The first NCAA basketball championship was played in 1939 in front of 5,500 fans at Northwestern’s Patten Gymnasium. The latest edition will be played Monday night at the 47,100-seat RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
In one form or another, that’s 58 Final Fours, each with its own distinctive footprint. Here are the 10–according to our very subjective voting–that required the biggest pairs of hi-tops, told through the principal performers, including John Wooden, Michael Jordan and Rollie Massimino. All are title games unless otherwise indicated.
1. North Carolina State 54, Houston 52 (1983)
Lorenzo Charles’ game-winning dunk of Dereck Whittenburg’s missed jumper remains the lasting image of perhaps the greatest upset in NCAA tournament history. North Carolina State, which needed to win its conference tournament to receive a bid, defeated a Houston team that included two likely Hall of Fame choices– Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.
Whittenburg, now an assistant coach at Georgia Tech, remembers the amazing night in Albuquerque:
“The first memorable moment that’s so vivid is the pregame talk. (Coach Jim) Valvano was sitting there talking about a dream, telling us, `This is what dreams are made of. We’ve got nothing to lose. Everybody thinks Houston is going to win.’
“Then Phil Spence, who played on State’s 1974 championship team, busts through the locker room door. He’s all excited and he’s saying, `You’re going to do it! You can win! You gotta believe!’
“Valvano looks at us and says, `That’s it. We’re going out on that note.’
“Valvano told us we had to keep the game in the 50s or 60s. We did that, but let me tell you how close it was. In those last few seconds, (Houston’s) Benny Anders went for a steal and came a fraction of an inch of getting it. One more step and he would have gone in for a dunk and they would have won a national championship. Instead, I retrieved it and in one motion glanced at the clock and let it go.
“Was it a pass or a shot? I told people it was a pass then, it’s a pass now. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
–G.W.
2. Texas Western 72, Kentucky 65 (1966)
Don Haskins’ mostly black team of inner-city, no-name players beat mighty (and all-white) Kentucky. In the aftermath, the win forced coaches, especially those in the South, to integrate their teams.
Bobby Joe Hill, the former Miners guard who still lives in the El Paso area, recalled the momunmental victory:
“We knew we could win. We had guys who could play. I came from Highland Park, which is in the center of Detroit. (Guard) Willie Worsley was All-City in New York–and that meant something then. (Guard) Orsten Artis was from Gary. If you played us, you knew you weren’t going to face Girl Scouts.
“We were just a little school that nobody had ever heard of. But after that game, we heard about the changes it caused. It shocked us. We were so stereotyped. It was like how they said a black couldn’t play quarterback. Or how you couldn’t have five blacks on a court because they’d just run up and down not knowing what to do.
“Kentucky was quick. That’s how they beat everybody. But we were definitely quicker. We started three guards that game and our two big guys were quick too.
“About the second, third play of the game, I lobbed one to (Dave) Lattin and he almost tore the rim down. (Kentucky’s Pat) Riley was on one hand and I think Thad Jaracz was on the other. I thought that was a turning point. They saw that and it was like, `Who are these guys?’
“The season seems like it was yesterday. Everyone cut down the nets that day except me. I was over there talking to my brother. You win some, you lose some, I guess.”
— G.W.
3.Michigan State 75, Indiana State 64 (1979)
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Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird. Undefeated Indiana State vs. Jud Heathcote’s Spartans. Never mind the score. This was the game that might have saved basketball from itself.
Heathcote hasn’t forgotten a single moment.
“The buildup was unbelievable because of the Birdman vs. the Magic Man. They were undefeated and ranked No. 1, but we still were the favorite. That’s because we had two superstars–Johnson and Greg Kelser–and they had one.
“We had a nine-point lead at halftime and if Kelser hadn’t had foul trouble, it might have been a huge blowout.
“After the game we did the media circus and then came back to our locker room. No reporters were there except for one guy. He kept going to each of our players and asking, `Larry Bird really let them down tonight, didn’t he?’ Finally, I went over and said, `Who are you?’ He said he was a free-lance writer from New York. Well, that did not intrigue me. So I told him, `If you try to get any of my players to say something negative about Larry Bird, I’m going to pick you up and throw you out of here.’
“I told him that Bird and Magic would be two of the greatest professionals in the history of game because they possessed three things that nobody analyzed: They improve the play of others around them; they have great hands; they have great court vision.
“I still give credit to those two for saving pro basketball.”
–G.W.
4. Indiana 86, Michigan 68 (1976)
The Hoosiers finished a perfect 32-0 that season and remain the last team to survive a season without a loss. It was the first of three national championships for Indiana coach Bob Knight.
Michigan coach Johnny Orr, who picked the wrong year to have his best-ever Wolverines team, provides the gory details:
“The big thing is when Bobby Wilkerson got hurt for them early in the game. They don’t say much about that, but it made a big difference. We were playing really well, but they brought in a sub and Indiana got really inspired after that.
“We played well in the first half, had them by six points. We were not a very big team, but we were very quick. That was our thing, the press and run. But in the second half, the tempo of the game slowed down a little bit. It was a good game until about three minutes to go. Then they pulled away.
“Everyone played well for them. Quinn Buckner. Kent Benson. Scott May. Tom Abernethy. Jim Wisman. Jim Crews. Wilkerson wasn’t in there long. Four of those guys were first-round draft choices, three of them in the same year (May, Buckner and Wilkerson).
“They say they had the greatest all-time team, but doggone it, we had a great team too. I think those were two of the best teams that ever made it in there to the Final Four.”
–G.W.
5. Villanova 66, Georgetown 64 (1985)
Georgetown had the 7-foot merchant of menace, Patrick Ewing, but eighth-seeded Villanova had the heart of another Philadelphia legend, Rocky Balboa. The Wildcats shot a tournament-record 78.6 percent from the field and made 22 of 27 free throws.
Villanova coach Rollie Massimino said his team had to play a perfect game to win. It did. Massimino, now the head coach at Cleveland State, recalls the magical ride:
“We barely made it in to the tournament because we were 19-10. We had lost to Pittsburgh by 30 just before the Big East tournament. But we beat them in the first round. If we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have gotten a bid.
“I told (the players) two things before the (Georgetown) game: One, you’ll get hugged and kissed, and there will be a parade for you back home either way. But two, you have to play to win, not to lose.
“At halftime, I told them all I wanted was a big dish of spaghetti with a lot of clam sauce and a lot of cheese. They got a kick out of that.
“(The win) was the culmination of a lot of hard work. It was fun, great for the kids. Yesterday I heard from Harold Pressley. He reminded me that he played 40 minutes in the game.
“I don’t talk very often about it unless I’m asked. I’ve done seven or eight of these interviews over the last few days for this.
“Where do you have us ranked? CBS had us first.”
–T.G.
6. North Carolina 54, Kansas 53 (1957)
The Tar Heels played six overtimes over two games (they beat Michigan State 74-70 in the semifinals), and they were rewarded for their effort. In the semifinals, Carolina trailed by two late in double-overtime. With three seconds left, Pete Brennan’s jump shot sent the game into the deciding triple-OT.
Two nights later, the Tar Heels stunned Kansas in another 55-minute contest. Carolina gained the mental edge by having 5-foot-11 Tommy Kearns jump center against 7-1 Wilt Chamberlain. Kearns, a retired investment banker who lives in Connecticut, recalls the moment:
“(Coach) Frank McGuire called me over before warmups. He said: `Hey Kearns, are you afraid of Wilt? `Hell, no’ I said. `Nobody’s afraid of Wilt.’
“My wife refers to it as my defining moment. I do think it had a major impact on the game. It probably made them think: `What are they doing? What kind of crazy thing are they going to do next?’ It put a little kink in their confidence.
“We jumped out to a lead and they caught us. When (Tar Heel All-American) Lennie Rosenbluth fouled out in regulation, everyone figured that sealed us. But we controlled the whole game.
“(In the third overtime) We were down one with six seconds left and Joe Quigg had two foul shots. We came over to the bench and Frank said: `After you make the free throws, Joe, this is what you’re going to do.’ (After he made them), they threw it into Wilt, but the pass got deflected. I get the ball with two seconds left and throw it into the air. The game ends, and we’re heroes.”
— T.G.
7. UCLA 101, Houston 69 (1968 semifinal)
The final game (UCLA beat North Carolina 78-55) was an afterthought after the drama of the semifinals. Houston had snapped UCLA’s 47-game winning streak in January before a record crowd of 52,693 at the Astrodome. Houston star Elvin Hayes scored 39 points; UCLA’s Lew Alcindor, suffering from double vision after his left cornea was scratched, made just 4 of 18 field-goal attempts.
UCLA’s margin of victory over Houston in the finals was the biggest until UNLV’s 30-point win over Duke in 1990.
UCLA mastermind John Wooden reminisces:
“Some coaches feel they can motivate players better after a loss. I think a scare can be good for a team, but I’ve never liked a loss. I think you can still learn from a win. If you’re in a fight, would you rather fight somebody who’s whipped you or who you’ve whipped?
