UH revival met with enthusiasm
Legendary Cougars say program echoes its past greatness
Back in the day, Elvin Hayes remembers walking into a gym and the name meaning something.
“Any time you mentioned the University of Houston, it was like, ‘Wow, man, that’s one of the best basketball teams in the country,’ ” said Hayes, a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest
players in school history. “They knew what the name meant.”
From a dominant stretch that produced the “Game of the Century” to the rim-rattling era of Phi Slama Jam, the Cougars were well-known in college basketball. And former players hope Sunday’s return to the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in more than a quarter of a century is a sign the program is back to playing yearly on the same national stage where it was a star attraction.
“The rebuilding of the program is long overdue,” said Reid Gettys, a guard on the Phi Slama Jama teams of the early 1980s that made three straight Final Four appearances.
This year’s Cougars are 26-
7, ranked No, 21 and open the NCAA Tournament as a sixth seed Thursday against 11th-seeded San Diego State in Wichita, Kan. It’s the school’s first NCAA appearance in eight years and the third since 1992.
“I think it would be one of the greatest things to see this program be at the height and level that it once was,” said Hayes, the all-time leading scorer in school history. “To have the name once again ring and bring fear into people. I remember we would walk into a gym and people would say, ‘Oh, the University of Houston is coming.’ ”
Great achievements
The Cougars were one of the dominant teams in the mid1960s to early 1970s, going to the NCAA Tournament eight times in a nine-year span, including two trips to the Final Four led by the 6-8 Hayes. UH upset top-ranked UCLA, ending the Bruins’ streak of 47 consecutive wins in the “Game of the Century” — the first regular-season game to be broadcast on national television — in the Astrodome. Hall of Fame coach Guy V. Lewis is credited with helping with the integration of college basketball in the South with the signing of Hayes and Don Chaney.
Lewis led the Cougars to 27 consecutive winning seasons from 1959-85, which included 14 NCAA Tournament appearances and five trips to the Final Four.
Phi Slama Jama produced 25, 31 and 32 wins in three straight trips to the Final Four from 198284. The final two years, the Cougars advanced to the national title game, losing to North Carolina State and Georgetown.
Three UH players — Hayes, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler — were included on the NBA’s Top 50 greatest players list in 1996.
Gettys, who has worked about a half-dozen games this season for ESPN, did not realize it has been since 1984 that UH last won in the NCAA Tournament.
“That blew me away,” Gettys said. “I just couldn’t believe it.”
Gettys has been impressed with coach Kelvin Sampson, who after a 13-19 first season took the Cougars to a pair of NIT appearances before this year’s breakthrough that included a pair of top-10 wins and unbeaten home mark.
“Having the opportunity to watch this team as much as I’ve watched, Kelvin Sampson has this team and this program far beyond what even the most optimistic fan and alumni could have reasonably anticipated or expected or hoped for,” Gettys said. “I feel like Kelvin has built a foundation and the program is being built for the long haul.”
Sampson’s influence
Since Sampson’s arrival in April 2014, the UH program has undergone a renaissance with much-needed improvements to its infrastructure with the opening of the Guy V. Lewis Development Facility and the $60 million Fertitta Center, which is set to open in early December.
“Winning brings recruits,” Hayes said. “Winning brings notoriety. Winning brings all the things a top basketball program needs. When you have the facilities and you’re a winner, there’s nothing like it. It’s truly, truly amazing. Kelvin Sampson has recruited and built a program. The players have bought into the University of Houston brand and the history of basketball and what this program meant in the past.”
Jim Nantz, a member of the UH golf team in the 1970s who served as the public address announcer at Hofheinz Pavilion, said Sampson has “awakened a sleeping giant.”
“This program is in really good hands,” said Nantz, who called his first UH game this past weekend for CBS Sports.
Bo Outlaw, a forward for the UH team that made the NCAA Tournament in 1992, said reaching the NCAA Tournament is an accomplishment never forgotten.
Unforgettable experience
“You can’t explain it,” Outlaw said. “You can tell them how it’s going to be, what to expect, but once you get there you will see the emotion, excitement the adrenaline. The rest of your life you get to talk about this. Once you get there, you can’t take it away. Now what we are trying to do is make some noise.”
Sampson embraces the school’s storied past.
“Every day I walk into this gym, I look at that spot,” said Sampson, pointing to a row of NCAA Tournament banners inside the Guy V. Lewis Development Center. “Right beside 2010, knowing there is going to be a banner that says 2018. Then I’m going to look at that spot beside 2018 and I’m going to think 2019, 2020, 2021. That’s your goal. It should be every team’s goal to get to the NCAA Tournament.”