November 27, 1965: Pauley Pavilion, and Kareem's Career, Open

November 27, 1965: Pauley Pavilion opens, on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles.

Following their 1964 National Championship -- they would win it again in 1965 -- UCLA coach John Wooden wanted a suitable arena for his ever-growing program. He got it in time for the 1965-66 season, and it has hosted 9 more National Championships, making for 11 banners, 10 coached by Wooden.

But they would not win the 12,829-seat Pavilion's opening game. In fact, the 1st game was between the UCLA varsity and the UCLA freshman team. Until 1972, the NCAA did not allow freshmen to play on varsity teams, with rare exceptions. (For example, due to the manpower drain of World War II, it was allowed for the duration.) The freshman team won, 75–60.

How could this happen? Had UCLA been hit that hard by graduation? No, they were hit that hard by Wooden's prize recruit: Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. Better known as Lew Alcindor, the Harlem native had been the top high school player in the country. Every college coach in the country wanted him, thinking he would be the next Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain. Wooden told him that he could be the first star of a big new building in one of America's biggest cities.

Alcindor justified that faith, starting in the 1st game: Against the 2-time defending National Champions, he scored 31 points and grabbed 21 rebounds. Against junior colleges and 4-year schools' freshmen teams, the UCLA frosh went 21-0.

As a sophomore in 1966-67, Alcindor led the Bruins to a 30-0 season. As a junior in 1967-68, they went 29-1, losing only a nationally-televised regular-season "Game of the Century" to Elvin Hayes and the University of Houston at the Astrodome. That loss was solidly avenged in the NCAA Tournament Semifinal. In 1968-69, they went 29-1, losing only a meaningless conference finale to their arch-rivals, the University of Southern California (USC).

In his 3 seasons on the varsity, Alcindor led UCLA to a record of 88-2, and 3 National Championships, winning the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player all 3 times. Counting his freshman record, he went 109-2.

In 1971, just after leading the Milwaukee Bucks to the NBA Championship, Alcindor, having converted to Islam 3 years earlier, publicly announced that he had changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There were 2 people he allowed to continue to call him "Lew": His father -- after all, it was his name, too -- and Coach Wooden. He went on to win 5 more NBA Championships, back in Los Angeles with the Lakers. The greatest player in the history of college basketball became one of the Top 10 players in the history of professional basketball.

Pauley Pavilion was named for an oil magnate who was also a Regent of the University of California system, whose donation to its building went a long way toward making it possible. Edwin Pauley was a friend of, and appointee to several offices by, Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, but the student protests of the 1960s led him to switch parties and support Ronald Reagan for Governor.

Speaking of politics, the Pavilion was the site of the 2nd debate of the 1988 Presidential campaign, where CNN anchor Bernard Shaw asked the question that shattered the campaign of Governor Michael Dukakis – not that the Duke helped himself with his answer. Oddly, Dukakis chose to hold held his Election Eve rally there, despite being a Bostonian. (In contrast, Boston's JFK held his Convention in the Los Angeles Coliseum complex, but his Election Eve rally at the Boston Garden.)

Pauley Pavilion was renovated during the 2011-12 season, which the Bruins spent playing home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. They had won the National Championship game there in 1968 and 1972. Ironically, until 2006, it was USC's home court, until USC opened the nearby Galen Center.

With the Pavilion renovated and modernized, the Bruins now play in a 13,800-seat venue, on the Nell and John Wooden Court, named for the old coach and his wife. The 11 National Championship banners hang overhead: 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975 and 1995.

*

November 27, 1965 was a Saturday. It was a big day in college sports, as it was the end of Thanksgiving week, and thus rivalry week in football. These games were played, not all of them rivalries:

* Rivalry: Number 5 Alabama beat Auburn, 30-3 at Legion Field in Birmingham. 'Bama won the Southeastern Conference title.

* Number 6 Notre Dame and Miami played to a 0-0 tie at the Orange Bowl in Miami. This late-season game, in a stadium named after the New Year's Day game played there, was as close to a bowl game at Notre Dame would come: From the 1925 season until 1969, they refused all bowl bids.

* Number 8 University of Southern California (USC) beat Wyoming, 56-6 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Rivalry: Number 9 Tennessee beat Vanderbilt, 21-3 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

* Rivalry: Army and Navy played to a tie, 7-7 at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Quantico Marines beat Memphis State, 20-14 at Butler Stadium in Quantico, Virginia. The Marines were a 2-touchdown underdog. Memphis State University became the University of Memphis in 1994. The Quantico Marines had a team from 1919 to 1972, and the NCAA counted them as a "college football team." The program was canceled due to rising costs. 

While graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy can become officers in the U.S. Marine Corps, the closest thing the Marines have to their own academy is the Quantico Marine Base in Quantico, Virginia -- the town that is also home to the FBI Academy, and to the headquarters of the CID, which investigates crimes involving the Army and the Air Force, and the NCIS, which investigates crimes involving the Navy and the Marines (though the TV show NCIS still shows the agency headquartered at the Washington Navy Yard).

* Rivalry: Boston College beat Holy Cross, 35-0 at Fitton Field in Worcester, Massachusetts.

* Rivalry: Georgia beat Georgia Tech, 17-7 at Grant Field in Atlanta.

* Rivalry: Florida beat Florida State, 30-17 at Florida Field (now Ben Hill Griffin Stadium) in Gainesville.

* Rivalry: Mississippi (Ole Miss) beat Mississippi State, 21-0 at Scott Field (now Davis Wade Stadium) in Starkville, Mississippi.

* Rivalry: Texas Christian University (TCU) beat Southern Methodist University (SMU), 10-7 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.

* Baylor beat Rice, 17-13 at Rice Stadium in Houston.

* Brigham Young University (BYU) beat New Mexico, 42-8 at University Stadium in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

* Rivalry: Arizona State beat Arizona, 14-6 at Sun Devil Stadium (now Mountain America Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.

* Two days earlier, on Thanksgiving, there were 6 games, including Texas beating Texas A&M, 21-17 at Kyle Field in College Station. But only 1 involved a ranked team: Number 3 Nebraska beat Oklahoma, 21-9 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, to clinch the Big 8 Conference title.

* Idle that week, but not yet finished with their regular season: Number 4 UCLA, Champions of the Athletic Association of Western Universities (which became the Pacific-Eight in 1968, the Pacific-Ten in 1978, and the Pacific-Twelve in 2011); 

* Having finished their schedules the week before were the entire the Big Ten Conference, including Number 1 Michigan State; the entire Southwest Conference, including its Champion, Number 2 Arkansas, and Number 10 Texas Tech; Number 7 Missouri; and New Jersey's teams, Rutgers and Princeton.

At the time, the final Associated Press (AP) sportswriters' poll was taken after the regular season, but before the bowl games. So Michigan State were named National Champions in that poll. Entering New Year's Day, the top 3 teams were all 10–0, but all lost: Number 1 Michigan State lost the Rose Bowl to Number 5 UCLA, Number 2 Arkansas lost the Cotton Bowl to Number 14 Louisiana State (LSU), and Number 3 Nebraska lost the Orange Bowl to Number 4. Alabama. So the post-bowl United Press International (UPI) coaches poll named Alabama the National Champions. (Number 6 Missouri beat Number 12 Florida in the Sugar Bowl.)

There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Cincinnati Royals, 132-129 at the old Madison Square Garden. Oscar Robertson scored 44 points.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 101-95 at the Boston Garden. Bill Russell scored 28 points, and had 35 rebounds.

* The St. Louis Hawks beat the Baltimore Bullets, 136-110 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

* And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the San Francisco Warriors, 124-117 at the Civic Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Auditorium) in San Francisco. Wilt Chamberlain, who had played for the Warriors in Philadelphia, scored 38 points and had 31 rebounds.

The NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 1-0 at the old Madison Square Garden. Yes, the Garden hosted an NBA game and an NHL game on the same day.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

March 31, 1975: The End of the John Wooden UCLA Dynasty

March 31, 1975: The Final of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament is held at the San Diego Sports Arena. (It's now named the Pechanga Arena.)

The NCAA Tournament had varied from between 22 and 25 teams since 1953. For the 1974-75 season, due to the frustrations of teams unable to win the Conference Tournaments, and thus qualify for the NCAA Tournament, despite previously having exceptional seasons, the NCAA expanded the Tournament to 32 teams, and allowed teams that failed to win their conference in.

In the Mideast Regional Final, at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio, on March 22, Indiana, then undefeated at 31-0 and ranked Number 1 in the country, faced Number 5 Kentucky, who were 24-3, with 1 of their losses coming to Indiana in Bloomington. This time, Joe B. Hall's Wildcats beat Bobby Knight's Hoosiers, 92-90, and secure Kentucky's 1st berth in what would later be called "the Final Four" since losing the 1966 Final. This would be the only game that Indiana would lose between March 11, 1974 and December 1, 1976, a stretch over which they went 66-1.

