March 27, 1926: The Death of Georges Vézina

March 27, 1926, 100 years ago: Georges Vézina dies of tuberculosis in his hometown of Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada. The greatest goaltender the sport of hockey had yet seen, he was only 39 years old.

Joseph Georges Gonzague Vézina was born on January 21, 1887 in Chicoutimi, since absorbed into the city of Saguenay, in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, 125 miles north of Quebec City and nearly 300 miles northeast of Montreal. He dropped out of school at age 14 to work in his father's bakery.

In 1908, he married Marie-Adélaïde-Stella Morin. A story spread by his later boss, Montreal Canadiens part-owner Leo Dandurand, said that the couple had 22 children, and that Georges spoke no English. Although both parts were plausible -- the Catholic Church in Quebec heavily encouraged big families, to overcome the Anglophone dominance of their Province through "the revenge of the cradles," and rural Quebec was almost entirely Francophone -- neither part was true: They had just 2 children, and Georges did speak some English.

At the time, transportation and media links being what they were, Chicoutimi was so remote that there was only one way for a player for the Chicoutimi Hockey Club, nicknamed the Saguenéens, could get noticed by those larger cities, and that was to tour the Province of Quebec, playing exhibition games.

The Montreal Canadiens were founded in 1909, and, in their 1st season, on February 17, 1910, they played the Chicoutimi Hockey Club. They lost, and their goaltender, Joseph Cattarinich (later to be a part-owner with Dandurand) suggested that they offer Vézina a tryout. Vézina refused. Later in the year, the teams played each other again, and Chicoutimi won again. Again, the Canadiens offered Vézina a tryout. He accepted on the condition that they also try out his brother Pierre. They did, although Pierre didn't make the team. Georges did, and made his professional debut on December 31, 1910, a 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Silver Seven (the original Ottawa Senators).

It took a while for the Canadiens to get good. In 1914, they finished tied for 1st in the National Hockey Association, with the Toronto Blueshirts, and lost a Playoff for the title and the right to play the Pacific Coast Hockey Association Champions for the Stanley Cup. The Blueshirts ended up beating the Victoria Aristocrats.

In 1916, the Canadiens won the NHA title outright, and beat the PCHA Champion Portland Rosebuds for their 1st Stanley Cup. This was also the 1st time an American-based team had played for the Cup. In 1917, the Canadiens were NHA Champions again, but lost the Stanley Cup Finals to the Seattle Metropolitans, the 1st U.S. team to win the Cup.

The Canadiens joined the new National Hockey League for the 1917-18 season. On February 18, 1918, the Canadiens beat the Toronto Arenas, 9-0, and Vézina became the 1st NHL goalie to record a shutout. On December 28, 1918, again against Toronto, he became the 1st NHL goalie to be credited with an assist, when Édouard "Newsy" Lalonde, the Canadiens' best attacking player, took a rebound from one of his saves, took the puck up the ice, and scored. The Canadiens won the NHL title, but the worldwide influenza epidemic rebounded in the Spring of 1919, killing Canadiens defenseman Joe Hall, and forcing the abandonment of the Finals between the Canadiens and the Metropolitans.

The Canadiens won the NHL Championship again in 1924, and beat the Vancouver Millionaires for their 2nd Cup. They won the NHL Championship again in 1925, but lost the Finals to the Victoria Cougars, Champions of what was now known as the Western Hockey League. The Cougars became the last team from outside the NHL to win the Cup, as the WHL collapsed after 1 more season, making the Cup an all-NHL affair.

From 1917 to 1925, in NHL play, Vézina won 103 games, lost 81, and had a goals-against average of 3.28. At the time, that was the lowest in the League's young history. What's more, he had played every minute of every game. The attempt to do so was not rare, but actually doing it was. In fact, the Canadiens hadn't played a league (NHA or NHL) game without him since December 1910 -- almost 15 full seasons. He was seen as unflappable on the ice, "cool as a cucumber," and was nicknamed "the Chicoutimi Cucumber."

But when he reported to training camp for the 1925-26 season, he was noticeably ill. He made no mention of it. The season opened on November 28, against an expansion team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. (Named for the city's baseball team, they only lasted through the 1930 season, and have no connection to the Pittsburgh Penguins.) In the intervening 6 weeks, he had lost 35 pounds. When he reported for the opening game, he had a fever of 102 degrees. He insisted upon playing.

He got through the 1st period without allowing a goal. But upon his return to the locker room, he began to vomit blood, a sure sign of tuberculosis. Today, it is curable with antibiotics; but, then, the treatments were not very effective. For the rest of the game, he was replaced by Alphonse Lacroix. Despite his French name, he was an American, and had played for the U.S. in the 1st Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France the year before. The Canadiens lost, 1-0.

