There have been a lot of incredible sports seasons at Fairfield University over the years. The 1986-87 men's basketball season was one of them.
 
By Chris Elsberry
FAIRFIELD -- The preseason coaches' poll for the 1986-87 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men's basketball season had just been released and as expected, the Fairfield Stags stood atop the standings.
 
The Stags were the defending regular season and conference tournament champions. They had played well against Big 10 power Illinois in the opening round of the NCAA tournament and with three starters, three top reserves and a player that had missed the previous season due to injury, returning, all eyes looked at Fairfield as the team that would be the one to beat in the MAAC.
 
But the basketball gods had different ideas.
 
Injuries, hardship and tragedy all took their tolls over the course of the season, leaving the Stags struggling to stay focused and stay afloat in the conference standings. Senior forward Jeff Gromos missed the first seven games with a broken hand. Junior center Andy Woodtli missed five games with a bad ankle. Senior point guard Ed Golden missed four games, fighting through ankle and knee issues, along with a dislocated finger. Tom Squeri missed the entire season with a knee injury.
  
But slowly, Fairfield found a way. They never stopped battling and despite the odds, when the MAAC tournament rolled around, the Stags were just three wins away from a second straight trip to the NCAA's Big Dance and they were determined to grab that ticket.
 
"Getting to the (NCAA) tournament that year was a minor miracle, to say the least," said Gromos. "That was a tough year. Definitely a struggle."
 
Guard Tony George and forward Pat Yerina had graduated but the Stags still had a solid core coming back for 1986-87, including Gromos, a 6-foot-8 forward that averaged 11 points a game and Golden, a crafty floor leader that averaged 4.1 assists as juniors.
 
A.J. Wynder, another junior, brought speed and intensity to the 2-guard spot. Sophomore Troy Bradford was coming off a solid freshman year and Tim O'Toole, a 6-foot-3 package of passion and energy, was back healthy after missing the 1985-86 season after a hernia operation.
 
Those key cogs, along with Woodtli, senior forward Rich Barry and freshmen Marvin Walters, Ed Duncan and Tom Cook gave coach Mitch Buonaguro a roster of talent, experience and energy – more than enough to try and make another run at the MAAC championship and the NCAA tournament.
 
"This particular team, what they symbolized to me was what is great about college athletics," Buonaguro said, thinking back. "It was guys stepping up. This was a team that no one thought would do anything in the tournament. (Ed) Golden was never right all season. He hurt his knee in the preseason and he was never 100 percent. But he showed unbelievable toughness. He had a bad knee and bone chips in his ankle, but he just played through that because he was a really great point guard.
 
"Tim O'Toole was the heart and soul of the team in terms of toughness." Buonaguro continued. "When Gromos was out, he had to play the 4 (power forward) and when he did that, he averaged almost nine rebounds per game. His toughness and ability was incredible. Troy Bradford stepped up, he played very well. Woodtli had a bad ankle but he did what he could, Tom Cook came in as a freshman, he probably wasn't ready, but he gave me a stop-gap guy. All these guys were factors."
 
Said O'Toole, "We knew we were all going to stick together. We were all close. Because we had won the year before, we all knew that Jeff was really good, we knew that A.J. and Troy were really good, we knew that Ed was really good and Marvin (Walters) and Tommy Cook … but when we didn't have Jeff in the beginning we lost a lot of close games because we didn't have the chemistry."
 
So close, but …
 
To say that the Stags battled each time they took the floor would be an understatement. Without Gromos -- who averaged 20.2 points and 9.2 rebounds that season -- they beat Stonehill by 2, lost to Hartford by 2 and Boston College by 4. They beat Siena by 1 and Marist by six in overtime before losing by 19 at Syracuse and by 3 at UConn. With Gromos back in the lineup, Fairfield edged New Hampshire by 3, lost to Hofstra by 1, lost to Richmond by 4 in triple overtime, beat Lehigh by 1, LaSalle by 3 and lost to Manhattan by 2 in overtime and lost by 4 to Iona.
 
"We went into that season with sky high expectations but once the injuries started coming, you realized that nothing is handed to you," Golden said. "We had to fight and persevere. As soon as one person came back, someone else went down. We lost so many games by five points or less, but we never got down or hung our heads or said that it was over. We did have a mindset of toughness and that chemistry carried us through. We never gave up."
 
A lot of that toughness mindset came from the heart and soul of O'Toole, who had missed the previous season with recovering from hernia surgery.
 
"When I had the surgery, I was bummed," O'Toole said. "I knew it would be at least a 12-week recovery before I could start doing anything again and Mitch comes into the hospital and says that I could come back next season as a graduate assistant or go to grad school and play and I decided to come back for that next year."
 
Playing in all 31 games, O'Toole averaged 11.1 points a game and – listed as 6-foot-3 – averaged 6.8 rebounds a game along with 1.9 assists while shooting a solid 46.2 percent (109 of 236) from the floor.
 
"Tim was a special leader. He would run through a wall for you," Wynder said. "And if he was doing it, you should be too. We'd run miles at 5 o'clock in the morning and Tim would be running like it was the Olympics. Tim never disbelieved. He was a tough-minder individual. He was the perfect example of grit."
 
"Tim was a monster … a monster," Bradford said, who averaged 11.2 points that season. "For someone to be playing power forward at 6-foot-3 against guys six, seven inches taller, it was amazing. Straight heart, determination, guts. He's one of those guys, if I had to go into an alley fight with someone, I'm taking Tim."
 
Down the stretch, the Stags lost several more heartbreakers, by 4 to LaSalle, by 5 to St. Peter's, by 6 to Army and by 2 to Iona in overtime, leaving them 11-15 heading into the regular season finale against Holy Cross – a game that thanks to Gromos' tip in at the buzzer gave Fairfield a 56-55 win and a huge dose of confidence heading into the MAAC tournament.
 
"That was unexpected," Buonaguro said. "I don't think we would have done what we did in the tournament if that shot by Gromos didn't go in. That was an incredible win. We were reeling and struggling with all those close losses and Gromos tips it in and I went nuts, I was so happy for them I went nuts … I don't think (Holy Cross coach) George Blaney appreciated it too much but there was so much pent up emotion. It gave us some much-needed momentum going into the tournament."

End of Part I. Click here to read Part II.