We’ve all had them…memories, feelings, players, cheers, plays or calls from UD games that remain with us years after they’ve happened. These are “Flyer Moments” and here are some of mine:

— The picture on the cover of the 1968 UD basketball program, the one with Dan Obravac stretching as far as he could reach to beat Lew Alcindor (obviously, now known as Kareem Abdul Jabbar) of UCLA for the jump-ball in the 1967 National Championship game. That one picture convinced this HS junior that UD was a big-time program.

— Donnie May.

— The triple overtime game against UCLA in the 1973 NCAAs. Mike Sylvester, with that over-the-head jumper making shot after shot, to the point that the UCLA bench was shaking their heads in disbelief. Donald Smith hitting what would have been the game-winning jumper only to realize that Donoher had called a time out to set things up. Freshman Johnny Davis beating the vaunted UCLA press every single time down the floor.

— The reception they held at the Arena when that ’73 team returned from Arizona. There were 5,000 people there cheering a team that hadn’t won the game but that didn’t seem to matter.

— Erv Giddings dunking at the very end of the Detroit game, drawing a technical (dunking was not allowed under the “Alcindor Rule”) and getting benched by Donoher, but sending a message to Dickie V and Erv’s buddies from Detroit.

— UD winning the NIT against Jo Jo White and Kansas in 1968. I was able to tell all my friends “that’s where I’m going to school.”

— “Sit Down Digger!”

— The way that the Arena absolutely vibrated when UD beat Notre Dame in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

— The Gottschall brothers and later Pat Murnen shutting down ND’s Austin Carr. Carr would set the UD Arena scoring record, but it was in an NCAA game and not against the Flyers.

— The way Johnny Davis used to soar above the rim and deposit the ball in the basket with both hands when dunking was illegal.

— Roosevelt Chapman in the lane, grabbing a rebound and then finger-rolling it up and in for a bucket, as only he could.

— Velvet giving up the shot and passing to Ed Young for the game winner against #2 DePaul.

— Jimmy Paxson going back door for a lay-up.

— Tony Stanley on a breakaway.

— Damon Goodwin at the foul line.

— Charlie Robinson introducing the starting lineups.

— Larry Schellenbarger diving for a loose ball.

— The way Terry Ross went from being a nightmare at the foul line to a 70% shooter.

— Waiting all night for tickets outside the Fieldhouse.

— Donald Smith’s fall away lefty jumper from the baseline…was there ever anything more automatic.

— “You Can’t Win Here!”

— Ryan Perryman grabbing a rebound and putting it back up and in.

— Johnny Davis jumping over a guy from Harvard and laying the ball in.

— Seeing Chris Daniels playing one of his last games against Duquesne in Pittsburgh.

— Having the good fortune to be in Dayton on a business trip when the Negele Knight-led Flyers played their first round game in the NCAAs in 1990. I went to Kramer’s and the crowd was totally into it and I spent the entire evening standing on a bench and high-fiving everyone around me. Nobody seemed to care that I was about 20 years older than them.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”