Marquette National Championship... 47 Years Ago Tonight...

[billyjack]

March 28th, 1977:
Marquette wins the National Championship:

I was 8.5 years old. This was the first final i was allowed to watch til the end. We rooted for Marquette of course, as fellow Catholic indie fans, and Al McGuire fans, over here in Providence.

I found this write-up on Facebook, a page titled "Al McGuire's Wit and Wisdom"... i dont know how to link a Facebook post. If there are copyright issues, let me know and i'll take this down.

Some inspiration leading into tomorrow's Sweet Sixteen game... Crush em Marquette !!

- - -

On today's date in 1977, in Al's final game before retirement, his 16th ranked Warriors upset Dean Smith's 5th ranked North Carolina Tarheels, 67-59, in Atlanta, Georgia's Omni Coliseum for Marquette's only National Championship to date, finishing the season at 25-7.

“The biggest upset in the history of the NCAA was Marquette winning the NCAA,” Al would declare many years later. “Don’t you remember, we were the last team invited?”

“It was the ultimate Hollywood ending,” Jimmy Boylan would later reflect while an assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers. “He got to ride off into the sunset with that championship. I believe Coach gave a lot to the game of basketball and in the end, basketball gave something back to him.”

“I think at that point in time,” explained Gary Rosenberger years later, “it would’ve taken an awesome game by North Carolina to beat Marquette that night. We were just in a frame of mind that it’s a do-or-die deal, this is Al’s last game, 26 years of coaching, we know it’s over, this is the last game, we’re leaving it all on the court.”

“He always wrote on the chalkboard before every game, 'Fight and Win,'" said junior Jerome Whitehead in the moments after the historic victory. “Tonight he wrote it and then said it was the last time he'd do that. That kind of got to me."

Marquette was in control the entire first half thanks to 15 points from All-American junior Butch Lee, who finished with 19.

The Warriors headed into intermission with a comfortable 12-point lead at 39-27, but Al cautioned his players to brace for a tough second half.

“Coach told us they'd make a run at us," said All-American senior captain Bo Ellis, who finished with 14 points on five of nine shooting to go along with nine rebounds and a team-high three assists. “He told us someone would crack. He said whoever cracked would lose and to keep our composure."

As Al had predicted, the Tarheels wasted no time in making their run at Marquette after the break.

Four minutes into the second stanza, the Warriors' 12-point advantage had dwindled to nothing during a 16-4 Carolina run that saw eight points from Mike O'Koren and a 43-43 deadlock, which prompted a timeout from Al.

“When North Carolina tied us in the second half, I was calling timeout to stop their momentum," Al explained. “Sports is stopping the other team's momentum, it's that simple."

“We have been a second half team all year and Coach told us to keep our composure and our desire, and we'd be okay," said Ellis of the timeout.

Coming out of the break, North Carolina took a 45-43 lead, but a basket from sophomore Bernard Toone knotted the game at 45 and North Carolina then went into Smith's patented “four corners” offense.

“We wanted to get them out of their zone," Smith explained later. “They wouldn't come out."

“It was sort of a cat-and-mouse game," recalls O'Koren. “I was at the scorer's table trying to get back into the game, and I'd watch Coach Smith to my right, and Coach McGuire to my left. Coach McGuire would say 'Zone,' then Coach Smith would say, 'Go four corners, get them out of zone,' because he wanted to play against them man-to-man. Then when they came out of man-to-man, we'd go into our offense, and Coach McGuire would yell, 'Back to a zone!'"

“This was a chess game," said Al. “Cat-and-mouse. A battle of coaching, too. I always have respect for the intelligence of the other coach. We came back because we calmed down by Mickey Mousing the ball around."

After a two-and-a-half-minute standoff, North Carolina's Bruce Buckley spied a seam in the Warrior zone and drove to the basket for a layup, only to have it rejected by Ellis with 9:48 to play.

Lee then scored on the other end to go up 47-45 before North Carolina tied it at 47, but their momentum was gone.

“The clock, I felt, was my friend," said Al on Smith's decision to go into the four corners stall. “They were odds-on favorites and their sweat was drying. They were losing momentum, even though nothing was being done. There was no scoring, but there was something happening. That two and a half minutes was the key to the game. It was like taking a timeout, losing a contact lens, something to ice the other club. Then they missed the shot, Butch scored and turned 'em. After that it was Wisconsin Ave, every light in Milwaukee was on and the phones overloading the phone wires between Atlanta and back here. We were tired. Dean let us rest."