The University of California at Los Angeles had won 7 straight titles, and 9 out of 10, under coach John Wooden, before losing in the 1974 Semifinal to North Carolina State. In 1974-75, the Bruins finished the regular season 23-3, losing only away to Stanford by 4 points, away to Notre Dame (again) by 6, and, in their only bad game of the season, away to Washington by 22.

At the time, the league then known as the Pacific-Eight Conference had no Conference Tournament, but UCLA easily won the regular-season title. The Bruins struggled in the NCAA Tournament: They needed overtime to beat Michigan, beat the University of Montana by only 3 points, beat Arizona State to get to the Final Four, and needed overtime to beat the University of Louisville, coached by Wooden's former assistant, Denny Crum.

After that Semifinal win over Louisville, Wooden announced his retirement: Win or lose, the Final against Kentucky would be his last game.

The game was tight. So were the Bruins, as if they were trying too hard to send Wooden out a winner. The lead changed hands several times in the 1st half, which ended with UCLA ahead, 43-40. Kentucky stayed close, and were within 76-75 with less than 7 minutes left.

Dave Meyers -- brother of UCLA women's star Ann Meyers -- was called for an offensive foul on a shot attempt during which he bumped into Grevey. Meyers yelled at referee Hank Nichols for this, and was assessed a technical foul. This led the normally mild-mannered Wooden to run onto the court, and call Nichols a "crook."

Maybe this shook the Wildcats up, because Kevin Grevey, their best player, missed all 3 free throws. Kentucky never recovered, and UCLA won, 92-85. Wooden and UCLA had their 10th National Championship, all within the last 12 years.

As with so many other great college coaches, Wooden cast a shadow that his successors found it difficult to get out of. The following year, Gene Bartow got UCLA back to the Final Four, but lost to Indiana, with Knight leading them to what remains the last undefeated season for an NCAA Division I men's basketball team.

In 1978, Hall led Kentucky to their 1st National Championship in 20 years, while Grevey helped the Washington Bullets win the NBA Championship. Under Larry Brown, UCLA got back to the Final in 1980, losing to Louisville and Wooden's former assistant Crum, who would win the National Championship again in 1986.

UCLA has won 1 National Championship without Wooden, in 1995, under Jim Harrick Sr. In 2006, Ben Howland took them to the Final, where they lost to Florida.

Of Wooden's '75 Bruins: Marques Johnson starred with the Milwaukee Bucks, becoming a 5-time NBA All-Star; Dave Meyers was his teammate on the Bucks; Andre McCarter played a season each with the Kansas City Kings and the Bullets; Ralph Drollinger played 1 season, the expansion season of the Dallas Mavericks, 1980-81; Brett Vroman, that same season, played 11 games with his home-State Utah Jazz, the extent of his NBA career, though he also played in Europe, mostly in Italy; Richard Washington, named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player, played 6 seasons in the NBA, including 1 as a teammate of Johnson and Meyers, and another as a teammate of Drollinger; and Wilbert Olinde never played in the NBA, but starred in Germany's basketball league.

And then there was Gavin Smith. He transferred to the University of Hawaii, where he set the school's single-season scoring record, which still stands. He became a stuntman, an actor, and a film studio executive. In 2012, he disappeared after leaving a friend's house in the Los Angeles suburbs. Two years later, his remains were found, and a man was convicted of his murder.

John Wooden had been a star player at Purdue University in the early 1930s, before coaching at Indiana State (later the Alma Mater of Larry Bird) from 1946 to 1948, and then at UCLA until 1975. His career record was 664-162 -- including 335-22 from 1963 to 1975, for a percentage of .938.

He won National Championships in 1964, with Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich; 1965, with Goodrich; 1967 and 1968, with Lew Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; 1969, with Kareem and Sidney Wicks; 1970 and 1971, with Wicks; 1972 and 1973, with Bill Walton and Keith Wilkes, who later changed his name to Jamaal Wilkes; and 1975, with Marques Johnson.

In 1972, Sports Illustrated split its Sportsman of the Year award for the 1st time, between Wooden and tennis star Billie Jean King. For King, it was a recognition of not just her performance in her sport, but her activism for it, including for female players to be paid as much as male players. For Wooden, who had won his 8th title, it seemed more like a lifetime achievement award.

