Boston College basketball was in its first heyday during our years there. And part of it was the teams and opponents the Eagles played. The following is a collection of select opponents BC met during 1964-68. I’m sure there are those who would disagree with the selections, certainly the rankings, but I leave it to classmate Jim Kissane, captain of the 1967-68 basketball team: “What a great list!”

First team

Lew Alcindor — UCLA
The man known later as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Alcindor was the player of the time on the team of the time. In his only appearance against BC, in Madison Square Garden, January 1968, Alcindor scored 28 points and took down 17 rebounds, in the unexpectedly close 84-77 Bruins win. He was still recovering from an eye injury suffered two weeks earlier.

Bobby Lewis — North Carolina
Lewis led the Tarheels with 31 points to help end the Eagles’ dream run in the regional finals of the 1967 NCAA Tournament.

Bill Melchionni — Villanova
Scored 30 in the second round of the 1966 NIT to help the Wildcats knock the Eagles out of the tournament, 86-85.

Westley Unseld — Louisville
In the same tournament as Melchionni, Unseld kept Louisville in the opening game against BC with 35 points and 26 rebounds before fouling out in the triple-overtime Eagles win, 96-90.

Jimmy Walker — Providence
Three-time all-America and all-time BC nemesis, Walker led the Friars to a 3-1 record over the Eagles during our years, scoring 50 to beat BC in the 1965 Holiday Festival in Madison Square Garden.

Second team
Dave Bing — Syracuse
Sonny Dove — St. John’s
Matt Goukas — St. Joseph’s
Bob Lanier — St. Bonaventure
Mike Warren — UCLA

Honorable mention
John Warren — St. John’s
Larry Miller — North Carolina
Wayne Estes — Utah State
Mervin “The Magician” Jackson — Utah
Ken McIntyre — St. John’s

What classmate and sports writer Bob Ryan calls “still the all-time most significant basketball game ever played on the BC campus” took place on this date in 1967.

The game between BC and Providence College had been much anticipated and ballyhooed. As the Boston Globe preview (BCProv_preview) said, “This is the game the whole East, not merely New England, has awaited all season.” The game had been sold out for 6 weeks and was to be televised by not one, but two, television stations — Channel 12 in Providence and Channel 38 in Boston — and broadcast over WCOP radio.

The Eagles entered the game with a 14-2 record, but had lost to Fordham 81-85 only a week earlier. Providence was 16-4 and led by Jimmy Walker, twice consensus first-team all-America (1966 and 1967) and BC nemesis. Walker had scored 50 points against the Eagles in the 1965 Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival, leading the Friars to a 91-86 victory. Providence had beaten BC in all three of the previous games between the two when we were freshmen and sophomores.

Ryan had written the game preview in the February 17, 1967, Heights. While suggesting that Providence was more than a one-man team, he also praised Walker. “You don’t stop him. If he is to be stopped at all, he stops himself. . . . There is, of course, no better college ballhandler. Or player, for that matter.” Classmate Reid Oslin wrote up an interview with captain Willie Wolters ’67 and classmate Jim Kissane, while classmate Tom Sugrue penned an appreciation “Jim Walker: just amazin’.” Classmate Kevin O’Malley wrote a column analyzing the situation surrounding a possible NCAA bid for BC.

As the Globe‘s game article (BCProv67) reports, it appeared that Walker had indeed stopped himself, at least in the first half. Walker had only 11 points at halftime, while classmate Steve Adelman, who, the Globe said, “was throwing the thing in from everywhere but the dressing room,” had 21 points halfway through.

Captain Willie Wolters scores on Providence

Walker opened the second half with 6 misses, not scoring until 6 minutes in. The Eagles were leading by 17 points when Terry Driscoll fouled out. Walker then got hot, while BC went cold, and the Friars trailed by only 4 with 7:02 left. With less than 4 minutes to go, Providence even led by 3. But the Eagles came back to lead 83-82, with Kissane holding the ball in the backcourt, pressured by Providence players, for what seemed an eternal 9 seconds before heaving it downcourt at the buzzer. (The Globe carried an article on that ending “Eagles’ Kissane Gets Rid of Ball in Time” [BCProvKissane]). Ecstasy then ensued among BC fans as Coach Bob Cousy was carried off the court by his team.

