March 24, 1980: The Final of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament is held at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. The University of Louisville won its 1st National Championship, as Denny Crum's Cardinals beat UCLA, 59-54. The Cardinals were known as the Doctors of Dunk, and their star, Darrell Griffith, was known as Dr. Dunkenstein.
Crum had been a player under John Wooden at UCLA in the late 1950s, and then an assistant coach under him, helping him lead the Bruins to the National Championship in 1969, '70 and '71. He was then hired at Louisville, and got them to the Final Four in his 1st season, 1972, and again in 1975.
Led by guards Griffith and Jerry Eaves, forwards Derek Smith and Wiley Brown, and center Rodney McCray, the Cardinals went into the 1980 Final at 32-3, having lost only by 2 points away to Utah, by 12 to Illinois in a holiday tournament in Hawaii, and by 17 to Iona at Madison Square Garden. They went undefeated in the Metro Conference, and won its Tournament, and beat Kansas State, Texas A&M, Louisiana State and Iowa in the NCAA Tournament.
UCLA were coached by Larry Brown, early in a great coaching career. They came in at 22-9, led by forward Kiki Vandeweghe, son of former NBA star Ernie Vandeweghe. They had close losses away to Notre Dame (which had previously done that to UCLA teams in 1971 and 1974), at home to DePaul, and at home to Arizona State and Washington. Their other losses were not as close. They failed to win the regular-season title of the Pacific-10 Conference, which, at the time, did not have a tournament. In the NCAA Tournament, they beat Old Dominion, DePaul, Ohio State, Clemson and Purdue.
UCLA had previously lost in the Semifinal in 1962, 1974 and 1976. But they had never lost a Final before: They were 10-0. In this Final, UCLA led at the half, 28-26. But Louisville rode Griffith's game-high 23 points to win, 59-54. After watching their arch-rivals, the University of Kentucky, win 5 National Championships, Louisville fans finally had one of their own.
UCLA would later be forced to vacate all 5 of their wins in the Tournament, and their loss in the Final, after players representing the school were declared ineligible by the NCAA. They were placed on two years' probation, which included a one-year NCAA tournament ban.
How much responsibility Larry Brown bears for that is uncertain, but he remained as UCLA coach for 1 more season, then left to take a much higher-paying pro job, holding it for 2 years, before returning to the college ranks at Kansas. So it couldn't have been so bad that no college would hire him again.
He got them to the Final Four in 1986, and won the title in 1988. In 2004, he led the Detroit Pistons to the NBA title. As of the 2020-21 season, he remains the only coach to win both the NCAA and the NBA title.
Crum led Louisville to the Final Four again in 1982 and 1983, and to a 2nd National Championship in 1986. He retired after the 2001 season, with a 675-295 record, 15 regular-season Conference Championships, 11 Conference Tournament wins, 6 Final Four appearances and 2 National Championships. Crum was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994; Brown, in 2002.
Griffith went on to star with the Utah Jazz, becoming the 1981 NBA Rookie of the Year. Both UL and the Jazz retired Number 35 for him. UL has named him a "university ambassador" -- basically, a schmoozer for potential donors. Eaves played 5 years in the NBA, and went into coaching, and has been the head coach at historically-black schools North Carolina A&T and Simmons College.
Rodney McCray played 10 seasons in the NBA, reaching the Finals with the 1986 Houston Rockets, making the All-Defensive First Team in 1988, and winning the title with the 1993 Chicago Bulls. Wiley Brown only played pro basketball at the minor-league level, but also played football at Louisville, and was a defensive end for the Philadelphia Eagles for 2 years. In 2022, he is the head basketball coach at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany.
Derek Smith played 9 seasons in the NBA. In 1996, he was an assistant coach for the Washington Bullets, and was on a cruise for season ticket holders for the Bullets and the NHL's Washington Capitals, both then owned by Abe Pollin, when he suffered a heart attack and died. He was only 34 year old. In 2010, his son, Nolan Smith, won a National Championship at Duke. The Smiths are 1 of 4 father-son pairs to win National Championships, along with Marques and Kris Johnson, Henry and Mike Bibby, and Scott and Sean May.
UPDATE: Later in 2022, Nolan Smith joined the coaching staff at the University of Louisville. Denny Crum died the next year. In 2025, Nolan Smith was named the head coach at Tennessee State.
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March 24, 1980, as NCAA Tournament Finals usually are, was a Monday. This was also the day that Óscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, was assassinated. I have a separate entry for that event.
Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA scheduled no games for the day. There were 2 games in the NHL. The St. Louis Blues beat the Hartford Whalers, 7-5 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena). And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Washington Capitals, 6-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
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