Pittsburgh—This Wednesday, Duquesne University will take on the University of Pittsburgh in the annual matchup of Pittsburgh’s two Division I basketball teams. The game will be played at Consol Energy Center for the 3rd straight year.
The first City Game took place on January 13th, 1932 and has varied in degrees of competiveness through the years. Since 1932, there have been eighty meetings between the two schools. Pittsburgh is leading the all-time series 49-31 and has won the past eleven City Games.
The explosion of Pitt’s basketball program in this millennium has made the City Game into quite a predictable contest as of late. The Panthers have won every game since 2001, and Duquesne has only finished within ten points of them twice (2007 and 2009) since then. But the City Game wasn’t always this way. In fact, it has quite a storied history.
Multiple venues have hosted the City Game over the years. The first several games were played at Pitt Pavilion, which both schools used as their home court until 1939. The Fitzgerald Fieldhouse was the venue of choice throughout most of the ’50s until 1961, when the schools met for the first time at the Civic Arena. Since then, the City Game has been held at the Civic Arena (which later became the Mellon Arena) thirty-seven times. The game has also been played at the Petersen Events Center and A.J. Palumbo Center a handful of times.
The two schools quickly developed a loathing for each other on the basketball court after the first City Game in 1932. The two teams developed so much bad blood that the series was suspended after the 1939 season. It was reinstated in 1953, but had lost much of its prestige since the ’30s.
In 1976, two men would change this. ’76 was the year that both schools joined the Eastern 8 athletic conference. Tim Grgurich, a native Pittsburgher and graduate of Central Catholic High School was the head coach of Pitt at this time. Another man named Mike Rice was in the same position at Duquesne. Rice earned an All-American honorable mention as a player at Duquesne and was drafted in the eighth round of the NBA Draft in 1962 to the Detroit Pistons. He never played for the Pistons however, but went on to pursue a career in coaching and later in broadcasting. Interestingly, he is currently the only broadcaster ever to be ejected from an NBA basketball game. In reference to his broadcasting, journalist Kenny Eggers called Rice “part basketball expert, part entertainer, 100 percent character.”
These two colorful men were alumni at their respective schools and had played against each other in the ‘60s. Because of this, both had a genuine dislike for each other, and their feelings spread to the players and fans of both schools. The years from 1976 to 1982, when both schools were members of the Eastern 8 (renamed the Atlantic 10 in 1982) proved to be the most heated years of the City Game. Fights frequently broke out between players, and sometimes even amongst fans.
Following the 1982 season, Duquesne had a 28-19 advantage in the City Game series. But in subsequent years, Pitt would slowly creep its way into the lead. In 1990, the Panthers won the go-ahead game of the series in an 84-65 victory at the Civic Arena.
Pitt’s leave for the Big East Conference in the 1982-83 didn’t help the game’s prestige. Right now the rivalry is still alive, but is waiting to be reawakened. A Duquesne victory could draw more interest in the rivalry going forward, but this looks to be just as unlikely as in recent years. Although Duquesne is sporting a three-game win streak and has been playing some very good basketball as of late, Pitt is taller and stronger than the Dukes at almost every position.
Photo Credit: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
