I wasn't there, but I watched on TV. I thought I'd never see this again. I had just become a Notre Dame fan that fall with the 1970 football season; I still remember watching the USC game on TV the Saturday after Thanksgiving as well as the Cotton Bowl on New Year's and hoping against hope that Nebraska would lose the Orange Bowl that night.
Austin Carr was every bit as amazing as I remembered.
Based on the editing by the person who taped it, he probably had a one-hour reel tape and didn't want to risk missing the end once it became clear what was going to happen (Notre Dame led the whole game except at 0-0 and one tie early in the second half). Once he knew he wasn't going to run out of tape, he left more details in near the end. It's worth watching to the very end for the old TVS basketball outro.
About two-thirds of the way through the tape, a station ID flashes on the screen for a few seconds, and it's the very station on which I would have seen the game: Channel 6 in Philadelphia, before it changed its call letters from WFIL to WPVI. Channel 6 was and is the ABC affiliate there. Based on the time the game was played (The Observer said 3:30 pm, one newspaper listing I found online said 3 pm; another said 4 pm; which was correct?), Channel 6 would have had to pre-empt the Pro Bowlers Tour and Wide World of Sports to air this.
I just gotta watch this.
At that time I was more enamored with ND BB than ND football because with Ara we were expected to always win and be in the top 10 (yawn). But with BB and St. Carr, we were the underdogs with a fantastic generational talent.
I also remember Wicks giving giving the coach hell after he fouled out. Austin could shoot over smaller quick guards and drive past larger forwards.
Trivia (not for Olsen) Austin came in 2nd in NCAA scoring average his junior and senior years. To whom did he come in 2nd in each year?
Thanks for posting this link!
Quasi
I still remember his Sports Illustrated article talking about his zits.
I'm also surprised you were at the game and not at the library, given the stellar student that you were.
before then. Some amazing scorers back in that era. Calvin Murphy, Rick Mount, Austin Carr as well.
...before the 88-game streak ended on the same floor.
Dick Enberg and Hot Rod were a good pair on the air. The telecast was no frills in every aspect.
It's strange but inspiring to see Wooden on the floor sans Digger. Apparently, there was basketball in South Bend prior to January 19, 1974.
those days. I wasn't following ND (I was only in 4th grade), but it's a real throwback.
Fox Sports Wisconsin showed the 1972 Buck-Lakers game earlier this year where the Lakers had their 33-game winning streak stopped and, like here, the court looks so "clean" with no 3-point lines, logos, etc.