Did John Marshall host a basketball game on a historically horrible night?
Nov. 27—Dear Answer Man: This last week we marked the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. I recall my parents taking us to John Marshall High School on the evening of Nov. 22, 1963, to attend a RSJC basketball game. My dad was a math instructor at the college, raising a family of Jefferson Elementary School students at the time.
In retrospect, the game should have been canceled or postponed considering the historic circumstance of the day. It seems to me, though, officials at the schools decided the game would be played as the visiting team had already arrived to Rochester. I vividly recall the crowd standing for a moment of silence — and you could hear a pin drop. My question: Who was the visiting team and what was the score of the game? — Proud Jefferson Graduate.
Dear Graduate,
So, time can play tricks on our memories.
Not mine. Answer Man's gray matter is a steel trap of knowledge.
You're mostly right. If you attended a game at John Marshall that night, there was a moment of silence. Neither of the participants, however, was Rochester State Junior College, or as it would have been called in 1963 — it didn't become RSJC until 1964 — Rochester Junior College.
Still, many of your facts are right.
There was a game. Discussion of canceling the contest — John Marshall High School defeated Minnetonka High School 62-55 — did occur. And Rochester Superintendent Dr. James V. Moon did have the crowd observe, according to the Post Bulletin, a "minute of silent prayer" in tribute to the assassination of President Kennedy earlier that day in Dallas.
Considering your youthfulness at the time — and, ahem, your age now — it's easy to see how some facts have been mixed up over the years.
That said, Nov. 22, 1963, is a day that stands out in the minds of many who were alive at the time.
Ten years ago, for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, the Post Bulletin interviewed people about their recollections of the day. No one brought up the basketball game at JM that night. But here are some of the recollections collected in that story from 2013.
The day had started unseasonably warm in Rochester, with temperatures in the high 50s in the morning. By early afternoon, the mercury — perhaps feeling the chill about to sweep the nation — was down to 34 degrees.
Bob Ludescher, a custodian at Rochester City Hall, had walked in the front door on First Avenue Southwest on that Friday afternoon when City Clerk Alfreida Ryder told him Kennedy had been assassinated, Ludescher told former PB writer Mike Dougherty in 2013. Ludescher then stood in stunned silence next to Police Chief Jim Macken.
"I had a tear in my eye," Ludescher told Dougherty. "It stunned everybody in City Hall."
Sandy Cooper, of Rochester, told Dougherty that her sister Sue was born that day.
"We where very happy when our mother returned home from the hospital," Cooper said. "Every time there is an anniversary of JFK's death, our sister is celebrating a birthday."
Thanks for sharing your recollections of this horrible day our history, Graduate. This was a solemn trip down memory lane.
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