The Pecan Park Eagle

Elvin “The Big E” Hayes and yours truly, The Pecan Park Eagle meet up at a party in 2009. Fortunately for The Eagle on this festive night, there was no jump ball on who gets a place at the banquet table.

Forty-six years ago, on January 20, 1968, UH and UCLA played a game at the Astrodome that elevated the sport of college basketball forever to a new level of profitable market opportunities via national television. It was the thing that had to happen to make the now popular phrase, “March Madness,” meaningful to the tournament that determines the annual championship of basketball at the Division One level. The largest crowd in basketball history to that point in time, 52,693, turned out to watch the two top ranked teams in the nation play their hearts out in a venue built for the normally much larger crowds of successful baseball and football teams. The University of Houston Cougars, behind Coach Guy V. Lewis and star forward/center Elvin Hayes, took on the UCLA Bruins and center Lew Alcindor (later better known as Kareem Abdul Jabbar) in a late mid-season battle for domination.

They called their first meeting in the Astrodome by all the hubris that could be mustered. – It was “The Game of the Century,” And, indeed, it’s shaping up that way as the game that put college basketball on the map as a collegiate money sport. Also, UH won a thrilling game that night by a final score of 71-69, but UCLA would later exact revenge on Houston in the semi-final round by a runaway score of 101-69.

Here’s how Associated Press sports writer Bob Green handled the January 20, 1968 game in the Astrodome:

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BIG E, COUGARS WHIP UCLA

52,693 See UH Prevail, 71-69

By Bob Green, Associated Press Sports Writer

Houston (AP) – Houston’s inspired Cougars, led by All American Elvin Hayes, stunned UCLA by 71-69 Saturday night and ended forever the Bruins’ myth of invincibility in college basketball.

A howling, happy crowd of 52,693 in the Astrodome – saw Hayes, Houston’s Big E, toss in 39 points and put the defensive clamp on UCLA’s Lew Alcindor.

Appropriately enough, it was Hayes’ two free throws in the last 28 seconds that  broke a 69-69 tie and snapped UCLA’s 47-game winning streak, second longest of all time.

The Cougars, ranked No. 2  in the nation with a 16-0 mark going into their climatic showdown with top-ranked Bruins, turned UCLA’s own weapons on them – a super performance by a super-star and a tenacious defense.

Houston, sparked by Hayes’ 29 first half points, established a 46-43 margin and spent the second half fighting off challenge after challenge by the cold-shooting Bruins.

When it was over the delirious Houston fans and cheerleaders stormed onto the court, hoisted their heroes to their shoulders, and began a rhythmic chant, “We’re No. 1, we’re No. 1.”

If they are, they can thank their poise, which never broke in the face of the famous UCLA press defense.

Houston established a 13-12 lead with 13:45 to go in the first half on a basket by George Reynolds. The Cougars didn’t trail again, although tied three times.

The last came when Luscious Allen, high scorer for the Bruins with 25 points, dropped in two free throws with 44 seconds to go. The Cougars brought the ball down court and when Hayes was fouled by Jim Nielson, they went ahead for good.

UCLA had one more chance, but blew it on an uncharacteristic mix up in signals on which the Bruins’ Mike Warren tipped the ball out of bounds. Houston took over with 12 seconds left and ran out the clock.

“Isn’t that Hayes great?” exulted Houston Coach Guy Lewis. “Almost every game he plays is great.”

“Houston played a tremendous game,” said John Wooden, Coach of UCLA. “We’ll just have to start over again.”

~ Bob Green, Associated Press, Brownwood (TX) Bulletin, Sunday, January 21, 1968, Page 8.

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The belated recent induction of the 92-year old Guy Lewis into the Basketball Hall of Fame helps make up for the fact he should have been there years ago, alongside the great John Wooden of UCLA and the two big name stars from the 1968 Astrodome monument game, Elvin Hayes of UH and Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul Jabbar of UCLA.

Yours truly will always be grateful that he was there to see the great Astrodome basketball game of 1968 in person. As a Cougar, my only disappointment was one of brief inconvenience that used to happen in the low tech standard car days. In my excitement to reach the game, I later learned that I was one of a dozen or so people who had left their headlights on and run their batteries down that night. Thankfully, the Dome had battery jump-start people on hand to help out fans like me.

What a night that was. Nothing will ever spoil the memory of that experience. It was one of the great moments in the histories of UH, the Astrodome, the City of Houston, and the sport of college basketball.