Sixty-seven years ago, Villanova’s intramural basketball program consisted of no more than a dozen teams. Each of the heavily populated halls-- Fedigan, Alumni, Good Counsel, Austin and The Barracks-- housed enough residents to field their own strong starting fives plus bench support. Add a handful of eager dayhop squads and the league stood ready for a season of competitive games played in Alumni Hall’s bedroom-sized gym, the program’s official court.
Despite being a somewhat unsettled transfer student, I could plainly see there were not enough students in my hall-- -O’Dwyer- -- to form a team. To generate a representative lineup, O’Dwyer and three nearby halls merged to create one team-- the DOMS-- an acronym combining the first letters of Delurey, O’Dwyer, Middleton and Simpson.