In 1964, Loyola, Michigan played a classic
It had a disputed call and a punch
If the basketball game between Loyola-Chicago and Michigan at the Final Four on Saturday is anything like their meeting in the 1964 NCAA tournament, they’ll be thinking and talking about it more than 50 years from now.
The game featured a disputed call, an alleged punch and plenty of tension as the teams traded baskets for much of the way, the only previous time the schools have played each other in the NCAA tournament.
“I thought about that the other day,” Les Hunter, who at 6-7 and 200 pounds anchored Loyola’s front line, told USA TODAY. “I said, ‘Loyola vs. Michigan again.’ ”
The schools have squared off on the basketball court twice during the regular season, but the 1964 NCAA tournament game had a much different feel.
Loyola had won the 1963 national title, and the Ramblers looked like contenders to repeat when they took the floor against the less-experienced Michigan Wolverines on March 13, 1964, at Williams Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota.
“I was just thinking, ‘Gosh, these guys are big, and they’re tough,’ ” Oliver Darden, then a sophomore forward for Michigan, told USA TODAY. “Let’s put it this way, if they knew how I felt before they game started, they would have just come out and popped me in the mouth and I probably wouldn’t have been good the rest of the game.”
Darden said there was something else striking — seven of the 10 starters were African American in an era when some teams did not have a single African American on the roster. Darden was one of Michigan’s three African-American starters, and Loyola had four.
“I was happy to see that progress had been made,” he said.
Michigan’s Cazzie Russell, also African American, recalled something else about Loyola.
“I remember we were laughing at their warm-up because they would dunk and they would touch the square on the backboard, I guess as an intimidating factor,” said Russell, a two-time All-American who had his jersey retired at Michigan. “I never said anything to anybody about it. But my thing was, can you put the ball in the hoop?”
Clearly, both teams were capable of putting the ball in the hoop when they faced off in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Michigan led 82-80 with less than a minute left.
Then Loyola’s Jim Coleman stole the ball and headed for a layup that would have tied the score, according to an account by Ramblermania.net that gener- ally matches the accounts of several players who spoke with USA TODAY.
But Coleman was called for traveling, Michigan got the ball back and scored again, and that was that, 84-80.
“I don’t think I traveled, but, you know, what can I say?” Coleman told USA TODAY. “It was in the heat of the game. I knew what I had to do to help us secure the win, and I took a chance. Did steal the ball. I don’t think I’d been called for traveling all that year.”
Hunter added, “We were in Big Ten country … and we always thought we got the home job there.”
Michigan’s Bob Cantrell said he had the ball before it was knocked loose, and Coleman chased it down.
“It kind of rolled up his shoulder,” Cantrell said. “He didn’t make a clean catch, and they called him for traveling.
“But I don’t think Coleman would’ve scored because once the ball was deflected I would have gone out there and tried to stop him. It wasn’t a clear-cut lay-in.”
The traveling call is not the only thing in dispute. After the game, Loyola guard John Egan said, he was approached by Bill Gleason, then a well-known sportswriter from Chicago who died in 2010.
“Bill Gleason asked me whether or not I wished to hear what Cazzie had to say about me,” Egan said. “And then (Gleason) said something to the effect that (Russell said), ‘He’s the dirtiest player I ever played against.’
“I wasn’t a dirty player. Maybe aggressive but not dirty. No cheap shots, that’s for sure.”
Countered Russell, “I don’t remember saying that.”
But Michigan’s Cantrell said Egan hit him in the jaw during the game when the referees weren’t looking.
“Didn’t knock me out,” Cantrell said. “But stung me, I can tell you that. You could see his frustration because I was guarding him without the ball. Whenever he gave up the ball, I didn’t let him get it back.
“I’m not trying to fault him, because basketball back in those days was a tough game. It was tougher back then.”
When the game ended, Michigan’s Bill Buntin had scored 26 points and Russell, playing on an injured right ankle, scored 21 for the Wolverines, who advanced to the Final Four before losing to Duke.
Hunter scored 25 points and four other players scored in double figures for Loyola, which has reached the NCAA tournament only five times since.
“I think we had a stronger club, and we didn’t prevail,” Egan said. “That’s always something that bothers you when you think you’re the better of the two teams and you didn’t prevail.”
Now Loyola has a chance to avenge its 1964 loss to Michigan — and, oh by the way, a chance to reach the national championship game.
“Yeah,” Hunter said with a chuckle, “but it’s going to be tough.”