown before a teammate pulled him back. The incident appeared to have ended, but suddenly a spectator sprang from his seat behind the baseline and connected with a punch on Duquesne's Fritz Binder which cleared the benches before order was restored. "It was mayhem for a while," Trosch remembered.

The Frankies forged another win streak over the Dukes beginning in Skip Hughes' last season at the helm and new coach John Clark tapped on two more. So, the Dukes were in a fighting mood when the two teams met in the 1967-68 season finale at the Mosque. Perhaps more memorable than the earlier altercation years before, this one took place at the Jaffa Mosque where Norm Van Lier, Lewis and company tangled with Duquesne's Nelson brothers and teammates.

Going in for a layup at the stage-end of the Mosque floor, the Frankies' Bill Snodgrass was low-bridged and sliding into the stage got up and stepped on his offending opponent. Suddenly, Larry Lewis let go with a punch on one of the Dukes' Nelson twins and bedlam broke out, spilling into the stands. The next day Saint Francis students were spotted going to class in Duquesne warm-ups they had picked up when the benches cleared.

The home-and-home each season was discontinued in 1969-70 and Duquesne went off the annual schedule entirely in 1983-84 returning sporadically after that.

But just for good measure and in a 1977 game that featured the Dukes' highly celebrated Norm Nixon, the Red Flash, laid a defeat on their old nemesis behind Jack Phelan's 42-points at the Stokes Fieldhouse.