It's worth noting that Wooden titled his autobiography They Call Me Coach. Even long after his retirement, his former players, even those who had gone into coaching themselves, still called him "Coach" rather than "John." It's also worth noting that Kareem only let 2 people continue to call him "Lewis": His father, Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Sr.; and Wooden.

It's also worth noting that Wooden was just 64 when he retired, though he looked older. To put this in perspective: Dean Smith and Gary Williams each coached their last college game at 66, Bobby Knight and Jud Heathcote 67, Don Haskins 69, Roy Williams 70, Lute Olson 72, Denny Crum 74, Mike Krzyzewski and Larry Brown 75, Jim Calhoun 79, Rollie Massimino 83. As of March 31, 2022, Jim Boeheim and Tom Izzo are still coaching at 67, Rick Pitino at 69.

He was the 1st person elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, the former in 1960 and the latter while still coaching in 1973. His success led to UCLA building the Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion in 1965. In 2003, the school named the playing surface the Nell and John Wooden Court. John insisted that, if he were going to be so honored, his late wife's name should go first. That same year, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He died in 2010, 4 months short of his 100th birthday.

In 1995, Marques Johnson's son, Kris Johnson, won a National Championship at Duke. The Johnsons are 1 of 4 father-son pairs to win National Championships, along with Henry and Mike Bibby, Scott and Sean May, and Derek and Nolan Smith; and the only pair to both win for the same school.

*

March 31, 1975 was a Monday. There were no games in the NBA. There were 2 in the American Basketball Association. The Kentucky Colonels beat the San Antonio Spurs, 103-89 at Freedom Hall in Louisville. Artis Gilmore had 36 pionts and grabbed 25 rebounds. And the Utah Stars beat the Virginia Squires, 103-97 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ron Boone scored 36 points.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were no games in the NHL. There were 2 in the World Hockey Association. The Winnipeg Jets beat the Indianapolis Racers, 4-1 at the Winnipeg Arena. And the San Diego Mariners beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-2 at the brand-new Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

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.

*

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.

March 21, 1970: UCLA vs. Jacksonville

Artis Gilmore (left) and Sidney Wicks

March 21, 1970: UCLA defeats Jacksonville University 80-69, at Cole Field House in College Park, on the campus of the University of Maryland, outside Washington, and wins their 4th straight National Championship, their 6th overall.

If anyone thought that the graduation of Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) would halt John Wooden's Bruin juggernaut, they were sorely mistaken. Jacksonville, on the other hand, has only even been to the NCAA Tournament 4 times since, the last in 1986.

The school was founded as Jacksonville Junior College in 1934, became a four-year school named Jacksonville University in 1956, and have remained so ever since. In their 1970 Tournament run, they were led by future pro superstar Artis Gilmore.

This remained the biggest sporting event involving Jacksonville -- ahead of any Florida vs. Georgia football game, a.k.a. "the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party," and ahead of any Jacksonville Jaguars game from 1995 onward -- until Super Bowl XXXIX was held there in 2005.

In 1997, Henry Bibby's son, Mike Bibby, won a National Championship at Arizona. The Bibbys are 1 of 4 father-son pairs to win National Championships, along with Marques and Kris Johnson, Scott and Sean May, and Derek and Nolan Smith.

*

March 21, 1970 was a Saturday. Cenk Uygur was born that day, in Istanbul, Turkey, and grew up in East Brunswick, New Jersey. He was a year behind me at East Brunswick High School. I knew him a little bit, because I knew some of the school's football players. He was a decent linebacker. As far as I know, he never talked about politics at the time. We have not kept in touch. He got a law degree from Columbia University, and since 2002 has hosted the nationally-syndicated leftward populist radio show The Young Turks.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 2 games in the NBA. The New York Knicks lost to the Cincinnati Royals, 136-120 at Madison Square Garden. Connie Dierking scored 35 points and had 21 rebounds for the Royals. And the Baltimore Bullets beat the San Francisco Warriors, 127-123 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). Earl "The Pearl" Monroe scored 40 points, Jack Marin scored 30, and Wes Unseld had 15 points but 27 rebounds.

There were 2 games in the American Basketball Association. The Dallas Chaparrals beat the New Orleans Buccaneers, 126-120 at the Tarrant County Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas. And the Denver Rockets beat the Carolina Cougars, 128-105 at the Denver Auditorium Arena. Spencer Haywood had 37 points and 18 rebounds.

And there were 5 games in the NHL:

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-0 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Boston Bruins, 5-4 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-0 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-1 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

And the New York Rangers and the Oakland Seals were not scheduled.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal went to the South Coast, and beat Southampton, 2-0 at The Dell in Southampton, Hampshire.