A pair of clutch free throws from Lee, who drained seven of seven from the foul line, gave Marquette the lead for good at 49-47 with 6:09 left, and then just over nine seconds later junior Jim Boylan drove past Walter Davis for a bucket to put the Warriors up by four.

The Warriors were still up by four at 53-49 with 1:45 remaining when Toone dribbled the ball upcourt and was poked in the eye by O'Koren, who was called for the foul.

But Toone picked up a flagrant foul for swinging his elbows after the whistle had blown.

Al started to protest the flagrant foul call until the ref told him that it was a deadball foul on Toone, meaning that a center-court jumpball would follow the free throws rather than possession going to North Carolina.

Toone hit one of two from the line while Walter Davis, who led all scorers with 20 points, sank both foul shots to narrow Marquette's lead to 54-51.

But Marquette controlled the ensuing jumpball and the Tarheels were forced to foul.

The Warriors then expanded their lead on the strength of clutch free throw shooting, hitting 14 in a row to close out the game, 16 of 17 over the final six minutes, and 23 of 25 overall.

“Yes, there was lots of tension," said Al later. “But I could be playing the Little Sisters of the Poor after they'd been out all night and I'd still be nervous about beating them."

Boylan helped limit All-American Phil Ford to just six points while scoring 14 points of his own on five of seven from the field and four of four from the line.

“He made some great shots," said Smith of his former recruit. “I thought he was the key."

Jerome Whitehead scored just eight points on two of eight shooting, but had two key blocks while pulling down a team-high 11 boards.

In all, 17 of the 21 players who stepped on the floor that night would eventually be drafted.

As the seconds ticked away on the game clock, Al was overcome with emotion.

“I was not emotional until a five-second count triggered me," admitted Al after the game. “I trigger easily. As a coach, you have to be constantly alert. Once a game starts, I don't have a love affair or vendetta against any team or coach. Right now, I'm washed out. Usually guys like me don't end up like this. This time, I guess the numbers came up right."

“When I saw him crying with five seconds left, I elbowed Bo Ellis," said Lee. “I didn't want him to miss it. It was great. He had all those teams with great records but.... to give him something like this in his last season is a dream."

“When we pretty much knew the game was in hand and I was standing at half-court and I really wasn't paying attention to the bench and Butch came up to me and put his arm around me and he pointed to Coach and I saw Coach over there crying," smiled Ellis years later. “And it was really the first time in the four years that we had spent together that I ever really saw him show emotion other than going crazy on the referees and getting mad at us. I'll never forget that."

“It was good to see Coach crying,” Whitehead would recall many years later, “because, you know, when we’re in college he used to holler so much, and so I said, ‘Oh, so you do have an emotional side, okay, you’re just hiding it.’”

“It validated him, his career," said Rick Majerus years later. “When he won, he didn't cry out of happiness. He cried out of relief."

In the moments after the final buzzer, after barely being able to acknowledge a quick congratulatory handshake from Smith, an overcome Al made his way past the throng of fans and well-wishers to the dressing room, later explaining, "I'm not afraid of crying, but I don't like doing it in front of a bunch of people."

“He was literally bawling, like a kid," recalls Kevin Byrne, Marquette's Sports Information Director, who was with Al in the locker room. “His chest was heaving, he had a towel over his face. Here was this great man, pacing back and forth, crying. Finally, he stops and looks at me and says, 'Kevin, it's not often a kid from the streets touches the silk.'"

“He was a guy who was leaving it behind,” explained Lee many years later. “He had worked so hard. Coaches understand much more than players. Now I realize how hard it is to get there. Players might say they understand. But they don’t. Twenty-five years from now, they will.”

After composing himself and then leaving the dressing room to go back to the court, Al passed Pat Smith, his first great New York recruit, and warmly shook hands with him, saying simply, "Pat. You started it all, Pat."

“Al McGuire’s stunning triumph and tearful goodbye at the NCAA finals in Atlanta showed that he is more than a street-corner aphorist, a barroom philosopher, a guy who makes his own and singular way,” wrote sportswriter Barry McDermott in the days after the win. “The soul of the man is this: he is a winner— last Monday night, today, forever. Seashells and balloons, Al.”

