North Carolina will play Indiana next Thursday in Philadelphia for the sweet 16..... As I thought about it, it has been 35 years ago(6 days short of 35 years to the day of their game this Thursday ) that Indiana beat North Carolina in Philadelphia for the national championship. March 30, 1981... It was also the day that President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr. They almost postponed the national championship that day.. If you are old enough to remember, the NCAA had a 3rd place game then for the losing teams in the semifinals in those years so you were always guaranteed 2 games in the Final Four, win or lose....The NCAA started the 3rd place game late that day because of the happenings with Reagan. When the championship game started, Indiana beat North Carolina 63-50.
That Indiana team was led by Isiah Thomas.. If you remember, Ted Kitchel for Indiana had back problems and only played a few minutes of that game. If you want a story very close to the farm boy characters in the movie, HOOSIERS, it was Kitchel.. Even more so than Steve Alford 6 years later though people make him the ultimate example of Indiana schoolboy basketball. Kitchel was the one raised on a farm and practiced out in his dad's tool shed on the farm where there was a basket.
That team had Ray Tolbert, Randy Wittman, Jim Thomas, and Landon Turner.. Turner, of course, had that tragic car accident just months after the national championship that left him paralyzed. Very easily could have been the #1 selection in the draft BEFORE James Worthy the next year. The North Carolina team they beat was the year before Michael Jordan got there.. They had Sam Perkins, James Worthy, Matt Doherty, Jimmy Black,and Al Wood.. That game was also the last national championship that NBC had with the broadcast team of Dick Enberg, Al McGuire, and Billy Packer as CBS took the broadcast rights after that to the present.
Turner's injury changed the balance of the Big Ten.. Bobby Knight shot off his mouth about Minnesota's 1978 recruiting class(I would argue the most talented Gopher class ever). Knight said they would never win the Big Ten. Well, Minnesota won the Big Ten next year, as those guys were seniors.. That Minnesota class had Leo Rautins, Darryl Mitchell, Trent Tucker, Gary "Cookie" Holmes, and Mark Hall. I have talked to Indiana people who claim that if Turner had not been paralyzed, that the Hoosiers would have repeated as Big Ten champs instead of the Gophers winning it
I wrote this a few years back but this is how people were influenced by Minnesota... Darryl Mitchell's dad was a civil rights attorney in Florida..His dad remembered what Hubert Humphrey did for social justice and the reputation Minnesota had in recruiting African American athletes... Mitchell was a top PG recruit, nationally.. Cookie Holmes was also highly recruited as a big from Florida.. Leo Rautins' dad knew a guy from 3M that transferred up to Toronto that was a huge Gopher fan that influenced the interest of the family and eventually Rautins to sign.. He was called the white Canadian version of Magic Johnson. Best HS player in Canada.. He eventually transferred to Syracuse. Jim Dutcher knew about Trent Tucker from Flint, Michigan when he was an assistant at Michigan and continued to recruit him but to Minnesota instead. Also a top national recruit. Dont know the story of Mark Hall. Just thought I would share the story on a Sunday morning to reminisce.
