• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Paul Edwards was a standout on the 1981-82 Calvert Hall basketball team that went 34-0. (Courtesy Calvert Hall)

Documentary captures history-making moments in Calvert Hall basketball

March 8, 2022
By Gary Lambrecht
Special to the Catholic Review
Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News, Racial Justice, Schools, Sports

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Five years ago, after Mark Amatucci enlisted Todd Karpovich and Joe Baker to help write a book chronicling Amatucci’s four decades as a head basketball coach at the high school and college levels, the heart of the project’s focus was clear.

Published in early 2018, “No Limits” drilled down on the first of Amatucci’s two stints at Calvert Hall – a consequential four-year run that altered the diversity culture at the school and propelled its basketball program to incredible heights.

Calvert Hall tips off against Towson Catholic during its perfect season in 1981-82. (Courtesy Calvert Hall)

It culminated with a perfect 1981-82 season. The Cardinals won their third straight Baltimore Catholic League title and went wire-to-wire as the country’s top-ranked team. They finished 34-0 by beating Washington, D.C., powerhouse and four-time national champ DeMatha at the prestigious Alhambra Catholic Invitational.

“No Limits” was received so well that Amatucci and his co-authors decided to enter uncharted territory by making a documentary film tackling the same subject matter.

The result is “More Than Buckets,” a triumphant, two-hour story that took more than two years to tell. It is directed by Michael Amatucci, Mark’s son.

The co-authors – now co-executive producers – spent countless hours at local libraries immersed in print and film archives. Amatucci’s weighty scrapbook was also a hefty resource. 

The film centers around that magical trip by the Cardinals, who, with Amatucci at the helm from 1978 through 1982, put Calvert Hall and its basketball team on the national map – and not just because the Cards went a combined 91-5 from 1979-82.

As the documentary points out, it was also about how Calvert Hall did it, specifically how Amatucci moved the color line at the school by recruiting talented African-American student-athletes at the recreation centers and playgrounds of East Baltimore.

In December 1979, Calvert Hall became the first Catholic League school to start five African-American players.

“When I started coaching (the junior varsity at Calvert Hall in 1976), minorities made up nearly 2 percent (of the student body),” Amatucci recalled. “By the time I left (to coach at what is now Loyola University Maryland) in the summer of ’82, that had grown to over 13 percent, a direct result of what we did with our basketball family.”

The older, reminiscing voices of those core players, from Darryle and Paul Edwards to Marc Wilson and “Pop” Tubman to Vernon Hill – huge components, along with future NBA player Duane Ferrell, to the hoops glory days – bring powerful perspective on such changing times.

An especially poignant, early scene in the film finds middle-aged Darryle Edwards of the Class of 1981 revisiting the gravesite of classmate Paul Kinney, who died of a heart attack after collapsing at a preseason scrimmage Dec. 1, 1980. The ’81-’82 team dedicated its season to the memory of Kinney.

The film’s game footage is quite a treat. It includes great moments from the Cards’ epic, triple-OT win over Dunbar in the spring of 1981. And they capture the brilliance of Calvert Hall in its perfect year, especially at prestigious national tournament titles in Philadelphia and Las Vegas and that thrilling finish.

“It was emotional watching a lot of the footage and watching the kids talk about things now,” Amatucci said. “I’m proud of how it captures how close our family was and still is.”

Editor’s note: “No Limits” was published by Cathedral Foundation Press, a subsidiary of Catholic Review Media. Todd Karpovich is a contributing writer to the Catholic Review. Calvert Hall will host a screening of the film March 11 at 7 p.m. in the school’s Marion Burk Knott Center.

Read More Sports

In video for Chicago’s celebration, Pope Leo urges youth to recognize the ways God is reaching out to them

Pope: Sport reveals beauty of God, teaches teamwork, humility and hope

Villanova athletes inspired that pope keeps tabs on how his alma mater’s teams fare

Babe Ruth’s legacy continues to grace Archdiocese of Baltimore

Radio Interview: Baltimore sports broadcaster shares the importance of his Catholic faith

Take care of body, mind, heart, spirit, pope tells professional cyclists

Copyright © 2022 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Gary Lambrecht

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • 3 North Americans named to Vatican dicasteries for ecumenism, interreligious dialogue

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • St. Mary’s purchases former Annapolis Area Christian School

  • Pope’s prayer intention for July: That the faithful might again learn how to discern

  • superman Movie Review: Superman

| Latest Local News |

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest

Sister Ann Belz dies at 88

Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

DUAL ENROLLMENT

Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

| Latest World News |

Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order as part of class action lawsuit

Ukraine religious leaders issue ‘desperate cry’ to world to end Russia’s war

care of creation

Pope Leo wears Chicago-made vestments to July 9 ‘care of creation’ Mass

ICE

ICE deports Iowa parishioner to Guatemala homeland as supporters pray for his release

French woman hopes sharing mystical encounter with Minnesota Benedictine helps sainthood cause

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • A Gift and a Connection to the Past
  • Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86
  • Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest
  • Sister Ann Belz dies at 88
  • Expert discusses serious harms of smartphones for children and how to limit their use
  • Movie Review: Superman
  • Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order as part of class action lawsuit
  • Ukraine religious leaders issue ‘desperate cry’ to world to end Russia’s war
  • Pope Leo wears Chicago-made vestments to July 9 ‘care of creation’ Mass

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en