Mullen hosts a salute to the venerable Catholic-school group

Neil H. Devlin
The spirits of the old Parochial League revisited the Mullen campus on Saturday, the only Denver-area Catholic school in existence that’s still on its founders’ site.

There was lots of gray hair and no hair as members appeared in the form of schoolboys of yesteryear, but stories of long ago seemed to get better every time they were retold and certain faces were seen by others for the first time in about a half-century.
In case you were wondering, yes, there was basketball before someone invented the 3-point line. There was basketball back when a crossover dribble was considered a carry. There was basketball back when shorts were, well, shorts. And, sure, there was basketball before hip-hop was considered a thing beyond what the Easter bunny did.

The testament to the old Catholic-school group occurred at Mullen’s Hutchison Fieldhouse, although while waiting for the halftime ceremony to be introduced, the dozens of the distinguished, fitting called “Parokes” at the time, first gathered in what has come to be known as Mullen’s “Old Gym,’’ the one with the airplane-hangar ceiling and quaint quarters that were indicative of Parochial play.

“It went great,” said Mullen boys head coach Bob Caton, who came up with the theme.

Basically, teams in 2018-19 were permitted an extra gathering beyond their 23-game schedule that wouldn’t count in the standings or toward playoff seeding. So Mullen hooked up with Holy Family, now in Broomfield after leaving North Denver, for a girl-boy doubleheader, Foundation Games, to cap the evening and salute the old days when privates and publics were forbidden to play each other.

But there was so much more going on during the day. Mullen’s lower levels, C and D, completed games against Smoky Hill according to the regular schedule. There also were feeder-team games as well as a Unified game that included Mustangs team manager J.P. Leyba draining multiple 3-pointers much to the delight of the varsity team members he serves.

“The loudest cheers,” Caton said.

There were junior-varsity boys and girls games, of course, against Holy Family before the varsity matchups. Mullen won both high-end outcomes that didn’t count against their records, but neither one was the point.

This was about the Parochial’s original six schools, Annunciation, Cathedral, Holy Family, Sacred Heart, St. Francis de Sales and St. Joseph in 1926, according to former Mullen student and current boys basketball filmer Dan Corrales, also a prep historian. In the 1930s, Regis, and Mullen came on board. Later, Mount Carmel, St. Mary’s of Colorado Springs and Machebeuf joined the fray.

Ultimately, Mullen and Regis left after the 1966-67 school year and the league disbanded in 1970.

Representatives seemed to be from everywhere, even recognizable names today. To name a few, Pete and Joe Chavez from Annunciation. Benjy Montoya of Cathedral. John Horvat of Mount Carmel as well as Bob Scheck, who later coached at Mullen. Nick Arcuri of St. Francis, who’s now the baseball head coach at Mullen. The likes of Pat Ryan of St. Joseph’s. Frank Kelly and Rick Schraeder of Regis along with Tom Robinson, who one returnee called “the greatest football player to come out of Colorado.” Plus, the great Guy Gibbs, a coaching legend at Regis, drew a gracious round of applause.

And as for Mullen, the who’s who included Stan Smith; Jim Deidel who played for the New York Yankees; Rick Egloff; and Bill Morley.
Alumni after the Parochial League also were recognized as the common tread was Catholic play.

“We were all gym rats,” said Ryan, who played football, basketball and baseball at St. Francis in addition to being on its boxing team.
He recalled a time when the “Parokes” played baseball on Sunday and Deidel hit a home run off him that went way out of Ruby Hill. Ryan said he always kidded Deidel, who had scouts from the Yankees in the stands and watching, about getting some of his bonus money for permitting the homer.

Others remembered playing basketball in Mullen’s small gym and having players throw balls to the ceiling in order to knock off some of the coating.
“It’s a wonder we didn’t die of asbestos,” said one.

Mostly, though, it was about remembering the times of their late teens. The gyms, the playgrounds, the camaraderie … sweet times rolled off their tongues as if they happened yesterday and not in the major metropolis Denver has turned into with dozens of more schools.

Robinson called his “Paroke” days a good time,” and was aware of the conflict between his group and the state-sanctioned publics. Think there’s dislike between today’s publics and privates? Decades ago, it was worse. Way worse.

“They really didn’t want Regis coming in or Mullen because we were pretty good,” Robinson said of state-sanctioned schools. “We always had the desire to play each other. We used to just scrimmage.”

He recalled one such scrimmage against a loaded Lakewood and it drew a packed house.
“We didn’t have to validate who we were; we had good players,” Robinson said.

Ultimately, Gibbs was part of the front of the charge to join state schools, Robinson said, “because he was such a good guy and a lot of guys in the public schools liked him.”

All told, Gibbs, who joined Caton on the Mullen bench for the first half of the scrimmage against Holy Family, coached basketball – he also coached other sports -- from 1956-84 and his teams were 473-156, a winning percentage of .752 that topped Colorado at the time.
Decades after the end of the Parochial League, Saturday’s scrimmage participants noted the history and benefits of the gathering now and possibly for the future.

“It was an excellent day,” Mustangs girls head coach Frank Cawley said, adding appreciation for his players “just to play and stop thinking and stop being so calculated. It was really nice. I hope this is something that can continue. I think it helps (Tigers coach Ron Rossi’s) program and I know it helps mine.”

Rossi agreed, saying “Frank and I were talking that we’d like to maybe do it in November as a scrimmage before we get started (for the season). And we want to incorporate our third level.”

Tigers sophomore Abby Coufal said “it was a lot of fun and it’s always good to play with some girls who have good sportsmanship and you’re always playing for the greater glory of God.”

Holy Family boys head coach Pete Villeco said he appreciated the extra work available for his team and that he “would be open” to some form of continuance, including adding its as an actual game or being involved with a tournament.
“Sports are all about relationships, the people you see, the people you play,” Caton said. “Twenty, 30, 50 years from now they’ll remember it and everybody had a good time.

“Yeah, I’d like to do it every year. We get that extra game and it’s fun. The season is a grind and the kids need a little bit of a break. Even the NBA has an all-star game.”

Interestingly, Mullen junior Isaac Ondekane, originally from the Congo, arguably understood and appreciated the purpose of the day as well as anyone.

“It’s really good to learn about the history of the school and what the people have done,” he said. “It’s great to meet with them and get advice. I went to shake the hand (of Gibbs) who won so many championships (his teams won or shared eight Parochial titles). I had to do it. It gave me a great feeling.”
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