Tom McKeown lived and breathed basketball throughout junior and senior high school in Babylon. As an eighth grader in 1974-1975, he got to experience the thrill of watching the varsity team win their league and the Suffolk County championships. As fate would have it, this was also the first year that New York State allowed county champions to play each other, setting up a showdown between Babylon’s Panthers and Nassau County’s champs, the South Side Cyclones of Rockville Center.

It was an epic season that engaged Tom so deeply that he has written his version of the story as This Is Panther Country. We don’t want to spoil the outcome but the subtitle is A Memoir of Youth, Underdog Spirit, and Basketball Glory. Available March 18, 2025, the book chronicles life on the court, in the school hallways, and in the McKeown family home on Coppertree Lane. You’ll learn a lot about the ins-and-outs of basketball tournaments but you’ll also be pulled back to your own high school days of close friend groups, petty slights, unrequited crushes, and weekend parties.

Tom will be signing books on Tuesday, March 18th, 7 pm, at the American Legion Hall in Babylon (22 Grove Place). In attendance will be former Panthers star Glenn Vickers, coach Roy Koelbel, and a host of others.

Further Research

• This is Panther Country by Tom McKeown
• Babylon Jr/Sr High School
• Glenn Vickers (Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame)
• “The ABA was Short Lived, but Its Impact on Basketball is Eternal” (Smithsonian Mag)
• Audio Footnotes:
  • Mickey Quinn and St. John the Baptist High School (episode 133)