Five years ago, Richard Brunson stood at the back of New Brunswick’s Kirkpatrick Chapel on a Saturday morning in the spring and looked around at the friends and family members who would help celebrate one of the most memorable days of his life.
As musicians played Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” Brunson danced down the aisle, passing the packed pews, which were sprinkled with nearly every teammate from the 1982-83 Rutgers basketball team he starred on. For the first time in decades, the boys were together again in the town they once called home.
But, as the guests surveyed the crowd, looking for familiar faces, there was one glaring absence: John Battle, one of Brunson’s closest buddies and a star of that team. This celebration and reunion would continue long into the night, and it was a shame Battle would miss it.
As Brunson reached the altar, where he would marry his longtime girlfriend Katrina, there was a stir in the crowd. Something was happening in the back of the chapel. Heads turned. Standing there, wearing a black clerical robe with scarlet buttons and red trim -- and a huge smile -- was Battle.
Pastor Battle.
With a roar that would have shaken the Rutgers Athletic Center, the chapel erupted as he strode to the altar.
Pastor John Battle, back, officiates the wedding of his former Rutgers basketball teammate Richard Brunson, right, and his wife Katrina at the Kirkpatrick Chapel in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in April of 2015.
Battle fittingly performed the ceremony that day, one of the few times that the Rutgers squad has been assembled in the 37 years since they stamped themselves in the school’s history. They are the greatest Rutgers men’s basketball team fans have never heard of, or have forgotten; owners of the Scarlet Knights’ last NCAA Tournament victory, but faded from memory.
The 1976 Scarlet Knights, who reached the program’s only Final Four, have been honored countless times. The 1991 team -- the last Rutgers squad to reach the NCAA Tournament -- has been a clause in countless media stories during the 29-year March Madness drought.
But the last Rutgers team to actually win an NCAA Tournament game? As Rutgers celebrates its past with the return of Greg Schiano, these guys wonder: Why are we forgotten? They believe they should be remembered and embraced at the RAC, but instead they gather these days mostly at weddings and funerals.
As fans try to will this season’s fading Scarlet Knights into the tournament, Brunson, Battle and others from the ’82-83 team have been all but erased – and not just by fans. They believe they have been ignored by the university, and they are feeling left out. They’re waiting for a call from Rutgers.
“They don’t value history, and they should,” Battle said. “Those things are very important to me, when people recognize the past. They have a parade going now and I don’t want to rain on it, but we always wanted that support.”
It’s time for Rutgers to reach out, Brunson said, and heal a painful separation.
“I think the building blocks are a little off. I think they need to move in a direction where they bring the old back, introduce them to the new,” he said. “Just a healing process, too, because these guys feel a certain type of way, and I feel a similar way too. That’s our house, man, we got to have some keys to it.”
Rutgers points to the numerous shuffles in leadership -- eight head coaches and four athletic directors since that season -- for the disconnect. The program is open to mending the relationships lost in time.
“I’m disappointed to hear that, but we would love to have them back," current head coach Steve Pikiell said. "We’re building a Rutgers Basketball family, and they are a very big part of it. I’m going to work to have them back.”
‘Underappreciated’
Back in the days when the 3-point line was a gimmick and there was no shot clock, the Scarlet Knights were a pretty good team. In 1982-83 -- Tom Young’s 10th year as head coach -- they finished with a 23-8 record, an Atlantic-10 regular-season title and one of Rutgers’ five all-time NCAA Tournament wins. No Scarlet Knights team has come close to a season like that since, and few groups before them could top it. Yet, for all its success, the group was never recognized.
“That’s unfortunate because we were a good team,” Young said. “There’s no doubt (that ‘83 is underappreciated).”
This season, Rutgers has a chance to break the 37-year drought between NCAA Tournament wins -- that is, if the Scarlet Knights make the tournament. Without even making the postseason, Pikiell was rewarded with a contract extension. The RAC has been sold out a record 10 times this season. The buzz on campus is palpable.
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Battle has not watched it unfold closely, but he’s noticed the commotion. He wishes they appreciated those who already achieved those marks with Rutgers.
Roy Hinson, an All-American senior center and the team’s star player in 1983, shares his teammates’ disappointment. He and Battle have discussed it over the phone many times, he said, venting their frustration of being left behind while others are commemorated.
