The Pitt/Duquesne basketball rivalry has cooled over the years. In 2020, for the second consecutive season, it won’t appear on the Pittsburgh sports calendar.

Yet there are several moments that made it the most intense rivalry in the city’s history.

Duquesne’s Andy Sisinni played in nine of the 87 games (losing seven), and he always seemed to be in the middle of some squabble or another.

There was a game in 1981 — a 60-53 Pitt victory at Fitzgerald Field House — when Sisinni, the Dukes’ 6-foot-2 freshman point guard, almost fought big, bad Sam Clancy, who was four years older, 5 inches taller and significantly stronger.

“It wasn’t a fight. I don’t even know what you’d call it. He would have crushed me,” Sisinni said, noting the incident was triggered by a scramble for a loose ball, a pile-up at midcourt and his right elbow thrust upon the side of Clancy’s face. “We jumped up and squared off, but it got broken up before any damage was done to me.”

A year later, Duquesne’s Bruce Atkins shaved his head before a Pitt game at Fitzgerald to look more menacing. The Dukes won 72-62.

A month later — Valentine’s Day 1982 at Civic Arena — Pitt got its revenge in a 69-68 victory. The final score was only part of the story, however.

At one point, Sisinni dived for a loose ball and became entangled with Pitt’s Darrell Gissendanner. In the ensuing melee, he was dragged from half-court to a table under the basket.

“I slammed one guy to the ground and got a couple punches in before it just got overwhelming,” said Sisinni, who was ejected.

Sisinni, now a lawyer in Erie, said the rivalry was juiced by more than the schools’ proximity. For a time, Pitt and Duquesne were members of the Eastern 8, a league that later morphed into the Atlantic 10.

“It was an awesome league,” Sisinni said. “Not only did you have regional and local rivalries, but they also counted for your league standings.”

Sisinni said he and Atkins were teammates with two Pitt players in summer leagues, and “we all got along fine.”

But during the college season, “It was a rough, rough rivalry. Cheap shots, left and right,” he said.

“Say I started the offense out at the point and I had to cut through the middle of Pitt’s vaunted 1-3-1 zone. It was an awesome 1-3-1 half-court trap they had. I had to watch my neck, big-time.

“Seriously. Somebody would nail me with a forearm shot or kick me or whatever. I said, ‘OK. Well, I understand.’ ”

Sisinni said he wasn’t hurt, but Duquesne coach Red Manning confronted another form of misfortune at Fitzgerald, where the Dukes played their home games in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Pitt historian Sam Sciullo Jr. said Manning told him he came out to the parking lot after a tough loss and discovered his car had been stolen.

It was around that time when the Pitt/Duquesne rivalry forced two friends to become foes.

In 1963, Pitt won in overtime 69-67 in the championship game of the Steel Bowl, a four-team, two-day tournament that ran from 1952-53 through the 1976-77 season.

The game was played Dec. 7, 1963, at Fitzgerald and matched former Farrell High School teammates Willie Somerset of Duquesne and Brian Generalovich of Pitt. It was the nightcap of a rare day/night doubleheader in which Pitt’s football team defeated Penn State at Pitt Stadium, 22-21, to complete a 9-1 season.

Bob Smizik, a sports journalist in the city for 54 years, covered both games as sports editor of The Pitt News. Smizik recalls Beano Cook, the longtime Pitt sports information director and ABC-TV and ESPN college football analyst, calling it “the greatest day in Pitt sports history.”

“My most vivid recollection of that (basketball) game (was) Somerset’s fouling out in overtime,” Smizik said. “I’ll never forget this. Willie is on the floor, and Brian reaches down to help him up. Willie slaps his hand away.

“Two high school teammates in football and basketball. It shows you the level of the rivalry between Pitt and Duquesne.”

Pitt won after a putback shot on a potential tying basket by Duquesne’s John Cegalis was disallowed by timekeeper Leo “Horse” Czarnecki, a member of the Pitt athletics maintenance crew.

“Officials deferred to his ruling,” Sciullo said.

After that, Duquesne refused to schedule Pitt at Fitzgerald or anywhere else for the next 13 years, Sciullo said. The teams did not play in 1964, ‘65 and ‘69 and only met at the newly constructed Civic Arena when dictated by chance in the Steel Bowl. Crowds in those days were decidedly in favor of Duquesne.

When the Dukes returned to Fitzgerald in 1977 in an Eastern 8 game, they won in overtime 66-63. Larry Harris scored 35 points for Pitt. Norm Nixon scored 23 for the most recent Duquesne team to reach the NCAA Tournament.

Duquesne’s victory improved its all-time record against Pitt to 23-12. It’s now 55-32, Pitt.

Smizik, now retired, believes the series should continue.

“To me, it’s shameful on the part of Pitt that they’re not playing this game,” he said. “I understand the game is not what it used to be, but there’s so much dead weight on that schedule, and it’s not like Duquesne has much of a chance of beating Pitt. And if they do, so what?”

Sisinni, who has purchased three season tickets for Duquesne’s move into UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse next year, said he understands why the series isn’t a top priority for Pitt.

“I don’t even know what (Pitt’s) position is,” he said. “If I had to guess, if they beat Duquesne, it’s kind of expected. And if they were to lose to Duquesne, it would be like a mortal sin.”

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