January 9, 2009

BULLDOGS HEADING BACK HOME

Technically, it will be a road game for the Bryant basketball teams when the men and women head down to Providence to face Brown University this Saturday.  But for many alumni, it will be a journey down memory lane (or Hope Street) for a school that got its start just a few blocks from the Pizzitola Center. 

  Founded in 1863 as a school that helped Civil War soldiers learn business skills that would lead to business careers, Bryant, then known as Bryant, Stratton and Mason National Business College, was first housed in the old Lyceum Building on Westminster and Weboysett Streets in Providence near what is today the Turk's Head Building. 

Before 1890, business courses were rarely taught in traditional colleges or high schools.  In fact, there were so few textbooks on business subjects that Bryant produced its own and soon the bookkeeping texts and manuals on arithmetic became the leading books on these subjects. 

In 1935, Bryant moved to Providence's East Side and into a building on the corner of Young Orchard and Hope Street.  Gradually, the college expanded throughout the neighborhood from Power Street to Lloyd Avenue, directly across the street from the site of the Pizzitola Center where the Bulldogs will face the Bears Saturday.

Bryant's gym was too small to play games in, so the Bulldogs, then known as the Indians, played down the street at Hope High School.  Some of Bryant's most storied teams played at Hope High, including the 1966-67 men's team.  

That team is remembered as one of the school's all-time bests.  Led by the play of standouts Tony DeQuattro, Jim Squadrito, Tom Smile, and Pete Sullivan, Bryant went undefeated in the regular season at 22-0 under coach Tom Duffy.  It's their legacy that is remembered some 40 years later. Recently, the entire team was inducted into the Bryant Athletics Hall of Fame. 

In 1971, Bryant moved to its current campus in Smithfield on property owned by Earl Tupper, president of Tupperware Corporation.  "You promise to help every student get a job?  That's a good college.  I like the idea!" Tupper said in 1967 (from the book: Bryant College, The First 125 Years).

Tupper was so impressed with Bryant that he decided to donate his Smithfield farm to the college rather than sell it.

This won't be the first time Bryant has played against Brown.  The two men's teams have played each other six times with Brown winning all six.  While at trip down to the East Side for this year's Bulldogs may seem like a typical road game, for those alumni coming to the game, it will be a walk down memory lane.