Raftery finally gets to do a Big 5 doubleheader

IT WILL, says Bill Raftery, be his first Big 5 doubleheader ever.

The 70-year-old analyst, who played for La Salle from 1961-64, is working his 32nd NCAA Tournament. He will join Verne Lundquist and sideline reporter Allie LaForce when CBS broadcasts tomorrow's Saint Joseph's-Connecticut and Villanova-Milwaukee games in Buffalo.

"I've been in the Palestra and done games, and I once did a tripleheader there many, many years ago, but no teams from Philly played in it," Raftery said yesterday.

He has, however, broadcast single City Series games, and may get a chance to do another if the Hawks and Wildcats both win in the opening round.

"I've done St. Joe's and Villanova games over the years," he said. "I think [if they meet] it will a different St. Joe's team than the game earlier ['Nova won by 30 points on Dec. 7]. That sort of surprised everybody."

Raftery who coached at Seton Hall and Fairleigh Dickinson, played for the La Salle team that lost to St. Louis in the opening round of the NIT in 1963.

He is still a big La Salle booster. He was especially close to the late Tom Gola, who died in January, saying the former Explorers' star was the reason he chose to play at 20th and Olney after a stellar career at St. Cecilia High School in North Jersey.

And, it was at La Salle that he got the idea to consider broadcasting as a career after Bob Wolff, famous for calling Don Larsen's perfect game, planted a seed.

"Bob visited the campus because we were going to play St. Louis in the NIT," Raftery said. "He came to watch practice. [La Salle coach] Dudey Moore asked me to sort of host him. Take him to lunch . . . meet with him after practice. And when Bob left he said to me, 'You know someday when you finish whatever you want to do [in basketball], you ought to think about getting into TV. And that stuck in my head forever."