The Class that Matters
P H OT O G R A P H B Y WAY N E D O E B L I N G
WINNING SMILES (From left) John Shimko, Dexter Bailey, coach Bob Staak, Jeff Jenkins and Victor Fleming pose with the Blackburn/McCafferty Trophy after a victory over Dayton.
1980 FRESHMEN GAVE THE MUSKETEERS A HIGHER-PROFILE IMAGE. BY // RODNEY McKISSIC all them simply “The Class”—Dexter Bailey, Victor Fleming, Jeff Jenkins, and John Shimko. There was talk in the late ’70s of deemphasizing Xavier’s basketball program, perhaps even dropping to Division III, but that was before the hiring of Penn assistant coach Bob Staak, fresh off a Final Four appearance in 1979. After Staak went a disappointing 8–18 in his first season, The Class arrived on campus in 1980. As freshmen they dropped hints of things to come—the Musketeers captured the Midwestern City Conference regular-season championship in just their second season in the league—then suffered through the requisite growing
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pains as sophomores while finishing with an 8–20 mark. But as juniors—along with senior Anthony Hicks, who was Staak’s first recruit—they won 22 games and reached the 1983 NCAA Tournament, the program’s second NCAA berth in school history. The following season, the Musketeers added 21 more victories and advanced to the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament. The Class transformed the program from one with regional appeal to national curiosity while never abandoning its provincial roots. Assistant coach Wayne Morgan—a Brooklyn native who peddled a dream and playing time—cleared a path into New York with the signing of Flem-
ing, who lived in the Queensbridge Housing projects in Long Island City. Fleming would peek out of his bedroom window and often find Richie Harris peering back at him. “Whatever Victor was going to do,” says Harris, who followed Fleming to Xavier in 1981, “I was going to do.” Bailey was a local product who Ohio State coach Ralph Miller wanted to pair with All-American forward Clark Kellogg. Jenkins was a star in New Jersey, while Shimko was an all-stater out of Cleveland. The Class was a prelude to the signing in 1984 of a player whose brother, Barry, was helping Michigan win Big Ten baseball titles and whose mother was the mayor of Silverton: Byron Larkin, still the school’s career scoring leader. “When those guys were seniors and they beat Nebraska and Ohio State in the NIT, I was there for those games,” Larkin
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