“(Against Houston in the NCAA tournament), I used a diamond-and-one defense on Elvin Hayes. It was the only time I had done that in my coaching career. I put (Lynn) Shackelford, our poorest individual defender, on Hayes. He hounded him, and we had Alcindor under the basket to defend shots in the lane. (Hayes was held to 10 points).
“I wasn’t worried about a letdown in the finals. I felt confident we’d win, but I was surprised we did it so handily. We had our foot in the door, but the door could have been slammed on us. But with that team, I thought I’d be fine.”
— T.G.
8. Loyola 60, Cincinnati 58 (1963)
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Ending one of the great early dynasties in college basketball, Loyola denied Cincinnati a then-unprecedented third straight NCAA title by staging an incredible comeback. Down 15 points with less than 14 minutes left in the second half, the Ramblers stormed back to tie things up on a 12-foot jumper by Jerry Harkness with four seconds to go. With one second remaining in overtime, Vic Rouse tipped in a Les Hunter miss for the winning basket. It was the last of five consecutive Final Four appearances for Cincinnati.
Harkness remembers the game, and what it has meant to him:
“Being an athlete, I always remember the bad things: I hadn’t scored a point for the whole first half and how much that would have hurt me the whole rest of my life if we hadn’t won. But now I’ll go to bed and have a picture in my mind of that shot and I’ll see Vic Rouse hitting his shot from time to time, especially around Final Four time.
“The time was going down and we only had three or four seconds left. I had to take it,” recalls Harkness, who owns an athletic footwear store in Indianapolis. “Now the thrill of winning is all I remember.
“When people come into my store, they see the jersey and my ring, and they remember it. It’s great, because you can show the film to your kids. It’s 35 years almost, and it still tingles.”
— A.G.
9. North Carolina 63, Georgetown 62 (1982)
The legend began here for Michael Jordan. He was just a freshman on a talented Tar Heels team that included James Worthy and Sam Perkins. But with North Carolina trailing by a point in the final seconds, the freshman stepped up, hitting the game-winning shot.
Jordan said he often thinks about the shot this time of year.
“It makes you reminisce about your opportunity and your chances to even be in those situations. You look back at how it propelled your career and helped build your confidence as a basketball player.
“It was ironic that they said the weakest part of my game was my jump shot. I just never was able to illustrate it as much in college as I do in the NBA. I don’t have a problem showing people they were wrong.”
— T.A.
10. UCLA 87, Memphis State 66 (1973)
In one of the most memorable individual basketball performances ever, Bruin center Bill Walton made 21 of 22 attempts to score 44 points and give UCLA its seventh consecutive title. The 44 points ranks Walton third all-time for a single NCAA tournament game, and his 21 field goals is second; the shooting percentage, 95.5 percent, is a record.
Walton made all 10 of his second-half shots as UCLA pulled away from a 39-39 halftime deadlock. Greg Lee picked up 14 assists in serving as the principle feeder with lob after lob.
Wooden remembers the performance:
“I don’t want to take anything away from Bill’s game, but the defense that Memphis was using opened him to get easy passes underneath. They were not giving help. Actually, most of them were very easy shots underneath.
“That was a team achievement built around the tremendous ability of Walton. When they defended us as Memphis did, we’d be foolish not to go to him. They were playing behind him with a small man and we were able to get the ball inside.
“I don’t want that to be considered as a criticism, it was just the way they chose to play. It was a tremendous accomplishment.
“Actually, I feel it was Gail Goodrich’s 42 against a big, strong Michigan team in the (1965) championship game that was the best individual showing I’ve seen. He was the smallest man on the floor.”
— T.G.
Honorable mentions
Duke 79, Nevada-Las Vegas 77 (1991 semifinals): Jerry Tarkanian still can’t believe his then-unbeaten and supposedly unbeatable Runnin’ Rebels lost Duke. The defeat cost UNLV a chance at a second consecutive NCAA title.
San Francisco 83, Iowa 71 (1956): Bill Russell ended his college career with 26 points, 27 rebounds and a second consecutive national championship. The victory was the Dons’ 55th in a row and was played at Northwestern’s then-McGaw Hall.
UCLA 92, Kentucky 85 (1975): In John Wooden’s final game, the Bruins used just six players to earn the great UCLA coach a 10th national title.
North Carolina 77, Michigan 71 (1993): Dean Smith wins a second NCAA title partly because Michigan’s Chris Webber called a timeout the Wolverines didn’t have.
Michigan 80, Seton Hall 79 (1989): Interim coach Steve Fisher, who received a last-minute promotion when Bill Frieder took the Arizona State job, led the Wolverines to a storybook overtime win.