As fans of all ages cheer on the Syracuse University men’s and women’s basketball teams in the Final Four this weekend, some are celebrating this milestone by looking back on Jim Boeheim's career. Boeheim is in his 40th year as the head coach, but started as a player on the team in the 1960’s before becoming an assistant coach.
Eighty-four-year-old SU fan Halaby Bahouth ran the dining room at the Drumlins Country Club in Syracuse in the 1970s. She was friends with Roy Danforth, the head coach of SU’s men’s basketball team at the time, who would stop in occasionally with his wife. Bahouth was introduced to an assistant coach, young Jim Boeheim, and together they planned a party to celebrate Danforth's 100th win.
“I look back and say, everybody was so excited that Roy Danforth made the 100 and look at where Boeheim has come," Bahouth said. "I'm just get so amazed at the whole thing.”
In getting to this year’s Final Four, now head Coach Jim Boeheim has 884 career wins under his belt. That's after 101 wins were vacated due to NCAA violations.
“He’s come a long way, 40 years I’ve watched this man grow and explore his teams and win and lose," Bahouth said. "I am such a fan I go nuts.”
At a pep rally on campus this week, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul recalled her own memories of Syracuse basketball when she was a student at the university and Boeheim first began as head coach. She named off some of the players from those teams and gave a reminder to the current players.
“In 40 years the people, the students here who adore you today, will remember your names," Hochul said. "You are part of the Syracuse story, you will go down in history for what you’ve accomplished here.”
As a new generation cheers on the team, Halaby Bahouth is not showing any signs of slowing her pride in the Orange.
“Every single decade, I look forward to the next one," Bahouth said. "When I turn 40, when I turn 50, I kept pushing and pushing and now I’m pushing for 90 as long as I stay this way, nice and healthy. Keep rooting for SU and that’s keeping me going.”
