1973 - L.A. Weekend
The next weekend after the Super Bowl, L.A. was again the center of the sports world for 5 big events in 3 nights
LOS ANGELES, CA - January 22, 1973
I’m back again in L.A. in 1973. I just got into town about an hour ago.
After the Super Bowl last weekend, where it was a balmy 86 degrees at kickoff, the temperatures have cooled off, even dipping into the upper 30s at night.
But the sports world was on fire here with 5 events of national significance taking place around town over the weekend.
Let’s explore each of them.
1. Friday, January 19th in Pauley Pavilion at UCLA
The campus of UCLA was the scene of a historic hoops match up between #10 ranked University of San Francisco and the #1 host Bruins, a.k.a. The Walton Gang, led by the nation’s best college player, 6-11 Bill Walton.
Not only was UCLA winners of the last 6 NCAA championships, they also were riding a 57 game winning streak coming into the contest.
The record of 60 consecutive wins is held by none other than the University of San Francisco. They set the record in the Bill Russell / K.C. Jones era in 1956.
K.C. Jones was on hand at Pauley Pavilion to watch the game. He told Los Angeles Times sportswriter Jeff Prugh, “I’ll be very disappointed if they break the record.”
Now it was up to the USF Dons of 1973 to defend the school’s NCAA record streak. USF featured a big frontcourt of Kevin Restani, Eric Fernsten and Snake Jones, all of whom were averaging about 10 rebounds a game. And they had 3 shooters averaging over 17 points a game, including Restani and the backcourt duo of Mike Quick and Phil Smith. They had lost only one game at Kansas by just 2 points.
As a result, it was thought that perhaps they could contain the best big man in the country, junior Bill Walton of UCLA, and take down the Bruins.
NOTE from the The Sports Time Traveler™
I interrupt this article to give you some perspective on the strength of the 1973 University of San Francisco team. 3 of their players, Phil Smith, Kevin Restani and Eric Fernsten, went on to play a combined 1,400+ games in the NBA including 2 championships. Now back to January, 1973.
UCLA wins in a rout
In the Los Angeles Times, Ron Rapoport wrote, “University of San Francisco had the height, the shooters, the record and the reason to give the Bruins a battle... but on the floor… the contest was no contest.” UCLA crushed San Francisco 92 - 64 for their 58th straight win. Despite being taken out of the game midway through the 2nd half, Bill Walton amassed 22 points and 22 rebounds and even led the Bruins in assists with 7.
UCLA coach John Wooden declared after the game that Bill Walton would probably be one of the top 3 centers in the NBA right now.
Meanwhile down the road 11 miles, 2 of the top centers in the NBA were getting ready to face off against each other.
2. Friday, January 19th at the Forum
The Lakers hosted the New York Knickerbockers at the Forum in a rematch of last year’s finals. This was the 1st time the Knicks were back in L.A. since losing last year’s championship on this court.
The game featured Knicks center and 1970 MVP Willis Reed against the greatest scoring machine in NBA history, center Wilt Chamberlain.
The Lakers, led by Chamberlain and Jerry West had set an NBA record in 1972 winning 69 games, and also an American professional sports record with a 33 game winning streak. Now the Lakers were off to an excellent start again in the 1973 season. They were 30 - 7 until forward Happy Hairston went down with an injury. Since that time they lost 4 of 7 and came into this game with a record of 33 - 11, still the best in the west.
The Knicks were off to an even better start coming into the game at 39 - 10. A sellout crowd of 17,505 were on hand to witness the battle.
The Lakers raced out to a 58 - 41 lead at halftime. Coach Bill Sharman told Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mal Florence, “Our defense was outstanding in the first half… but it’s hard to shut out a team like the Knicks for 48 minutes.”
The Knicks surged in the 2nd half and pulled to within 4 points with 3:32 to play. But when Earl Monroe missed a lay up and Keith Erickson followed with a jumper, the game was sealed and the Lakers won it 95 - 88.
Chamberlain took just 3 shots during the game, scoring only 2 points, but in his designed role by Bill Sharman, Chamberlain was a monster on the boards pulling down 24 rebounds to Reed’s 12 and holding Reed to just 9 points.
Jerry West of the Lakers was the game’s leading scorer. He hit his first 8 shots of the game and finished with 32 points and 10 assists. His backcourt mate Gail Goodrich was the game’s 2nd leading scorer with 26.
3. Saturday, January 20th at in Pauley Pavilion at UCLA
The next night UCLA faced another powerhouse. #9 ranked Providence had won their last 7 games by an average of more than 20 points. They featured 3 sensational players with Ernie DiGregorio, Kevin Stacom and Marvin Barnes who were collectively averaging about 60 points a game. Barnes was also averaging close to 20 rebounds a game and was thought to have a chance to contain big Bill Walton.
NOTE from the The Sports Time Traveler™
Sorry, I interrupt this article again to share with you the future of Providence’s top 3 stars. Ernie DiGregorio was the 1974 NBA Rookie of the Year. Kevin Stacom played 347 games in the NBA and was on the Celtics 1976 championship team. Marvin Barnes was the ABA Rookie of the Year in 1975 and was later named as one of 30 players on the All-Time ABA Team. Now back to 1973.
Barnes holds Walton scoreless… for a little while
Barnes did manage to hold Walton scoreless for the first 12 minutes of the game. But he couldn’t stop Walton on the boards. UCLA won the game 101 - 77 with Walton scoring 18 points, collecting 24 rebounds and dishing out 8 assists.
UCLA’s streak now stands at 59. Their next two opponents, Loyola of Chicago and Notre Dame are unranked.
