As the Merrimack College men's basketball team cut down the nets as the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season champions, among the fans cheering them on was a group of friends and former teammates who 60 years ago laid the foundation upon which today's basketball team's success, standards, culture and pursuit of national prominence was built.
Alumni of the Merrimack men's basketball team during the late 1960s, this group of Warriors who played for then-head coach Bill LaRochelle, reconnected during some of their 50th Reunion in 2019. Since then, the group has gotten together once a year for lunch and to attend a game, while also reminiscing about their time at the beginning of the Merrimack College men's basketball story.
"It's pretty amazing how, somehow, this group of about 10 of us, after 50 years, still have a bond as we have," Bill Reilly '69 said before meeting with head coach
Joe Gallo and current Warriors in the locker room. "It's almost like we were just together a couple of weeks ago, even though it was 50 years."
During the Siena game, the group wore "Wimpy's Warriors" t-shirts in honor of LaRochelle, who went by the nickname "Wimpy."
"We found success and formed a bond, not because of any special talents we had, but because we worked hard together," Ed Toomey '70 said.
The 2025-26 edition of the Warriors is a bit different than the group Reilly, Toomey and their teammates represented. Back then, the team practiced in a Quonset hut and played their games in high school gyms.
"We laugh at the vast differences in talent between now and 60 years ago," Mike McVeigh '70 said. "I really admire the work ethic and camaraderie of these young men. We are so proud of the program."
Dick O'Brien '67 remembered one game his senior year when the Warriors beat Saint Michael's, 101-99, thanks to teammate Bill Pineo '69, whose son was also born on that day.
"It's a brotherhood," O'Brien said. "We had a terrific team (my senior year). We had 5 guys who scored in double figures, we went 17–6, and were in every game. That's the one that I remember the most."
Steve McMahon '72, who spent only his freshman season under LaRochelle, added that Merrimack's next coach, Frank Monahan, who was also McMahon's high school coach and helped him get his scholarship with Merrimack, made a tremendous impact both on him.
"Even when we were at Bishop Brady High School in New Hampshire, Frank was a first-class guy, and he already had these big dreams," McMahon said. "Like how he sold me to Merrimack and helped me get drafted into the NBA. I owe him a ton.
"[Monahan] turned Merrimack basketball into the classy operation it is today. He would be thrilled with the program today," McMahon concluded. "He dreamt of these types of things."
Mike McVeigh credited Gallo for his work with the program.
Safe to say Wimpy's Warriors will be watching when the Merrimack men's basketball team takes the floor for its third conference title game in four years.
