U of L and West Virginia Have Done This Before  |
Those of you who remember the good old days when men's basketball was the No. 1 sport at the University of Louisville – just kidding, Rick – might also recall the last time the Cardinals played West Virginia right here in River City with a national championship at stake.
The year was 1959 and the event was the NCAA Final Four in Freedom Hall, then the biggest and best basketball arena in the nation. One semifinal matched Cincinnati and the wondrous Oscar Robertson against Coach Pete Newell’s California Bears. The other matched West Virginia and the incredible Jerry West against the Cardinals, the first team to play a Final Four game on its home court.
The Cards had only a 19-10 record, but had won the Mideast Regional in Evanston, Ill., by upsetting second-ranked Kentucky, 76-61, and Michigan State, 88-81. The game against UK was to be the last time the two teams would play until they met in the 1983 Mideast final in Knoxville, Tenn.
Coach Adolph Rupp’s Wildcats were the defending NCAA champions, having won the 1958 title in Freedom Hall, the first time the event was held there. Although 6-4 All-American forward Johnny Cox was the only returning starter, the Cats rolled to a 23-3 record and the Southeastern Conference championship.
They were heavily favored to beat the Cards and took a 29-14 lead with 9:07 left in the first half. At that point, Hickman called a timeout and ordered his team to tighten its man-to-man defense. By halftime, U of L trailed by 36-28.
The unthinkable happened in the second half. With Don Goldstein outplaying UK’s Cox and Billy Ray Lickert, the Cards outscored the Cats 48-25. Rupp had it exactly right when he told Hickman afterward, “By gawd, you laid the wood to us tonight.”
Goldstein finished with 19 points and eight rebounds, followed by John Turner with 13 points and eight rebounds. Also making significant contributions were Fred Sawyer, Roger Tieman, Harold Andrews, and Joe Kitchen.
After UK beat Marquette in the consolation game, Rupp and his players sat behind the U of L bench and cheered the Cards to victory against Michigan State and “Jumpin’ Johnny” Green. In only its second NCAA appearance, U of L was going home to play in the Final Four.
History doesn’t tell us if Rupp and Hickman conversed about West Virginia. But if they did, Rupp could have filled up Hickman’s ear about West. For three straight years — 1958, ‘59, and ‘60 — West Virginia played in UK’s holiday tournament, giving Rupp all of West he ever wanted to see. He once called West the best player he ever coached against.
A crowd of 19,200 jammed Freedom Hall to see the ’59 semifinals. Unfortunately for U of L, it had no answer for West, who scored 38 points – 27 in the first half – as the Mountaineers rolled to a 94-79 victory.
The fans who had been hoping to see West and Robertson face off in the title game were disappointed when Cincinnati lost to California in the other semifinal. The Golden Bears, led by center Darrell Imhoff, then upset West Virginia, 71-70, to win the title. The Cards lost lost to Cincinnati, 98-85, in a consolation game that was made memorable by Robertson’s 39 points.
Poor Turner, U of L’s slashing 6-5 forward from Newport, drew the assignment of guarding both West and Robertson. “They went for 38 and 39,” he said years later, “and I thought I played great defense.”
The late Cawood Ledford then was sports director for both WHAS radio and TV, and he did the play-by-play of that Final Four on what might have been the first radio network in NCAA tournament history.
“There was no TV, of course,” Ledford recalled in his 1992 autobiography, “but WHAS had put together an 18-station radio network, all out-of-state and all big stations. Our sales manager, John Fouts, sold the whole network to General Electric, which offered to give the winning coach a new electric range.
“That coach turned out to be Pete Newell of California. After the Bears had beat West Virginia and Jerry West, 71-70, in the title game, Bill Sheehy, who had been appointed to get the winning coach, went up to Newell and said, “Coach, I’m the man with the stove.” He brought Pete to me and I gave him the GE range.
“Years later, while covering the Kentucky Derby, I saw Pete outside trainer Wayne Lukas’ barn at Churchill Downs. Bobby Knight, who is Pete’s best friend, introduced us. I said, “That last time we met, Pete, I gave you a stove. Believe it or not, Pete remembered the occasion. He also told me he had that stove until just a few years earlier.”
Although U of L eventually won national titles in 1980 and ’86, West Virginia has never returned to the championship game. The Mountaineers also have never had another player as good as West, who went on to a Hall-of-Fame pro career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
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