Vézina never played again, and the Canadiens finished last in the NHL for 1925-26. Nevertheless, knowing that he was dying and the family couldn't afford his medical expenses otherwise, the team paid his full salary of $6,000 (Canadian). He died on March 27, 1926, just 39.

*

At the start of the 1926-27 season, the Canadiens donated the Vezina Trophy to the NHL, to be awarded to the goaltender of the team that allowed the fewest goals during the regular season. (Note that the Trophy's name does not have the accent over the E in "Vézina.") George Hainsworth, whom the Canadiens signed from the Saskatoon Crescents, one of the teams that went out of business with the Western Hockey League the season before, won the Trophy the 1st 2 times it was awarded.

In 1981, the NHL changed the format: The Vezina Trophy went to the winner of a poll for the best goalie of the year, while the Jennings Trophy was instituted, to go to the goalie with the fewest goals allowed.

Jacques Plante holds the record for most Vezina Trophies won: 7, 6 with the Canadiens and 1 with the St. Louis Blues. Although the Canadiens have retired some uniform numbers for more than one player, they have retired Number 1, the traditional number for a goalie, only for Plante, not for fellow Vezina Trophy winners Hainsworth, Bill Durnan, Charlie Hodge or Gump Worsley; nor for Vézina himself, who became the 1st NHL player to wear Number 1. (Later Canadiens' Vezina Trophy winners have not worn 1: Ken Dryden wore 29, Patrick Roy wore 33, José Théodore wore 60, and Carey Price wore 31.)

In 1945, Vézina and Charlie Gardiner of the Chicago Black Hawks, who also died while still an active player, became the 1st 2 goalies elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 1965, his hometown of Chicoutimi recognized Vézina, as the 1st professional athlete to come from there, by renaming their arena the Centre Georges-Vézina.

In 1998, The Hockey News ranked Vézina 75th on their list of the 100 Greatest Players. In 2017, the NHL named its 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players. Vézina was the earliest player selected.

It WAS a Happy Opening Day!

So it was a Happy Opening Day after all.

Aaron Judge went 0-for-5 with 4 strikeouts last night, and the Yankee Haters are all talking about this.

But the Yankees broke out for 5 runs in the top of the 2nds inning. They tacked on 2 runs in the 4th. Trent Grisham and Ryan McMahon, both mocked for their poor hitting last season, each had 2 RBIs. Giancarlo Stanton and Austin Wells, power hitters but not contact hitters, each had 2 hits. The Yankees scored 7 runs with only 1 extra-base hit, a triple by Grisham. They were neither homer-dependent nor Judge dependent.

Max Fried went 6 1/3rd innings, allowing 2 hits and a walk, striking out 4. Jake Bird finished the 7th inning. Brent Headrick pitched the 8th. Camilo Doval pitched the 9th, finishing the 3-hit shutout.

Yankees 7, San Francisco Giants 0. For the 1st time that counts in 169 days, as former Yankee radio announcer John Sterling would say, Ballgame over! Yankees win!

Yes, it's only one game. But when you win on Opening Day, everything looks better, everything sounds better, everything feels better, everything tastes better, everything even smells better.

Today is a day off, before the next game, at Oracle Park in San Francisco, tomorrow afternoon at 4:35 PM Eastern Time. Cam Schlittler starts against Robbie Ray.

*

Yesterday was also Happy Ranger Elimination Day, for people who root for the New Jersey Devils (like me) and the New York Islanders. The New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, a loss that means they cannot qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Both the Devils and the Isles are also unlikely to make the Playoffs, and all 3 teams seem to be going nowhere.

For the Devils, no Stanley Cups in 23 years. For the Islanders, 43 years. For the Rangers, 32 years, and 86 Years 1 Cup.

Maybe New York should stick to baseball.

Except, today, the Mets open, at home, against the Pittsburgh Pirates, a team that seems to have  only one player worth talking about, but it's Paul Skenes, who is probably the best pitcher in the National League right now. So there's a pretty good chance the Mets will start out 0-1.

I can.

*

I haven't done a countdown in almost exactly one year, since March 27, 2025. Here goes:

* Next U.S. soccer team game: 2, this Saturday, at 3:30 PM, vs. Belgium, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

* Next New Jersey Devils rivalry game: 5, on Tuesday, March 31, at 7:00 PM, away to the New York Rangers.

* Next Arsenal match: 9, on Saturday, April 4, at 3:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time, away to Southampton FC in the Quarterfinal of the FA Cup.

* Next New York Red Bulls game: 9, on Saturday, April 4, at 7:30 PM, home to FC Cincinnati.

* Next Yankees-Red Sox series: 26, on Tuesday, April 21, at 6:45 PM, at Fenway Park. Less than 4 weeks.

* Next Red Bulls "derby" game: 27, on Wednesday, April 22, at 7:30 PM, home to DC United.

