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#ThrowbackThursday: Earl Monroe with the 1986 Van Cleve Basketball Team

Earl the Pearl Monroe with the Van Cleve basketball team

It was 1986 and the school transitioned from The New York Institute for the Education of the Blind into The New York Institute for Special Education. After 155 years of being a school for the blind, new programs were started.

The Van Cleve building would be repurposed from an elementary school for blind children to house a new program for children with learning and emotional disabilities. The Frampton Hall building would also be repurposed from a program for deaf-blind multi-handicapped children to a preschool for children with disabilities.

The Van Cleve Program would introduce league play of its students against local Bronx schools. In this photo, we find New York Knick great Earl Monroe putting the VC team through some training drills.

Together with Walt Frazier, they became one of the most potent guard combinations of all time. They had lead the Knicks to an NBA championship in 1973. In 1967, “Earl the Pearl” Monroe also won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in a season in which he averaged 24.3 points per game and scored 56 points in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers,