Thursday night — Jan. 28, 1999 — was a night I’ll never forget as I sat watching the final mens and womens games to be played in the Chamber of Horrors between long time rivals, the Husson College Braves of Bangor, Maine, and their host, the St. Joseph’s College (St. Joe’s) Monks of Standish, Maine.
It was my first ever visit to the Chamber (aka the Benard P. Currier Gym).
I wasn’t there necessarily to see the game, but to see the fans and the atmosphere that they — and the Chamber — provide, as this marvelous old place neared its retirement, after the 20 years of wondrous service which it has provided to basketball fans in the State of Maine.
And I knew that the atmosphere would be extra charged this Thursday night, for not only was it the last game for the Monks fans to deride the ‘Hated Husson Braves’ in the infamous Chamber of Horrors, but an even more spine-tingling thought was the added excitement this night would bring in watching probable All-American and potential NAIA Player-of-the-Year Carl Howell go over the 2,000 point mark in his career.
If anything could make the almost unbearable sound level in the Chamber reach an all-time high, it was going to be when Howell accomplished that feat.
Is Carl Howell the best small college player in Maine?
I asked that question of his coach, Rick Simonds, and he didn’t hesitate in indicating that there was no question in his mind that Carl was the best small college player in Maine, New England and possibly the nation. In fact, Simonds appears to be convinced that Carl might be the best player in Maine at any college level.
After watching Carl’s performance last night, I would be hard pressed to argue that point with the coach. Howell was magnificent in scoring 24, grabbing 10 rebounds, handing out 3 assists, blocking 4 shots and stealing the ball three times — all while committing only one personal foul — as he led the NAIA’s 6th ranked Monks to a 81-56 shellacking of long-standing rival Husson and to a 17-0 record this season — likely to be 25-0 going into the MAC play-offs.
When Brent Cook — St. Joe’s SID and assistant men’s coach — informed me that Carl could score his 2,000th career point in the Husson game, he obviously misspoke. Brent meant to say that Carl will score his 2,000th point tonight, because the 6-7 senior forward (who plays like a guard) from Exeter, N.H., only needed to score 3 point to accomplish that feat, so there was no question that he would exceed 2,000 this night.
The question was: would he do it within the first minute of the game?
Well he didn’t do that, although he came close.
Carl scored point number 1,999 at the 19:27 mark and barely missed a second hoop a short time later. When he did score point number 2,001, I turned quickly to see 16:59 flash by on the clock and listened to the ear-shattering ovation he received for his accomplishment. As would be expected, a time-out was called to present Carl with the 2,000 point ball. The ear(th)-shattering ovation continued as that ceremony took place and chills went through me as I felt the roar vibrate my body and watched the smiles, tears and emotional hugs from his family, friends and teammates.
Carl’s plateau-breaking points came on a STRONG offensive rebound and a 10-foot turn-around jumper from the left baseline after the Chamber Made Star dribbled around a couple of Braves to free himself.
After thinking about it for a while, I have decided that describing a Carl Howell rebound as STRONG is rather silly, because every thing he does is strong — in one way or another.
I watched Carl Howell for the first time last March in the MAC playoffs and I remember thinking … ‘Man, that guy is good’. Well, after seeing him this year, I can honestly say … ‘Man, that guy is great’.
I also remember watching him last year knowing that he was the top player in the MAC and being surprised at how unselfishly he played. He didn’t try to do everything on the court himself or try to score the most points, although he easily could have. I watched him dish the ball to the hot shooter and that convinced me that he was a team player.
And I got that same impression last night. He scored 24, but I’m sure he could have scored 44 if he had wanted to be selfish. Oh, he shot the ball 18 times, but that is not an unusually high number for a team’s superstar. In fact, Husson’s Chris Funk shot the ball 20 times for his team, which is still not excessive when you are the best.
Howell also impressed me by seemingly taking his shots when they were needed the most. When the Monks really needed a basket is when he looked to shot.
And he can shoot. Make no mistake about that.
Carl is currently shooting 60.5% from the field and 54.5% when he steps beyond the arc. Both extremely impressive numbers.