* Next World Cup: 77, on Thursday, June 11, split between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Just 11 weeks. The Final will be on July 19, at the Meadowlands. It's beginning to look like the U.S. wouldn't have qualified if we weren't a host nation.

* Next North London Derby: Unknown. Arsenal have already played, and beaten, Tottenham Hotspur twice in the Premier League this season. At the moment, we don't even know if "Spurs" will be in the Premier League next season. With 7 League games to go, they are 1 point over the relegation zone. If they manage to avoid it, the 1st game of the 2026-27 season will be on Saturday, August 15, which would be 142 days. But the teams never open the season against each other, so it will probably be longer than that. They have played each other in August, but it's usually once in October or November in N5, then once in February or March in N17, and the occasionally cup tie.

* Next East Brunswick High School football game: Unknown, but if last year's schedule is any indication, it will probably be on the last Friday in August, which would be August 28. That's 155 days, or a little over 5 months.

* Next Rutgers football game: 161, on Thursday, September 3, at 7:30 PM, home to the University of Massachusetts.

* Next East Brunswick-Old Bridge football game: Unknown, but if last year's schedule is any indication, it will probably be on Friday, September 26, at Vince Lombardi Field in Old Bridge. That would be 183 days, or 6 months.

* Next election for the U.S. Congress and for the Governor of New York: 222, on Tuesday, November 3. A little over 7 months. In New Jersey, polls are open from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM. In New York, they're open from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM. If Trump is to be held accountable for anything, the voters must give the Democratic Party control of each house of Congress.

* Next Rutgers-Penn State game: 240, on Saturday, November 21, at a time TBA, at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.

* Next Summer Olympics: 841, on July 14, 2028, in Los Angeles. A little over 3 years. Perhaps there will be another boycott. 

* Next election for the President of the United States: 957, on November 7, 2028. A little over 2 1/2 years, or under 32 months. Time to end the Trump Era for once and for all, and to make America good again.

* Next Inauguration for the President of the United States: 1,031, on January 20, 2029. A little under 3 years. And stay out, you fat Fascist son of a bitch.

* Next elections for the Governor of New Jersey and the Mayor of New York City: 1,321, on November 6, 2029. I am fully confident that Governor Mikie Sherrill can govern the State well enough to convince voters to re-elect her. I am not at all confident that Kid Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who has already screwed up two blizzards, can keep himself popular enough to avoid a primary challenge. He might even open the door for a competent, though probably evil, Republican to win.

* Next Winter Olympics: 1,408, on February 1, 2030. Yes, I know, we just finished a Winter Olympics. The next ones will be in the French Alps, a region that has included the sites of the Winter Olympics in 1924, the 1st one, in Chamonix; 1968, Grenoble; and 1992, Albertville. In fact, a lot of the Winter Olympics have been held in the Alps: 1928 and 1948 in St. Moritz, Switzerland; 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany; 1956 and 2026 in Cortina, Italy, with the Games that just ended being mainly in Milan but some events in Cortina; 1964 and 1976 in Innsbruck, Austria; and 2006 in Turin, Italy. Indeed, from Grenoble in the west to Milan in the east, it's only 230 miles, or roughly the distance between Midtown Manhattan and downtown Washington, D.C.

Happy Opening Day -- I Hope

Today is Opening Day, the earliest in the Yankees' history. The start the season on the road, with an Interleague game: At 8:05 PM Eastern Time tonight, they play the San Francisco Giants at what is now named Oracle Park.

And, of course, the game will not be on the no-longer-free version of what was once known as "free TV," or even "basic cable." It will be on Netflix. Whoever made that decision needs to get slapped.

I wouldn't mind playing the Giants in the World Series, a matchup which has not happened in my lifetime: The last one was in 1962. But, in the regular season, Interleague Play is just wrong, with a hard G: It's wrong-guh.

As usual, the Yankees begin the season with a loaded lineup and, at the same time, an injury crisis:

* Gerrit Cole, perhaps the best pitcher in baseball when healthy, is not expected to return until late May, maybe early June.

* Clarke Schmidt will also be out of the rotation until around that time.

* Shortstop Anthony Volpe, who had an awful season last year because he was playing hurt, is expected back at around the same time.

* Carlos Rodón is also not going to be rejoining the starting rotation anytime soon. Early May is the best guess for now.

Therefore, until at least early May, the rotation will be Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers, with a few days off eliminating the need for a 5th starter for the time being. In other words, Fried, Schlittler, and hope the hitters can overcome both Warren and Weathers being lousy.

David Bednar is the closer, and even with Luis Gil, who I thought would be a starter, I don't trust anybody else in the bullpen. And since Yankee management apparently no longer thinks Gil should be starting, we could have a lot of 9-8 games.

