March 30, 1998: A Black Coach Wins the Title at Kentucky

March 30, 1998: The University of Kentucky basketball team, coached by Orlando "Tubby" Smith and led by Nazr Mohammed and Jamaal Magloire, beats the University of Utah 78-69 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, which is also where the Final Four will be held this weekend.

Smith played at High Point College in North Carolina (it became "High Point University" in 1991), but was never an NBA prospect. He went into coaching, first as a high school head coach in his native Southern Maryland, then in the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina.

He became an assistant coach in college, including under Rick Pitino at Kentucky, alongside Billy Donovan, who went on to win National Championships at the University of Florida. In 1991, Smith was named head coach at the University of Tulsa, and in 1995 at the University of Georgia. Twice and Tulsa and once at Georgia, he got his team to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16.

Pitino led Kentucky to the National Championship in 1996, and reached the Final but lost in 1997. He then left to accept the head job of the Boston Celtics, and Smith was hired, the 1st black head coach at the school that long seemed to stand for white supremacy in college basketball.

Smith got the Wildcats into the NCAA Final with a 34-4 record. They lost to Number 1 Arizona, who had beaten them in the previous year's Final, in a Thanksgiving weekend tournament in Hawaii. Their other losses were all at home at Rupp Arena in Lexington: By 3 points to arch-rival Louisville; to Florida; and to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).

They won the Southeastern Conference regular-season title, blazed through the SEC Tournament; and, in the NCAA Tournament, beat South Carolina State, easily beat St. Louis University, crushed Number 19 UCLA, edged Number 3 Duke, and beat Number 10 Stanford in overtime to get to the Final.

Coached by Rick Majerus (who was considerably tubbier than Tubby Smith), Utah made the Final Four for the 4th time, but the 1st since 1966. They had won the National Championship in 1944, but not since, while Kentucky had won it 7 times.

Utah jumped out ahead, and led 41-31 at the half. But, as they had in their last 2 games in the Tournament, the "Comeback Cats" came back, and won the game, 78-69. Jeff Sheppard was named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

For Kentucky, whose old-time coach Adolph Rupp had been seen since the 1960s as a protector of white supremacy in college basketball, to be coached by a black man to a National Championship, was considered a very big deal.

This was the 4th time that Kentucky won the title in a year ending in an 8, having also done so in 1948, 1958 and 1978. It would turn out to be the 6th time the Yankees won the World Series in a year that Kentucky won basketball's National Championship (1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996 and 1998).

Smith led Kentucky back to the Elite Eight in 1999, 2003 and 2005; and to the SEC Championship in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005. But he couldn't get them back to the Final Four, and UK's "blue blood" fans got frustrated. Some UK fans went as far as to place "for sale" signs on his front lawn. I'd like to think they would have done the same thing to a similarly struggling white coach.

In 2007, Smith was offered a lifeline, the head coaching job at the University of Minnesota, and took it, leaving Kentucky. Things settled down, and he was elected to UK's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013. He coached at Minnesota until 2013, then at Texas Tech for 3 years, then at the University of Memphis for 2 years.

In 2018, he was named head coach at his Alma Mater, High Point University, lasting 4 years, long enough to raise enough money to build them a new arena, the 4,500-seat Qubein Center, with its playing surface named for Tubby and his wife: The Tubby and Donna Smith Court. In 2022, he retired, turning the job over to his son, G.G. Smith, who had previously coached at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore.

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March 30, 1998 was, like most NCAA basketball Finals in the modern era, a Monday. The NBA had no games scheduled. Major League Baseball opened its regular season the next day. Football was out of season. There were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Boston Bruins lost to the Colorado Avalanche, 4-1 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the San Jose Sharks, 6-2 at the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat their Provincial arch-rivals, the Calgary Flames, 3-1 at the Edmonton Coliseum (as the Northlands Coliseum was then known).

March 30, 1944: College Basketball's Red Cross Benefit

March 30, 1944: For the 1st time, college basketball has the equivalent of a boxing "unification bout." It features the winners of the NCAA Tournament and the winners of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), for a true, if unofficial, National Championship.

Two days earlier, the University of Utah, coached by Vadal Peterson, won the NCAA Tournament, beating Ivy League school Dartmouth in the Final, 42-40 at the old Madison Square Garden. Arnie Ferrin was named the Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

(A freshman, Ferrin was eligible to play under wartime conditions. It would be 1972 before the NCAA allowed freshmen to play varsity sports under normal conditions, unaffected by a wartime manpower drain or a tragedy, as in the 1970 plane crashes that killed most of the players on the football teams at Wichita State and Marshall universities.)

The NIT was won by St. John's University, of Jamaica, Queens, New York City. They were coached by Joe Lapchick, who had starred as a player with the top professional team of the 1920s, the New York-based Original Celtics. The Redmen, a.k.a. the Johnnies, had 11 players. One was from nearby Cliffside Park, New Jersey. The other 10 were all from the City.

Since the entire NIT was played at The Garden, SJU's secondary home court, they were essentially playing at home in each round, including the Final, 47-39 win over DePaul University of Chicago. DePaul were coached by Ray Meyer, and had a rising star, 6-foot-10 sophomore George Mikan. They would be back.

With the Utah Redskins still in New York, the unofficial national championship game was set up, as a benefit for the International Red Cross. Utah won, 44-36.

Ferrin went off to war, came back alive, and, as a senior, led Utah to the NIT title in 1947. He later had his Number 22 retired by the school, won 2 NBA Championships with the Minneapolis Lakers, and was the last surviving member of both the '44 Redskins and the '49 Lakers, living until 2022.

Both schools would abandon their racist mascots. In 1972, Utah abandoned "Redskins" for "Utes," to honor the Native America tribe for which the State was named. In 1995, St. John's abandoned "Redmen" for "Red Storm."

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March 30, 1944 was a Thursday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. Hockey was in the Semifinal round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, both of which were clinched on this night. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 11-0 at the Montreal Forum. And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Canadiens went on to win the Cup.