Horizon League Links

Butler
Detroit
Illinois-Chicago
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Wright State
Youngstown State
Horizon Connection

Forty Years Ago Today

1/26/03
by John C. Thomas

Saturday, January 26, 1963 vs. Santa Clara at Chicago Stadium

The playbill for the January 26th doubleheader at the Stadium was a dream come true for local college basketball fans. Planning, luck and fate had conspired to produce two games that featured two undefeated teams, two teams with huge local followings, the number one team in the Big 10 standings, the two-time defending national champions featuring a local high school star, and the top three teams in the AP poll. Undefeated #2 Loyola squared off against Santa Clara in the opener, and undefeated #1 Cincinnati played #3 Illinois in the nightcap.

Fans snatched up tickets when it was apparent that they'd be able to see the top three teams in the country in a doubleheader engagement. By Thursday, there were only about 1,000 tickets left-most of them $2.50 upper balcony general admission seats. Ticket brokers and scalpers were asking as much as double face value for mid-level seats and $25 a ticket for some of the better box seats. By game day, mezzanine standing room tickets were selling for $3.50 at the box office, and upper balcony standing room tickets were going for $1.50 apiece.

The Stadium sat over 19,000 for basketball, but between standing room and temporary bleachers for students, there was room for well over 20,000. The record for a college basketball game in the Stadium was 22,822, set by a doubleheader between Northwestern vs. Ohio State and Notre Dame vs. DePaul in 1946. But since that time, some of the floor-level bleachers had been removed and replaced by roomier, permanent chairback seats.

On the day of the game, the streets were clogged with snow, making access to the "Madhouse on Madison" more difficult than usual. Parking was at a premium because of the extraordinary crowd and the mountains of plowed snow taking up spaces in the corners of the lots. Fans taking the CTA had to trudge the five blocks from the Ashland elevated station on neglected, snow-covered sidewalks. But college basketball fans in the Midwest are used to such inconveniences, and they showed up in droves to see the top three teams in the country in spite of the disagreeable weather.

Although Santa Clara wasn't ranked during the 1962-63 season, they were a pretty good team, entering the contest with a 9-4 record. First year Coach Bob Garibaldi had a big and aggressive squad that had experienced success out west.

Coach Ireland started the five regulars minus junior Ron Miller. Ireland subbed for Miller with 6'5" sophomore Billy Smith, who got the spot start to give the Ramblers a little more size. Loyola barely staved off the Broncos in the first half, and managed to reach halftime with a 42-39 advantage. The Broncos' 6'6" center, Leroy Jackson, kept them in the game in the first 30 minutes-Jackson had 11 field goals and two free throws to lead the Broncos with 24 points.

In the final 10 minutes of the game, Loyola took full control. The lineup change paid dividends for the Ramblers on the boards, as Smith ripped down 14 rebounds to go with 18 points. Miller entered the game later and scored four points to go with three rebounds. Loyola outscored the Santa Clara team 50-33 in the second half, and convincingly won their 18th game (and 19th in a row) against no defeats, 92-72. Loyola's bench, including Miller, scored only six points.

Against any other team, Jackson's 24-point, 10-rebound effort might have been good enough for a victory. But Loyola had 6'8" Les Hunter at center, and he bested Jackson's superb effort with 11 field goals and five free throws to lead all scorers with 27 points. He also led the Ramblers with 18 rebounds. Loyola ruled the backboards 64-41, and hit on 26 of their 31 free throw attempts compared to the Broncos' 12 of 21.

Later on in the evening, #1 Cincinnati faced #3 Illinois. The Illini were 14-0 and leading the Big 10. It wasn't a home game for Illinois, but it was certainly a favorable venue for the Illini, with their huge Chicago-area fan base well represented. The Bearcats featured 6'8" junior George Wilson at center, a hero for local high school basketball fans. Wilson was twice named All-State at Marshall High School, winners of the 1958 and 1960 state championships. Under coach Ed Jucker at Cincinnati, he'd been part of two more championships in 1961 and 1962-this time on the national collegiate level.

Cincinnati played their classic style, slowing the pace and controlling the boards. Illinois shot poorly in the first half and trailed 33-22 at the break, but the Illini turned it on the second half and cut the Cincinnati lead to 45-41 with 12 minutes to play. The experienced two-time defending champions weathered the storm and countered with their own 10-3 run to stretch the lead to 55-44. Illinois fought back to 55-51 with just over a minute left, but the Bearcats attempted to stall for the rest of the game, sitting on their four-point lead. When the Illini tried to force Cincinnati out of the stall, the Bearcats' All-American Ron Bonham found an opening to the basket and completed a traditional three-point play to put the game out of reach. Cincinnati won 62-53, hiking their record to 19-0 on the season. It was their 33rd consecutive victory dating back to the previous season.

Bonham led all scorers with 26 points for the Bearcats, and Tom Thacker added 20 more. Wilson was held to only six points, but contributed 10 of the Bearcats' 49-39 rebounding advantage over Illinois.

Officially, the crowd was announced at 20,687, but it's well known that Stadium attendance figures were often fudged downward to comply with fire code regulations. Very often, the official attendance at Stadium events was reported as the exact same number as the official Chicago Fire Department capacity rating, in a winking gesture to let everyone know that the place was jam-packed. Some Stadium ushers were quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying that there were four thousand or more in standing room alone. The ushers estimated the crowd at "pretty close to 25,000."

The Cincinnati team was able to watch Loyola for a little while, and Loyola was able to watch the last few minutes of the first half and the entire second half of Cincinnati against the Illini.

"I remember when we had finished playing, and we were walking off the court, Tom Thacker of Cincinnati was standing there, and he said,'Nice game,'" Miller recalls. "I said, 'I guess we'll see you guys in Louisville,' and he said, 'Well, we'll be there. I don't know about you guys.' I'll always remember that."

Immediately after the game first game, Coach Ireland fainted in the locker room, thanks to a high fever from a nasty virus. He recovered in time to watch part of the second half of the Cincinnati-Illinois game.