With Volpe out, and no classic leadoff hitter, and Aaron Boone following Brian Cashman's orders,  so that the best power hitter in the game won't be batting 3rd or 4th like he's supposed to, this will probably be the starting lineup:

48 1B Paul Goldschmidt

99 RF Aaron Judge

35 LF Cody Bellinger

27 DH Giancarlo Stanton

13 2B Jazz Chisholm 

14 3B Amed Rosario

12 CF Trent Grisham 

72 SS Jose Caballero

28 C Austin Wells

With Ben Rice probably being the first bat off the bench.

Oy.

*

To paraphrase David Byrne of Talking Heads, You might find yourself with this team. And you might ask yourself, How did I get here? This is not my beautiful ballpark! This is not my beautiful team! And you might ask yourself, Why do I do this?

I've been over this before. Nick Hornby, the Arsenal fan who wrote the memoir Fever Pitch, and the screenplay for the original film based on it -- not the U.S. adaptation, the horror film where real-life Yankee Fan Jimmy Fallon plays a Red Sox fan who corrupts Drew Barrymore -- came up with the best answer for "Why do we do this to ourselves?" that I've ever seen -- words that remind me that Arsenal just lost the League Cup Final to Manchester City, ending the dreams of a Quadruple and a Domestic Treble, although the European Treble is still available:

Football has meant too much to me, and has come to represent too many things.

After a while, it all starts to get mixed up in your head. You can't remember whether life is shit because Arsenal is shit, or if it's the other way around.

I've been to far too many games, and spent too much money, fretted about Arsenal when I should have been fretting about something else, and I've asked too much of the people I love.

All right, I accept all of that.

Perhaps it's something you can't understand unless you belong....

It's not easy to become a football fan. It takes years. But if you put in the hours, you're welcomed, without question, into a new family. Except, in this family, you all love the same people, and hope for the same things. What's childish about that?...

The great thing is, it comes again and again. There's always another season. You lose the Cup Final in May? Well, there's the 3rd Round to look forward to in January. And what's wrong with that? It's actually pretty comforting, if you think about it.

And there it is. It comes again and again. You fall flat in the Playoffs in October? There's a new season to look forward to in April. Or, nowadays, late March.

And everybody starts out equal. Everybody is 0-0. Even the Flushing morons have reason to hope.

As the late, great Yankee Fan George Carlin put it, "Baseball begins in the Spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the Fall, when everything is dying!"

That's what Opening Day is all about. As former President Bill Clinton would say, "I still believe in a place called 'Hope.'"

Happy Opening Day. Night. Whatever. I hope.

March 25, 1986: "Perfect Strangers" Premieres

Mark Linn-Baker (left) and Bronson Pinchot,

in American and (fictional) Myposian formal attire, respectively.

March 25, 1986, 40 years ago: Perfect Strangers premieres on ABC. Bronson Pinchot starred as Balki Bartokomous, from the fictional Mediterranean, Greek-influenced but apparently hopelessly underdeveloped island nation of Mypos.

Mark Linn-Baker played Larry Appleton -- always "Cousin Larry" to Balki, even when he was talking about him to somebody else -- the Chicago-based relative who took him in, and did his best to teach him how to be an American, while the immigrant taught him how to be a better person.

David Pomeranz sang the theme song, which was written by Jesse Frederick and Bennett Salvay. They went on to write, and Frederick to sing, the themes to the ABC sitcoms Full House and Family Matters, the latter of which was a spinoff of Perfect Strangers.

The show indulged in all the immigrant-in-America tropes, from the occasional native dress to the frequent mishandling of U.S. slang. With Balki, the expression "Get out of town!" became "Get out of the city!" Telling a woman who appeared to be psychic that she has not ESP, but PMS. And so forth. (This was more recently done on NCIS, with Cote de Pablo and her "Zivaisms.")

After working in a convenience store in the 1st 2 seasons, Larry and Balki got jobs at a fictional newspaper, the Chicago Chronicle. They ended up dating, and marrying, flight attendants: Larry to Jennifer Lyons (played by Melanie Wilson, daughter of Dick Wilson, known for playing Mr. Whipple in Charmin commercials), and Balki to Rebeca Arthur (Mary Anne Spencer). The show lasted 7 seasons, and each couple's baby was born during the series finale, airing on August 6, 1993.

Did I like this show? To use Balki's catchphrase, "Well, of course I did, don't be ridiculous!" Even now, when something good happens, I'll post the video of Balki and Larry doing the Myposian "Dance of Joy!"

Pinchot never found a follow-up sitcom that worked, and turned to doing voiceovers for audiobooks -- in his real voice, not in Balki's fake Myposian accent. Baker moved into directing.

And they remain friends to this day.

March 24, 1936: The NHL's Longest Game

His name is Mud. Sort of.

But he made a name for himself in hockey history.

March 24, 1936, 90 years ago: The longest game in National Hockey League history is played, at the Montreal Forum. The Montreal Maroons host the Detroit Red Wings in the 1st game of the Stanley Cup Semifinals, a best-3-out-of-5 series.

