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Basketball Diaries
DWIGHT TODAY | 50TH ANNIVERSARY
Father and Son on the Hardcourt
Trivia question: What do Jeremy Lin of the Brooklyn Nets, former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, and Chancellor Stephen Spahn have in common? Answer at the end of this story.
Dwight’s long-standing scholar-athlete tradition is also deeply rooted in the Spahn family. Their legacy at the intersection of education and sports dates back to the 1930s, when Dr. M.C. (Moe) Spahn first became a basketball star at City College of New York — in those days, a national powerhouse — and later in the pros in the early, rough and tumble, pre-NBA days.
After retiring from the game, Dr. Spahn who had earned his PhD in Education from NYU, became Headmaster of Franklin School in 1950, and remained at the helm for 25 years. At Franklin, which evolved into Anglo-American International School and later joined forces with Dwight, students affectionately called him “Coach,” reflecting his role as mentor on and off the court.
Like his father before him, Chancellor Stephen Spahn was an All-American basketball player in college at Dartmouth. While his path did not lead to the pros, it converged with his father’s again in 1967, when he began his own career in education at Dwight. Today, as we mark Chancellor Spahn’s 50 th anniversary, we take a look back at the quite notable hardcourt achievements of father and son.
DR. M.C. (MOE) SPAHN: GUARD
After learning to play primarily in schoolyards and as an All-City player for Bryant High School in Queens, Moe joined the starting lineup at CCNY in 1931. The team won the Eastern championships in ’32 and ’33, with six-footer Moe as captain in ’33. He was named All-American and led CCNY in scoring.
His coach was the legendary Nat Holman, an early innovator of the game and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Coach Holman considered Moe to be one of his ten greatest players. This is saying something since he coached CCNY for 36 seasons and his 1949-50 squad completed the singular feat of winning the NCAA and the NIT tournaments in the same season. Upon graduating in 1934, Moe joined Holman as Assistant Coach and began his graduate studies.
Moe also turned pro that year and played for teams in Newark, NJ, and New Britain, CT, finishing second in scoring in the fledgling American Basketball League (ABL) during his rookie year. He led the league in scoring in his second season with just under nine points per game. Contrast that with James Harden’s 32.2 points per game average this season and one can see that it was quite a different game back in Moe’s time. Pro basketball was in its start-up phase, with leagues and teams launching, failing, and restarting. During this time, and by necessity born of the pro game’s instability, Moe played with various teams that are now of a bygone era, including the Brooklyn Visitations, the Jersey Reds, the New York Jewels, and the Philadelphia SPHAs.
The record shows that Moe enjoyed the most successful years of his career with the Jersey Reds, He led the team to the ABL championship series three years running, helping to clinch the title during 1937-38. That wasn’t the only hardware Moe took home that season; he earned the league’s MVP trophy after finishing second the two seasons prior. From 1934-38, he led the league in free throws and won an ABL title with the Wilmington Bombers in 1941-42. Retiring in 1943, he finished his career as the fifth alltime leading scorer in ABL history. Moe, a member of the CCNY Athletic Hall of Fame, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.
STEPHEN SPAHN: GUARD
Moe’s basketball career was a tough act to follow but his son was up to the challenge. Both were guards and both were top scoring threats. Stephen, at 6’1” and like his father, wasn’t especially tall. Nor was he fast enough to rely on speed, so he focused on his strength: shooting. He practiced, practiced, and practiced to become a great shooter —and more than succeeded.
At Great Neck High School, Stephen set a career scoring record of 900 points and was selected for the All-North Shore League and All-Nassau
County teams prior to attending Dartmouth. He followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming an All-American in college, where he established several scoring records from 1961-63. And, like his dad, Stephen also played under the tutelage of a Basketball Hall of Fame coach. Dartmouth’s Coach was Alvin “Doggie” Julian, who said that Stephen was the best long shooter he had ever had in the 11 years of coaching “Big Green.” Unlike the success Moe and his stellar CCNY squads enjoyed, the teams Stephen played on at Dartmouth did not win often, but that didn’t stop the future Chancellor from excelling.
As a junior, Stephen led the Ivy League, averaging 23.2 points per game, which still stands as the second-highest, single-season scoring average in Ivy League competition, trailing only Princeton’s (and future New York Knick and Senator) Bill Bradley, who averaged 27.5 points per game in the 1962-63 season. Stephen earned third team All-American honors for his stellar junior campaign. His record follows him today; Stephen currently ranks seventh in career-scoring average with 16.5 points per game and 13th on the Dartmouth all-time total points scored list with 1,206.
During his junior year playing for “Big Green,” the team was readying themselves to take on Manhattan in a holiday basketball festival at Madison Square Garden, when the noted New York sports writer Phil Pepe wrote this article about father and son:
30 Years Go By and It's a Long Spahn
By Phil Pepe
Look closely at the brown-haired slender kid wearing the Dartmouth jersey in the Garden tonight. Check his number, he's No. 4. Familiar?
Look at his name — Steve Spahn. Does it ring a bell? You remember his daddy, Moe Spahn. If you're not quite 30, then ask your father about Moe Spahn. He played for City College from 1931 to 1933 and he was the Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain of his day.
"He was one of the real basketball players of the era," recalls Joe Lapchick, who was a pro star when Moe was in college. And when Spahn became a star in the pros for the visitations and Jersey Reds, Lapchick had retired from playing.
"Moe Spahn was of his era, like the Celtics were of theirs," Lapchick said and it had to be the supreme compliment.
All-American
If you followed college basketball in the 30s, you remember Spahn as the man who did everything on the court. He was only six-feet tall, but only Moe Goldman was taller. So Spahn would move into the pivot or play in the backcourt and he'd always manage to score a remarkable 12 or 13 points a game.
He was named All-American in 1933 after City compiled a two-year record of 33-2 and in 1937 was Most Valuable player of the American Professional Basketball League.
In 1933, Tom Reilly picked an All-Metropolitan team for the World Telegram and on it was Spahn, Nay Lazar of St. John's, Buddy Hassett of Manhattan, Owen McDowell of Columbia, and Tom Carroll of St. Francis.
About Spahn, Reilly wrote: " ... Easily the most valuable man on the team. A reliant and sagacious leader, he is outstanding both on defense and attack. A crack shot, he also may be depended upon to hold down the pivot position in masterful fashion."
Now Moe Spahn is Dr. M. C. Spahn, PHD and headmaster of the Franklin School in Manhattan. He's a little heavier and a little grayer, but he still looks like he'd be a tough man in the pivot. He'll be there tonight watching Steve, a junior, make his first appearance in the Garden against Manhattan.
Steve Has the Eye
He'll be watching and maybe, if you look closely, you'll notice his chest sticking out a little.
"It's a great thrill for me," said the senior Spahn.
What kind of a player is Steve? Could he play with the old City College five?
"Of course the game has changed completely," Moe said. "But I'll tell you this, Steve can shoot with anyone in the country. He's a great offensive man. Some night it wouldn't surprise me if he hit 18 for 20 shots.
Of equal importance to the parents is the fact that Steve, a history major, is an honor student at Dartmouth.
So, look for him tonight, No. 4, and when Steve Spahn throws in a set shot, don't be surprised if the fortyish gentleman next to you sighs, "I remember watching his father do that."
