Dec. 5, 2025, 5:13 a.m. ET
PROVIDENCE — I’m siding with Windfall males’s basketball. I don’t assume Rhode Island deserves a win towards the Friars.
However not so quick Windfall followers, I’m additionally driving with the Rams.
Neither of my conclusions, although, must do with the Saturday, Dec. 6, matchup downtown. (Tip-off is at midday.) This begins originally, and I imply the precise inauguration of the state’s premier basketball rivalry.
These two applications hate one another a lot, they will’t agree on what number of occasions they’ve performed and the all-time collection report. Rhode Island is steadfast that the primary two matchups — in 1920 and 1921 — had been true video games that noticed the Rams win each in Kingston. That, in Rhode Island’s opinion, makes the all-time report 77-59 in favor of the Friars.
However Windfall disagrees. The Friars imagine that each video games had been merely exhibitions and don’t depend towards the collection report, which, of their thoughts, sits at 77-57. Don’t say this annual matchup doesn’t matter anymore — each colleges nonetheless make word of the discrepancies of their recreation previews.
It’s super theater and I hope they go away the information that approach.
“It’s an amazing recreation with nice historic implications within the state and we’ll be able to go,” Windfall males’s basketball head coach Kim English stated.
“That recreation is in your thoughts 12 months a yr. It truly is,” Rhode Island head coach Archie Miller stated. “It means lots to the custom of each locations. There are a whole lot of nice gamers and nice coaches who’ve competed in that recreation. While you play right here otherwise you play there, it’s the better of the perfect. You wish to be in these video games, these environments. As a participant, you wish to thrive in these environments. To do that, it’s a must to find out how to have the ability to be composed and be your self every day.”
The rivalry is nice however I had to determine the reply. I’m a nerd and, truthfully, it was going to hassle me eternally if I hadn’t discovered the outcomes. So, I dove into the archives and The Windfall Journal, undoubtedly, wrote that the primary recreation was an exhibition.
Let’s see a few of The Journal’s recounting from Dec. 8, 1920:
Rhode Island State School opened its basketball season final night in Kingston with an exhibition recreation with Windfall School. The guests had been enormously outclassed by the quick State collegians, who rolled up a rating of 87 to 25.
That negates a win for Rhode Island. The subsequent yr, although, the Rams scheduled appropriately. The Dec. 7, 1921, version of The Journal states:
Rhode Island State opened the basketball season final night and defeated Windfall School, 35 to 19. The sport was gradual all through and neither group confirmed a lot brilliance.
Theodore Tribolet led Rhode Island with 13 factors within the first official assembly between the in-state rivals. Joe McGee, an old-school Windfall Corridor of Famer, scored all however one of many Friars’ factors within the loss.
That’s a victory for Rhode Island. And let the information present, the primary assembly was held in 1921 at Lippitt Fitness center. However in the event you nonetheless aren’t satisfied that the 1921 assembly was the beginning of the rivalry, The Journal’s preview of the sport mentions the state’s anticipation of the showdown.
The State School Basketball group will open its season tonight when the Kingstonians meet the Windfall School quintet in Lippitt Gymnasium. Being the preliminary contest, nice curiosity has been aroused within the match in Kingston.
There you’ve gotten it, Windfall and Rhode Island, you’re each appropriate.
There is a crucial word, although. If that first recreation was, the truth is, an exhibition, it may change Frank Keaney’s all-time report, which is listed as 401-124 over 28 years with the Rams. That recreation was the GOAT’s debut as Rhode Island’s coach.
Each recreation tales from these first two years talk about how briskly Rhode Island performed. Keaney was on to one thing, and it began towards his neighbors to the north. Keaney would have cherished to see the scoring that’s anticipated to occur on Saturday. We must always all be pleased about the Corridor of Famer.
Actual video games or not, the information ought to by no means change. It provides one other layer to the state’s greatest rivalry.
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