Cook, DeSantis Shared a Wonderful Era at Fairfield

For Fairfield University athletics, it was the best of times.

In a three-season span (1977-78-79), the Stags basketball team won 16, 22 and 17 games and competed in two ECAC New England Tournaments and one NIT. (With a bit of luck or just one less injury, the last set of tournament initials might have read NCAA, but that’s another story.) During the same three years, the Fairfield baseball team won 17, 20 and 21 games and competed in three ECAC New England Tournaments.

And now two of the men who orchestrated those memorial seasons in Stags lore will be sharing the dais at the Greater Bridgeport Oldtimers Athletic Association’s 54th annual awards dinner on May 16 at Testo’s Ristorante on Madison Avenue in Bridgeport.

Don Cook, the Fairfield baseball coach and director of athletics during that period, will be presented the 2011 Sportsman of the Year Award. Joe DeSantis, the clever point guard on those dominant Stags teams, will be among those receiving the Outstanding Athletic Achievement award at the dinner.

“I guess it’s appropriate that Joe DeSantis and I are being honored together,” Cook says. “On a cumulative basis, that period in the late 1970s was the most successful for our teams at the university. With a break or two, either one of our teams could have made the NCAA Tournament.”

Cook, 70, now the executive director of athletics at neighboring Sacred Heart University, was a baseball man, first and foremost, as player and coach. As a catcher, he was a star on three straight Fairfield U. teams; in the semi-pro ranks, he played on the Mount Vernon Scarlets with an outfielder named Ken Singleton.

At just 25, he was appointed baseball coach at his alma mater, a position he would hold for 19 seasons. He built the Stags from a so-so small college program into a Division I entity that would challenge Maine, UConn, Holy Cross, Boston College and the other traditional New England powers. No fewer than 14 of his players went on to play professionally – including pitcher Keefe Cato, who became Fairfield’s first major leaguer in any sport when he joined the Cincinnati Reds in mid-season 1983.

Cato, a right-hander from Valhalla, N.Y., was the pitching leader for the Stags’ three straight ECAC Tournament teams, winning all three of his post-season decisions with low-hit, complete-game victories. As a sophomore, he pitched a seven-inning no-hitter against Maine. Across three seasons, Cato won 21 games, struck out 239 and compiled a 2.25 earned run average – all still school records.

Offensively, second baseman Mike Beaudoin (7 home runs, school-record 43 RBIs in 1979), outfielder Billy Barnes, third baseman Brendan Vane and shortstop Cedric Warner supplied .300 hitting, and Barnes swiped a New England-record 122 bases across four seasons.

Readers who are short on memory or in years may be surprised to learn that, prior to the formation of the Big East Conference in 1979, Fairfield basketball was comparable to most of the teams in the Northeast. Indeed, many opponents – UConn, Georgetown, Villanova, Holy Cross come readily to mind – were reluctant to play the Stags in their cozy campus gym.

The late Fred Barakat, as coach, had attracted some sublime talent in the mid-1970s … DeSantis, an All-New York City guard from St. Nicholas of Tolentine High School, 6-10 Mark Young (who was recruited by Duke), 6-9 Steve Balkun (a UConn recruit), 6-8 Mark Plefka (also pursued by UConn), 6-3 Jerome “Flip” Williams, and a transfer from Essex (N.J.) Community College, Kim Fisher.

The 6-2 DeSantis was a marvel, from his debut as a freshman (he scored 23 points, off the bench, in an overtime loss to Niagara) to his finale as a senior (30 points, on 14-for-20 marksmanship, in a rousing win over Boston College).

During his final three seasons, Joey D. averaged 18.2, 20.1 and 18.4 points and more than seven assists per game. The All-East guard was at his superb best in 1977-78, when he sparked the Stags to a 22-5 season punctuated by a two-point loss to eventual champion Rhode Island in the ECAC Tournament at the Providence Civic Center.

Even more remarkable, though, was his recovery from a fractured right ankle incurred on a Labor Day weekend auto accident prior to his senior year. Some doctors thought he would be unable to play until mid-December or even early January. Although by his own admission, just “about 85 percent” recovered, he led Fairfield to the championship of the season-opening New Orleans Classic and, in the process, won the Most Valuable Player award. Before his senior season concluded, DeSantis would earn MVP awards in two more in-season tournaments, the Industrial National Classic in Providence and the Boys Club Classic at Fairfield.

“It’s phenomenal. I’ve never heard of anyone winning three MVP awards in the same season,” Barakat said.

A second-round draft selection of the NBA Washington Bullets in 1979, Joey D performed well with the Bullets’ summer league team, but when a no-cut contract wasn’t offered, he opted to play with Canon of Venice in the Italian Basketball Federation. Sinking jump shots from 20, 25 feet and beyond, passing behind his back, dribbling between his legs, he was selected to the league all-star team.

Not surprisingly, DeSantis elected to remain in the game as a coach. After marrying his college sweetheart, Theresa D'Ambrosio, and earning his wings as an assistant at Fairfield, St. John’s, Duquesne and Pittsburgh, he was appointed head coach at Quinnipiac in 1996. He would spend 11 seasons at the helm, guiding the Bobcats into the Division-I era.

He now operates the DBA (DeSantis Basketball Academy), which offers a mix of one-on-one instruction, camps and leagues for boys and girls at Lauralton Hall, Christian Heritage School and the Bridgeport Jewish Community Center. He also provides color commentary for his alma mater’s games on WICC Radio and does some television work for the Northeast Conference.

Tickets and table reservations for the May 16 dinner are available by contacting Emil Garofalo at 203-378-5137.