Basketball History as I lived it…
My basketball “career” (if you will let me call it that) began at @ age 8 as a local gym rat and continued until my hoop skills became an embarrassment to myself at age 45 or so. This entry will talk about some basketball history from way back (Beach Boys / Here Come the Beatles way back) as well as my thoughts about the game both then and now. The best opponent I faced over my “career” years was Melvin Michael “Big Mike” Bowling. My only encounter with Big Mike occurred when my high school team traveled at the conclusion of the 65-6 season from the Navajo Nation to Phoenix AZ to play Agua Fria High in the first round of the class “A” Arizona state championship tournament. Mike was 6’ 7” tall and the most dominant high school player in the state of Arizona that year. Aqua Fria was the defending state “A” championship team from the year previous. We were meeting them in their home gym. Our team had just moved up from a smaller “B” classification and we were the lowest seed in the tournament - having qualified after finishing fourth in our class “A” northern conference.
We lost. It wasn’t pretty. As the first half expired, one of their guards threw in a shot from behind the center court line. At least it only counted 2 points, not 3. In 1967, the ABA (American Basketball Assn.) began as a new league (with a new three-point line and rules) competing with the NBA (lacking 3-pooint rules). The demise of ABA came later in 1976 when four ABA teams merged into the NBA that year. In 1985 I coached a junior high school team in California. That was the first year a three-point line was instituted into that state’s high school basketball competition.
In 1965, dunking was not allowed in high school or college games. Too many athletes were pulling down rims / shattering glass backboards. It delayed or cancelled games because replacement boards were not readily available. Plus, they were expensive! Daryl Griffith (aka “Dr. Dunkenstein”), Daryl Dawkins (aka “Chocolate Thunder”), Julius Erving (“Dr. J”), and others were tearing down goal standards and shattering rims in the NBA, however. (I threw one down in high school once during game warmups when the referees were not yet on the court. The scorekeeper notified the refs when they appeared courtside, and the game started with a technical foul assessed for it…).
In those days, a generational basketball talent was gaining attention in New York City - Lew Alcindor. He later adopted the Muslim faith and changed his name to what we know him as now - Kareem Abdul Jabbar. He prepped at Power Memorial High School in the city and drew unheralded acclaim. On the cover of Sports Illustrated during high school, he was the most sought after college recruit in the nation. At 7’2” it has been conjectured that dunking was disallowed in high schools and colleges for an extended period due to his dominance around the rim. Who recruited Big Lew? Only the most heralded coach and team in college basketball at the time - John Wooden and the UCLA Bruins. Did you know that in his first year with UCLA Lew played with the school’s freshman team? NCAA rules at the time did not allow freshman to play at the varsity level. As basketball practice began for Lew at UCLA, Coach Wooden played his varsity team in an exhibition game against the school’s freshman squad. With Alcindor, the freshman emerged victorious!
Back to “Big Mike” Bowling. After graduating from Aqua Fria high school, Bowling went to Arizona State University on a basketball scholarship. Following two years of collegiate competition he transferred to attend school and play basketball at the University of Southern California (USC). In his final collegiate season there, on March 8, 1969, Mike helped his Trojans defeat UCLA in a game that shocked basketball fans everywhere! Lew and Big Mike, head-to-head against each other at the center position. This game was late in the season, just prior to that year’s NCAA tournament. Played on UCLA’s court, Pauly Pavilion, the Bruins came in with a 41-game winning streak dating from the previous year, and an 85-game winning streak on their home floor. Other streaks included 45 consecutive wins in Pacific-8 Conference play, and they had defeated USC their previous 17 games in a row. USC entered the game with a 15-11 record.
Coaches had echoed a tedious refrain around the country that year as Lew and his Bruins piled up the wins “Lew Alcindor puts his pants on one leg at a time.” This game was the second in a home and home back-to-back series that year. USC Coach Bob Boyd had concocted a strategy that had almost been successful in their game played just the night before when the two teams competed on USC’s home court. That game resulted in a double overtime loss for USC. Boyd’s strategy? Hold the ball / freeze the action / keep the game under control. Keep in mind there was no 24-second clock rule in place during this time. It was dull, repetitious, grind -it-out basketball that fans didn’t like watching. Almost successful, now just 24 hours after freezing the ball and taking a game into double overtime, Boyd tried his strategy once again. This time USC prevailed, winning 46-44. All those UCLA consecutive win streaks lay in shambles afterward.
I found “Big Mike” to be an awesome opponent in high school - the toughest I ever faced. At Aqua Fria he lettered in basketball, football, and track. My 6’4’ 165 lb. frame at the time didn’t quite match up to his physique, but he didn’t mangle my body too much. I fouled out of our encounter with less than a minute left in the game. That fifth foul came in a vain attempt to halt the unstoppable force that was Big Mike Bowling. I simply swiped my hand in disgust toward the referee after the foul and he gave me a technical for it. Later in life I refereed high school basketball in California for a couple years. His was a ticky-tack call that served no purpose in furthering the game. It was the just the second technical and only time I fouled out in high school. Big Mike was, however, quite a handful to defend…
Prologue…
After graduation from USC, Mike and his wife moved to Vienna, Austria where he played professional basketball. He developed health problems later in life and passed away in 2013 at age 64 in Gilbert, AZ. The USC-UCLA game on March 8, 1969 is available on Utube.