March 21, 1964: The UCLA Dynasty Begins

March 21, 1964: The University of California at Los Angeles beat Duke University, 98-83, at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, in the Final of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. It is the 1st National Championship for UCLA. It will not be the last.

UCLA coach John Wooden had been good enough of a player at Purdue University in the early 1930s that he eventually became the 1st person elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame separately as a player and as a coach. He became UCLA's head coach in 1948, and took them to what would later be called the Final Four for the 1st time in 1962.

In 1963-64, with guards Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich, forwards Keith Erickson and Jack Hirsch, and center Fred Slaughter, he guided the Bruins to an undefeated season, 30-0. Goodrich and Erickson would star with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Goodrich would join Wooden in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Ironically, considering that Wooden would later have Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor) and Bill Walton, the '64 UCLA team not only didn't have a dominating center, they had the shortest roster ever to win the NCAA Tournament.

The closest they came to losing in the regular season was a 2-point win away to the main campus of the University of California in Berkeley in February, a 3-point win away to Kansas State early in the season, 4 over Illinois in the L.A. Classic (at the Memorial Sports Arena, not on their own campus), and 5 away to Washington State.

In the tournament, they won their regional games at Oregon State in Corvallis, beating Seattle University, 95-90; and the University of San Francisco, 76-72. In Kansas City, they faced Kansas State again, this time winning, 90-84, before beating a Duke team that featured future Golden State Warriors star Jeff Mullins.

UCLA made it back-to-back titles in 1965. These titles raised enough money that the Bruins could move out of their 2,400-seat Men's Gym, and also stop using the Sports Arena, which they were sharing with their arch-rivals, the University of Southern California (like the next-door Coliseum, it was on USC's campus), and into a large on-campus building, which became Pauley Pavilion. Wooden would eventually lead UCLA to 10 National Championships in 12 seasons. The school won an 11th in 1995, under Jim Harrick.

Duke had reached the Final Four in 1963, and would again in 1966. But they would not do so again until 1978, and then not again until 1986, the 1st of 14 times they would do so under Mike Krzyzewski. "Coach K" finally got them their 1st National Championship in 1991.

By another weird twist of fate, on March 21, 2014, on the 50th Anniversary of the event, Duke lost its first-round NCAA Tournament game -- not to a traditional power like UCLA, but to lightly-regarded Mercer University of Macon, Georgia. "March Madness."

*

March 21, 1964 was a Saturday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There was 1 game in the NBA: The St. Louis Hawks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 115-104 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Jerry West scored 35 points in defeat.

There was 1 game in the NHL: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 5-1 at the Montreal Forum.

And in English soccer, Arsenal crossed from North London to the East End, and played West Ham United to a draw, 1-1 at Upton Park.

January 20, 1968: College Basketball's "Game of the Century"

Elvin Hayes signed this SI cover,

even though his back was to the camera.

January 20, 1968: College football had experienced a few games with the "Game of the Century" label, including in both the 1966 and 1967 seasons. Now, it was college basketball's turn.

The University of California at Los Angeles -- UCLA -- had won the National Championship in 1964 and 1965. Then, Lew Alcindor -- who would later convert to Islam and change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and I'll refer to him as "Kareem" hereafter -- arrived on campus from New York City. Until 1972, the NCAA prohibited freshmen from competing in varsity sports. But in his 1st appearance of any kind for UCLA, Kareem led the freshman team to victory over the varsity.

Head coach John Wooden knew he could bide his time until Kareem was eligible. Sure enough, in 1966-67, with sophomore Kareem leading the way, the Bruins went 30-0 and won the National Championship. Going into January 20, 1968, they had won 47 straight games, the 2nd-longest streak in college basketball history, behind the 60 straight of the University of San Francisco, 1955-57, mostly with Bill Russell.

The team the Bruins beat in the NCAA Final was the University of Houston. Coach Guy Lewis had his own big man, Elvin Hayes, known as the Big E. With Hayes and Don Chaney, Lewis had bravely integrated not just his own team, but basketball in the Southwest Conference.

Ted Nance was UH's sports information director. He talked to his counterpart at UCLA, J.D. Morgan, about putting together a nationally televised showcase game, a prime-time matchup with UCLA, using the "Game of the Century" label that had been applied to the 1966 football game between Michigan State and Notre Dame. Morgan talked Wooden into it. The label was cited in UH's football programs. And when UCLA's football team played USC in a "Game of the Century," it helped promote the basketball version -- even though UCLA lost the football version.