The Maroons, founded in 1924, were the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Coached by Tommy Gorman, they included 4 future members of the Hockey Hall of Fame: Reginald "Hooley" Smith, Lionel Conacher, goaltender Alex Connell, and Hector "Toe" Blake, later to win 8 Stanley Cups as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. They also had All-Stars Jimmy Ward, Herb Cain, Cy Wentworth, Earl Robinson and Lawrence "Baldy" Northcott (who, at the time, had plenty of hair).

The Wings, coached by Jack Adams, once a star player, and founded in 1926, had reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1934, but hadn't yet won it. They had 4 Hall-of-Famers: Marty Barry, Herbie Lewis, Syd Howe (not related to later Detroit star Gordie) and Ebenezer "Ebbie" Goodfellow. (Yeah, I know: His name makes him sound like Ebenezer Scrooge's "good twin.")

Not in the Hall of Fame were All-Stars, the brothers Wally and Hector Kilrea, and Larry Aurie, whose Number 6 was long believed retired by the team, but it isn't, at least not officially. Wilfrid "Bucko" McDonald was elected to the Hall of Fame -- the one for lacrosse. Modere Fernand "Mud" Bruneteau was elected to the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, though not the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. 

Wings goaltender Normie Smith isn't in the Hockey Hall of Fame, either. But, on this night, he wrote his name into hockey history, much as Connell, who had also won the Cup with the 1927 Ottawa Senators, had already done.

Except Connell wouldn't be the Maroons' goalie in this game. It would be Lorne Chabot, who had won the Cup with the 1928 New York Rangers and the 1932 Toronto Maple Leafs. In 1933, he was the winning goalie in the Leafs' 1-0 win over the Boston Bruins, a game that went to 6 overtimes, and was then the longest game in NHL history.

The puck was dropped at 8:30 PM. After the full 60 minutes of play, the score was 0-0. A full 20-minute overtime period was played. No goals in that, either. A 2nd overtime was played. Still no score. A 3rd overtime was played. And a 4th. A 5th. Nothing. Chabot had done this before. Smith had not.

There is no official record of how many shots and saves were made, but one source suggests that Smith made 92 saves. If so, it would be an NHL record. (In a 2020 Playoff game that went to 5 overtimes, Joonas Korpisalo of the Columbus Blue Jackets made 85 saves, which is recognized as the official record. But the Jackets lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The accepted regulation record is 70, set by Ron Tugnutt of the Quebec Nordiques, in a 3-3 tie with the Boston Bruins in 1991.)

Normie Smith. Yes, the NHL allowed goalies

to wear baseball-style caps in those days.

It was a clean game, by the standards of the time. The Wings were penalized only 5 times throughout the long contest; the Maroons, just 4. There were no penalties in the 1st 3 overtimes, and just 1, Hooley Smith at the start of the 4th overtime, thereafter.

Finally, with 3:30 to go in the 6th overtime, after one hundred sixteen minutes and thirty seconds of scoreless hockey, nearly 3 full games, with Smith and Connell turning away all shots, at 2:25 AM on March 25, Bruneteau, only 21 years old, intercepted an errant pass, and put the puck past Chabot. Final score: Red Wings 1, Maroons 0.

Smith shut the Maroons out again in Game 2, and the Wings completed the sweep in Game 3. They beat the Leafs in the Finals, 3 games to 1, to win their 1st Stanley Cup. Had there been a trophy for the Most Valuable Player of the Playoffs, Smith would likely have won it. (The Conn Smythe Trophy for Playoff MVP did not debut until 1965.)

Mud Bruneteau would play 11 seasons in the NHL, all with the Red Wings, winning the Stanley Cup in 1936, 1937 and 1943, and captained the Wings in the 1943-44 season. He scored 139 goals, plus 23 more in the Playoffs. He later won minor-league championships as the head coach of a Wings farm team, the Omaha Knights. He died in 1982, of cancer, at age 67.

Normie Smith played 5 seasons in the NHL. He was also a member of the Wings' back-to-back Cup winners in 1936 and 1937. In 1937, he won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goaltender. He was traded to the Bruins in 1939, and retired rather than report. (That could have been a mistake: With Frankie Brmisek in goal, they won the Cup in 1941.) During World War II, despite having won the Cup in 1943 and reached the Finals the year before, the Wings needed to counter the manpower drain, and coaxed him back for 5 games in 1944 and 1 in 1945. He lived until 1988, age 79.

March 20, 1976: Rutgers Basketball Reaches the Final Four

March 20, 1976, 50 years ago: The men's basketball team of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, beats the Virginia Military Institute, a.k.a. VMI, at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. This advances them to a record of 31-0, and to the NCAA Semifinal at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Rutgers has reached the Final Four.

One of nine "colonial colleges," which opened before American independence in 1776, Rutgers was best known as the site of the 1st American football game in 1869. But, since then, sports successes had been few and far between.

