UNDEFEATED!

Remembrances of the 1988 Park boys’ basketball team

In the early spring of 1988, The Park School boys’ basketball team traveled to Concord for the Fenn Tournament and attempted to do what no Park team (to their knowledge) had ever done: run the table for an undefeated season. Park’s athletics at the time were middling: in soccer, an early exit from the Eaglebrook tournament under the legendary Dean Conway was one of their better forays; hockey, lacrosse, and other sports consistently came up short against Fay, Fenn, and other rivals. League championships, much less perfect seasons, were never attained.

But this team was different. Starting as early as 4th grade, every single recess was dedicated to basketball by a group of around ten boys who were obsessed with basketball and its culture. This was the mid-80s, the height of the Celtics original Big Three, the electrifying Michael Jordan and Air Jordans, with Run DMC (Raising Hell ) and the Beastie Boys (Licensed to Ill ) providing the soundtrack. When they weren’t in school, they found games in their home towns of Mattapan, Jamaica Plain, Cambridge, Newton, and Brookline High. Like their girls’ team counterparts, they had winter practices at 7 a.m. and afternoon practices at Hellenic College, where the Boston Celtics and their visitors practiced as well. Celebrity sightings were not uncommon.

The team identified more with a swaggered city attitude with edge than a typical leafy green group of pushovers, and from the first whistle of their ninth grade year, they dominated, averaging wins of more than 20 points. At the Fenn Tournament, the boys jumped out to a 31-5 lead in the first half behind a suffocating full-court press led by point guard Kumasi Allen and shooting guard Jordan Kimball and never looked back. The cherished photo of the grinning title-winning team remains.

On the 35th anniversary of that historic victory, several members of the team exchanged memories of that perfect season.

Allie Powell ’88

Greg Horwitch (Small Forward) reflected on what it was that made the Park ’88 team so good—both compared to rival teams and to other Park teams. “Often,” he recalls, “we had both the best players on the court and the deepest team. That’s hard to beat! And as others have mentioned, we played basketball every recess. But why did we play basketball every recess?” Greg credits Park’s then-Director of Admission, Caroline Hoppin, who in the late 1970s began driving an effort to recruit students from beyond Brookline and Chestnut Hill. The boys in their class, Greg says, drew from urban, multicultural areas like Jamaica Plain, Cambridge, Dorchester, and Mattapan. “Many of us also played basketball on city playgrounds rather than in driveways. On the playground, you play with whoever shows up, and you have to adapt. It’s competitive: winner stays.”

It was also a moment in culture, Greg notes. “Basketball—like hip hop, breakdancing, graffiti and early sneaker styles—was central to 80s urban culture. We were committed to basketball and passionate about it because it was not just an elective sport: it was a way of life for us in our formative years.” Thanks to Mrs. Hoppin’s admissions vision and determination, Greg says, “Park was ahead of the curve for suburban private schools diversifying in a number of ways, which influenced the composition and culture of the team and provided a competitive advantage.“

Allie Powell (Small Forward) recalls the thrill of tying his sneakers next to Ron Harper when the Cavaliers practiced at Hellenic College. “It blows my mind that we had practices at the Celtics practice gym during one of the most iconic Boston sports seasons (1986),” he says. “I remember my mom warming up the car on cold, dark winter mornings before driving me out for our 7:00 a.m. practices.” However, by the time the boys reached 9th grade, their recess games were probably more intense than their games. “We were so good that I think I remember Sam Levy being upset that we ‘lost by two’ one time when we won by 18, because we had essentially set an internal standard that we were favored by 20 each game.” Allie ended up attending a high school that Park’s team had resoundingly defeated when they were in 9th grade, and he remembers thinking, “I can’t believe I’m going to a school with such a crappy basketball team.” His Park buddies kept picking the pocket of their point guard for easy fast break layups to go up 23–0. That point guard became one of Allie’s best friends in high school—and led their team to a league championship. They weren’t a bad team….Park was just that much better.

Dave Anderson (Power Forward) was among the new students who arrived at Park through Caroline Hoppin’s efforts. He recalls feeling like an outsider coming to an established culture when he first arrived in 8th grade— but basketball made the difference. He recalls, “As much as we shined in 9th grade with those ugly uniforms on, our soul was formed and bonded in pick-up games at recess, at Curtis Hall, Brookline High, on that court in France when we had our exchange visit. It was deeper than that season.” Dave went on to become a coach, and credits his Park coach, John Sullivan, for shaping that path.

