Vin Baker’s was once a true feel-good story, a kid from a small Division I school who became an NBA lottery pick and four-time all-star.

It devolved into a cautionary tale, where alcoholism sabotaged his career and cost him millions of dollars.

But it’s also a story that’s not done yet. Baker, who knows a thing or two about life’s twists and turns, is now helping kids as an assistant boys’ basketball coach at St. Bernard School in Uncasville. And he runs a charitable organization called the Stand Tall Foundation, which helps kids with their education and personal development.

Few could have predicted the success coming Baker’s way when he was playing at Old Saybrook High back in the late 1980s. Passed over by the bigger D-I programs, he committed to the University of Hartford and shot up four inches to 6 feet 11 in between his senior year of high school and freshman year of college.

Read Dave Borges' complete story.

No one is quite sure how it began. But within seconds a scrap between players from Wilbur Cross and Somerville (Mass.) in the finals of the 1958 New England boys’ basketball championships had turned the fabled parquet floor of Boston Garden into a wild scene that more resembled the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Wilbur Cross was ahead by 11 points with under a minute left, about to wrap up its first New England title in 34 years. A sellout crowd of 13,909 was on hand at the Garden, although a large contingent from Somerville in the upper balcony had been unruly most of the game.

The Governors were running out the clock when fists began flying under one of the baskets. Several players from both sides were soon fighting, and it wasn’t long before an estimated 75 spectators joined the fray. It took Boston police and several ushers upward of 10 minutes to break up the melee.

Read Chip Malafronte's complete story.

University of New Haven athletics photo

Liberatore, at left, with coach Don Ormrod and Dick Jackson

***

Gary Liberatore, at left above, was already a near-flawless shooter when he arrived at New Haven College (now the University of New Haven) in 1962. Over the next four years, he developed into one of the purest scorers New England has ever seen.

It was no coincidence one of his influences at New Haven was Frank “Porky” Vieira, an assistant basketball coach to Don Ormrod at the time. Vieira, just a few years removed from his days as a scoring machine at Quinnipiac, helped harness Liberatore’s knack for scoring.

Liberatore scored 3,176 career points, a school and New England record.

Read Chip Malafronte's complete story.

Last February, former Harvard standout Jeremy Lin was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, once again bringing Ivy League basketball into the spotlight.

The first man to do so was Yale’s John J. Lee on Jan. 21, 1957.

Labeled by the sports magazine as the “next great Ivy League scholar-athlete,” the 6-foot-3 forward is one of only two Yale players to score 40 or more points in a game. No Bulldog has reached the 40-point plateau since Lee did it against the rival Crimson in 1958.


Read Bill Cloutier's complete story.

Register File Photo

***

There was a genuine feeling of excitement before every Wilbur Cross boys’ basketball game in the winter of 1987-88. Fans knew Maurice Williamson would score a lot of points. The question on any given night was “just how many will he get?”

Williamson averaged 39 points over the course of the season. But on one magical night, Feb. 13, 1988, he set a state record by scoring 78 points in a 108-92 victory over Westbury, N.Y.

Read Chip Malafronte's complete story.

Yale Athletics / Register File photos

NOTE: A photo that was originally posted here was not Tony Lavelli. There were two notations on the photo that it was Lavelli in the Register files, however thanks to reader Joel Alderman, a Lavelli fan growing up who kept a scrapbook, he was able to find the original photo in a newspaper clipping, which was of Gordy Davis (more on Davis below).

We apologize for the error and have updated with Lavelli photos from Yale.

***

The multi-talented Tony Lavelli was a pure showman.

The first player from Yale to be drafted into the NBA, Lavelli was a scoring sensation who was named the College Player of the Year in 1949 when he averaged 22.4 points per game.

He was the fourth pick of the Boston Celtics and played three professional seasons.

***

Read Bill Cloutier's complete story.

The 1949 Draft

***

Below is photo and bio of Gordy Davis from Yale