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Forty Years Ago Today
2/23/03
by John C. ThomasSaturday, February 23, 1963 vs. Houston at Houston
Since losing Billy Smith and Pablo Robertson-their two best bench players-to academics, the Ramblers had been forced to overtime at home against Marquette, lost their first game of the year by 17 points at Bowling Green, and had their lowest scoring output of the season against a 6-12 St. John's team. When the AP poll was released on Tuesday, February 19, Loyola fell to #3 behind Duke and Cincinnati, who maintained their #1 ranking in spite of a loss to then-unranked Wichita State. As if their state of their psyches weren't fragile enough, the Ramblers' next game would prove to be one of the ugliest contests of the year-- on a number of levels.
After a couple of days back in Chicago to catch up on school work, Loyola traveled to Texas to face the all-white team from the all-white University of Houston. U of H, with an enrollment of 17,430, was about to become a fully state-supported university after the 1962-63 school year, and would enroll its first black student that fall. As with most of the southern schools that were about to admit their first black students, there was a lot of tension around campus.
The Jeppeson Fieldhouse on the campus of the University of Houston was packed with a standing-room only crowd of 2,638 rabid fans. Legendary Coach Guy Lewis had led the Cougars to an NCAA bid in 1960-61 and an NIT bid in 1961-62. The Cougars entered the game with a 14-9 record with the home game against Loyola and two road games left on their schedule. Lewis told the Houston Chronicle that with a win against Loyola, "we would have a good chance of being invited to the NIT."
It's never easy to play on the road in front of a house jammed with your opponents' fans, and even tougher in a small gym with the fans right on top of the court. Then add the emotion of senior night and the realization that a loss would likely end any chances of post-season play. That's a tough environment for a visiting team. The Houston fans, however, added a shower of racial epithets, coins, and debris thrown from the stands at the Loyola players.
"We didn't know how bad Houston was going to be, at least I didn't," Egan remembers. "I don't recall getting prepared for something as bad as that. Houston was worse than anywhere as far as the fans and the bullshit you had to go through. We just got caught in the middle of that. Guy Lewis recruited me. He was a nice person, too."
"They called us all the 'n' names, they said everything," Miller recalls. "They called Jack [Egan] an albino. I remember Chuck Wood telling me later that he was standing in the huddle and someone threw a piece of ice that hit him in the chest, and his initial reaction was that he'd been shot."
The Cougars came out and tried to beat Loyola at their own game with a full-court press. On offense, Houston held the ball and slowed the pace looking for cutters to the basket and high percentage shots. The strategy worked for most of the first half, until Loyola surged ahead with two minutes left before the break. The Ramblers entered the locker room with a 27-25 advantage.
Houston's hot first-half shooters hit a cold spell early in the second half, as Loyola built a 37-30 advantage. The Cougars' 6'7" senior center Lyle Harger, the nation's leader in field goal percentage at 66%, missed some point-blank shots in the second half thanks to the Ramblers' quickness and leaping ability.
But the Cougars would not go away, and they went on a 10-5 run to cut the Loyola lead to 42-40 with 9:02 remaining. After another Loyola push, Houston came back to cut the Loyola lead to 53-49 with just over three minutes to play. But Loyola built their lead to 62-55 with just 25 seconds left, and survived a Harger lay-up and a free throw by Donnie Schverak to get the hard-fought win, 62-58.
Jerry Harkness led all scorers with 17, and John Egan added 16 for the Ramblers, who were again held to their lowest scoring output of the season. Harger led the Cougars with 15 points, but was held to 4-of-10 shooting from the field. The Ramblers were out-shot 54% to 41%, but finished the game with a 38-29 rebounding edge.
Again, the Ramblers were taken by surprise by an ugly racist outburst, and again they had survived.
"That was a strange one for me," Miller recalls, "because one of the guys on Houston was a high school teammate of mine named Warren Lifschultz. I knew Guy Lews from when he was recruiting Warren to go to Houston. And after the game, [Lewis] came to me and apologized for the way people acted. I'll always remember that."
Just one year later Lewis would sign two African Americans, 6'9" forward Elvin Hayes and 6'3" guard Don Chaney. The pair of African-American recruits led Houston to three straight tournament appearances, two final fours, and an 81-12 record in their three-year varsity careers. As the Sporting News College Player of the Year in 1968, Hayes scored 49 points against Loyola to eliminate the Ramblers in the first round of the 1968 NCAA tournament.