It seems to a certainty that K.C. Jones is going to be disappointed.
4. Saturday, January 20th at the Sports Arena
13 miles to the east of Pauley Pavilion and right next to the Los Angeles Coliseum stands the Sports Arena. While Bill Walton & gang were feasting on the Providence Friars, many of the track and field stars of last year’s Olympics were at the Sports Arena for the Sunkist Invitational indoor track & field meet.
One man who wasn’t in the Olympics set a new indoor world record. Steve Smith failed to make the USA pole vault team for the Munich Olympics. But the nearby Long Beach State student vaulted 17 feet 11 inches to better the record of Kjell Isaakson of Sweden by half an inch.
Another world indoor record was set by Al Feuerbach in the shot put who threw 69 feet 4 and a half inches. Feuerbach had finished 5th at the Olympics last year.
In the long jump, the outdoor world record holder and 1968 Olympic gold medalist, Bob Beamon, had his best jump in 3 years at 25 feet 8 and a half inches to finish 2nd to 1972 Olympic champ Randy Williams who jumped just over 26 feet.
But the 2 mile race was the marquee event of the night.
The 2 Mile Run - a Stellar Field
The field was a stellar one comprising track athletes from specialties ranging from the mile all the way up to the marathon. As a lifelong track & field fan, I’ve never heard of such a field with this wide a range of distance running stars. The entrants included:
Olympic 5,000 and 10,000 gold medalist - Lasse Viren
Olympic marathon gold medalist - Frank Shorter
The world’ #1 ranked miler in 1971 - Marty Liquori
Olympic 4th place runner in the 5,000 - Steve Prefontaine
Shorter holds the American indoor record for this event at 8:26.2.
Prefontaine is the youngest of the group, as he turns 22 years old next week. He’s also the most outspoken and daring runner of the bunch.
“Pre” as he is known to fans, bolted out at the gun and never looked back. He built a 30 yard lead by the mile in 4:13.8. And he kept on going to literally destroy the field. He lapped 2 runners. And he finished nearly 100 yards in front of Liquori in a time of 8:27.4, to set a meet record by 12 seconds.
Liquori told the Los Angeles Times, “The way Prefontaine was running I don’t think anyone in the world could have stayed with him.”
Reflecting his all-or-nothing approach to the sport, Pre told the Times, “This was a very self-satisfying win.” When asked what he would have felt if he had lost he said, “If I had finished 3rd in 8:50, I would have walked out of here and you would have never seen me at a track meet again.”
You can see video clips of the race in this video:
NOTE from the The Sports Time Traveler™
I interrupt this article one more time to let you know that by 1975, Pre held every American record from 2,000 to 10,000 meters. Never again has there been such a dominant American distance runner.
Now back to the final event of this incredible weekend in L.A. in 1973.
5. Sunday, January 21 at the Forum
After beating the Knicks on Friday night, the Lakers had to make a quick trip to the desert where they scorched the Phoenix Suns 124 - 104 on Saturday night.
But there was no time to rest for the Lakers. They were back in action against the Kansas City-Omaha Kings on Sunday night. This was the Lakers 3rd game in 3 nights, a grueling stretch for all players, but especially the Lakers top two stars Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain who are 34 and 36. The NBA has since eliminated the possibility of team’s playing on 3 straight nights.
The Kings feature the NBA’s top scorer and assist man, Nate Archibald. He is averaging over 33 points and 11 assists per game. As a result, Archibald accounts for as many points per game for his team as Wilt did in his 50 points per game season back in 1962.
Archibald has the nickname “Tiny” as he officially stands 6’1” but looks much smaller. He looks so boyish that last season, before a game at Madison Square Garden, he was denied entrance to the arena because the security guard didn’t believe he was a player.
The Kings entered the game with a 25 - 28 record, but they had the benefit of 2 nights off. At the outset the young and rested Kings looked like they had a chance to knock off the champs. With Tiny scoring 9 of the team’s first 21 points they raced out to a 21 - 11 lead.
At this point Bill Sharman called timeout and made the defensive change of the game. He put Jerry West on Archibald. West promptly stole the ball twice from Archibald igniting a 16 - 2 Lakers run. For the rest of the game Archibald shot just 5 of 15 while being guarded by West.
Bill Sharman regards Jerry West as the best defensive guard in NBA history and had this to say about how West shut down the league’s top scorer, “You must play him to his strong side, drive him to Wilt and try to make him give up the ball.”
The Lakers went on to win the game 123 - 102. Wilt, who received several lob passes for dunks from West, was the high scorer with 29 points and also grabbed 21 rebounds. Wilt had this to say about his mini-offensive outburst, “Not everyone can throw that lob pass like Jerry does. In fact, he is the only one on our team who can do it. If I could get a pass like that all the time, I’d probably average 50 more points a game.”
Archibald meanwhile was held 10 points below his average with 23.
The Lakers key players still won’t get much rest after this game. The All-Star game is in a couple of days and while most players have a few days off, West and Chamberlain won’t get much of a break, as they’ve been selected to play. When asked about whether he would prefer a few days of rest, Chamberlain said, “All of us could use a day off, but this means a lot to the league.”
NEXT UP FOR The Sports Time Traveler™
I’m finally leaving L.A. for a while.
I’m heading to Jamaica to cover one of the biggest boxing matches in history. It’s a battle for the heavyweight championship of the world between two fighters who are undefeated. That type of matchup has only happened once before when Muhammad Ali lost to Joe Frazier in 1971. This time it will be Joe Frazier against George Foreman.