Josh Byrnes (Center/Forward) appreciates the team’s solidarity, and Coach Sullivan’s leadership as well. Coach Sullivan “was an excellent new basketball coach. I’m still impressed with how he jumped into coaching and did a very good job. Very passionate. He cared.” Josh reflects that as much fun as it was seeing the most talented players dominate, “it was just as much fun to see the players who saw less minutes make shots. I still remember some of those moments.” He also savors the memory of the epic “U.S. vs. France” competition that took place on the central courtyard at the school where their Grade 9 exchange student friends went to school. “I think a lot of the school was watching. One of those special moments. I’m pretty sure we destroyed them.”

Ramsay Westgate (Center/ Forward) was one of the players who saw less playing time, and yet he is no less appreciative. “As a ‘rider on the pine’ [with a nod to Jim Morrison], who watched 99% of the action from the bench,” he says, “I can say that the skills of all of those who played in those games seemed off the charts” to him. Their “complete dominance…was a remarkable sight to behold.” Still, it’s the “epic recess games [that] are embedded” in his mind. When a certain member of their squad took it upon himself to physically persuade a younger student to vacate the court, the “supervising adult came rushing over to check” on the student “and demand what had happened and why, we all feigned ignorance and escaped punishment.” Ramsey admits that while, as a 30-year veteran educator, he “probably would react differently now than then, that moment is still etched in my mind as one of the best moments of my latter years at Park.”

Jordan Kimball (Point Guard) became enamored with basketball at Park in 6th grade. He writes, “I played competitive hoops until 2017, when I stopped playing the game at 45 years of age. Of course, I miss it, but I’m at peace because of all of the beautiful memories that the sport provided me. Many of those sweet memories are from my time at Park.” Jordan loved the game, and discovered his competitive nature on the court, and recalls “gaining much satisfaction on shutting down the opposing player, picking their pocket, blocking their shot, or intercepting their pass.” At the same time, however, he valued the lessons he learned about “being a good sport, accepting defeat and remaining humble in victory,” as well as all he learned about “true friendship on and off the basketball court. Perseverance and pushing through the difficult times and making sure life does not overwhelm you—basketball has helped me to do that. Then there is the pure joy of beautiful team basketball, where playing with Park teammates against much more talented and physically stronger athletes resulted in wins for us because we played as a squad at places like Curtis Hall and Boston Neighborhood Basketball League, the courts at Brookline High, and during summer camps at Dave Cowens and Boston College.” The lessons and insights gained through the experience remain important to Jordan these many years later.

Shaun (Netter) Amin (Shooting Guard) adds that “Without question the love of basketball we shared created the bond we had and all the recesses from 4th grade on, whether indoors or outdoor on those courts is the reason why we became the team we were when we were all finally in the 9th grade. We knew each other too well and became a well-oiled machine, highlighted by that tournament win. If we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have that picture as a reminder of our prep school excellence. It didn’t hurt that we had three six-footers!” He also recalls the mythic, legendary U.S. vs. France game—“The entire school seemingly came out and surrounded the basketball court to watch this international showdown. That could have been a scene in a movie.”

Other memories are more poignant. When Shaun injured a finger competing with a teammate in the layup line before a game, Coach Sullivan benched him. It was “the ONLY game in my entire life that both my mother and father were present. Sullivan wouldn’t let me play. That’s a wound deeper than some could have understood. What it meant to have the support of my estranged parents and not be able to play in front of them….” Basketball became the source of reconnection, however, with his father, who stepped in to help coach his BNBL team in high school. He recalls, “I hadn’t spoken to him for a long period of time during high school.” Bringing his Park buddies together to play with his other friends was, he says, great fun. “Merging my two worlds, the two lives I lived growing up, was very special indeed.”

Sam Levy (Center) remembers the heady feeling of going into each game with the certainty that “there was zero chance we’d lose. It’s so fun to look back at this time when we were all beyond obsessed with the game. I think I still am, but mostly in the form of watching basketball docs.”

The memories remain strong, 35 years later. As Shaun Amin says, “It’s such a wonderful part of our Park School journey. Our class was indeed a very memorable one. Not to mention an extremely smart and athletic class overall. I hold these memories fondly, as I do the friendships we all had.” Ramsey Westgate writes, “This [conversation] has brought me great joy, as it has both brought me down ‘memory lane’ and reinforced how fortunate I feel to have been a part of something special.”