That year was my sophomore year in high school and the National Basketball Championship game was played in Seattle. My best friend’s dad took us to see it. Kentucky was the favorite because it had two All-Americans, Ralph Beard and Alex Groza. Perhaps the most memorable event in the game was that as he was dribbling the ball up the court Ralph Beard’s wad of gum popped out of his mouth and onto the court. Beard smartly tossed the ball to a teammate, went back to pick up the gum, and casually popped it into his mouth. Naturally there was a huge roar of laughter from the crowd.
In some ways the most interesting aspects of the game were its funny incidentals. Kentucky was then the winningest basketball team in the country under its long-time coach Adolph Rupp. They had already won several National Championships. It is said that one year when his star player came late to practice and explained that he had a chemistry lab on that day Rupp replied: “Drop the lab. You are here to play basketball.” Another interesting incidental was that Alex Groza’s brother Lou was an all-pro football player for the Cleveland Browns. Surprisingly, although he was a standout place-kicker Lou Groza had no toes on his kicking foot and had to wear a special shoe in order to kick straight.
Although many Kentucky players went on to play professional basketball in the NBA, these groups of guys decided to try to stick together by forming their own team and joining the NBA as a group. Because several of them had played on the USA Olympic team the year before they chose to call their new team “The Olympians”. Surprisingly, their team did not do very well at the professional level. For one thing, the professional game and rules were somewhat different from the college game, with the players being much faster and more experienced. For another thing the pros played games more often and the games were longer than those in college.
In addition, the Boston Celtics had just begun what turned out to be the longest string of winning Championships in the NBA, led by Bob Cousey, who was soon joined by Bill Russell. The Celtics won nine championships in ten years. Getting back to the Olympians, none of them made a big impression at the professional level. But the Rupp era lasted for several decades before Adolph Rupp retired. In fact almost never has more than one player from any given college team made it to the professional level in the same year.
The only coach to win more games than Adolph Rupp at Kentucky was Coach John Wooden at UCLA during the 1950s and 1960s. I got to see them play once when they were in their prime. In fact, I sat right behind their bench and got yo see Coach Wooden at work up close. It was really something to watch him work in a game when several of the players on his team were ill from the flu. He was able to quietly assure them that they would prevail if they kept to their plan. And they did. Gail Goodrich and Walt Hazzard finally were able to work their special stuff.
Actually, over these many years of being a basketball fan I have had opportunity to get to witness several great coaches and players. A good friend of mine, Les Habegger, was Assistant Coach under Lenny Wilkins for the Seattle Sonics in the 1980s. In addition, as I was working on my doctorate at Duke, when they were coached by Vic Bubas and later Coach “K”, I got to witness many games up close, and even played some “pick up” games during the summers with several of the players who were around then. These are the “incidentals” of a BBall “junkie.”