Posted by Butch
on 2/20/2009, 8:26 pm, in reply to "Greatest Basketball Game in South Bay History"
71.141.131.11
I was there with my girlfiend--now my wife of 40 years. Aah, the memories of the 60's at SJS.
--Previous Message--
: http://www.mercurynews.com/sports/ci_11745433
:
: Purdy: Remembering a hardwood classic
:
: By Mark Purdy
:
: Mercury News Columnist
: Posted: 02/19/2009 10:20:41 PM PST
:
: Forty years ago this Saturday, the planets
: aligned just right. Two college basketball
: teams entered the drafty, cold dressing
: rooms at San Jose Civic Auditorium. They
: pulled on their uniforms and warm-ups. They
: trotted out to the court.
:
: And they proceeded to play the best hoops
: game in South Bay history.
:
: The nationally ranked No. 2 and undefeated
: Santa Clara team of the 1968-69 season was
: upset by a rugged and ragged San Jose State
: team — in two overtimes, no less — and there
: has been no more thrilling or exciting game
: ever played in our county. That includes
: games played at Stanford, women's games,
: games played in the Cable Car Classic
: between non-local teams, NCAA tournament
: games at HP Pavilion — all games.
:
: None was better than the one Feb. 21, 1969,
: when San Jose State scored its 73-69
: victory.
:
: "That was Santa Clara's greatest team
: ever, in most peoples' opinion," said
: Tim Holman, a guard and the captain of the
: SJSU team. "And I think we had our
: greatest team ever at San Jose State. How
: many times is that going to happen?"
:
: Once. And the whole thing was so intense and
: emotional that, well, the other day when
: former Spartans guard Steve Mortara was
: talking about it at a local coffee shop, he
: stood up and began demonstrating how he
: sagged defensively on Santa Clara's powerful
: front line to help beat the Broncos.
:
: Not to mention how their fans taunted him.
:
: "I can remember their students were
: yelling: 'P.E. major, P.E. major,' "
: Mortara said.
:
: Meanwhile, former Santa Clara player Bud
: Ogden still likes to joke — or maybe it's
: not a joke — that the memory of that night
: still makes him "nauseous."
:
: "I guess it's a compliment to us that
: they have continued to dwell on that one
: victory," said Ogden, one of six
: players from the game who went on to the NBA
: or the ABA. "They were a good bunch of
: guys and we knew each other very well."
:
: Mortara has decided to commemorate the game
: this year with a 40th anniversary party. He
: contacted all of his living former
: teammates, and they will assemble Friday
: night for cocktails at 6 at the Fairmont
: Hotel (public invited, even including former
: SCU players) and then dinner (a private
: affair) before being honored at San Jose
: State's home game the following afternoon.
:
: You can imagine the stories they will tell.
:
: It's hard to envision what that era was
: like, given the low profile of Santa Clara
: and San Jose State basketball today. In
: 1969, the Broncos were at the top of the
: nation's college basketball consciousness.
: They had won 21 games in a row and 36 of
: their past 37, the only loss coming against
: UCLA in the previous season's NCAA regional
: final. Ogden was a first-round pick in the
: NBA draft in 1969, No. 13 overall. The
: Broncos' 6-foot-10 center, Dennis Awtrey,
: went 46th overall the next year.
:
: And San Jose State? The Spartans featured
: future pros Darnell Hillman and Coby
: Dietrick. They were on a roll, having won
: nine of their past 11 games, though one of
: the losses had come to Santa Clara a month
: earlier. The schools at that time were
: competing in the same conference, the West
: Coast Athletic.
:
: "We had never beat Santa Clara in my
: four years there," Holman said,
: "and that was something I wanted to get
: done."
:
: Mortara says he still can smell the smells
: of that night. He remembers the dampness of
: the locker room, and how the auditorium was
: steamy hot because of the standing-room-only
: crowd, and how the cigarette smoke (puffers
: were not banned) drifted up into the hanging
: chandelier lights.
:
: The game was broadcast around the world on
: Armed Forces Radio, and the packed
: auditorium settled in for a game in which
: the lead changed hands 15 times and the
: score was tied 10 times. San Jose State was
: ahead 29-25 after the first 20 minutes.
: Ogden, who went on to be an All-American,
: was nursing a sprained ankle and missed all
: 10 of his shots in the first half. The
: scoring gap was filled by Awtrey, who would
: have a monster night with 37 points.
:
: The game tightened as regulation concluded.
: Ogden loosened up and scored 13 points in
: the second half, including a hard-working
: inside jumper with 52 seconds remaining on
: which he also was fouled. He made the free
: throw to tie the score at 52-52. The
: Spartans then worked the clock, but Dietrick
: missed a 10-foot shot, and the game went
: into overtime.
:
: Awtrey and Ogden kept pounding inside, but
: the Broncos kept fouling the Spartans and
: sending them to the free-throw line. The
: first overtime ended with a 63-63 score
: after Mortara missed a 25-foot jumper —
: "It went halfway into the basket and
: out," he recalls — at the buzzer.
:
: Awtrey fouled out in the second overtime,
: and little-used Spartans sub Bernie Veasey
: scored four points, including the final two.
: Mortara also made a free throw with four
: seconds left to clinch it. Ogden remembers a
: Spartans player running off the floor with a
: fist in the air.
:
: The next morning, Mercury News sportswriter
: Wes Mathis' story proclaimed it "the
: greatest victory in San Jose State's
: athletic history." It was the talk of
: the South Bay for months.
:
: "If I had a dollar for every time I've
: heard somebody tell me they were there, I'd
: have a black-on-black Bentley in the
: driveway," said Mortara, who has since
: achieved quasi-fame as the well-known
: Oakland football fan "Raider
: Mort."
:
: Many peripheral figures from that night went
: on to more famous things. Carroll Williams
: was an assistant coach on the Santa Clara
: bench, and he became head coach in 1971.
: Stan Morrison was an SJSU assistant who went
: on to become the head coach, and is now the
: athletic director at UC-Riverside (the
: Spartans' opposition Saturday). The SJSU
: student radio station's announcer was Hal
: Ramey, the longtime KCBS sportscaster. The
: Spartans' cheerleading crew included a hyper
: George Henderson, who achieved fame as
: "Krazy George," the professional
: rabble rouser and inventor of the ubiquitous
: wave.
:
: At season's end, Santa Clara again went to
: the NCAA tournament and again lost to UCLA.
: San Jose State suffered a costly loss to
: Pacific and missed out on an NIT bid. But
: they each carried the emotion of Feb. 21 the
: rest of the way — 40 years, in some cases.
:
:
: Watch Mark Purdy's Two Minutes of Danger
: video blog at mercurynews.com/sports.
: Contact him at mpurdy@mercurynews.com or
: (408) 920-5092.
:
:
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