The problem was selling the game to a network willing to televise it. The Big Three -- NBC, CBS and ABC -- all passed on it. Basketball was far behind baseball and football in popularity. At this point, it probably wasn't even as popular as boxing and horse racing. The fact that it was "a black sport," with racial strife around the country, didn't help its image, although there had never been a racist incident on the court in either the NBA or in the college game.

Enter Eddie Einhorn. Later to be a co-owner of the Chicago White Sox, he founded TVS, a network that specialized in televising college basketball games, and syndicating them to "independent" stations (stations not affiliated with any network -- for example, in New York at the time, Channels 5, 9 and 11). 

Morgan offered Einhorn the use of UCLA's announcer, Dick Enberg, who also called games for the NFL's Los Angeles Rams. Einhorn paid $27,000 for the rights to the game, and signed up 120 stations, some of them affiliated with networks, pre-empting the regularly scheduled national programming. In New York, the game was broadcast on WPIX-Channel 11.

"Einhorn was a visionary," Enberg said, decades later, after becoming NBC's lead announcer for the NFL and college basketball, and adding baseball's California Angels and San Diego Padres to his grand record. "He was so far ahead of anyone in television at the time. He saw how truly big college basketball could be, and had a major hand in making all that happen. The networks were way, way behind Eddie Einhorn."

Instead of UH's 5,000-seat Delmar Fieldhouse, the game would be moved into the Astrodome. A compromise was reached when UH agreed to have the floor from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena shipped in as the game's playing surface, although the center-court decal was customized, with the words "ASTRO DOME."

It was all set up. All that was necessary now was for the teams to remain undefeated, and to keep their preseason Number 1 (UCLA) and Number 2 (Houston) rankings intact. They got what they wanted: The Bruins won their 1st 13 games of the 1967-68 season, and the Cougars won their 1st 14.

A crowd of 52,693, the largest ever to see a basketball game in America at that point, saw a game that lived up to the hype. UCLA had a notable disadvantage: Kareem had sustained an eye injury, and was not at his best. This injury would recur, and lead to the familiar image of him wearing goggles on the court during his professional career.

Another check against Kareem, and therefore against UCLA: Because he had made so many dunk shots in 1966-67, the NCAA banned it. The fact that Hayes had also done a lot of dunks seemed to have escaped the press, who called it "The Lew Alcindor Rule." The rule was retracted in 1976, leading to the University of Louisville's 1980 "Doctors of Dunk" and UH's early 1980s "Phi Slamma Jamma" team. But that didn't help either the Bruins or the Cougars on this night.

$5.00 in 1968 would be roughly $40 in 2022.

Not a bad price for a "Game of the Century."

Tipoff was 8:00 PM Central Time -- 9:00 Eastern, and 6:00 Pacific (in other words, on the UCLA campus). At the half, Houston led, 46-43. Lewis did not have Hayes set to cover Kareem, but he did block 3 of Kareem's shots, and the fans at the Astrodome chanted, "Big E! Big E! Big E!"

Lucius Allen, later to be Kareem's teammate on the 1971 NBA Champion Milwaukee Bucks, sank 2 free throws with 2 minutes left, tying the game 69-69. Hayes had 4 fouls, but played as if this was his night, the game that would show the world what he could do. He took a shot, and was fouled by Jim Nielsen. He sank his free throws to put the Cougars up 71-69. They were his 38th and 39th points of the game, to lead all players on both sides. Kareem scored only 8.

With time running out, Allen put up a shot that couldn't go in. On UCLA's next possession, he looked for forward Lynn Shackelford, the team's best shooter. He found Shackelford, in the corner, unguarded. But All-American guard Mike Warren -- later to use the name Michael Warren as he played a policeman on Hill Street Blues -- thought the pass was for him, and he deflected it out of bounds.

With 10 seconds left, Hayes took an inbounds pass, and Kareem and Allen converged on him, hoping to force a turnover. He tried dribbling out the clock, but the 2 big Bruins wouldn't give up. Finally, with 3 seconds left, he managed to get off a pass to George Reynolds, and that was the ballgame. Houston was Number 1.

Earlier in the day, there was a news report about a U.S. Marine action in Vietnam. Most people at the game had already heard about it. So when Enberg interviewed Wooden after the game, he told Enberg, "Compared to what is happening worldwide, this is just another basketball game. We were defeated. We go on. But there are much more important things happening in our world to be concerned about."

