Bruce "Soup" Campbell passes away

[giovanni]

A truly great h.s. and college player from a great era in New England college basketball. My sympathy goes out to the Campbell family.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2013 ... 144553.txt

[rodfromcranston]

RIP Soup. He was a big part of the super rivalry that took place in the mid to late 70's
between PC and URI.
He was Jiggy Williamson's teammate at Wibur Cross High School in New Haven.
56 years old is too young to go.

[Maineiac66]

Hearing the name Wilbur Cross, brings back memories of the New England High School Basketball Tournament at the old Boston Garden, when teams from Connecticut were participants. There were two teams from Massachusetts and Connecticut and one each from the remaining states. It was a hugely popular event. It seemed that Wilbur Cross and Hillhouse were always there from Connecticut and usually winning the whole thing. In my sophmore year in high school (1960) our local rival Lewiston High School made it to the final game actually beating both a Massachusetts and Connecticut team in the process. Unfortunately they ran into either Wilbur Cross or Hillhouse ( memories fade!) in the final before a packed house and though it was close they lost. In the mid 60's the Connecticut teams dropped out of the tournament and it was never the same again.

[adam914]

Growing up in the New Haven area, I played at/against both Hillhouse and Cross in the mid to late 90's. Let me tell you, they were by far the most difficult places I have ever played with the exception of maybe one other school in Hartford. Besides the fact that the teams were always good, if not great, the crowds were insane.

[Ramulous]

Although I cannot root for the friars......I have many pleasant memories of Soup.....we are close in age and many of my friends went to pc.....he was considered a good guy by them at that time....it seems the players back in the day were really a part of the campus fabric...they were fellow students....

...now it seems they are rock stars and the regular students don't always relate to them....from what I understand, anyway....

[Billyboy78]

When Jiggy and Soup played at Wilbur Cross, they were the #1 high school team in the country. The fact that both of them left the state of Connecticut (soon to be followed by Sly) to play in RI was great. If you youngsters think the URI/PC rivalry is great now, you should have seen it in those days. Now Jiggy and Soup are both gone...sad.

[rodfromcranston]

So is Super John Williamson, Jiggy's older and more famous brother, who played for the Nets.

[reef]

Sorry to hear about Soups passing, he will be missed

[Iggy1979]

Lame coverage in projo today. Hope Reynolds is working on a column