30 years ago tonight...give or take a couple days...

30 years ago tonight, I was preparing to watch the NCAA men's (I don't think women's games were televised back then. If they were, right or wrong, nobody cared... ) basketball championship between the Indiana State Sycamores and the Michigan State Spartans.

Starring in the event were Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson. I attended ISU from 71-75, but Larry Bird wasn't there yet. That year, ISU had not lost a game when they entered the tournament and ended that season with a 33-1 record. Needless to say, at the end of the evening, I was heartbroken and have hated Michigan State ever since. Later, after Bird and Johnson went to Boston and LA, respectively, when Boston and Bird won his first NBA championship, Larry said, "This one's for Terre Haute".

From Wikipedia: "Bird led the Sycamores to the NCAA championship game in 1979, his senior season, only to lose to the Michigan State University Spartans, who were led by his future NBA rival, Earvin "Magic" Johnson. The Sycamores finished the season 33–1. That year, Bird won the USBWA College Player of the Year, Naismith and Wooden Awards, given to the year's top male college basketball player. After his three seasons at Indiana State, he left as the fifth-highest scorer in NCAA history. Bird finished his collegiate career with an average of 30.3 points per game. He is on the Missouri Valley Conference All-Century Team. The Boston Celtics selected the 6'9", 220-pound Bird 6th overall in the 1978 NBA Draft, even though they were uncertain whether he would enter the NBA or remain at Indiana State to play his senior season. Bird ultimately decided to play his final college season, but the Celtics retained their exclusive right to sign him until the 1979 NBA Draft, because of the NBA's "junior eligible" rule that existed at that time (allowing a collegiate player to be drafted when the player's original "entering" class was graduating and giving them one calendar year to sign them, even if they went back to college). Shortly before that deadline, Bird agreed to sign with the Celtics for a US $650,000 a year contract, making him at the time the highest-paid rookie in the history of the NBA. Shortly afterwards, the NBA draft eligibility rules were changed to prevent teams from drafting players before they were ready to sign. The rule is called the Bird Collegiate Rule.

Larry Bird's impact on the Celtics was immediate. The Celtics were 29–53 during the 1978–79 season, but with Bird the team improved to 61–21 in the 1979–80 season, posting the league's best regular season record. Bird's collegiate rival, Magic Johnson, also had entered the NBA in 1979, joining the Los Angeles Lakers. In 1980, despite a strong rookie season from Johnson, Bird was named the league's Rookie of the Year and was voted onto the Eastern Conference All-Star team (an honor he would receive for each of his 12 full seasons in the NBA). For the 1980 season, Bird led the Celtics in scoring (21.3 points/game), rebounding (10.4 rebounds/game), steals (143), and minutes played (2,955) and was second in assists (4.5 assists/game) and three-pointers (58). Though Boston was beaten by the more athletic Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals that year, Bird's addition to the team had renewed the promise of Celtic glory."


PAUSE PLAYLIST FIRST...
Here is a you tube clip which has this documentation: "In the highest rated game in the history of televised college basketball, Michigan State gave Indiana State their only loss of the season as the Spartans won the 1979 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship by a score of 75-64. The game was a showdown between two future NBA Hall of Famers, Magic Johnson of Michigan State and Larry Bird of Indiana State. Johnson was named the Most Outstanding Player.

The whole game was on TV last night. I couldn't watch it. Even after 30 years, the ending is just too painful!!!

I have NO IDEA what was up with this pose!



What a GREAT Boston Celtics team this was!!! Kevin McHale, Robert Parrish. They were so much fun to watch...





Here is Sports Illustrated's take on the 30th anniversary...For me, it is wonderfully well written. Here is an excerpt: "The 1979 NCAA championship by itself didn't create the world we live in today. We would have gotten here from there eventually. But as we celebrate the 30-year anniversary, we can look back and wistfully recall that this was the moment when March Madness began, when the basketball world was transformed by two of the most-gifted performers any sport has ever produced.

"The college game was already on the launching pad," the late Al McGuire once said. "Then Bird and Magic came along and pushed the button."

Because they did, we're still watching."


The only other championship game that thrilled me this much (believe me, there have been other memorable championship games) was when the North Carolina State Wolfpack UPSET Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde "the Glide" Drexler, and the "Phi Slama Jama" Houston team with a SLAM DUNK at the end. But that could be a whole 'nuther post. (That is the game that CBS always showed the late coach Jim Valvano going crazy at the end as they started each "March Madness" game.)

Enjoy tonight's game...I'll be sitting this one out. Michigan state...Nah. North Carolina...give somebody else a chance for a change...