In 1967, college basketball was quite different. In the South and other parts of the country to a lesser extent, integration wasn’t fully in effect. There was no shot clock and no three point shot and no dunk.
UCLA was the dominant program in the country, having won back-to-back titles in 1964 and 1965. They didn’t win in 1966 (the year Texas Western won), but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then known as Lew Alcindor, was a freshman in 1965-66 and the freshmen beat the snot out of the varsity (freshmen were not eligible then) in an pre-season exhibition. It’s safe to say UCLA would have won in 1966 had he been eligible.
There wasn’t much question about 1967.
UCLA came in to the tournament undefeated and with a player everyone knew was destined to be an all-time great in Jabbar.
They played Dayton in the finals after beating Houston in the semis the night before and while Dayton played a tough, smart game, the Bruins ended up winning 79-64.
When the score reaches 17-4, the announcer says “it looks like the beginning of the end.”
Everyone understood that Kareem put UCLA on an entirely different level.
UCLA forced everyone to play faster. This is a much more modern looking game than we saw just a few years before. John Wooden brought the tradition of fast basketball to Los Angeles and in 1967, he changed college basketball forever.
On the other hand, sinister booster Sam Gilbert began to exercise more and more influence over the program, something Wooden, normally morally upright, turned a blind eye to. Later, Wooden’s successor Gene Bartow wrote to David Berst, NCAA assistant executive director for enforcement, thanking for possibly saving his life by not investigating UCLA.
Bartow said he feared that Gilbert was affiliated with the Mafia and might have killed him if he thought Bartow ratted him out (he later said this was in jest. You can decide which way makes more sense).
On a different note, this is from 58 years ago but it’s still jarring to hear the announcer call Jabbar “the big boy” and other black players boy this and boy that.
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