Walker finished with 33 points, 22 in the second half. Adelman had cooled off in the second half, but led the Eagles in scoring with 31 points. Kissane added 14 points, while Driscoll and Wolters were also in double figures.

Kissane recalls the game this way: “That was one of the most fun games I ever played in!  Roberts Center was absolutely jammed and those days we walked up from the locker rooms and through the lobby to get to the court. Everyone was cheering and yelling as we went single file through the crowd to get on the floor. By the time we were taking layups, I felt like I could jump over the basket I was so pumped up!

“At halftime, we had a good lead, but Frank Power, an assistant coach, kept saying ‘It isn’t over, stay focused, they are too good.’ How right he was! I stepped in on Walker and took a charge, which was his 4th foul, early in the second half. [Providence coach] Joe Mullaney never even thought for a minute to sit him down and he played the rest of the game at 15 minutes into the second half with 4 fouls. He was amazing!

“The place went nuts when we won. I do remember after the game the coach telling me I did a great job on Walker and then coach Magee came over and said ‘Yeah great job! You held him to 30!!!’ (Editor’s note: actually 33 :) ) Oh well. It sure is a great memory.”

The win put BC in strong contention for an invitation to the NCAA tournament. It also made for a great Saturday night!

1966 Sub Turri photo

On this date, 52 years ago, BC played St. Joseph’s in basketball. St. Joe’s was in its heyday, at last one of them, in those years, and was ranked #8 in the country. The Hawks came into Roberts Center with a 10-4 record to meet the Eagles, then 9-4. According to the account in the Boston Globe, St. Joe’s pulled away in the second half to beat the Eagles, 107-89.

The Heights printed its first issue that February on the 11th. As was its wont, the sports section focused more on games coming up, less so on what had happened previously. There were brief articles about the basketball wins over Holy Cross and UMass that had taken place within the week before, but nothing about the two games, both losses, before that with St. Joe’s and #6 Providence.

Nothing in the sports section about the St. Joe’s game per se, but a lot in the overall issue of the paper about what went on at the game. Those in attendance — “a capacity audience,” according to the Globe — and a national television audience were introduced to the “Class of ’68 Zoo.” Think of a coarse, vulgar, perhaps inebriated relative showing up at a family gathering, and that’s kinda how the Zoo was described in The Heights . . . and many more times than once.

Page 1 — “Campus Groups Censure St. Joe’s Game Crudity”
Page 3 — “Cousy Calls B-ball Incident Tasteless, Isolated Action”
Page 6 — The lead editorial “Student Banners — A Proposal,” as well as letters and a cartoon
Page 9 — Letters to the editor from two former Heights sports editors — Hank Steadman and Moke Pados

Coach Bob Cousy

When an icon like Bob Cousy calls you out, that’s a pretty big deal. “BC fans ‘can’t be anything but ashamed’ of the actions of some fans at that game,” according to the interview. While he described those acting badly as a “minimum number of fans,” he said he regretted that a national television audience saw BC in a way that would have been misleading. There were also two potential recruits in the audience with their parents, he said, and he had a practical concern about the effect on them.

“. . . [A]side from the incidents,” he said, “this was the best support we’ve ever had for a game here.”

The Heights editorial said the St. Joseph’s game had “undoubtedly the most enthusiastic crowd in many years to attend a Boston College athletic event. It also was undoubtedly the most tasteless . . . ”

Team member and classmate Jim Kissane recalled: “We were sophomores for that game and, to tell you the truth, I was much more interested on what was going on while I was playing than what was going on in the stands. I don’t really remember it being so bad as we read about the next day! I was used to playing in front of hostile crowds and my focus was on stopping St Joe’s very good players. We had great fan support during those years mostly from the dorms. Some of the signs were very rude, but I didn’t notice them while I was playing. We beat them the next year in the Palestra and that was a very tough place to play, with the fans right on top of you.”

