Enberg, 75, Announcing San Diego Padres Games

Oh my! Dick Enberg, who did the television play-by-play for the Game of the Century, is still going strong at age 75. Enberg has done broadcasts of college basketball and other sports for CBS in recent years. What I did not know about until an article in today's New York Times, however, is that Enberg is doing around 120 games this season on San Diego Padres baseball telecasts.

Enberg has longstanding ties to southern California, of course, announcing UCLA basketball, Angels baseball, and then-L.A. Rams football several decades ago. I also remember reading many years ago that, even back when announcing for the Angels, he lived more toward San Diego. Thus, Enberg's Padres gig doesn't surprise me all that much. It is somewhat unusual, however, that at an age when many professionals are winding down their careers, he has intensified his.

John Wooden Dead at 99

It is with great sadness that I relay the news that John Wooden, UCLA men's basketball coach from 1948-1975 (which encompasses the Game of the Century), has just died at the age of 99. UCLA's athletics website has a collection of tributes to Coach Wooden. I would also suggest the Los Angeles Times as a source for coverage of Wooden's passing.

Bobby Scott, One of GOTC Refs, Dies at 79

Bobby Scott, one of the referees for the Game of the Century, died January 30 at age 79. According to Scott's obituary in the San Antonio Express News, he had a number of achievements as a basketball referee, officiating two Final Fours and serving as the Missouri Valley Conference supervisor of officials. He was also active in other sports before becoming a basketball referee. My thanks to W. Lynn Morrow for providing information on Mr. Scott's passing.

Abdul-Jabbar Living with Rare Form of Leukemia

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was known as Lew Alcindor when he played for UCLA in the Game of the Century, announced that he has been living the past year with a rare form of leukemia. The 62-year-old Abdul-Jabbar noted, however, that his condition appears controllable and not immediately life-threatening.

Happy 99th Coach Wooden!

A happy 99th birthday to former UCLA coach John Wooden.

Rick Reilly Writes Column on Coach Wooden at 98

Rick Reilly has a nice column on John Wooden, coinciding with the latter's 98th birthday earlier this month.

Elvin Hayes Interview on GOTC

Over at the UH athletics website, I found this online video of Elvin Hayes being interviewed about the Game of the Century. I don't know exactly when the interview was conducted, but it seemed fairly recent.

E-Mail from Tom Gribben

Probably the most interesting and enjoyable aspect of operating this website is when someone who played in the Game of the Century, or was associated with it in some other manner, contacts me.

Former UH player Vern Lewis e-mailed me in February 2007, whereas the school's longtime Sports Information Director Ted Nance did the same roughly a year earlier.

Yesterday, I heard from Tom Gribben, a sophomore 6-2 guard-forward swingman for the Cougars in 1968 (click here for GOTC box score and here for the Cougars' 1967-68 overall statistics). Tom shared some recollections on the classic game and how its legacy has endured. He added, on a humorous note, that:

I tell people all the time I scored the winning two points, they just happened to be in the first half.

Alcindor (Abdul-Jabbar) and Hayes in ESPN's Top 25 All-Time College Hoops Players

In recent weeks, ESPN had been unveiling its list of the 25 greatest college basketball players of all time, revealing one player each night, starting from No. 25. Each of the two towering figures (literally and figuratively) in the UCLA-Houston Game of the Century made the list. The Bruins' Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) was named the No. 1 college basketball player of all time, whereas the Cougars' Elvin Hayes came in at No. 14. A brief video synopsis of each player's college career is available at the above-linked website. Hayes's video is comprised entirely of footage from the GOTC; a clip from the same game appears in Alcindor's.

40th Anniversary of Game of the Century

The day is here! Today, January 20, 2008, is the 40th anniversary of the Game of the Century. As I've expressed in previous postings, I'm very upset that no anniversary game between UCLA and Houston will be taking place today.

The best substitute activity that I can recommend to mark the occasion, for those of you who own a copy of Eddie Einhorn's book, How March Became Madness, is to watch the DVD of the 1968 Bruin-Cougar Astrodome classic that comes with the book (the DVD includes the last few minutes of the first half and the entire second half). That's what I'm going to do.

I'll be interested to see how much media coverage the 40th anniversary gets. As I find online articles, I'll add links to them, below...

J.R. Gonzales, who writes a "Bayou City History" blog for the Houston Chronicle, has an extensive retrospective on the game, including some amazing photos (including one of the extra-long bed a Houston hotel commissioned for UCLA's 7-foot-2 Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

The San Antonio Express-News also has a retrospective on the game (identified by "AustinCougr" on a Houston Cougars discussion board).

