1968 game of the century

The roar at the end just reverberated throughout that big dome. What was interesting was some of the fans jumped out of their box seats and ran to the court to celebrate, and of course that was a long run. They were leaping over our foxholes like the return to the Alamo or something.

Enberg had one duty left; to get Wooden on the air, post-defeat. This was Marines holding a hill against North Vietnamese attacks.

We were defeated, we go on, but there are much more important things happening in our world to be concerned about.

March Madness was not far behind. Hayes had 10 points, Alcindor It was a bad night for Houston from the start. Not until after the rout could Lewis dispatch someone in a rental car to pick up Lorch at jail. What a way to end the season. Hayes went on to the NBA, but 17 years later, came back to fulfill a promise to his mother and graduate from the University of Houston.

Alcindor completed a theepeat national championship at UCLA — that night was one of only two losses his Bruins suffered in three seasons -- before heading off to a Hall of Fame career. He saw how truly big college basketball could be, and had a major hand in making all that happen. The networks were way, way behind Eddie Einhorn. The Astrodome has long given up its place as a sports destination, though Houston officials are still hoping to come up with some use.

So the Astrodome stands alone this weekend, while the crowds pass it by and head next door to a newer, flashier, bigger place. The teams had met in the previous season's Final Four semifinals. UCLA prevailed , and won its third title in four seasons.

The Cougars took the third-place game, setting the stage for a rematch that, the Bruins' Lynn Shackelford declared many years later, "changed everything. Lewis , matinee-idol handsome with a million-watt smile and always dapperly dressed, was far ahead of his time in a variety of ways. For starters, he understood marketing. The Cougars took a record in against the Bruins.

Still, Lewis was poorly thought of as a coach by some, who said he'd just roll the ball out there to start a practice, then let his lads go at it. Finally, there was the sparkling new Astrodome, a sporting palace like no other. Where else to play the "Game of the Century" on a Saturday night in front of a national TV audience but on the floor of the "Eighth Wonder of the World. The aura would be such there are roughly a million people today who'll swear they were in the building that night to see the Cougars end the Bruins' game winning streak and take over the No.

The service, the food, the setting? That game had it all. Students of the University of Houston. This file has multiple extracted images : Don Chaney, Game of the Century, View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap. This work has been released into the public domain by its author, University of Houston. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: University of Houston grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose , without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

This image is annotated: View the annotations at Commons. His conditioning suffered. His status remained in doubt and Wooden later said he gave Alcindor the option to sit out against Houston. Twenty million viewers tuned in for the game. The best ones were feet from the court. Some used binoculars or opera glasses. Einhorn sat in the trench next to Enberg and took calls in the first half from advertisers purchasing spots for the second half.

He made just four of 18 shots, one of his worst performances at UCLA, and managed 15 points. Hundreds of fans rushed across the ring of dirt to celebrate on the court. Even as UCLA and Houston cashed in and proved nationally televised basketball games could compete in prime time, the NCAA worried about the spiraling costs of college athletics.

Should society? The tournament expanded — reaching 64 teams in ; 68 in — and revenue grew exponentially. In his locker, Alcindor kept the Sports Illustrated cover with a picture of Hayes shooting over him in the January loss.