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Forty Years Ago Today

12/28/02
by John C. Thomas

Friday, December 28, 1962 vs. Memphis State at Oklahoma City

Memphis State, by virtue of their 76-61 defeat of Toledo the night before, was Loyola's second-round opponent at the All-College tournament. The Tigers were led by junior forward Bob Neumann, who was averaging nearly 22 points per contest, and junior George Kirk, a 6'2" smooth-shooting guard in the mold of Harkness. But Neumann had injured his ankle in the Thursday night game against Toledo, and by the time the Tigers took the court on Friday, Neumann was already back in Memphis with season-ending surgery scheduled for Saturday.

Unlike the night before, Loyola came out of the box with all cylinders firing. Loyola shot the lights out in the first half, but could barely keep ahead of the determined Tigers. A Loyola scoring flurry toward the end of the period sent the two teams to the locker room with Loyola on top 56-41.

When the two teams resumed play in the second half, Loyola still had a hot shooting hand, and upped their lead to 69-49 with 15 minutes left to play. Many of the 4,500 in attendance might have thought that the game was over. But feeding off the emotion of losing their leading scorer for the season less than 24 hours earlier, Kirk put the Memphis attack on his shoulders. Over the next ten minutes, Memphis steadily cut into the lead until the Tigers were within double-digits at 85-76, with five minutes left to go.

After a timeout, Harkness took control for Loyola, scoring the next seven points for the Ramblers and building an insurmountable lead, 92-78, with 1:13 left on the clock. Les Hunter closed out the game with a two-handed dunk to make the final score 94-82, and Loyola had a date in the championship game of the tournament.

Memphis State's Kirk led all scorers with 27 points on 10-of-19 shooting, while sharing a game high with nine rebounds. Harkness had the high scoring game for the Ramblers, with 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting, but the Loyola forward got more help from his teammates. Vic Rouse added 19 points, Les Hunter and Pablo Robertson (off the bench) each scored 13, and John Egan had 10. Billy Smith and Robertson combined for 21 points and 11 rebounds off the bench to give the starters some extra rest.

In spite of the loss of Neumann, Memphis went on to finish the regular season 18-6, and received a bid to the NIT, where they crushed Fordham in the first round and lost in the second round to Canisius.