Classmate Reid Oslin said the TV announcer for the game was legendary Philadelphia radio/TV personality Les Keiter. Rowdy BC fans, Reid said, pelted Keiter with beer cans and trash as he tried to do his pre-game stand-up intro. (That could have influenced some of the tone of his telecast.)

The “Zoo,” as classmate Tom Sugrue recalls, was formed to try to create a “hostile environment” for BC opponents similar to those faced by the Eagles at such schools as St. Joe’s and St. John’s. “I think the original intention was in good fun and was meant to change the reputation that Roberts Center was not a particularly difficult place for visiting teams to play,” Tom added. “This night, however, it clearly got out of hand. Alcohol played a role no doubt — a lot of the Class of ’68, myself included, came to the game pretty oiled up. Unfortunately, some of the signs were offensively profane/dirty, as were some of the chants. And throwing stuff on the court at opposing players is never cool.”

As for the actual game . . . BC center Willie Wolters committed four fouls in the first half, which ended with St. Joe’s leading by only one, 44-43. Wolters had a double/double in that half (11 points, 10 rebounds) and several blocked shots, but he sat on the bench when the second half started. Cousy did not put Wolters back in until five minutes had gone by, but Willie picked up his fifth and disqualifying foul only 22 seconds later. With Wolters sitting, “the Hawks had a field day hitting the B.C. hoop,” reported Bob Monahan in the Globe. St. Joe’s outscored the Eagles, 63-46, in the second half. Overall, the Eagles shot poorly, making only 32 of 82 from the floor.

All-America John Austin scored 34 points for BC and sophomore classmate Steve Adelman put in 30.

As classmate Kevin O’Malley observed, “That was a memorable St. Joe’s team. Matt Goukas and Billy Oakes at the guards, and Cliff Anderson the 6’4″ center was a leaper who was shorter than the two forwards, Tom Duff and Marty Ford. Dr. Jack Ramsay was the genius on the bench, and we took some advance heart from the fact that Goukas had a bad case of the flu, but he played fine and the Hawks gave us all a lesson. BC was on the move, but we weren’t on a level to compete with this savvy, well-coached group of seniors.”

With the loss to St. Joe’s, BC had lost two straight games to top 10 teams. They did not lose again that season until the quarterfinals of the NIT, when Villanova beat them, 86-85. The Eagles finished 17-5 with their last win of the season the historic, thrilling triple overtime victory over Louisville in the NIT opening round. But that’s another story.

Fifty years ago today, January 27, 1968, the Eagles played UCLA in basketball at Madison Square Garden, New York City. It was an opportunity for BC fans to see their team play the most storied college basketball team . . . and player . . . of the time.

BC’s Terry Driscoll ’69 in a jump ball with Lew Alcindor early in the BC-UCLA game. Also in this Sub Turri photo, classmates Jim Kissane (10), Steve Adelman (44), and Jack Kvancz (24).

The Bruins simply dominated the college basketball scene in the mid-sixties, and into the mid-seventies. When we were freshmen, UCLA went 28-2 and won their second consecutive national championship. Among those 28 wins was one over BC, 115-93, on December 19, 1964, in Los Angeles. The following year, 1965-66, was an awful one in Bruins terms. Ranked #1 preseason, they were 18-8 and unranked at the end of the season. There were portents, though, that year of things to come. UCLA’s freshmen team, in a preseason scrimmage, had defeated the varsity, 75-60.

Scoring 31 points and pulling down 21 rebounds in that scrimmage was 7-foot-2-inch Lew Alcindor, who had played his high school ball at Power Memorial in New York City. (In 1968, Alcindor converted to Islam and began using the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar publicly in 1971.) Joining Alcindor as freshmen were Lynn Shackelford and Lucius Allen, who would also play in the 1968 game against BC.

