The academic institution on St. Paul’s Summit and Cretin avenues was still called the College of St. Thomas in the early 1970s when a small group of Tommies started playing pickup basketball around noon year-round. It became known as “NoonBall” and survived in a variety of gymnasiums for a half-century.

The decision by St. Thomas (titled “University” since 1990) to tear down McCarthy Gym early in this decade to help make room for a Division I-worthy hockey and basketball facility was a blow to NoonBall. Another blow has been several longtime leaders of the pack having slowed down several steps as septuagenarians.

The NoonBall net covering decades of hoopheads has been gigantic, including doctors, lawyers, professors, coaches, politicians, money lenders, gamblers, reformed ex-convicts, a famous magician and a Baseball Hall of Famer … to name a few.

The wide net grew to an epic proportion in this decade with Steve Sir, a second-generation NoonBaller, becoming the coach for an internationally successful 3x3 program based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Yes, that Mongolia — the one landlocked between Russia and China, with its southern region being the Gobi Desert and Ulaanbaatar being on a high plateau (4,430 feet) in the northeastern region.

“That is Mongolia’s capital, and really its city,” Sir said last week. “The population is 1.7 million. That’s at least half of the people that live in the country.”

Sir paused for a moment and said: “It’s not easy to get to. The first time I went there was early in 2021, right after COVID rules were being relaxed. I was going through Seoul. I was the only person in the airport waiting for a flight.

“Long wait. The entire trip was 36 hours, maybe 40.”

Sir’s father, Paul, grew up in Iowa and was an excellent player for Les Wothke at Winona State in the early 1970s. “We ended Fitz’s career in the regional final in 1973 in Winona,” Paul Sir said. “I’ve reminded him of that a few times through the decades.”

That would be Dennis Fitzpatrick, the godfather of NoonBall. The Tommies had won three consecutive NAIA region titles before the 74-70 loss in Winona on March 8, 1973.

“Tough loss, but no hard feelings,” Fitzpatrick said. “We used to take a team out to a tournament in Montana annually. We had three big guys, they would put up a wall … and Paul Sir, he never missed an 18-footer from behind those screens.

“One of the best shooters we ever had in NoonBall — until his son came along with those young guys from Cretin."

Steve Sir spent his senior season playing basketball at Cretin-Derham Hall, as part of a three-player backcourt with Joe Mauer, aforementioned Cooperstown inductee, and Sean Sweeney, NBA assistant recently hired to run San Antonio’s defense.

Paul Sir introduced himself to Sandra Watson at a pool in Las Vegas one sunny afternoon. She was from Edmonton, Alberta, and, when they married, that became home for the Sirs. They moved to the Twin Cities when starting a business (an art gallery) for a few years, including Steve’s senior year at Cretin-Derham Hall in 2000-01.

Bombing three-pointers, those Raiders reached the state semifinals before losing to eventual champion Osseo. Sir went from there to San Diego State (he wasn’t in tune with coach Steve Fisher’s offensive style) and transferred to play three seasons at Northern Arizona.

On leaving college in 2007, he held the Division I record for shooting percentage on three-pointers at 46.9% — and that still stands for DI players taking 300 or more threes.

He played pro in quite a few countries, including Romania for two years. “We were having our second daughter, and I was living in this kind of cold, dark place,” he said. “It was time to give up on the five-player game as a competitor.”

He had become a member of Canada’s 3x3 national team. Father Paul, back in Edmonton, became a promoter of that version of the sport.

Steve Sir was on the Canadian team for the 3x3 World Cup in Manila in 2018. “Before that, there was a small tournament in Ulaanbaatar,” he said. “We played Mongolia. The arena was full, they jumped on us 8-0 at the start, and the fans were so alive.”

Sir became friendly with a man named Bot, a leader of 3x3 in this unlikely location. Two years later, at the world tournament in Serbia, Sir and the Canadians did some workouts with the Mongolians. Bot convinced Sir to make a trip to Mongolia to help with the men’s and women’s 3x3 programs.

A few months later, he made the long trip.

“They were great people; the people involved with 3x3, but really, everyone,” Sir said. “I officially became the coach in 2022.

“When our women’s team started … it wasn’t pretty. I remember thinking, ‘We have a lot of work to do to be bad.’

“We had two players, Khulan [Onolbaatar] and Ariuka [Ariuntsetseg Bat-Erdene], who drove things forward the first year or two. Then in the last year, we added Nanda, a guard, only 19. She’s a really good player. She’s been recruited for 5-on-5 … going to Florida Tech."

That would be Nandinkhusel Nyamjav, listed as a 5-10 freshman guard on the Panthers’ 2025-26 roster.

Mongolia’s presence in 3x3 had grown to a point that a FIBA World Cup was held at the end of June in Ulaanbaatar. There were 29 countries in both men’s and women’s — and Sir’s women’s team reached the finals, before losing to the Netherlands.

The victims on Mongolia’s trip to a silver medal included Germany’s Olympic champions, China’s top-ranked team and, in the semifinals, the United States.

This isn’t possible, Coach Sir … even for a Cretin-Derham Hall guy trained in basketball by the late Billy McKee, a tremendous coach there and elsewhere, as well as all-time, all-NoonBall.

“Billy was the greatest,” Sir said.

Which Bot and the rest of Mongolia’s basketball followers surely are saying about Steve Sir — from a group of women’s players who had to improve to be bad to runners-up in a FIBA world event.

“It’s been a privilege to witness the passion Mongolians have for basketball,” Sir said last month. “What I love most are the humility and work ethic. No showboating, just working.

“The improvement has been amazing. … 3x3 is evolving fast, and Mongolia is not falling behind."

Mongolia, a hoops haven. We’re all permitted to be amazed by that, including generations of NoonBall alums.