Now, under coach Tom Young, they had a basketball team that was ready to challenge the rest of the country. The usual starting lineup was guards Mike Dabney and Eddie Jordan, forwards Phil "the Thrill" Sellers and Hollis Copeland, and center "Jammin'" James Bailey, a freshman.

It was one thing to beat regional rivals like Princeton and Seton Hall (also in New Jersey); Columbia, Fordham, Manhattan College and Long Island University (New York City); the University of Pennsylvania and Temple (Philadelphia); Bucknell, Lehigh and Lafayette (Northeastern Pennsylvania); the University of Delaware; the Naval Academy (Maryland); American University (Washington, D.C.); the University of Connecticut; and Boston College.

But beating bigger teams was another thing. On December 4, 1975, they beat Big Ten team Purdue. Between Christmas and New Year's, they went to Greenville, South Carolina to play in the Poinsettia Classic, and beat The Citadel (not a big deal) and Georgia Tech (which was a big deal). They beat West Virginia at Madison Square Garden on February 5.

By this point, home games at the 3,200-seat College Avenue Gymnasium, built in 1931 after a fire burned down the previous gym on the site, roughly on the site of that first college football game, in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, were next to impossible to get into unless you were a student. It got so loud, paint chips fell from the ceiling. (I have had this confirmed by an RU graduate, Class of '76.) The decision to build a new arena was made.

The College Avenue Gym

Rutgers beat the University of Pittsburgh, then Syracuse. On March 1, they closed the regular season at home to St. Bonaventure, still undefeated at 25-0. The Bonnies took an early lead, but the Scarlet Knights came back, and won, 85-80. They entered the ECAC Metro Tournament at Princeton's Jadwin Gymnasium, and beat LIU and St. John's -- schools from Brooklyn and Queens, respectively -- to go 28-0.

It was on to the NCAA Tournament. This was only the 2nd time RU had made the Tournament, having gotten in the year before, and going out in the 1st Round. They had gotten to the Semifinals of the NIT in 1967, with future North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano playing for them.

They played Princeton -- not in New Jersey, but at the Providence Civic Center in Rhode Island. (It's now named the Amica Mutual Pavilion.) It was the closest game of the season, but Rutgers beat their ancient rivals, 54-53.

On to the Regional Semifinal, in Greensboro. Connecticut was not yet the power it would become, and Rutgers won, 93-79. That led to the Regional Final, also in Greensboro, against VMI. This time, Rutgers was solidly favored, and won, 91-75. They were undefeated. They were 31-0. They were ranked Number 4 in the country. And they were on their way to the Final Four.

Hail the Heroes:

* Number 12, a 6-foot-5-inch senior forward from Brooklyn, New York: Phil Sellers.

* Number 20, a 6-9 freshman center from Boston, Massachusetts: James Bailey.

* Number 22, a 6-3 sophomore guard from Washington, D.C.: Stanford Nance.

* Number 24, a 6-7 senior center from Parsippany, Morris County, New Jersey: Bruce Sherer.

* Number 30, a 6-1 junior guard from D.C.: Eddie Jordan.

* Number 32, a 6-4 senior guard from East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey: Mike Dabney.

* Number 34, a 6-5 sophomore forward from Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey: Hollis Copeland.

* Number 42, a 6-2 junior guard from Queens, New York: Mark Conlin.

* Number 44, a 6-2 senior guard from Queens: Jeff Kleinbaum.

* Number 50, a 6-5 sophomore guard from East Rockaway, Long Island, New York: Steve Hefele.

* Number 52, a 6-7 senior center from Hackettstown, Warren County, New Jersey: Mike Palko.

* And Number 54, a 6-7 freshman forward from Belleville, Essex County, New Jersey: Abdel Anderson.

Since it was 1976, the Bicentennial year, the Final Four, and the All-Star Games for MLB, the NBA and the NHL, were held in Philadelphia. On March 27, against the University of Michigan, ranked Number 9 entering the Tournament, the bubble finally burst. The Wolverines jumped out to an early lead, and the Knights just couldn't get into their game. Michigan won, 86-70, and RU were 31-1.

In those days, there was a 3rd Place Game, and Rutgers lost that, too, 106-92 to defending National Champion UCLA, to finish 31-2. Indiana, coached by Bobby Knight, and featuring future NBA players Kent Benson, Scott May and Quinn Buckner, beat Michigan, and completed an undefeated season, 32-0. There hasn't been an undefeated season in college basketball since.

Calendar year 1976 was magical for Rutgers: In the Autumn, the football team also went undefeated, 11-0, but was not invited to a bowl game.

In 1977, Rutgers moved into the Rutgers Athletic Center, a.k.a. The RAC (pronounced like "rack"), across the Raritan River from New Brunswick, on the Livingston Campus in Piscataway. From 1986 to 2019, it was named the Louis Brown Athletic Center, after a donation from Brown's family.

