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Forty Years Ago Today

1/05/03
by John C. Thomas

Saturday, January 5, 1963 vs. Loyola New Orleans at Alumni Gym

Loyola had a rough time of it on a trip to New Orleans the year before, when the team was forced to lodge in separate quarters and eat their team meal in a "Negro" restaurant to satisfy local segregation laws. Some of the players thought that Coach Ireland might have tried to run up the score on the x in that game in New Orleans. In their Chicago rematch, Alumni Gym was packed with 2,951 Ramblers fans to see if there would be any fireworks.

Loyola took an early 7-3 lead, but their shooting touch vanished for the next 10 minutes as the Ramblers made only four of their next 20 shots. Perhaps out of frustration, both Jerry Harkness and Les Hunter were forced to sit out much of the first half with foul trouble. The x took a 21-15 lead with six minutes left in the half, but Loyola responded. At the halftime buzzer, Harkness was sitting on the bench with three fouls and Hunter with two. But the Chicagoans had managed to fight back to take a 30-25 lead into the locker room at the half.

Coming back onto the court after halftime, the Ramblers were firing on all cylinders. Loyola scored 58 second-half points-- including a 19-0 run that spanned six minutes of play-to coast to an 88-53 victory. Again, the Ramblers owned the boards with a 56-44 margin. The only thing that kept the x in the game for a while was superior free throw shooting on seven more trips to the line.

Jerry Harkness led the scoring with 21 points, Les Hunter had 15, John Egan scored 13, and Ron Miller had 11. Coach Ireland was able to play all of his available players-Chuck Wood was out of commission with mononucleosis-and the bench chipped in with 17 points of their own.

The win boosted #2 Loyola to 13-0 on the season and extended their overall winning streak to 14 in a row.