There's also an article in the Los Angeles Times.

Coach Lewis Injured in Fall

The Houston Chronicle reports that former UH Coach Guy V. Lewis was injured in a fall prior to last Saturday's Houston-Arizona game at which he was honored (see entry below). In fact, Lewis will need to undergo surgery to repair a broken hip.

The 85-year-old Lewis certainly was a real trooper last Saturday, going through with the festivities despite his injuries. I'm sure all basketball fans wish Coach Lewis the best in this situation.

This coming Sunday, January 20, is the 40th anniversary of the Houston-UCLA Game of the Century and it's sad that the winning coach in that game (or anyone associated with it, for that matter) is in a serious medical situation around the time of the anniversary.

Coach Lewis Honored at Recent UH Game

Following up on my posting of a couple days ago, ceremonies were indeed held Saturday at the Arizona-Houston game to honor former Cougar Coach Guy V. Lewis. I found two online photo galleries of the events, one from the Houston Chronicle and the other from UH Athletics/College Sports Television (CSTV). Most of the shots in both sets feature action from the Arizona game, but each gallery has a photo of Lewis (the Chronicle's is devoted to college basketball generally, so it also includes photos from other Saturday games in the region). Links are provided below. Only the Chronicle's photos have captions, so it's probably best to look at them first, to learn who everyone is.

Houston Chronicle college basketball gallery

UH/CSTV photo gallery

Enjoy!

Former UH Players to Honor Coach Lewis as 40th Anniversary of GOTC Approaches

With the 40th anniversary of the GOTC just nine days away, what appears to be the closest thing to a commemoration of the historic event will be occurring tomorrow at UH. According to this article in the Houston Chronicle:

[Coach Tom] Penders will bring an 11-2 UH team to the Guy V. Lewis Court at Hofheinz Pavilion on Saturday afternoon for a game against the Arizona Wildcats. Lewis will give up his usual spot in an upper-level box to sit courtside during the first half. He is 85, and he suffered a severe stroke nearly six years ago, so he doesn't get around so easily anymore.

A courtside seat is a must for Lewis to participate in the halftime ceremony planned in his honor. Former UH greats Elvin Hayes, Don Chaney and Otis Birdsong will be among those present to pay tribute to Lewis, who this past fall got inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame. Lewis won 592 games in 30 seasons at his alma mater, leading 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament and five to the Final Four.

Hayes and Chaney, of course, played in the 1968 classic against UCLA (with Hayes scoring 39 points), and Lewis was the Cougar coach at the time. Birdsong played for UH in the mid-1970s.

Basketball Times Article on GOTC 40th Anniversary

Welcome to any visitors who may have discovered this site via the mention in the Basketball Times article on the 40th anniversary of the Game of the Century (upcoming two weeks from today), in the January 2008 issue of the publication.

Written by Editor John Akers, the GOTC retrospective completely fills three of Basketball Times' oversized pages. Most of what's in the article would probably be known to hardcore fans who've read the books written by the principals of the UCLA-Houston game (e.g., Eddie Einhorn, Dick Enberg, and John Wooden).

I did, however, pick up a few tidbits of information that were new to me. For example, I had not known that the University of Houston played a few additional games in the Astrodome in the immediate years after 1968.

No Game Marking GOTC's 40th Anniversary on UH, UCLA Schedules

UCLA and the University of Houston have each released their 2007-08 men's basketball schedules (Bruins, Cougars). Fans who had been hoping for a UCLA-Houston game on (or around) January 20, 2008 to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Game of the Century between the schools -- and I very much count myself in this group -- will be disappointed to find that no such game will take place.

This development is not a surprise, of course. As far back as December 2005, UH coach Tom Penders began to pursue a renewal of competition against UCLA, but Bruin coach Ben Howland did not reciprocate.

In the nearly three years I've operated this blog, it has become clear to me that -- consistent with the Penders-Howland episode -- the Game of the Century has been embraced much more heartily by the UH fan community than by its UCLA counterpart.

Houston has a home game on January 19, 2008, versus the University of Texas, El Paso; this is the closest date on the Cougar schedule to January 20. I'll be interested to see if the UH athletic department schedules some type of GOTC commemoration for this day.

Coach Lewis Elected to COLLEGIATE Basketball Hall of Fame

Former University of Houston coach Guy V. Lewis, whose Cougars defeated UCLA in the Game of the Century, has just been elected to the Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Missouri.

