March 22, 1969: The End of the Alcindor Era

March 22, 1969: The UCLA basketball team wins its 3rd straight National Championship, and its 5th in the last 6 years, defeating Purdue 92-72 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.

By a weird turn of events, Purdue was the alma mater of UCLA's head coach, John Wooden, who would go on to become the 1st person elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and later as a coach.

For the 3rd year in a row, UCLA center Lew Alcindor is named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player. In Big Lew's 3 seasons at UCLA, the Bruins went 88-2. The letters came to stand not just for "University of California at Los Angeles," but "U Can't Lose to Anybody." The only defeats were the "Game of the Century" against the University of Houston at the Astrodome on January 20, 1968, a defeat avenged in the NCAA Tournament Semifinal; and to neighboring rival USC (University of Southern California) in a meaningless regular-season finale at Pauley Pavilion, on March 8, 1969.

Lew would help the Milwaukee Bucks win the 1971 NBA Championship. In 1972, his conversion to Islam complete, he changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But he still let 2 people call him "Lew": Coach Wooden, and his father, Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Sr.

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March 22, 1969 was a Saturday. Football star Russell Maryland was born.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 117-90 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California. Dick Barnett scored 35 points for the Knicks.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 116-108 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena).

* The Cincinnati Royals beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 134-127 at the Cincinnati Gardens.

* And the Milwaukee Bucks beat the San Diego Rockets, 120-106 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

There were 5 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets lost to the Kentucky Colonels, 123-107 at the Louisville Convention Center. Louie Dampier scored 35 points for the Colonels.

* The New Orleans Buccnaeers beat the Minnesota Pipers, 115-114 at the Loyola Field House (at Loyola University) in New Orleans. Frank Card scored 35 for the Pipers.

* The Dallas Chaparrals beat the Denver Rockets, 127-99 at the Moody Coliseum in Dallas.

* The Los Angeles Stars beat the Miami Floridians, 136-123 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

* And the Oakland Oaks beat the Houston Mavericks, 147-115 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

All 12 NHL teams were in action:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Minnesota North Stars, 5-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Oakland Seals beat their artificial arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Kings, 4-0 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal crossed town to West London, and beat Queens Park Rangers, 1-0 at Loftus Road.