Jolyon Girard, Ph. D., Cabrini’s first men’s basketball head coach and a member of the Athletic Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 2006, visited Camden Catholic High School during the 1977-78 season. He asked Fighting Irish senior John Keating to check out the Cabrini campus, take in a men’s basketball game and consider the school as his future for college basketball.
“Dr. Girard came to watch one of my high school games in South Jersey,” Keating said. “I visited the Cabrini campus and watched a basketball game. I just really liked the atmosphere and liked Dr. Girard’s style. That was enough for me to choose Cabrini over Ursinus, the other school recruiting me.”
What happened next for Keating was completely unexpected – he became the program’s second 1,000 point scorer all-time, following Cabrini standout Tom Nerney. Keating’s offensive prowess contributed to a number of wins during his tenure as a Cabrini student-athlete, but that’s all he saw it as – a contribution.
“It was obviously a great accomplishment, but it wasn’t something I thought about when I was on the court,” Keating said. “I didn’t look to myself to score all of the time. All of my individual success came out of the success of the team.”
Keating ranks among Cabrini’s all-time leaders in several categories, including points (1,096), rebounds (611) and free throw percentage (.772). Today, fans attending Cavalier games in Nerney Field House at the Dixon Center don’t have to look too high to see Keating’s #20 jersey hanging in the rafters.
However, without hesitation Keating deflects all of the attention his play garnered on teammates that helped build Cabrini’s success. He doesn’t talk too long without mentioning former teammates, such as Mike Bennett, Martin Clancy and Dan Welde, as catalysts for establishing Cabrini’s success in men’s basketball.
“We had a lot of talent on those teams,” Keating said. “We had a lot of guys that played some competitive basketball in high school. Whether it was in South Jersey – where I played – or in the Philadelphia Catholic League, we could play. We were also really good friends with one another, and still remain friends. Our coaches – Dr. Girard, John Dzik, Joe Kelly and Mike Keeley – really understood the game and always did a good job preparing us to play. It was a little bit of everything”.
In four seasons, Keating played on three teams that reached the 20-win plateau. Seventy-eight wins against just 32 losses and Keating is brought back to what made his time at Cabrini so memorable.
“There’s a tradition of winning at Cabrini,” Keating said “and I like to think we were the guys who got that started”.