It is important to point out that the Collegiate hall is a relatively new creation, and is not the same thing as the long-established Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. The latter covers both college and professional ball.

Lewis's exclusion from the "big" Hall of Fame has outraged many, including legions of UH fans and a number of the game's top college coaches (you can count the present blogger among those who are miffed, too).

***

I got to see the HBO documentary on The UCLA Dynasty (cited in the entry below). There is a brief, though worthwhile, segment on the Game of the Century.

HBO Documentary: "The UCLA Dynasty"

Airing on HBO this week is a documentary entitled The UCLA Dynasty (link for information). I haven't seen the film. Given that Eddie Einhorn and Elvin Hayes are listed among the interviewees, I would think the UCLA at Houston "Game of the Century" would receive some nice coverage, but I can't say so definitively at this point. HBO seems to sell DVD's of many of its sports documentaries, so it would seem likely a UCLA Dynasty DVD will become available.

UCLA Holds 40-Year Reunion of 1966-67 Squad (Includes Many Who Played in GOTC)

UCLA's 1966-67 team held a 40-year reunion yesterday in conjunction with the current Bruin team's final home game of the season, against Stanford. The UCLA-Houston Game of the Century took place the season after the '66-67 campaign (on January 20, 1968, to be exact). However, with the '66-67 Bruins' starting lineup consisting of four sophomores and a junior, it was essentially the same UCLA squad that took on UH in the Astrodome a year later. This page from the UCLA athletics site is devoted to the reunion of the '66-67 team; from it, you can also click for a gallery of still photos and a video of the halftime ceremony. Gathering with their coach John Wooden, now 96 years old, were players such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor), Lucius Allen, Lynn Shackelford, and Mike Warren.

I hope that next year, as close as possible to January 20, 2008, Houston will have a similar type of 40-year reunion for the Cougar team that won the Game of the Century.

***

Also yesterday, Game of the Century TV announcer Dick Enberg and I were under the same roof at Texas Tech's United Spirit Arena, as the Red Raiders hosted Oklahoma State in a game televised by CBS (see February 24 entry on this CBS list of announcer assignments). When UCLA and Houston met in their classic game at the Astrodome, Enberg was an up-and-coming 33-year-old broadcaster. Now 72, Enberg is an elder statesperson of the profession, still very much going strong.

I was hoping that I might be able to go up to Enberg at courtside after the game and perhaps get a picture with him for this website. However, he got away too quickly. Enberg writes in his memoir, appropriately entitled Oh My!, about a career of tight travel deadlines -- having to catch a plane or drive in a rental car to the next gig -- as he sometimes criss-crossed the country to announce three games within roughly 36 hours in the same weekend. He no longer packs that many games into his schedule, but he still knows how to get out of an arena right after the final buzzer!

E-Mail from Vern Lewis

I received an e-mail the other day from Vern Lewis, a member of the University of Houston basketball team during the 1966-67 and 1967-68 seasons. This is the first time anyone who played in the Game of the Century has been in contact with me, and I thank Vern for that.

As shown in the box score at the end of this UH basketball retrospective, Vern played four minutes in the Astrodome showdown against UCLA. I just played the DVD of the game (described in my posting immediately below the present one) over again and saw that Vern was in at the close of the first half, but apparently did not play in the second half.

In his message, Vern mentioned his continued involvement in college basketball via the South Padre Island Hoops organization, which hosts a tournament during the non-conference part of the season. In 2005, tournament officials conducted a canned-food drive at the games for the benefit of those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Vern's name also comes up as part of Item 50 in this NCAA basketball trivia quiz.

39th Anniversary of Game of the Century

Today is the 39th anniversary of the Houston-UCLA Game of the Century.

As detailed in earlier postings on this site, current UH Coach Tom Penders' hope for a 40th anniversary game next year (and a resumption of play between the schools more generally) had cold water tossed on it by UCLA Coach Ben Howland. I suppose there's still time for such a game to be scheduled for next year, but I've seen nothing to indicate it will happen.

As I've also discussed previously, what I would consider the definitive resource on the 1968 classic is Eddie Einhorn's book (written with Ron Rapoport) How March Became Madness. Released last year, the book consists of short chapters, each presenting an interview with a major figure in the modern history of college basketball. The book is not entirely on the Game of the Century but does have 10 chapters specifically devoted to it. Not only that -- the book comes with a DVD of the Game of the Century (actually, just the second half, plus the closing minutes of the first half).