Actually, Carl impressed me in many ways Thursday night. I was stunned to see a 6-7 forward put the ball on the floor with the grace and ability of a 6-1 point guard with his between the legs dribbles, his quick spin moves and his ability to maneuver through traffic without losing the ball. And none of his moves were wasted with the major goal to impress the crowd, as you often sense other player try to do.
No, if he made a flashy move, it was because he had to — to achieve what needed to be achieved. Great offensive players do that.
But Howell is not just a great offensive player. Because of his athleticism, he can also rebound with the best of them, he can play ‘D’ with the best of them and he can definitely block shots with the best of them.
In fact, one of the best shot blocks I’ve ever seen occurred Thursday night when Chris Funk raced down court for a break-away lay-in — or dunk — near the end of the game and out of nowhere came Howell flying through the air to block Funk’s shot, with the basketball just inches from the hoop.
Actually Carl didn’t come from nowhere, because I watched him get a late start in his pursuit of Funk down the court, thinking there was no way he could stop the speedy and athletic Funk from scoring.
But, I was wrong.
I’m not sure how Carl caught up with Funk, but he did. In fact, he flew on the floor past several of his teammates on the way down the court after Funk. And it seemed like he flew through the air the last 15 feet of his journey to knock the ball out of Funk’s hands — the way Dr. J used to fly to the basket for one of his dunks.
No, I’m not going to argue with Coach Simonds as to whether Carl Howell is the best basketball player in Maine.
I’m not that crazy.
The Chamber Revisited
As I mentioned, the game last night that featured Carl’s 2,000th point provided everyone a night to remember and — in part — because it was played in the dreaded (for opponents) Chamber of Horrors. A place that defines the term HOME COURT ADVANTAGE.
Ask Coach Simonds about that.
He pointed out to me that St. Joe’s has lost only 14 games in the Chamber in the 20 years they have played basketball there. The Monks over-all record at home since 1979 is, in fact, 188-14. A ‘horrific’ winning percentage of 93%.
Need I say more. Not really, but I will.
The smallness of the Chamber and the exuberance of its occupants undoubtedly makes a St. Joseph’s basketball game in that madhouse one of the most entertaining for basketball fans in the State of Maine and provides the players on both sides with an experience they will remember forever — good or bad.
Actually, just playing in that atmosphere can be nothing but good, even for the losing team on the short end of a 40-point blowout.
Even if you’ve never been there, you know a little bit about the Chamber from my humorous article of Oct. 28, 1997, titled — appropriately enough — ‘The Chamber of Horrors’ and you’ll have learned even a little bit more when you have finished reading this story.
Everything I had heard about the Chamber — and told you — was true and more. Well except for one thing.
Instead of five rows of seats on each side, there were only four which made it even more remarkable that 1,000 or more fans could be squeezed into its tight confines. Of course, that requires a few standees and if you look at the endlines you will see them. Four deep, in fact. They actually have to turn people away because the place is so small and gets so packed — something about a fire marshall. Even so, the St. Joe’s fire marshall must be a Democrat because his policy for standing room crowds is still extremely liberal.
The sideline seats are maybe a foot from the court. Which doesn’t give the players much room to stand and pass a ball inbounds from the sides — after the fans put their feet into some of that space. And that space also has to be used by fans to walk from one end of the gym to the other, so it is full of dirt and sand that they track in. Of course occasionally fans have to step on the court to maneuver around others, all the while depositing some of that dirt on the hardwood. My first thought when I saw that was … ‘How do players not slip and get injured in here?’
The endlines are little better because there is maybe a dark-colored 18 inch out-of-bounds space which players can stand in to inbound the ball. Although when players do inbound it from the ends, they look like they are just one of the fans — who are dressed up to emulate one of their heroes and who just happened to have a basketball at the ready.
You might think that, with the people so close to the floor, players would get hurt often in the Chamber by twisting an ankle after stepping on a fans foot or by knocking heads with someone in the crowd, but according to Coach Rick Simonds, it’s just the opposite. To his knowledge, no player has been hurt in the Chamber during a game because of the fans proximity to the court. On the contrary, Simonds says that many times players have been saved from injury, thanks to the cushion the fans provide when a player inevitably goes flying out of bounds. Simonds indicated that indeed practices are what concern him most because the fans are not there to provide a cushion.
