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Forty Years Ago Today
12/17/02
by John C. ThomasMonday, December 17, 1962 vs. Western Michigan at Alumni Gym
Coach Don Boven's Western Michigan Broncos were a tougher test for Loyola than their four previous opponents. The Broncos were coming into the game 2-3, but their losses had come against Notre Dame, Northwestern, and San Francisco State. Their two wins were against Central Michigan and Illinois State.
Having learned from the experience of Loyola's first four opponents, the Broncos came into Alumni Gym on a Monday night and went against conventional wisdom. Instead of trying to slow down the game against the fast break, full-court pressing Ramblers, the Broncos tried a different strategy-trying to match Loyola in the speed game.
The result was a record-setting offensive night, in which the two teams combined for 225 points in the Ramblers' 123-102 win. The combined point total set a Loyola record for total offense in a game, breaking the former record of 216 points scored in 1959 in a game against John Carroll University.
Jerry Harkness, who chose to pass the ball in the early stages of the game, didn't score his first field goal until eight minutes had elapsed. But Harkness finished the game with a career-high 34 points. Vic Rouse added 25, Ron Miller scored 20, and Les Hunter finished with 18 for the Ramblers.
The Ramblers led at halftime 55-46. But Loyola put the clamps down defensively coming out of halftime. Coach Ireland assigned the 6'2" Harkness to guard Western Michigan's 5'10" guard Manny Newsome, who had shot 8-for-10 from the field in the first half, scoring 20 of the Broncos' 46 points. Newsome was held scoreless through the first 11 minutes of the second half and finished the game with 26 points.
Loyola shot a blistering 61% from the field while the Broncos were held to just 54%. The Ramblers also took firm control of the boards with a dominating 60 to 39 advantage.
Loyola built up their biggest lead at 110-87 and held on down the stretch to win their fifth game in a row. But the challenge from the Broncos meant that Loyola was only able to play seven men. Harkness, Rouse, Egan and Miller played all 40 minutes of the game. And with Les Hunter and reserve Billy Smith fouling out, the 21-point margin at home against a team with a losing record was a little too close for comfort.
Each of the five started had scored 20 points or more in at least one of the first five games, and there were significant contributions from the bench. The Ramblers had done their best to work out as many kinks as possible while getting some experience for the bench guys and some rest for the starters. In the first four contests, the Ramblers were able to give every bench player some significant minutes. But the Western Michigan game illustrated that there might be some problems ahead when Loyola matched up against some athletic teams willing or able to run against them, or if any of the starters got into foul trouble.
Loyola was finished with the cupcake part of the schedule-- five games against lightly regarded teams in the friendly confines of Alumni Gym. Sure, the Ramblers were 5-0, but the easy part was over, and some big tests were just around the corner for a Loyola team that not many took seriously-at least not in the Chicago media.
The Tribune was a regional paper, with their area of dominant influence extending nearly 300 miles in every direction from Chicago, a market area that almost completely encompassed the region dominated by the Big 10. The Tribune itself was intimately entwined with Northwestern-the journalism department of the school was named after the Tribune founder-- and publisher Robert McCormick was a significant donor to Northwestern. The Tribune began awarding Silver Football awards to the best player in the Big 10 in 1924, and in 1946 they began a similar practice with Big 10 basketball players. To top it off, Illinois had hundreds of thousands of fans and alumni in the Chicago region, and the Illini were expected to be formidable.
In their first five games, Loyola averaged 111.8 points while allowing the competition a 64.2 scoring average for an average margin of victory of 47.6 points per game. They were ranked #4 in the country by the AP, and #3 by UPI. The Chicago media in general, and the Tribune in particular, seemed to downplay the significance. It was almost as if the Chicago media was sure that the four juniors and the senior on the Loyola squad would surely fail eventually-as so many other promising Chicago sports teams had done-so we might as well just enjoy the Big 10 race.
The national press on the other hand, particularly in cities where college sports dominated the local sports news, were highly impressed. The Ramblers had gained some national attention in 1961-62 for entering the championship scene out of the blue with their exciting brand of fast break, high-scoring basketball and the fact that they led the nation in scoring by a wide margin. Five games into the 1962-63 season, Loyola was 20 points per game ahead of their scoring output from the year before, and the legend of their blistering offensive attack was spreading around the nation in wire service reports, box scores, and by word of mouth. The especially gaudy numbers from the games against the cupcakes were dutifully reported around the country, because Loyola was a top ranked team from the very beginning of the season. And the numbers were beginning to intimidate and impact the strategies of opposing teams.
In fewer than 48 hours, Loyola would tip off against the University of Indiana in Bloomington. And before the end of the week they would play #10 Seattle in the first college doubleheader of the year at Chicago Stadium. These were finally big stages as far as the Chicago media was concerned-on the road against a Big 10 team and facing a challenge from a Top 10 team on a somewhat neutral court. But any slip-up or show of vulnerability would only serve to feed their doubts.