“I feel washed out," Al replied when asked coming out of the dressing room how he felt. “I have a headache, and I'm trying to ditch tonight's plane home because I want to miss that Mardi Gras that'll be going on in Milwaukee. What I feel like now is getting a barbeque sandwich with tabasco sauce and a few beers."

But Al added, "Now I feel like heading for Las Vegas and bringing tears to the eyes of those guys running the dice games. With the way my luck has been going, I'd bust 'em out. Yes, we had some luck. It wasn't all brilliant coaching-- remember, I'm the guy whose team lost seven games during the regular season.... There was a point this season, when we were about 16-6, that I figured our tournament chances were zero. But these boys deserved a shot at NCAA play."

“What this really proves, I suppose," Al concluded, "is that you'd better never bury an Irishman until you're sure he's dead.”

[Wizard of Westroads]

That team beat Creighton in Omaha in the final home game of the regular season. Great lineup of Warriors with Bo Ellis, Whitehead and Toone dwarfing my puny NIT-bound Bluejays.

I sat with a buddy from Rhode Island who heckled Whitehead the whole game with Clearasil references. i always think of him when I hear PC fans in New York.

[stever20]

they have the game on Youtube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdYt6RDXyB4

[Xudash]

I watched it with a group of Xavier friends at a neat downtown Cincinnati bar named Barlycorn's.

I remember Dick Enberg was the lead announcer. NBC used Kenny Login's THIS IS IT as the theme music. We were cheering like hell for Marquette, even though they used to trounce us at Schmidt Memorial Fieldhouse back then (before Xavier recommitted to basketball in 1979).

At any rate, it was a fun game to watch. And Al McGuire was a PERSONALITY.

[billyjack]

That team beat Creighton in Omaha in the final home game of the regular season. Great lineup of Warriors with Bo Ellis, Whitehead and Toone dwarfing my puny NIT-bound Bluejays.

I sat with a buddy from Rhode Island who heckled Whitehead the whole game with Clearasil references. i always think of him when I hear PC fans in New York.

Lol, so funny, a member of the 40% of our fanbase that's insane.

[billyjack]

I watched it with a group of Xavier friends at a neat downtown Cincinnati bar named Barlycorn's.

I remember Dick Enberg was the lead announcer. NBC used Kenny Login's THIS IS IT as the theme music. We were cheering like hell for Marquette, even though they used to trounce us at Schmidt Memorial Fieldhouse back then (before Xavier recommitted to basketball in 1979).

At any rate, it was a fun game to watch. And Al McGuire was a PERSONALITY.

Hate to correct you Xudash, but we are here to learn, lol. Pretty sure the Loggins "This Is It" was 1980, Louisville vs UCLA, at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, with Enberg, McGuire and probably Packer.

1977, based on Stever's great Youtube find up above, sounds like the great legend Curt Gowdy, the great legend Dick Enberg, and surly ACC-homer Billy Packer, haha.

(side note on the Final Four stars in 1980... the Celtics had one of the top picks, which they traded (someone wanted Joe Barry Carroll of Final Four Purdue) somehow to get both Robert Parish and Kevin McHale.)

Off topic-- annual problem at my house growing up was the NCAA Final always was the same night as the Oscars... my mother and sister had control of the TV... so my father would have us watch the game on our small portable black and white TV with its broken antenna that we replaced with twisted coat hanger for reception. Fun times haha.

1981 NCAA Finals and Oscars were scheduled on the last Monday in March, but the Oscars was moved to the Tuesday cuz Reagan was shot that afternoon. So my brother and i had the color TV for Indiana vs UNC.

Ok have i put everyone to sleep yet??

[billyjack]

they have the game on Youtube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdYt6RDXyB4

Thanks, this is great !!

[stever20]

they have the game on Youtube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdYt6RDXyB4

Thanks, this is great !!

It's amazing how many great old games you can find there.

[Xudash]

I stand corrected, billy. I'll be damned. I did admit to watching the game in a nice bar that evening - so I may have been over served.

Pretty hard for that song to have been in play that night since he wrote it in 1980. Good catch on your part.

[Django]

Great stories Billy we are the same age and I have similar memories while starting my fandom with Creighton, where my whole family tree went for generations… Marquette was our rival but we cheered on our Jebbie brothers… Al would comment later as an announcer that Creighton stall game, which we were doing for decades before the 70s, prepared the Warriors for Dean Smith’s four corners