"That was typical Wooden," Enberg said.

Also typical Wooden was picking his team up, and properly preparing them for the rest of the season. They didn't lose again. What would now be called the Final Four was held, interestingly enough, at the L.A. Sports Arena, on the exact same floor. UCLA played Houston in the Semifinal, and, with Kareem's eye injury cleared up, it was no contest: UCLA 101, Houston 69. The Bruins went on to beat North Carolina, coached by 37-year-old Dean Smith, in the Final, 78-55.

UCLA won the National Championship again in 1969, losing just 1 regular-season game, away to crosstown USC -- again, on the Sports Arena floor -- after the Pacific-Eight Conference title had already been decided. UCLA went 88-2 with Kareem playing, won the National Championship all 3 seasons, and Kareem was named the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player all 3 times.

College basketball got a huge boost from the "Game of the Century." It got another boost in 1974, when UCLA, having also won the National Championship in 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973, set a new record with an 88-game winning streak, then lost to Notre Dame, and then to North Carolina State in the NCAA Semifinal. UCLA won one more title in 1975, and then Wooden retired, having won 10 titles.

Another boost to college basketball came in 1979, with a Final matchup between Earvin "Magic" Johnson of Michigan State, soon to be Kareem's teammate on the Los Angeles Lakers, and Larry Bird of Indiana State. Michigan State's win remains the most-watched college basketball game ever, and, while the term had been used before, the words "March Madness" became familiar.

Let Enberg have the final word: “Just for historical reference, I did what amounted to be the very first national telecast of the NCAA Finals and that was in 1961, when Cincinnati played Ohio State in Kansas City. That national telecast went to two cities; Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. That was it. We’re talking 1961 and this UCLA-Houston game is only seven years later, so I say that only to confirm the baby was delivered in the Astrodome on that night when Houston played UCLA.”

*

January 20, 1968 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were out of season. Almost unnoticed that day were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Boston Celtics, 118-115 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). The Bullets got 33 points from Gus Johnson, and 32 from Earl "the Pearl" Monroe. In defeat, Sam Jones scored 38, and John Havlicek 29.

* The Cincinnati Royals beat the Detroit Pistons, 128-120 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Oscar Robertson scored 32.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls, 135-111 at the Chicago Stadium. Bob Boozer led all scorers with 27, but, for the Sixers, Hal Greer had 26, Chet "the Jet" Walker had 24, and Wilt Chamberlain had 18 and 21 rebounds. That is not a misprint, children: Twenty-one rebounds in one game.

* The St. Louis Hawks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 120-115 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Lenny Wilkens scored 39 for the Hawks.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Francisco Warriors, 151-122 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Fred Hetzel scored 36 for the Warriors, but the Lakers got 30 from Elgin Baylor, 25 from Jerry West, and 20 from Darrall Imhoff.

And there was one game in the newly-founded American Basketball Association: The New Jersey Americans beat the Indiana Pacers, 106-96 at the Teaneck Armory. The Americans moved to Long Island the next season, and became the New York Nets.

There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Oakland Seals, 3-0 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Minnesota North Stars, 5-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 8-5 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And the St. Louis Blues and the Los Angeles Kings were not scheduled.

Also, a North London Derby was held. Tottenham Hotspur hosted and beat Arsenal, 1-0.

January 19, 1974: Notre Dame Ends UCLA's 88-Game Winning Streak

January 19, 1974: UCLA loses a basketball game. This is a big deal: It hadn't happened in 3 years.

The basketball team at the University of California at Los Angeles had been coached by John Wooden since 1949. In 1962, he got them into the Semifinal of the NCAA Tournament -- what we would now call the Final Four -- for the 1st time. In 1964, he guided them to an undefeated season and the National Championship. He won another in 1965. He won another in 1967, undefeated. He won another in 1968. He won another in 1969. In those last 3 seasons, led by Lew Alcindor, later to change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the UCLA Bruins went 88-2.

Losing the future Kareem didn't stop UCLA: They won another National Championship in 1970. On January 23, 1971, they were 14-0, and traveled to South Bend, Indiana to play the University of Notre Dame. They lost, 89-82. This was a surprise, but not a shock: Notre Dame, although (then as now) far better known for football, was then ranked Number 9 in the country, and had the home-court advantage at the Athletic & Convocation Center.

Wooden got the Bruins to shake it off, and they won another National Championship. In 1972, with a new star center, sophomore Bill Walton from San Diego, they went undefeated and won another National Championship. In 1973, they went undefeated and won another National Championship. A joke went around that "UCLA" stood for "U Can't Lose to Anybody."