Now named the Jersey Mike's Arena, it only seats 9,000, and has never been very good. Plans for renovation, or for a new arena in downtown New Brunswick, have been floated, but it looks like the current nondescript chunk of concrete is going to stay.

The College Avenue Gym still stands, and hosts the RU wrestling and volleyball programs.

Rutgers made the NCAA Tournament again in 1979, getting to the Sweet Sixteen. They made it again in 1983, getting to the 2nd Round. In 1989, they made it as Champions of the Atlantic-10 Tournament. They made it again in 1991. Both times, they went out in the 1st Round. They didn't make it again until 2021, but made it again in 2022.

Despite being the team's top player, Phil Sellers played just 1 season in the NBA, with the 1976-77 Detroit Pistons. Hollis Copeland played 2 seasons with the New York Knicks. James Bailey lasted 9 seasons, playing for both the Knicks and the New Jersey Nets, among other teams.

Eddie Jordan had the most successful pro career, playing 7 seasons, 3 of them with the Nets, and 3 with the Los Angeles Lakers, including winning the 1982 NBA Championship. He later coached the NBA's Sacramento Kings, Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers.

Tom Young started at Rutgers in 1973, and coached them until 1985, when he was lured away by Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. He later served as an assistant to Jordan on the Wizards. He died on March 20, 2022, the 36th Anniversary of his Final Four achievement.

Phil Sellers died on September 19, 2023. The remaining players are still alive.

March 19, 1966: Texas Western vs. Kentucky

March 19, 1966, 60 years ago: The NCAA hosts the Final of its University Division Men's Basketball Tournament, at Cole Field House, on the campus of the University of Maryland, in College Park, outside Washington, D.C.

The University of Kentucky went into the game 27-1, having lost only to the University of Tennessee. Their players included Louie Dampier, who would team with later Kentucky star Dan Issel to lead the Kentucky Colonels to the 1975 ABA Championship; and Pat Riley, who would play for the Los Angeles Lakers' 1972 NBA Champions, and then coach the Lakers to 4 titles and the Miami Heat to 1.

The Wildcats were coached by Adolph Rupp, known as the Baron of the Bluegrass. He was 64 years old, looked older, and had been their head coach since 1930. He had already coached them to 22 Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular-season Championships, 13 SEC Tournament wins, 6 berths in what would now be known as the Final Four, and 4 National Championships: 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1958. That did not include the 1954 season, when they were undefeated, but chose not to play in the NCAA Tournament, because 2 players were declared ineligible for having already graduated -- a rule since overturned.

Rupp was from Kansas, and was not known to be personally racist. However, Kentucky was a Southern State, and, while the Wildcats' arch-rivals, the University of Louisville, had racially integrated, UK had not.

But the writing was on the wall. The Civil Rights Movement had made great gains. And a black man from Louisville, Muhammad Ali -- born Cassius Clay, and that Sports Illustrated cover shown above still listed him as such, 2 years after he changed his name -- was the Heavyweight Champion of the World.

Rupp had asked University President John W. Oswald to take the program out of the SEC, so that he could recruit black players. At one point during the 1965-66 season, Rupp did some writing of his own. He wrote the top 3 teams in the Associated Press poll on his blackboard at practice:

1. KENTUCKY

2. DUKE

3. VANDERBILT

Duke University is in Durham, North Carolina. Vanderbilt University is in Nashville, Tennessee. Rupp told his players, "Look at that. The top three teams in the country. All Southern. All white. You'll never see that again." He knew that Southern teams that integrated would be able to compete for national honors, and those that were slow to do so would get left in the dust. Not just in basketball, but in football, and in every other sport.

Previous Rupp teams had had nicknames: His 1948 National Champions were the "Fabulous Five." His 1958 team didn't look so good at first, and he complained to the press that they were "just fiddling around." So they were known as the "Fiddlin' Five," but won the title, anyway. His 1966 team was short, and were known as "Rupp's Runts."

At the time, the NCAA Tournament had 24 teams, with only conference champions and a few independents invited. Kentucky were SEC Champions, and got a bye into the round of 16, the Regional Semifinals, where they beat the University of Dayton. They beat Michigan to make the Final Four at Cole Field House. In the National Semifinal, they beat Number 2 Duke 83-79. They figured that was "the real final," because they underestimated their Final opponents.

That team was Texas Western University, based in El Paso, Texas, on the State Line with New Mexico and the national border with Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Their head coach was Don Haskins, only 36, and despite Texas being a segregated State, he fielded an integrated team. They finished the regular season ranked Number 3, and also entered the Final at 27-1. Their only loss was 74-72 against Seattle University, then famous as the Alma Mater of Laker superstar Elgin Baylor, who led them to the NCAA Final in 1958, but downgraded to the NAIA in 1980, before being restored to NCAA Division I in 2008.