When Alcindor and the other freshmen joined the varsity in 1966-67, the run was on. Thirty and 0 that year and national champions. The Bruins started the 1967-68 season with 13 straight wins, bringing a 47-game win streak into what was billed as the “Game of the Century” on January 20, 1968. UCLA played the undefeated and #2-ranked Houston Cougars, and their great player, Elvin Hayes, in the Houston Astrodome.

One indication of how long ago this was is that this was the first regular season college basketball game to be televised nationally. And it was not on a major network, the only such networks being NBC, CBS, and ABC at the time. The UCLA-Houston game was televised on a syndicated network, TVS. One hundred and twenty stations around the country signed up for the event.

Eight days before the Houston game, in a game against Cal, Alcindor suffered a scratched cornea in his left eye. He missed the next two games and spent several days in the hospital receiving treatment. His first game back was against Houston.

In front of 52,693 fans, Houston’s Hayes scored 29 points in the first half against UCLA, finishing with 39, and Houston won the game 71-69. Alcindor scored a way-below-average 15 points.

We started by mentioning the BC game. Whatever happened to that? Well, the UCLA-Houston game had set the stage the week before the BC game took place. UCLA came into Madison Square Garden to play Holy Cross, then coached by Alcindor’s high school coach, on Friday night, defeating the Crusaders, 90-67. So UCLA was on a one-game winning streak when they took the court with the Eagles.

Oddly enough, the Eagles had had a similar week. They lost to St. Joseph’s the previous Saturday and defeated LeMoyne handily two days before.

As the record shows, UCLA beat BC, 84-77. But, as classmate Bob Ryan, who later went on to a 40+-year career as a sportswriter with the Boston Globe and who has been described as “the quintessential American sportswriter,” demonstrated something close to that status even in his article in the February 2, 1968, edition of The Heights: “Eighteen thousand people came to Madison Square Garden last Saturday night to see an execution. They stayed to see a great ball game.”

Proud Refrain was able to contact three classmates on the basketball team to get some of their recollections from the game.

Jack Kvancz, starting guard: “We had a very short scouting report for that game. Usually [then-BC coach Bob] Cousy was very thorough, but this time it was pretty much ‘Do not drive on the big fellow.’ Early in the game, I brought the ball up and I beat Lucius Allen, quite easily, so I go to the basket. And I score a layup. I’m thinking ‘Maybe Cousy got this wrong. I can do that anytime.’ A little while later, I bring the ball up and I beat Allen again. I notice, though, Allen starts running the other way, toward their basket. I go up again and I see this big hand. Alcindor didn’t “block” the ball, he caught it, and then he threw it down the court to Allen for an easy layup. I learned that lesson.”

Jim Kissane, starting forward, had an interesting comment on a sartorial issue: “I remember walking into Madison Square Garden and passing the UCLA team. We had on our ugly maroon blazers that we traveled in, which had been made for the football team. You can imagine how those fit! We were all long and skinny and the blazers were all wide and short. UCLA looked like they stepped out of GQ magazine or the Mod Squad, long leather coats and even a few hats. We should have known we were in trouble right then!

“We had played in Madison Square Garden many times but this was different,” he added. “The noise level was incredible and there was standing room only.The first half seemed to fly by and they were as good as advertised. They couldn’t miss and we were in a good size hole at halftime.The second half, we made a huge comeback and played much better. If memory serves me, we were down four with the ball and two-three minutes to go, eventually losing 84-77.”

Tom Pacynski, reserve center/forward: “The game was the red letter game on our schedule and I recall that the aura of the Garden was amazing. It was like looking through a cloud when looking to the high seats. I recall playing against Lew in the second half and coach Cousy wanted us to play ‘physical.’ Lew didn’t like physical play and, as a result, became frustrated and eventually fouled out (editor note: the only time in his college career). The memory for me that stands out most was my ‘air ball’ from the foul line.

Ryan and classmate Kevin O’Malley broadcast the BC-UCLA game on WVBC. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to hear a tape of that now?