You can add 40 years to their ages and smile lines to their faces, but don't try to stop Herb Magee, Jim Boyle and Jim Lynam from acting like little kids.
Don't expect them to stop busting on each other. Don't expect one to let another get the upper hand.
In 1959, Magee, Boyle and Lynam were starting members of a West Catholic High basketball team that captured the Catholic League championship.
Still great friends, they haven't stopped telling tales since.
``When Bo was home last summer,'' Magee said, referring to Boyle by his nickname, ``we were playing golf one day and got to talking, like always, about that '59 season.
``We were talking about the Cardinal Dougherty game, at West Catholic, and I said I remembered that one especially well, because I hit a last-second shot to win it. Bo says, `That's not right. I threw a bounce pass to John Beck on a backdoor cut.'
``I go, `You're crazy. It didn't happen that way.' I made a last-second jumper. I'm not going to remember it? Even in intramurals, you remember that.''
That night, the pair and their wives met for dinner.
``Right at the table, I pulled out my scrapbook,'' Magee said. ``Showed Bo the story. Proved it to him. He goes, `Yeah, yeah, yeah.' Then he's paging through the scrapbook for all of his big games. `Hey, look at this one. Twenty-five points. Twenty rebounds.' ''
Tomorrow night, 7 o'clock, at Temple's Apollo, West will meet Roman Catholic in search of the CL title after Cardinal O'Hara plays Archbishop Carroll for girls honors at 5. Comcast's CN8 will televise both live.
A person can't help but focus attention on the '59 Burrs for two primary reasons:
One, the school has been titleless in boys hoops ever since.
Two, in an amazing coincidence, all three men went on to become prominent coaches.
Magee has won 670 games in 32 seasons as head coach at Philadelphia Textile, where he also had an outstanding playing career. Boyle, now in an advisory capacity for a team in Japan's professional league, was the coach at St. Joseph's University for nine seasons ending in '90 and later was an NBA assistant. Lynam, now doing TV work, preceded Boyle at St. Joe's ('79 to '81 seasons) and coached the Clippers, 76ers and Bullets in the NBA. Boyle and Lynam were prominent players on Hawk Hill.
In the late 1950s, Magee, Boyle and Lynam were just kids from West Philly and Southwest Philly with a love of basketball.