The Miners entered the NCAA Tournament with an all-black starting lineup: Guards Bobby Joe Hill from Detroit and Orsten Artis from Gary, Indiana, outside Chicago; forwards Dave Lattin from Houston and Harry Flournoy from Gary; and center Willie Cager from New York. Willie Worsley and Nevil Shed were also black players from New York.

In the 1st Round of the tournament, Texas Western beat Oklahoma City University. They needed overtime to beat the University of Cincinnati. They needed double overtime against the University of Kansas to make the Final Four. And they beat the University of Utah in the Semifinal.

The Final began at 10:00 PM Eastern Time, and was not broadcast on national television. While Loyola University of Chicago had won the 1963 NCAA Final with a majority-black starting lineup, four out of five, Texas Western was the first team that had dared to start an all-black starting lineup. Kentucky, of course, was all-white.

Cole Field House. It would host the Final Four again in 1970.

Haskins told Lattin to dunk the ball early if he got the chance, to "send a message" to Kentucky. He did, twice. Hill made steals on back-to-back Wildcat plays, putting the Miners up 16-11. They led at halftime, 34-31.

Curry Kirkpatrick covered the game for Sports Illustrated, and said it was "slow, tedious, almost flat." Disagreeing was Gary Williams, then a junior at the host school, the University of Maryland. He was impressed by the Miners' ball movement, recalling, "There were possessions where Texas Western passed it 10 times before taking a shot." He would be Maryland's captain the next season, and coach them to the National Championship in 2002.

Kentucky continually fouled Texas Western, with 2 players fouling out and 2 relegated to the bench after receiving 4 fouls each. Over a stretch of 37 minutes, the Miners went 26-for-27 on free throws. This made the difference: Had they made 2/3rds of their free throws, they would have lost. Instead, they made 96 percent of them. Final score, Texas Western 72, Kentucky 65.

Point totals: For Texas Western: Hill 20, Lattin 16, Artis 15, Worsley 8, Cager 8, Shed 3, Flournoy 2; for Kentucky: Dampier 19, Riley 19, Larry Conley 10, Thad Jaracz 7, Tom Kron 6, Cliff Berger 4; and Bob Tallent, Jim LeMaster and Gary Gamble played without scoring.

On March 13, 1967, just short of 1 full year later, Texas Western University changed its name to the University of Texas at El-Paso, a.k.a. "Texas-El Paso" or "UTEP," though keeping the team name of Miners.

The Miners were less successful in the pro game than the Wildcats. Bobby Joe Hill, Orsten Artis, Harry Flournoy and Willie Worsley went undrafted. Cager was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets, but a heart condition prevented him from playing. Nevil Shed was drafted by the Boston Celtics, but was injured in his 1st training camp, and never played a professional game.

Dave Lattin played the 1967-68 season with the San Francisco Warriors, 1968-69 as an original member of the Phoenix Suns, 1970-71 and 1971-72 with the ABA's Pittsburgh Condors, and 1972-73 with the ABA's Memphis Tams.

Indeed, despite the team's great achievement, the man who turned out to be the most famous athlete at the school at the time was Bob Beamon, who set a stunning world record in the long jump at the 1968 Olympics.

Rupp finally recruited a black player for the 1970-71 season, Tom Payne. But he became a disciplinary issue. He played 1 season in the NBA, 1971-72, for the Atlanta Hawks. Three times, he would be convicted and imprisoned for rape.

Rupp retired in 1972, having won 876 games, more than any college basketball coach before him. He died in 1977, a few months before his former assistant and successor, Joe B. Hall, took Kentucky to its 1st National Championship in 20 years.

Both head coaches now have their names on their respective schools' buildings: Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center opened in downtown Lexington, Kentucky in 1976; and the Special Events Center opened on the UTEP campus in 1977, renamed the Don Haskins Center in 1998.

Haskins never got past the NCAA Tournament's Sweet Sixteen again, but remained at UTEP through the 1999 season. He won 7 regular season titles and 4 Tournaments in the Western Athletic Conference. His career record was 719-353. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2006, on the 40th Anniversary of the title, the entire team was elected to the Hall as a unit.

Among the other players Haskins coached at TWU/UTEP were Nolan Richardson, who coached the University of Arkansas to the 1994 National Championship; and Nate "Tiny" Archibald and Tim Hardaway Sr., who have joined Haskins, Richardson and the entire 1965-66 TWU Miners team in the Hall of Fame.

Hill died in 2002, Haskins in 2008, Flournoy in 2016. Artis in 2017, and Cager, despite his heart condition, lived until March 19, 2023, the 57th Anniversary of the epochal game. The rest are still alive.

TWU/UTEP were the only team from Texas to win the NCAA Tournament until Baylor University did it in 2021.