Hinson and Battle, the two best professional basketball players Rutgers ever produced, met more times as opponents on an NBA court than as former teammates celebrating past success at their alma mater.
“Other programs honor their legends and honor their people that were there,” Battle said. “They honor the program enough to come back and to help ... because the University celebrated them.”
‘A Pretty Good Run’
Rutgers entered the 1982-83 season with high expectations. The Scarlet Knights brought back six seniors from a 20-win 1981-82 campaign, highlighted by upsets over No. 8 UCLA and No. 6 West Virginia. That season ended abruptly with a 33-point loss to Purdue in the second round of the NIT that then-assistant coach and current Rutgers radio analyst Joe Boylan called an “ass-kicking.”
“That was kind of motivation with that group,” Boylan said. “Let’s go another step further.”
Led by Hinson and Brunson, fellow seniors Clarence Tillman and Kevin Black, and an emerging sophomore in Battle, Rutgers rolled through their schedule, winning the Atlantic 10 with a 12-1 record at the RAC. The Scarlet Knights reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four years, where they rallied in the second half to beat Southwestern Louisiana in the first round at the Hartford Civic Center.
But, in the last time they would play together, they lost to St. John’s, 66-55, in the second round as future Basketball Hall of Famer Chris Mullin scored 24 points. The loss still haunts the Scarlet Knights.
“I really believe we should have beat St. John’s that night,” Tillman said. “We were close, man. We were right there. We had them on the ropes.”
Hinson was drafted 20th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Battle was chosen by the Atlanta Hawks two years later. Tillman played professionally overseas in seven countries. Brian Ellerbe, a sophomore guard on that team, went on to coach college basketball, including a four-year stint as Michigan’s head coach. The others transitioned to life after basketball.
“We had a pretty good run,” Hinson said. “We did well.”
Roy Hinson of Rutgers (#32) holds the ball during a men's basketball game against Oregon at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway on Dec. 6, 1982.Star-Ledger file photo
‘We Are Family’
No official reunion for the entire team was ever booked, but there have been encounters here and there.
While in town for the wedding, Battle and Brunson went to Fort Lee to meet up with Mark Sokolich. The former walk-on, who is now the mayor, defended his hometown in the Bridgegate scandal and is loved locally for it. Brunson calls him “the king of Fort Lee.”
“We had an NBA guy here next to us and these guys going, ‘Mayor! Mayor!’ bowing to him,” Brunson said.
Sokolich laughed at the irony that now makes him the star: “I remember telling John, ‘In this very small part of the world, I get a little taste of how it was for you when you were on campus.’ Sokolich said.
In Philadelphia, when Tillman could not afford a scooter after being left immobile with several physical ailments, former Rutgers teammate Kevin Black teamed with Tillman’s former high school teammates to create a Go-Fund-Me page. Soon enough, Tillman had his scooter. They gathered for lunch to celebrate.
“I did it for him and I know he would’ve done it for me,” Black said. “That’s the relationship we had and we continue to have. He will always be my brother.”
“Unspeakable,” Tillman said of the gesture. “It was beautiful.”
Not all reunions have been happy occasions.
Sam Randolph, a sophomore guard on the ‘83 team who got married two months after Brunson, died in 2019 in a road accident. Battle conducted the funeral service at his New Shield of Faith Church in Georgia. Brunson, who was Randolph’s best man, and many Rutgers teammates came to say goodbye.
“That was a sad point right there,” Brunson said. “One of my best friends.”
And some meet-ups were spontaneous -- like when Young was recently in the checkout line at a Home Depot in Florida and noticed a tall, lean figure that looked familiar.
“I look over and say, ‘Holy mackerel, it’s Roy Hinson!’ He still looks like he’s in playing condition,” Young said.
Reminiscing made these Scarlet Knights sentimental. After speaking to NJ Advance Media for this story, Sokolich sent an email to his former teammates.
“I consider all of you a part of my extended family,” he wrote.
“We are family,” Hinson wrote back. “and have a bond that we should cherish.”
One day, that extended family hopes to walk back onto the court at the RAC together, bathed in cheers, with Brunson dancing his way to midcourt, his teammates walking with him and his school standing by them.
“That’s something that I want to see done,” Brunson said. “I love everything that’s going on with the Rutgers family, but we want to be recognized as part of this whole movement as well.”
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Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @briannnnf. Find NJ.com on Facebook.