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| Title | Division I Men's Basketball Championship First & Second Rounds |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Publisher | National Collegiate Athletic Association |
| Date | March 15, 1990 - March 17, 1990 |
| Subject.Topical (LCSH) |
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| Subject.Name (LCNAF) |
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| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Location | ID 2009-006, Box 7, Folder 7 |
| Original Collection | Athletics Department Records |
| Digital Collection | University of Houston Sports Championship Publications |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/champ |
| Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://info.lib.uh.edu/about/campus-libraries-collections/special-collections |
| Use and Reproduction | Educational use only, no other permissions given. Copyright to this resource is held by the content creator, author, artist or other entity, and is provided here for educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the copyright owner. For more information please see UH Digital Library Fair Use policy on the UH Digital Library About page. |
| File Name | index.cpd |
| Title | Page 27 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | champ_201306_035_026.jpg |
| Transcript | Hail The Undefeated The "Sweet 16" Teams Who Entered The NCAA Championship Unbeaten BY DICK FENLON Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch Unbeaten they came to the NCAA championship. Call the roll: Columbia in 1951. San Francisco in 1956. North Carolina in 1957. Ohio State in 1961. UCLA in 1964, 1967, 1972 and 1973. Houston and St. Bonaventure in 1968. Marquette and Pennsylvania in 1971. Indiana in 1975 and 1976. Rutgers in 1976. Indiana State in 1979. Hail to the Sweet Sixteen. And say hello to Columbia's Gordon Ridings. The coach who started it all. "It was about a week before the 1950-51 season," recalls Jack Rohan. "Gordon called us together before practice. He told us he had been building for the season for quite a while. And he said if we played as he had designed things, he thought we'd go undefeated." A heart attack felled Ridings that night. He never coached again. Junior varsity coach Lou Rossini took over. The Lions won 23 straight before losing to Illinois, 79- 71, in the championship's first round in Madison Square Garden. "We just kept beating people," recalls Rohan, then a sophomore for the Lions, later head coach, now golf coach and director of physical education at Columbia. "Against Illinois, our best player, John Azary, had a severely sprained ankle. Bobby Reiss had heart palpitations. Al Stein had a very bad night and our sixth man, Bobby Sullivan, was declared ineligible because he hadn't completed a paper for the school of engineering. And we still only lost by eight." And, even in defeat, began a grand tradition. Seven among the 15 that followed did not miss a step. Trumpets, please, for 29-0 San Francisco in 1956; 32-0 North Carolina in 1957; 30-0 UCLA in 1964, 1967, 1972 and 1973; and 32-0 Indiana in 1976. To the summit they climbed, conquering every opponent, lords over all. Two others, 27-1 Ohio State in 1961, 33- 1 Indiana State in 1979, faltered at the last rung, the championship game. Two more, Houston in 1968, Rutgers in 1976, fell in the national semifinals. The rest lost along the way in the NCAA John Wooden, the "Wizard of Westwood," guided his teams to four undefeated national titles. championship, from the opening round to the regional final. Kindred spirits all, for they share a common glory: To the NCAA championship they brought the Mystique of the Unbeaten. "If I ever had one that I thought might have a chance to go through undefeated, that was the (1968) team. And we didn't do it." John Wooden UCLA Famous players dot the rosters. Bird. Russell and Havlicek and Lucas. K.C. Jones. The "Big E" and Bob Lanier. Alcin- dor/Jabbar and Bill Walton. Incredible players. Legends. And the coaches. Begin with the Wizard. Will anyone ever match the coach who brought four unbeaten teams into the championship and came out with four unbeaten champions? The coach who won, all told, 10 titles in 12 seasons? John Wooden was more than coach. He was the Magnificent Exception. More often than not, dreams and unbeaten records go a-glimmering along the championship's Heartbreak Highway. The St. Bonaventures and Penns and Rutgers of NCAA history are mourned mostly by those who remember the glory of their pre-championship schedules. But fate is not always heartless. Occasionally, it finds a way to make amends. The first loss of the season came to Fred Taylor and Ohio State in the championship game against Cincinnati in 1961. To Al McGuire and Marquette it occurred in the first round of the regional against Taylor and the Buckeyes in 1971. 26 |