The coach was right about the cushion affect, because Carl Howell was one of those to go diving into the crowd during Thursday nights game and he landed on top of two young ladies. They broke Carl’s fall and he apparently almost broke one of their noses. At least that’s how it appeared to me because, when Carl got up, both ladies were laughing hysterically and one was holding her nose while she was doing it.
When the starting line-ups were announced, the noise was deafening. It was as loud in this small arena as I’ve heard in places like the Bangor Auditorium during tourney time or at the 5,892 capacity filled Alfond for last year’s AMERICA EAST championship game between the Maine women and their rival, Vermont.
And it was obvious from the loudness of the cheering that filled the air when Husson scored that they had quite a contingent down there from Bangor, but when St. Joe’s scored — every time St. Joe’s scored — there was no doubt whose arena this was, because it took forever for the walls to stop vibrating and for my ears to recover from sound overload.
They warn you about the potential damage caused by loud hard rock music, but no one could possibly convey the risk you put yourself in by sitting in the Chamber on game night.
Even so, I wouldn’t have missed the experience for anything. Ears be damned.
The noise was bad enough — or good enough depending upon your view — at the start of the game, but it stayed that way throughout. It didn’t hurt that St. Joe’s jumped out to a 25-10 lead, half-way through the 1st half, but it got even louder whenever Husson staged a mini-comeback and St. Joe’s countered it with a hoop or two.
To say the least, the Chamber provides a definite HOME COURT ADVANTAGE.
Maybe that’s in part why the St. Joe’s women hung on for a 69-66 victory over the Husson women and why the men blew away the Husson men, 81-59, in the last ever combat of those rival teams in the Chamber.
Yeah, it was a night to remember all right. Not just for me though, but for a fellow named John Holyoke also.
That’s right, the talented writer for the Bangor Daily New.
As stated, this was my first time in the Chamber and, surprisingly, when I asked John how many times he had been in the Chamber, he said this was his first time too. In fact, he told me he gave up his off day just to be able to cover this last chapter of the St. Joe’s-Husson story in the Chamber. He’ll never regret that he did, either. I could see from the way he reacted — and the things he said — that he was in as much awe of the Chamber and as equally energized by the crowd as anyone there, including myself.
How could he not be?
Another thing which MADE MY NIGHT at this special event was being able to look up — HIGH ABOVE COURT-SIDE, or maybe I should say court-end — and see George Hale and Al Hackett broadcasting this historic game while peering through a small window-size opening in the wall of the second floor training room in the rear of the gym. That ‘dynamic duo’ called the action from their perch while looking downward to see much of the game framed by the glass backboard at the far end.
That was the icing on the cake for me.
To once again see those two esteemed professionals who have covered high school basketball so capably in Eastern Maine for OH SO MANY YEARS was indeed special.
George Hale is a legendary broadcaster who I have enjoyed listening to — along with thousands of other basketball fans in Maine — for as long as I can remember listening to basketball. It was very fitting of the occasion that he and his partner Al Hackett would be the ones to broadcast this special game. No one else could have done it justice.
More on Carl Howell
Carl Howell is featured in a full page color photo with caption in the — soon to hit the newsstand — Feb. 12, 1999, issue of Maine RoundBALL Magazine.
In addition, MRM On-Line will be interviewing Carl shortly and will be writing his story so everyone in Maine — or in the world for that matter — can hear it.
Not only did Howell exceed the 2,000 point scoring plateau in the Jan. 28th game against Husson with his current total of 2,021 points, but — with 8 regular season games plus playoffs remaining — he will likely break the all-time scoring record at St. Joseph’s College which is currently 2,204 points, held by Jeff Creech.
In addition, Howell will also shatter the all-time rebounding record of 838 which is held by Byran Rubenskas. Carl currently has 825 rebounds and now needs just 14 rebounds to break that record.
Howell currently is scoring 27.7 ppg and averaging 10.4 rpg and Carl recorded his 13th double-double of the year in the Husson game.
On Jan. 25th, Carl was third in NAIA Div. II with a 27.9 ppg average, behind Darrell Smith (6-3, Sr, G) of Bartlesville Wesleyan (Okla.) with 36.2 ppg and Josh Hall (6-2, Sr, G) of Warner-Southern (Fla.) with 30.26 ppg
As stated, Carl’s Story is: