Final Four Fact February: Houston, We Have A Championship
Directly across the walkway from NRG Stadium is the Astrodome.
The latter stands in stark contrast to the former, which is a glittering palace of 21st Century modernity with its retractable roof and luxury amenities. The Astrodome’s continued presence neighboring NRG Stadium — set to host the Final Four for the third time this spring — stands as a stark reminder that mid-20th Century concepts of the future’s excess came nowhere close to what reality would offer.
And yet, at the time of its opening, the Astrodome set the bar every venue built after would have to meet. For as much as its degradation has rendered it modest, perhaps even pitiful when seen without historical context, the Astrodome functions as a monument to the cultural impact of sports on late 20th Century into present day America.
The Astrodome hosted countless milestone events from the year of its opening into the 21st Century1. As host to college basketball games, it owns a special place as one of the most important spots in the sport’s history.
Most basketball fans know of the 1968 matchup between the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-led UCLA Bruins and Elvin Hayes’ Houston Cougars, worthy of its nickname “Game of the Century.”
More significant to the future of the game then UH stunning UCLA (with KAJ playing with an eye injury) was the role that contest played in getting college basketball on television more frequently. Check out my deep dive on the history of March Madness on TV for more context.
In addition to setting the course for the direction of televised college in generations to follow, the Game of the Century also laid the groundwork for how future Final Fours would look.
The 1971 championship was the first played in a domed stadium
As noted in the 1996 edition of Final Four Fact February, college basketball’s championship continued to be contested in basketball arenas for a quarter-century after 1971.
However, the ‘71 championship demonstrated the potential that prompted the NCAA to adopt stadiums as Final Four hosts every year.
NCAA Tournament chairman Tom Scott told reporters in March 1970, one year before the event, that the semifinals and championship would draw “55,000 to 60,000.”
“We will install 10,000 seats on one side of the court and 10,000 on the other in a special seating plan,” Scott said, per the UPI wire. “Our surveys show the Astrodome can be a fine theater for our basketball championships.”
Scott’s projections initially looked prophetic. In June 1970, reports hit the UPI wire that “A record-breaking crowd for the NCAA basketball championship final in the Astrodome seems certain…The NCAA finals is set for March 27, and over 24,000 tickets have already been sold.”
However, Scott’s estimation of 55,000-60,000 proved too ambitious. The official attendance mark for the title game between UCLA and Villanova was a little more than 30,000.
The Final Four did not return to a dome for more than a decade
While attendance for the 1971 championship set a record, the Final Four went until 1982 before returning to a stadium with the first held at New Orleans Superdome. The Superdome is the oldest venue still in the Final Four’s rotation; San Antonio’s Alamodome is the only other built in the 20th Century.
Once the Superdome came into the fold in ‘82, however, the future became inevitable. The only years in which consecutive Tournaments concluded in basketball arenas thereafter were 1985 and 1986.
Austin Carr capped his postseason career averaging more than 41 points per game
Few in college hoops history could fill it up quite like Austin Carr. A year earlier, he hung 61 points on Ohio U. in an NCAA Tournament matchup and followed it up in 1971 with 52 to open Notre Dame’s postseason against TCU.
Remarkably, the 52 points scored against the Horned Frogs were only enough to tie for his second-most in a Tournament game. The Fighting Irish didn’t advance to Houston in ‘71, though they did close out the postseason in the regional third-place game against University of Houston; Carr went for 47 points in a 119-106 Cougars win.
The Notre Dame-Houston matchup accounted for two of the six 100-point outings posted over just 29 games in the 1971 Tournament. Another 1/3 of the triple-digit performances belonged to…
Fordham scored its only NCAA Tournament wins in program history
Digger Phelps became one of the most celebrated coaches of college basketball’s Golden Age for his tenure at Notre Dame, which began the autumn following the 1971 Tournament.
Phelps coached Fordham in ‘71, guiding the Rams to what is today the program’s penultimate NCAA Tournament berth and the only March Madness wins.
Fordham blasted Furman in the East Regional opening round, 105-74. Charlie Yelverton was one of three Rams with double-doubles, going for a game-high 30 points with 19 rebounds. Ken Charles and Bart Woytwociz each scored 18 points and grabbed 10 and 13 rebounds.
