Major stories and events
UCLA was the unchallenged king of college basketball until toppled by UH at the Astrodome.
The 20th century was barely two-thirds complete when the decision was boldly, even brashly made to market a college basketball contest in January 1968 as “The Game of the Century.”
But the event stood the test of time. The University of Houston’s 71-69 victory before 52,693 in the Astrodome was and remains as dramatic and significant, in equal parts, as any played. In any century. It had star power on steroids. The Bruins’ Lew Alcindor and the Cougars’ Elvin Hayes were the best players in the country, in the early stages of careers that would lead them to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Both supporting casts were so strong the two teams might have been ranked one-two in the country without the two big men. The teams had met in the previous season’s Final Four semifinals. UCLA prevailed 73-58, and won its third title in four seasons. The Cougars took the third-place game, setting the stage for a rematch that, the Bruins’ Lynn Shackelford declared many years later, “changed everything.”
UCLA’s professorial John Wooden is arguably the greatest coach ever; Houston’s charismatic Guy V. Lewis, matinee-idol handsome with a million-watt smile and always dapperly dressed, was far ahead of his time in a variety of ways.
For starters, he understood marketing. “Guy V,” as most folks called him, made famous the redand-white, polka-dot towel he flung in the air after every victory and, by the winter of 1968, they were routine.
The Cougars took a 14-0 record in against the 13-0 Bruins. Still, Lewis was poorly thought of as a coach by some, who said he’d just roll the ball out there to start a practice, then let his lads go at it.
Finally, there was the sparkling new Astrodome, a sporting palace like no other. Where else to play the “Game of the Century” on a Saturday night in front of a national TV audience but on the floor of the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” Although views from the seats were mostly terrible with the court placed directly in the middle of the baseball stadium layout, center court essentially on top of second base, the crowd was more than three times as big as any that had watched a college basketball game anywhere.
The aura would be such there are roughly a million people today who’ll swear they were in the building that night to see the Cougars end the Bruins’ 47-game winning streak and take over the No. 1 ranking.
“The setting turned out to be so dramatic that it has always stuck in people’s minds,” longtime broadcaster Dick Enberg, who called the game, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1986. “What makes a great meal? The service, the food, the setting? That game had it all. The crowd, the closeness of the score, two great stars going at one another It was something, maybe the most important game I ever called.”
No regular-season college game had been televised from coast to coast. But Eddie Einhorn and his TVS network, a precursor to a modern cable operation, wanted in from the get-go. Einhorn, who also served as president of the Chicago White Sox, had vision to go with his fast-talking skills. He would pay $27,000 for the broadcast rights and TVS signed up 120 stations around the country that were willing to pre-empt their regular Saturday evening programming for college hoops.
Although skeptical at first because of the garish, grandiose show-business aspect the game would have, Wooden’s mind opened the more he came to grasp the big-picture upside for the sport he loved going forward. As great as the Bruins had become, they played to crowds of under 13,000 in their new Pauley Pavilion on campus. So UCLA soon signed on with one condition, that their young play-by-play man Enberg, who will finally retire from broadcasting at the age of 81 this fall, would be behind the microphone. Hall of Famer Bob Pettit was hired to handle the color commentary.
The floor would be trucked in from the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
The game was riveting from the start, although Alcindor was bothered by an eye injury he had incurred in his previous game against Cal. Under any other circumstances, it’s unlikely he would have played. The game was one of just two during his spectacular college career in which he shot under 50 percent. But three of his misses were statement blocks by Hayes, each eliciting roars of “Big E!” from the wildly partisan crowd.
The Cougars led 46-43 at halftime when, Enberg says, advertisers began phoning Einhorn one after another to buy more 30-second spots to air during the final 20 minutes. Those who got through got their money’s worth.
With two minutes to go, the score was tied at 69 following a pair of Lucius Allen free throws. Hayes, fouled by UCLA’s Jim Nielsen, responded with two of his own for his 38th and 39th points. Allen’s subsequent shot wouldn’t drop and, on the Bruins’ final possession, All-American guard Mike Warren inadvertently deflected a pass meant for Shackelford out of bounds. Shackelford, UCLA’s best perimeter shooter, had been left unguarded in the corner.
“I remember us being down in that pit that had been dug in the Astrodome (floor) for the press,” Enberg said, “and then (hearing) the sound of the Houston fans stampeding to the court.”
Ajoyous mix of spectators and Cougars lifted Hayes to their shoulders and paraded him around the court. Pandemonium doesn’t begin to describe the chaotic scene.
But, despite the defeat, the Bruins couldn’t have regretted the trip. Each school received $125,000, some four times the NCAATournament payout of $31,781 that spring. And UCLA got its revenge in a Final Four rematch two months later, romping 101-69 en route to another national title.
The dichotomy of euphoria and disappointment in the two locker rooms couldn’t have been more pronounced — the Bruins really didn’t know how to lose — but the players on both sides realized they had been part of something special, historic and worth celebrating — together. As he was leaving the locker room, Hayes told Chronicle sports writer Jerry Wizig, “I’m going to pick up Lew and we’re going to a party.” dale.robertson@chron.com twitter.com/sportywineguy
UCLA was the unchallenged king of college basketball until toppled by UH at the Astrodome.