On January 19, 1974, they were 13-0, having an 88-game winning streak, the longest in college basketball history, when, again, they traveled to play Notre Dame away. Coached by Richard "Digger" Phelps, and led by a freshman from Washington, D.C. named Adrian Dantley, the Fighting Irish were 9-0, and ranked Number 2. Unlike UCLA's 1968 loss to the University of Houston at a packed Astrodome, this game was not billed beforehand as a "Game of the Century."

Had it been, it would have lived up to the hype. UCLA led by 11 points with 4 minutes to play. But Notre Dame went on a tear, and, with 6 seconds to go, took their 1st lead of the game, 71-70. One last-gasp effort by Walton missed, and the streak was over.

In the event that you should ever meet Bill Walton, never, ever mention this game to him. In his 1993 memoir Nothing But Net, he said it still bothered him. As of January 19, 2022, he is still alive, and he has complained about it many times since.

One week later, on January 26, there was a rematch at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, and UCLA got its revenge, 94-75. Notre Dame finished the season 26-3, losing to Michigan in the NCAA Tournament's round of 16.

UCLA would get to the Semifinal, then lose to a North Carolina State team led by David Thompson. N.C. State then beat Marquette for the title. Without the graduating Walton, Wooden led UCLA to 1 last National Championship in 1975, and retired, winning 10 in 12 years. No other school has won that many. UCLA has since won an 11th title, in 1995.

Renamed the Joyce Center in 1987, in honor of school administrator Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, Notre Dame's basketball arena is a house of upsets. In addition to the 2 noteworthy wins over UCLA, Notre Dame also upset the basketball team then ranked Number 1 in the nation in 1977 (the University of San Francisco), 1980 (DePaul), 1987 (North Carolina), 1991 (UCLA again), 2012 (Syracuse), and 2016 (North Carolina again).

No men's basketball team has seriously approached UCLA's 88-game winning streak. UNLV, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, has the longest streak since, 45, in 1990 and '91, including the 1990 NCAA Final over Duke, who then ended the streak in the 1991 NCAA Semifinal.

But the women's team at the University of Connecticut now has 2 longer winning streaks: 90 straight from 2008 to 2011, and 111 straight from 2016 to 2018.

UPDATE: Bill Walton was lifted of the burden of having to live with this defeat on May 27, 2024.

*

January 19, 1974 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had ended 6 days earlier, with the Miami Dolphins beating the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl VIII. There were 5 games played that day in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Phoenix Suns, 112-89 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* The Capital Bullets -- in their 1st season in the D.C. area after moving from Baltimore, they renamed themselves the Washington Bullets the next season and the Washington Wizards in 1997 -- beat the Golden State Warriors, 117-90 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 127-109 at The Omni in Atlanta. Despite the defeat, the Sonics' Dick Snyder led all pro scorers on the day with 41 points.

* The Kansas City-Omaha Kings beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 111-108 at the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium. Austin Carr, who helped Notre Dame beat UCLA in 1971, scored 31 in defeat for the Cavs.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 121-106 at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA. What former UCLA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a practicing Muslim, thinks of that nickname, only he knows, but he scored 34 points that day.

There were 4 games played in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets bear the Memphis Tams, 103-98 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 34 points.

* The Virginia Squires beat the Utah Stars, 129-105 at the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the San Antonio Spurs, 103-101 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* And the Denver Rockets beat the Carolina Cougars, 120-110 at the Auditorium Arena in Denver. In anticipation of being admitted to the NBA (which they were, in 1976), and knowing that the NBA already had the Houston Rockets, the Denver Rockets changed their name, effective the next season, taking up the name of the NBA's 1st Denver team, the Denver Nuggets.

There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The New York Islanders played the Buffalo Sabres to a tie, 2-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 8-0 at the Montreal Forum, a truly embarrassing loss for the Stanley Cup holders.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 2-0 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Atlanta Flames, the California Golden Seals, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Vancouver Canucks were not scheduled.

And there were 4 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* The Jersey Knights beat the Vancouver Blazers, 5-4 in overtime at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

* The New England Whalers beat the Minnesota Fighting Saints, 5-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Chicago Cougars beat the Quebec Nordiques, 5-2 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago.

* And the Los Angeles Sharks beat the Houston Aeros, 3-2 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.

Also, Arsenal and Manchester United played to a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in Salford, outside Manchester.