Although Fordham’s national championship aspirations died in the next round with an 85-75 loss to eventual runner-up Villanova, the Rams out-gunned South Carolina, 100-90, in the regional third-place game.
Four of Fordham’s five starters scored at least 22 points against the Gamecocks.
While the Rams were in Raleigh, they traded places in New York with the North Carolina Tar Heels, playing in the NIT. When informed of South Carolina’s loss to Fordham by a Durham Herald-Sun reporter, UNC center Lee Dedmon said, “I hate to see that happen to such a nice bunch of guys.”
Jerry Tarkanian lost to John Wooden for the first of what would be three straight times in the Tournament
Jerry Tarkanian led a brief albeit very successful — and scandal-plagued — era at Long Beach State in the early ‘70s that produced four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, four Top 20 finishes and a pair of top five finishes.
And in 3-of-4 seasons, the 49ers’ championship dreams ended in defeat to Wooden’s UCLA teams.
There’s certainly no shame in coming up short against the greatest dynasty in basketball history, and Long Beach State’s Final Four aspirations were hamstrung having to play in the same Regional as the Bruins year after year.
In 1971, the first of three straight years losing to UCLA in the Tournament, The Shark nearly bit Wooden.
It’s fair to deem Wooden’s fifth straight national championship team as one of the weaker in UCLA’s run by virtue of not having a dominant big like Kareem or Bill Walton. Sidney Wicks and Henry Bibby were certainly all-time great Bruins, and both scored in double-figures in UCLA’s win over Long Beach State.
However, the 49ers limited Wicks to 5-of-13 shooting from the floor and Bibby went just 4-of-18.
With Ed Ratleff scoring 18 points and George Trapp going for 15 points and 16 rebounds, Long Beach State was very much in the game — even building a double-digit-point lead in the second half.
Bibby connected on what UPI wire reports described as “a 30-foot jump shot” with 6:06 remaining that turned the tide of the game in UCLA’s favor.
In one of the countless What Ifs from basketball history, in an alternate timeline, Tarkanian would have had George Gervin while at Long Beach State. Gervin would not have been eligible for the 1971 matchup with UCLA as a freshman, but could the man who perfected the finger roll have boosted the 49ers past the Bruins in ‘72 or ‘73?
Final Four participants Villanova and Western Kentucky were stripped of their recognition
Mideast and East Region winners Villanova and Western Kentucky met in the semifinals at the Astrodome and delivered a 92-89 classic. The Wildcats won on the strength of 22 points and 16 rebounds from Howard Porter, outdueling Jim McDaniels with his 22 points and 17 rebounds for the Hilltoppers.
After starring in the semifinal, Porter and McDaniels were at the center of each team being stricken from NCAA record books — including Porter’s Most Outstanding Player honor being nullified.
Both were accused of taking pro signing bonuses while both were still in college. This coincided with the American Basketball Association throwing contracts at underclassmen in an effort to compete with the NBA.
An excellent Sports Illustrated feature from March 1996 — coincidentally, in the same edition that features the unforgettable Darvin Ham broken backboard cover mentioned in the ‘96 Final Four Fact February — details Porter’s story. The article describes the basketball landscape of this era as the “Wild West” in an eerie parallel to today and the uncertainty about NCAA regulations of NIL deals.
Getting a bit personal and sentimental for a moment, I have to share my own Astrodome experience: The first Final Four I covered was in Houston, and seeing the Astrodome in person made my heart swell. I was a HUGE wrestling fan in high school, and what I consider to this day the best event in WWF history emanated from the Astrodome in 2001.
Wrestlemania X-Seven was an incredible show that aired during my final months in high school, and shortly after I’d made a decision that same week that I didn’t want to pursue playing college basketball at a lower-division program. Instead, I wanted to focus on pursuing sports journalism, which I discovered a passion for reading Sports Illustrated as a kid.
Making that decision, I dreamed of one day covering the highest profile events, specifically Final Fours. Reporting from the Final Four for the first time in the same location of an event I associate with that time in my life validated my choice.