By Frank Rajkowski, SJU Writer/Video Producer

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - When Jim Smith took over as head basketball coach at Saint John's prior to the 1964-65 season, he inherited a squad that had won just four conference games in each of the three years prior to his arrival.

But there were already pieces in place to help him begin the process of building the Johnnies into a conference power.

And Bob Ryan '67 – who passed away Dec. 21 at age 75 - was definitely one of those players.

"He was such an important part of those teams during my first few seasons there," Smith said of Ryan, who went on to become a co-captain during his senior season  – a campaign in which he and fellow captain Tom Melancon '68 were the subjects of a feature story in The Record 56 years ago, in the newspaper's first edition of 1967 (left).

"We had Joe Mucha '66 on the first couple of those teams. And he was such a good team leader. But Bob was too. He was a guy that everybody respected because he was such an intense competitor."

Ryan – a St. Paul native who attended Saint John's Prep and earned all-state honors on the basketball court – had already seen playing time for the Johnnies as a freshman under former head coach Ed Hasbrouck in 1963-64.

Especially early on when several of the team's more veteran players were late starting basketball because they were part of the 1963 SJU football team, which beat Prairie View A&M in that season's NAIA national championship game.

But Ryan and some of the other freshmen and reserves more than held their own, leading Saint John's to an upset victory over archrival St. Thomas before the football players returned.

"I was still with the football team so I wasn't in that game," Mucha said. "But they really took it to St. Thomas and that impressed people. I think seeing playing time early on like that really helped build Bobby's confidence and made him a better player."

Smith certainly thought so, throwing him into the mix right away during the season opener at Carleton. And it was Ryan who had the first basket of the Smith era at Saint John's – going on to finish that game with a team-best 22 points in an 86-73 loss to the Knights.

"He was kind of a gym rat," Mucha recalls. "He would always be in the gym practicing his shooting. And he could really shoot the ball. But he never took bad shots. He only took good ones. And if it wasn't there, he would pass it off. He was really an excellent team player in that way."

"He had this high, arcing shot," recalls Tom Arth '66, the team manager for Smith's early teams and a good friend of Ryan's who gave him his nickname at SJU – "Rupert."

"That ball really got up there. One time (in late 1964), we were playing against North Dakota in a tournament at Concordia. And they brought (future NBA player and Bulls and Lakers head coach) Phil Jackson into cover him because he had that high shot."

Smith, Mucha and Arth all agree Ryan's point totals would have been even higher had the 3-point shot been around when he played.

As it was, though, he was still one of his team's top scoring threats on the perimeter. Even if he wasn't always seeing everything around him so clearly.

Smith explains …

"There was a game, I don't remember against who, in the Old Gym and it was tight," he said. "We got the ball back and called timeout with about 10 seconds left on the clock.

"I said 'OK, Bobby, this is what we're going to do. When the clock gets down to six seconds, you're going to take the shot.' And he looked at me and said 'Coach, I can't see the clock without my glasses on.'

"And he never played with his glasses. Yet somehow he saw the basket well enough to make all of those shots for us. I think he actually made that one if memory serves."

During his senior season, Ryan averaged over 18 points per game and played a key role in helping Saint John's upset conference champion St. Thomas 84-76 in the final game of the year – snapping the Tommies' 30-game MIAC winning streak.

The Johnnies finished second in the conference that season, but would go on to win the school's first MIAC championship two years later. In part, Smith said because of the foundation laid by players like Ryan.

"Guys like Bob laid the groundwork for the great teams we had later on," Smith said. "Those guys really went through hell at the beginning. I was really tough on them. I demanded a lot out of our players at that time because I was trying to get things turned around."

According to his obituary published in both the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press, Ryan went on to serve two years in the Marine Corps after graduating from SJU. He then went on to a successful career, as well as giving of his time to volunteer in nursing homes, with prison ministries and with Meals on Wheels.

He also stayed active athletically, taking up tennis and winning a silver medal in Senior Olympic competition.

The fact that he traded the basketball court for the tennis court was a source of smiles for Arth, a standout tennis player and student head coach for the Johnnies during the years both he and Ryan spent in Collegeville.

"He used to come down to watch our matches on the courts where a parking lot now is," Arth said. "And he'd always kid me about what a wimpy sport tennis was. Basketball was so much tougher. Then he ended up taking up tennis and just got enthralled with it.

"And, of course, he would up being successful at it. But that's just who Bobby was. He was always such a great athlete."

4 years ago (2017) - The SJU hockey team gave head coach Doug Schueller his 100th career win with a 1-0 shutout of Wisconsin-Superior Jan. 7 in St. Cloud. The game was scoreless throughout until late in the third period when Kevin Becker '17 scored a power-play goal with 4:23 remaining. Goaltender Tyler Nelson '17 made 31 saves to earn his first career shutout.

5 years ago (2016) - Guard Alex Schmitt '16 became the 34th SJU player to reach 1,000 career points as the Johnnies defeated Saint Mary's 81-68 in Collegeville. Schmitt (right) finished the game with 23 points to lead all scorers and ended his career 10th in school history with 1,302 points (he is now 13th on the list).

15 years ago (2006) - Wrestler Dan Willaert '06 rocketed up the national rankings at 184 pounds, leading the Johnnies to a second-place finish out of 14 teams at the Citrus Individual Tournament in Florida and then to the team title Jan. 7 at the Cornell (Iowa) Invitational.