A similar stroke of luck occurred prior to Versace’s start at Gordon, when nearby St. Philip High School closed, and Versace said he was able to get many of their best players. That included Lee Arthur Scott, who ended up scoring 1,277 career points, fifth best on the Rams’ all-time list. Scott and the Rams dominated the competition under Versace, whose teams in 1970-71 and 1971-72 each won a school-record 31 games.
Versace described coaching Gordon at the time as “electric” as the Rams played in front of packed houses. They even made warm-ups exciting with Versace’s “Pretzel and Tips” — a complicated, Harlem Globetrotter-like drill featuring passing, cutting and bouncing a red-white-and-blue basketball off the backboard, with the last player violently dunking it.
“It was just unbelievable how unified the school was around the basketball team,” said Versace, who also taught American literature while at Gordon. “People were hanging from the rafters.”
Said Maniscalco, of Sauganash: “What Simeon and Whitney Young are now, that was what Gordon Tech was when Dick was here.”