`

A couple times a year, Chipper Harris makes the trip from New Kensington to the Robert Morris campus to visit an old and dear friend -- John Jay.

That would be the John Jay Center, where the Colonials' Division I program began 32 years ago in a tiny gym that held 1,000 people if some squeezed together.

"I walk in there, and it's like walking into a silent crowd," Harris said quietly, perhaps with goose bumps on his arms. "It's a very, very special place."

The first two Robert Morris teams to reach the NCAA tournament -- the 17-13 bunch of 1981-82 and the 23-8 group of 1982-83 -- played in the John Jay Center.

Tonight, at the Sewall Center, players and coaches from those teams will be honored at halftime of the current Colonials' season opener against Iona.

"It will be one of the most exciting times in my life," said Harris, the Valley High School graduate who is No. 2 on RMU's all-time scoring list (1,940 points). "It was a very fun part of my life. I made some good friends. I'll be walking around like a tourist. I want pictures of everything."

"From all the feedback I've received, everybody is excited," said Paul Hensler, a 6-foot-9 center on those teams. "All the players I've talked to, it's nothing but up. We'll have some sore cheekbones."

From laughing about the memories.

"They were a great bunch to work with," said coach Matt Furjanic, now coaching at Polk Community College in Winter Haven, Fla. "They loved the game. They loved to compete. They were kids who were under the [recruiting] radar, but they believed in themselves."

"The whole thing centered on the guards," said Jim Elias, an assistant coach at the time. "We had a couple of great guards."

Those would be Harris and Forest Grant, from Beaver Falls. Grant is No. 5 on the all-time scoring list (1,494). Tom Parks (Belle Vernon) was another key player. He's 14th on the career scoring list (1,027).

"When he signed with us [in 1979], he was the one who did it for us," Furjanic said. "He was our first big-timer."

Forward Tom Underman, from Elyria, Ohio, also finished his career with 1,210 points and more than 500 rebounds.

The Colonials served notice late in the 1980-81 season that they might have something going, winning at Penn State, 66-58, to knock the Nittany Lions out of NIT contention.

The next season, the Colonials started 4-7, rallied to win the ECAC Metro tournament and qualified for the NCAA tournament. Their reward: a first-round game against Indiana, the defending national champion, in Nashville, Tenn. The headlines said: "Bobby Knight against Bobby Who?" Indiana won, 94-62.

After a 4-6 start the next season, the Colonials won 18 of their next 19 games to gain an opening-round NCAA game against Georgia Southern in Dayton. They won, 64-54, and headed for Tampa and a game against Purdue.

"We played a matchup zone, and, by the end of the year, we could have played with anybody," Elias said.

The game against Purdue was close, and, as time wound down, most of the crowd at the Sun Dome cheered for the Colonials. The Boilermakers, however, got a winning field goal from guard Steve Reid from well beyond the top of the key with four seconds left and escaped, 55-53.

The Colonials didn't not get back to the NCAA tournament until 1989. But the memories of the John Jay Center and the win at Penn State and the NCAA games linger.

First Published: November 10, 2007, 5:30 a.m.