BOISE, Idaho — THIS DAY IN SPORTS…January 19, 1974, 50 years ago today:
Notre Dame beats UCLA 71-70 to snap the Bruins’ 88-game winning streak, the longest in the history of college men’s basketball. The Fighting Irish had been the last team to beat John Wooden’s Bruins four years earlier, and 32-year-old coach Digger Phelps was confident his squad could end it. UCLA jumped out to a 17-point first-half lead and was still up by 11 with less then four minutes remaining. But Phelps’ game plan had taken root. The Bruins’ Bill Walton was scoring at will—on the rare occasions he saw the ball. The Irish sealed Walton off, and he shot only 14 times (making 12). Notre Dame finished the game on a 12-0 run.
National telecasts of regular season college basketball games were rare a half century ago. But this one was picked up by much of the country through a syndicated network, and it was unforgettable. Notre Dame’s deciding bucket came on a jumper from the deep right corner by Dwight Clay with 21 seconds remaining—on his 21st birthday, no less. It may have been a three-pointer in today’s game, but the Fighting Irish only needed two points anyway. Clay says to this day he watches video of the shot on January 19th every year. And he takes great delight that it happened in front of the UCLA bench.
There would be three more UCLA losses that season, including one in the NCAA Tournament semifinals that broke the Bruins record streak of seven straight national championships (no team has come within three of that standard). It was Walton’s senior year, and he still considers that season’s “collapse” the most painful part of his career. But it hardly tarnished the legacy of Wooden. At that point he had won nine national titles in 10 years, and he’d nab one more in 1975 after Walton had graduated. Then he retired. Wooden’s career record in 29 seasons of college coaching was 664-162.
The second-longest streak in men’s basketball is the 60 straight games won by San Francisco from 1954-56. The run encompassed two national titles during USF’s Bill Russell era. The longest winning streak overall in college hoops history belongs to the UConn women, who were victorious in a staggering 111 consecutive games under Gino Auriemma from 2014 to 2017. That streak included two national championships and ended at the Final Four in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. Only three of those Huskies wins were decided by single digits.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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