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Forty Years Ago Today

2/02/03
by John C. Thomas

Saturday, February 2, 1963 vs. Iowa at Chicago Stadium

What could be better for a Chicago college basketball fan in the dog days of winter than a doubleheader at the Stadium? How about a tripleheader? The tripleheader experiment fell flat on its face, at least financially, when Loyola highlighted a triple feature pitting the University of Chicago vs. Brandeis, Wheaton vs. Tampa, and Loyola against Iowa. Just a week after the Stadium was packed with an estimated 24,000+ college basketball fans to see Loyola, Cincinnati, and Illinois, only 6,876 showed up to see #2 Loyola as the marquis matchup against a 7-8 Iowa team.

Coach Ireland was back on the sidelines at the beginning of the game, still recovering from a nasty flu. With Loyola up early in the game, 14-13, the Ramblers sought to put some distance between themselves and the Hawkeyes with a 6-0 run in a 30 second span. The Ramblers built on that lead in spite of being out-rebounded in the first half by Iowa, and Loyola took a 39-28 lead into the locker room at the break.

Coach Sherm Scheuerman's Hawkeyes crept to with seven points of the Ramblers in the opening seconds of the second half, but Jerry Harkness stepped forward to hit on seven of his nine field goal attempts in the second half. John Egan added some clutch scoring with two consecutive baskets-one a driving lay-up and another a bomb from 20 feet out-to give the Ramblers a 69-49 lead.

Loyola pulled its regulars by the time the lead was extended to 86-61, and the final was 86-68. Harkness led the way with 24 points, Egan had 20, and both Vic Rouse and Ron Miller notched 14. In spite of being out-rebounded in the first half, Loyola finished with a 51-40 advantage on the boards.

At 20-0 and ranked second in the nation, the Ramblers were on top of the world-almost. Their nemesis, Cincinnati, was still undefeated and maintaining their #1 ranking that they had been tabbed with in the AP pre-season poll. The two time defending champions were 21-0 and had won 35 in a row over two seasons. But the Bearcats had shown some vulnerability-- Drake took them to overtime in their own building on January 31, and because of their style of play, Cincinnati's margins of victory were sometimes razor-thin.

Meanwhile, after the Iowa game, Loyola's average margin of victory was 29.1 points per game, and the Ramblers were averaging 97.4 points on offense and besting every opponent by at least 10 boards. The Ramblers were facing a well-deserved 10-day rest after a grueling schedule that had them playing 13 games in 38 days at seven different venues in four states. There were only six games left in the regular season. Would the 10-day rest give them enough strength to finish the season with an unblemished record? What if Cincinnati slipped up? Would the Ramblers be able to handle the spotlight of being the #1 team in the country?